Nav 740 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

by V7

Product Details

• Item Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000UHPVES
• Item model number: NAV740
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,696 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Manufacturer's Description (June 19, 2008) 
Whether you're planning a road trip, flying to a new city, or running errands around town, the slim, ultra-portable NAV740 makes an ideal travel companion. With its vibrant high-resolution display, text-to-speech functionality, over 11 million points of interest, touch screen technology and intuitive graphic interface, the NAV740 makes GPS navigation a breeze. Once you're there, the devices doubles as a personal media player for enjoying your favorite music, videos, and photos.

4.3-inch portable navigation with text-to-speech. Click to enlarge.

Ultra-slim and ultra-portable. Click to enlarge.

Easy to Use
The NAV740 is ready right out of the box, with maps of the 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico preloaded on the included 2GB SD Card. Enjoy turn-by-turn directions via voice prompts. Select the text-to-speech feature for the device to speak the names of the streets for easier navigation, i.e. "Turn right on PINE Street" instead of just "Turn right in 500 feet" (English only). Get there faster and with minimal hassle.

Flexible Navigation
There's more than just one way to get somewhere, and the NAV740 is open to suggestion. Edit your turn-by-turn instructions via the "itinerary" screen. Add detours or find an alternate route to avoid congested highways. Calculate navigation based on the fastest route, shortest route or whether you want to use toll roads, highways or even ferries! Or perhaps you're not in an automobile? The device boasts Car, Truck, Bus, Bike and Pedestrian modes.

Easily Search Through Points of Interest (POIs)
The NAV740's on-board directory allows you to easily search for and navigate to restaurants, shopping and gas stations, and to select them for display on your map. Then sort by name or distance. Over 11 Million points of interest in the United States are preloaded, and you can add your own, including safety cameras.

	FIND & GO Find any address, street, intersection or city quickly Store location history for quicker retrieval Find points of interest along your travel route
	ROUTE MANAGER Determine your route by choosing either the shortest, fastest or most economical trip Optimize your trip to find the shortest most direct way to reach multiple points Recalculate your route to find alternate ways of reaching your destination
	EASY TO VIEW SETTINGS Day/night color profile provides best view while driving Smart Zoom automatically zooms to show you approaching turns and road ahead Menus and voice instructions available in over 20 languages

Safety Features
Dashboard View simplifies navigation to voice instructions with a limited display, so you can keep your eyes on the road. Venturing into uncharted territory? Use the Track Logs to leave a virtual trail of where you've been and how to get back. The devices large buttons are ideal for those pressing situations (i.e. the mute button or the ability to repeat the last instruction by pressing the arrow key).

Built-In Multimedia Player
While a 65,536-color, 480 x 272 resolution, 4.3" touchscreen is ideal for GPS navigation, it's also the perfect platform for fun. Enjoy full-motion WMV, AVI, DivX, Xvid, and MPEG-4 video clips. The NAV740 supports 16GB SD-Cards (not included) for up to 32 hours of movies or other video. You can also listen to your favorite music in MP3, WMA or OGG format; and share your favorite photos with the slideshow feature. When the NAV740 isn't helping you get somewhere, it'll help you enjoy yourself there.

Premium Hardware
You can count on performance with the NAV740's SiRFStar III GPS receivers, fast 400MHz Samsung CPU, SDHC card reader, and the Li-Polymer rechargeable battery providing up to 5 hours of use (3.5 hours with GPS navigation). The device is also covered by a 2-year warranty for peace of mind.

Additional Tools
To round its status as a desirable gadget, the NAV740 also features a calculator (standard and scientific), and a measurement converter for converting different units of measurement and temperature.

What's in the Box
V7 NAV740 GPS Navigation Device, CD with Manuals, DVD with Map Loader and Backup Maps, Cradle with Gooseneck Mounting Bracket, Quick Start Guide, USB AC Adaptor and DC Car Charger

Product Description

4.3" 480 x 272 WQVGS color touch screen displayPre-loaded maps of 50 US States Basemap pre-loaded on SD -cardSirfStarIII 20-channel high sensitivy chipset (WASS enabled)Text-to-speech functionality (English only)Turn-by-turn directions in multiple languages (up to 20)11 million points of interest (POI)Built-in 1-watt speaker Rechargeable Lithium-Polymer battery (1600 mA) holds charge for up to 5 hours or 3.5 hours with GPS navigation4 7/8" W x 3 1/4 H x 11/16" DIncludes CD with manual DVD with map loader/backup maps cradle with gooseneck mounting bracket USB AC adapter DC car charger and quick start guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nav 740 - Medium low end price with many features, April 30, 2008

By 

David "djm" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nav 740 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I have now had the Nav 740 for two months. I bought the Nav740 because I wanted to have a GPS device that I have learned to use before I take a trip this summer.

Why I bought the Nav740:
- It cost much less than a Garmin and Navigon with comparable features
- It had more features, such as, multi-stage trips, trip tracking log, set destination by longitude and latitude, etc.
- I had downloaded the manual before I bought the device from the Ingram V7 site and found the features to be what I was looking for.
- I had read that the basic software was based on a proprietary version of the same software that runds the Mio GPS units.
- The Nav 740 unit promises the largest Points of Interest (POI) database that I have seen advertised, something like 12 million.
- It has a removable battery
- It has a headphone jack which can either be used to listen to music or to amplify the GPS voice
- It uses an SD card with 2 Gigs, but I have read that a larger card can be used
- It has an external volume control

The unit has an opening menu of 4 touch "buttons" (software not hardware). One is the setting button for time, date,etc. Another is a calcuator. This is not so important to me, but it can be a help as it has three calculators - normal, scientific and conversions. It might help in a pinch.

Another button is for Multimedia. I haven't used it yet since I have other multimedia devices. I did not buy a GPS unit to play my multimedia.

The last button is for navigation. I find the choices offered with the navigation mode to be fairly well organized and I have used it often. You can navigate by entering an address, a recently used destination, a favorite destination you have programmed in, a POI, coordinates and Work and Home choices that the user programs. When entering an address you can go to the city center, a street intersection or a specific address. Not bad choices.

The Nav 740 has a nice 4.3 inch screen. It is plenty bright except with sunlight light shining directly on the screen. It's a good screen.

It is easy enough to switch between the map view and the options.

Some have complained about the sound of the voice. I find the two tts (text to speech) voices are very clear and the speaker is plenty loud. I tried the two English tts voices (Dave and Samantha) and found that the female voice cuts through the cabin noice better for me. Both are good, however, and work over anything but real loud radio or wind noises if I open the window.

I have found that recalculation is quite acceptable. It is not a supercomputer so that it takes a few seconds. It also has to sense that you really are going in a different direction.

There are three map views: 3D, oriented to North, and "Airplane view". I have used all three and find them helpful, although I prefer the 3D view. You can cycle through them with a tap of "button" on the screen. If I am not careful and the road is not smooth I sometimes hit the Route Options button but that is easy to get out of.

After two months of using it, the unit has only crashed once, and that is when I was going through a certain menu, and I was probably being too impatient. It has never stopped working when I have been navigating.

POIs have been helpful. I traveled to a city using the Nav 740 and since I had time to spare, I checked to see if there was a Starbucks in the area. It had one a couple miles away and took me there. It did not have the location down perfectly, but it was close enough to get me there.

Two cons:
I find that adding favorites to the list should be as simple as inputting an address list, just as the unit asks for to program the Work and Home button. It is a little more complicated. There is not reason for this. A simple programming change could easily make this simple.

When I try to move the map around with my finger, the unit does not do this smoothly. It either jumps back to the starting point or does something else that I don't understand. It's easy to get out of, but this could be better. Fortunately, this does not make or break the usefulness of the unit.

Over all comments.
A GPS unit, and I've looked at many of the current models, is not perfect. There are too many variables that the human brain is processing. I have found that you still have to keep your wits about you and not accept the GPS directions 100 percent of the time. That said, I needed to drive out of San Antonio at night in an unfamiliar area and I set the unit to go Home. It flawlessly talked me through turns through neighborhoods and got me home. I have tried other routes in the country and the unit wanted me to go on roads I would not have normally used. The driver still is master and commander of the trip.

Finally, I have appreciated having the Nav 740. It is good to know where I am and have options on where to drive. I find the unit easy enough to use and there are features that I still need to learn. I am satisfied. Before I bought this device I bought the HP 310 model and found it to be totally unintuitive. Having become a recent owner of an Apple iPhone and seen the ease of use and integration of addresses and map function and all the rest, I just say that if Apple ever decided to make a dedicated GPS unit, they would blow all the competition out of the water, including Garmin. That will be the next generation.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice Unit, But Not Too Useful, December 26, 2008

By 

Jesse R. Tolliver (San Antonio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nav 740 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I got this unit when it was on sale on Buy.com for $99. Plus I get $15 cash back for paying with Pay Pal. For that reason, I gave it 5 stars for value.

The unit has a nice big screen, and the touch screen is nice. The fact that is has a built in multimedia player is also a nice feature.

Now to the bad part(s). The maps are many years out of date. The accuracy of the GPS isn't too good, maybe because the maps are out of date. I live in San Antonio Texas. When I went to POI, Grocery Stores, it listed many Albertson's. All ALbertson's closed here many years ago. I was driving around this afternoon testing the unit. I tried to find and get directions to a Big Lots store that was closest to my location at the time. It took me to a street where it told me the store was on my right. No Big Lots there, nor any in sight. I just happened to keep driving down that street, and ran into a Big Lots about a mile farther down the road, on my left. As for my home address, the unit is about a mile off. That's a mile as the crow flies, in terms of actual roads it takes me about 5 miles from my house, to a trailer park. So I can't trust it to accurately get me anywhere, but it is kind of fun to play with.

The instruction manul leaves a lot to be desired. Mostly I have just had to play with the unit to figure out how to do things, and some things aren't easy to figure out. For example, I was driving to a location today and it told me I was 11 miles away, but my arrival time was about an hour and 15 minutes from the current time. That wasn't becasue of traffic, but because the unit thought the time was one hour later than it actually was. This despite the fact that I set the time, and the time zone. I found out there is another screen where you can also set the time zome, but why you would need to do it on two separate screens is beyond me. When I set the time zone on the second, more hidden, screen then that fixed the arrival time issue.

Overall this is a nice little toy, my wife loves it to watch videos in the car, but it's not very capable as a GPS unit (at least not where I live, and with the maps it comes with). It certainly isn't worth $300, even if the GPS worked perfectly.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needs tweaking, but overall good, April 29, 2008

By 

maxGamer (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nav 740 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I too got this because of PC Magazine's review and let me tell you I'm not disappointed at all. It's a great little GPS. Small enough to fit in my back pocket and it lasts most of the day on one charge. The thing I found and didn't expect is a full yellow pages listing which is great if you're in another city or even across town and don't know where the nearest starbucks, wal-mart, or gas station may be. Just ask your Nav740!
It always knows! It also uses the most advanced GPS chip on the market right now so if you can get a radio signal for your fav station you can also get GPS. I've had zero blackouts aside from when it's charging in a shelf in the back of my garage.

SO yes, it's great- but now for the negs.
1. It doesn't come with more than a quickstart guide. It should include a full manual but instead you have to download that from the internet. Ugh.
2. Adding something to your "Favorites" (think bookmarks) should be available from any listing. For example - bring up "Starbucks, 121 W. Anywhere drive, Mytown USA" and at the bottom it should have "Add to favorites".
It doesnt. The only way I've found to make favorites is to actually go there and then add them as a POI (point of interest) which automatically puts them into your favorites, and not the POI list.
3. If you have textured maps turned on you can get a stuttering of the Samantha text-to-speech voice. It's annoying and makes it sound cheap. There should be better buffering on the speech and a delay on the textures, if one has to be delayed. Using the Amy voice, which sounds somewhat like a college chick, seems to relieve the stuttering. Probably a lack of brain cells in Amy vs Samantha, lol. (Forgive the "Self absorbed college girls" joke. Nothing is more annoying than college girls these days.)
4. No case. Something that costs over 200 bucks should have it's own case. It's a small gripe but that's not the point. Safety first!
5. No mini-usb cable for connecting to PC.
It's covered in the instructions but they don't include one so you have to run out and get one if you're going to update.

That's about it. Even with the complaints I wouldn't have chosen any of the other options in the sub 300.00 range. This is a powerful and very user friendly item. Heck, even my grandfather can use it. Now that's saying something!

EDIT 9/11/2008: The battery stays charged for 2 hours max. After that you're on your own. Battery life = FAIL.
Customer service, on the other hand is EPIC PASS.
They reply within a few hours to any emails - even within a few minutes sometimes.
You're not supposed to, but you CAN get to the battery. I may change mine out for a better one. I'll let you know how that goes.