Customer Reviews

Navman iCN 510 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased this NAVMAN icn510 at a different online retailer for $350 (starts with outpost. something :-). I generally make my purchases at Amazon.com - but this time Amazon.com could not beat the price I got for this gadget. I also usually rely on Amazon.com to read reviews of a product. Since I have been helped by other peoples reviews before, I thought it is my time to pay back. Hence I am writing this one. This is my first ever review. So please bear with me if I do not do a good job of it.

Please also buy a minimum of 512MB SD or MMC card. I already had a 512MB SD card. I was able to install about 7 states before it filled up (Texas alone is approx 100MB!). So make sure you buy an SD card with this purchase. I would recommend 1GB. But that is your call. After I unpacked the receiver, I then let it charge for about 2 hours - before the green light came on indicating that it was fully charged. Then I installed the Navman Desktop software on my PC and then when it asked me to connect the iCN510, it was able to communicate with it with no problems. Remember to turn on the power (by sliding the Battery Switch) on the back of the device with the stylus before you plug it to your PC. Then I updated the Desktop and the iCN510 software with the latest patches from Navman's web site. Loading of the maps were slow - it takes approx. 5-10 minutes per map - so my advice is, you select all the maps that you want installed, then press copy to SD card and go do something else. Usually I have seen on my cameras and camcorders if you have the screen turned out, it drains the batteries pretty quickly. It was not the case here. After about 3 hours of usage - with the Display turned on - I noticed that batteries were about 65% full. I was impressed with that. During the installation, the Display screen was on all the time - with an USB connection animation. You do not see any map loading status updates on the device - only on your Desktops. After the installation, while inside the house itself, it was able to receive the GPS satellite signals and showed my location. That was good too. Voice is loud and clear. Although this is supposed to be a touchscreen device, a number of items on the screen does not respond to the stylus. You have to use its circular wheel to navigate and press the center of the circular wheel to get it to work as Enter/Return button. It also comes with all accessories you need to mount in the car along with car charger. It comes with a quick reference guide. But a detailed user manual is only available as a PDF. You may print one out at your discretion.

Here is the reason why I am giving this device 3 stars instead of 5. I purchased this product in December 2004. The maps on this device is dated March 2003. Called Customer service - which by the way will take you directly to voice mail where you would leave a voice mail. I did and I did not expect to hear from them. But 30 minutes later somebody did call back. When I talked to him, he said NAVMAN does not have the latest maps for this device. And even when it comes out, you will have to pay to get the latest maps on it. What the .....??? That was very disappointing. He said it will be atleast 8-12 months before they release their next updates. He understood my point but said he was helpless and could not change company's policies. I implored him to let his supervisors or anybody higher up that that is wrong. He said he will. So, I am looking at another $99 to get the updates. That was not good news. So beware of this before you buy this product. You also cannot register the product. I asked the customer rep. to see if I can register so that I may receive a discount coupon when I get ready to update the software. He said they discontinued the registration process. And that there are no plans to get customers data into their database.

But the fact is I paid $350 - which is pretty cheap. That is why I am seriously considering not sending this back. Otherwise it would have been returned by now.

One of the first reasons I purchased this unit was because of its cost. $380/- @ Fry's electronics with a 128MB SD card thrown in. (Outpost.com has it for $350/- without the SD card.)

I live in Beaverton, OR and purchased it just b4 my road trip: PDX > Reno > Las Vegas > Grand Canyon > Hoover Dam > Reno > Portland.

In one word: The unit peformed magnificiently. All in all. Through all these states (Oregon, North Calif', Nevada, Arizona) it did its job seamlessly. No glitches. No stoppages. It does its job well: Never lets you get lost anywhere.

Cons:
Since the unit is small, be careful. Don't drop it. Also use a screen protector to avoid screen scratches.

The navigation circular button can be tricky. I have thick fingers and hence the propensity to push the wrong button. Same thing on the screen as well, since the letters are closely assembled together. The screen issue u can solve by using the stylus or a pen.

Also, I would have preferred a QWERTY style like keyboard rather than the other way. Again a personal preference.

The major gripe: When I was in Reno and we wanted to goto a Chinese resturant, I could not goto the one that was close to where I was. Meaning, I knew the name of the restuarant, but I did not know the address. And I did not know which county I was in. Hence it was hit and trial, and then out of frustration, called the restuarant up, got the address and then entered it. (The restuarant person did not which county the restuarant was located in.) I wish it would show up the restuarants altogether, say for the Reno area, and then me having a choice.

Another irritant: When I push the + or - buttons in map view, it does the job. But it reverts back after some seconds to the regular view. This I found it annoying. My only true complaint.

From the installation (software and hardware), I did not have any issues. Maybe if the maps loaded faster from the PC to the SD card, then that would be nice, but not a big deal.

Pros:
Pros, pros ... where do I start. On my outbound trip and in Reno, I forget to take the exit from my hotel. Missed the turn. the unit, did its 'back-on-track' magic & voila! ... a few more turns and am on I80 heading to Las Vegas. Same thing in Las Vegas: Had to pick up a friend in MGM & the unit did its job perfectly.

It had maps for Tusayan (about 4 miles south of Grand Canyon), my home area (Beaverton), my relatives place in Las Vegas (new development off of S Jones Road). Streets are detailed at Boulder City, NV (Near Hoover Dam).

Since my preferences / settings were to use the highways as most preferred, it tends to show my maps along those paths. The annoying 'Make a U Turn' is a good thing (when u r genuinely lost) and a bad thing, when u know where u r going. (I think the algorithm, is that if u travel half the distance on ur deviated route, then it recalculates it from there. Again this is my guess and I have not tested it completely nor changed the preferences.)

Screen is bright, the voice is clear with XM singing along. If u want it to repeat (and like to hear the voice) push the scroll button on the side.

The 3D view is very nice to give you a 'heads up' of what is coming. True, it is there on the regular map, but the 3D view is bootiful.!!! Just to look at it.

Oh yes I forgot the form factor: Small. At the end of the day, removed it from its windshield mounting and put it away in the compartment.

During the night drive, my friend used it to read upcoming turns, and judge his speed. Another very very useful feature.

Bottom line:
This unit, for the price that I paid, has served me very very well in the last 10 days. I never had to open my trip map from AAA. On the way down, I did question the validity of the turns, with what I had printed off MS S&T, not knowing if it was guiding me right. But after 10 days of use, I know the unit is there to stay in my wife's truck. 4ever till death or thief do us apart.

I did test the Magellan 700 for 2 days. Great unit. All maps loaded into the unit. But very bulky. Inconv' to remove, etc ... And the $$$$$$. The 510 does the same, except for the inconv' of loading the maps. Hence it is going back to Costco.

For the price and feature set, I could not find anything better.

I have been wanting to joing the world of GPS users for quite some time now but could never justify the spending of $750-1000 or more on a unit. When I found the iCN 510 and it's attractive price I did quite a bit of research before deciding to buy.
The unit itself seems pretty decent and it comes with everything I wanted for multi-car and motorcycle use. The car charger and internal battery allows me to use it plugged into the car or pull it out and hook up to my motorcycle for a 3-4 hour trip off the battery. The only thing missing from the box was a decent owners manual. The quick reference card was ok, but didn't help me in some of my trouble shooting issues.
I also downloaded the patcher 80 fix after reading some of the reviews here.

I don't know if it was just me or not, but one word of caution. I ran into A LOT of trouble getting the iCN to recognize the SD card I bought. I loaded all the maps onto the SD via a multi-card reader/writer but as soon as I loaded the card into the iCN, it would say "no maps loaded" and fail to work properly.
This is when NAVMAN support stepped up. I sent two emails and both were responded to in a couple of hours. The first one suggested a couple of resets to try as well as to check to make sure the SD was not locked. When I wrote back the next day saying I had tried all that and more, and that the SD was working in my card reader, I got a response back, again within two hours, saying they will replace the entire Navman unit for me if I would like to try that.
Before taking that step, I decided to go buy a different brand SD card and see if that would work and it did. Now I don't know if it matters, but the first card that did not work was a Lexar 512mb brand. When I bought a 256MB SanDisk and loaded the maps the iCN loaded them and now seems to work just fine. I also have a 1Gb SanDisk on order so that I can attempt to load as much of the US as possible.

It has been two days and no map error problems, no lose of GPS signal, and the device is working as promised. I have a 1,000 mile trip coming up at the end of June that I'm really looking forward to as the final test of this unit.

First to summarize the experience - it will get you where you want to go, but will it do so as you expect, not so sure about that. But overall for this price, no other product in the market beats the accuracy, convenience and functionality.

Following are the tests I did:

1. Drove myself right into Midtown NY and after deliberately getting lost, set the unit to guide me back home - It surely did with the best route that one can take - pretty much the same route that a taxi will take.

2. Use it to go over the workplace (about 90 miles from home) - all hell broke loose here. No matter what settings I try, quickest, use of freeway, use of urban roads, it would not give me the route that I usually take. To overcome this problem, you keep driving your route and the unit will recalculate the route and eventually will tally with yours.

3. Set the destination for some very obscure address - well it got me there in a very strange way but it did get me there.

Now for the details:
1. Unit is very well designed, is accurate, has bright screen and has just the right amount of functionality for trip making. Volume is a bit low but is audible enough. You can plug in headset, if you want to blast the music while you drive. Also if you miss the instruction, you can toggle the volume toggle to repeat the instruction. Navigation with stylus and/or without is really easy.

2. Cold start is about 1 minute and hot start is just a few seconds. If the GPS signal is lost (like when going through the tunnel), the reacquisition takes less than a second.

3. Back on route calculations are pretty fast at under 2 seconds.

4. Windshield mounts are very convenient for taking out and placing the unit (and attaching the car adaptor for power).

5. Unit comes with everything you need excepting the SD card. The SD card option scores over the hard disc (as in some more expensive units) since it has no movable parts.

6. 3.5 inch screen size is actually just the right size ( I wonder where and how people keep some of Tom Tom unit and Lowrance big screen unit). This is just about the size of an older PDA and can fit into your pocket.

Now some points where I felt the unit needs improvements and hence a lower rating:

1. Maps are indeed old and if you are in area of lots of construction then it does make mistakes in naming the roads. Many times it pointed to take a turn when the turn wasn't there (closed recently).

2. The biggest problem with the unit is that it can't handle jug handles. For example in New Jersey, if you want to take a left, you have to first cross the crossing then make a jug handle to get on to cross road and then go straight. Unit keeps on saying "turn left".

3. Do download the update patch as a first step while setting up the unit.

4. Unit also has problem with selecting the street address due to truncating the addresses and also it seems not to find the House/building no. In short within half a mile of your destination, the unit can't be much relied upon. To overcome this problem for regular trips to same location set the location as POI while next to location and then get the maps using POI instead of address.

5. With regards to basemap, the manual says it is available free of charge, but I couldn't see it nor could I download it.

6. Last but not the least, the speed as indicated in the unit is consistently less by 2 miles/hour compared to the speedometer.

7. A couple of times during heavy traffic situations, I noticed that the directions (verbal and text) just don't make sense. They keep suggesting exiting the current route (highway) and taking side lanes. This also leads me to wonder, whether at the time of setting up of trip, unit actually looks at the traffic patter :-)

Anyway overall, I am happy I got the unit, something that I should have done a long time ago.

Anshoom
a happy iCN 510 owner :-)

I have a Garmin GPS V and the iCN 510. As comparing to the Garmin GPS V that I have, I found the followings on the iCN510:

Pros:
1. Sleek, light weight design.
2. Touch creen with color is awesome.
3. Great price ( I got it for $300 from Outpost).

Cons:
Despite the above statements, the search function of this high-tech design equipment is very very BAD as comparing to that of the traditional-looking GPS V. Please read the following scenarios:

1. Failed to find a specific address. For examples, enter 80 Saratoga Avenue, Santa Clara, CA (this is the existing valid address of the AAA office in Santa Clara). However, the gps will show you that the house number is out of range (no match). It only allows you to enter the number 153 and above. The rate of failure to find a valid address number is 40%.

2. Failed to find a cross street (look up by intersection). For example, try to find Market street and 7th street. Enter Market street as the first street then the gps will show that Market only have 3 cross street whereas Market actually cut across at least a dozen other streets. This shortcoming happen at 65% of the time.

3. Failed to find a highway exit. For example, if someone gives you a direction by saying that he is at the intersection of I-280 and Saratoga street, then you'd better ask for more information because this unit is absolutely not capable of finding an address that way, unlike the GPS V. The failure rate in this category is 99%.

In conclusions, I give the unit 3 stars until Navman fix this problem that I've already submitted to them. They admitted the bug and said they will be working on it.

I decided to get one of these, because I saw my friend using one in Switzerland. My sentiments are the same as his...I should have gotten one of these a long time ago! Primarily got this for my wife who is a real estate agent, but also because we travel alot, and thought this might come in handy during our travels elsewhere in the US/Canada, or even Europe.

It is very portable and light, with a decent sized screen. You could definitely use this to navigate your way walking through Chicago/NY or other walkable cities.

This unit serves its purpose and, though it isn't perfect, it gets you to your destination. I find it to be as reliable as permanent in-vehicle expensive systems, which are not perfect and subject to outdated maps as well.

The tracking and pinpointing is very accurate. GPS signal has been great even on cloudy overcast days, even without pulling up the antenna. It tracks your vehicle's speed, exactly corresponding with the speedometer! Very impressed with the rerouting features, when you get off track, it does a great job getting you back on the route.

I'd give it 5 stars if not for the following minor negatives:
I agree that the maps are likely outdated by a few years, though this isn't as noticeable in a city like Cleveland, OH where there hasn't been that many new road construction projects in the last few years. Probably more noticeable in a place like Boston. The voice cues are accurate for the most part, though not perfect. On one highway entrypoint, the voice says to stay in the left lane, when the exit is actually on the right lane. This was shown accurately on the routing and map, however. So you have to pay attention to both the voice and the map if you don't know where you're going. Also, the point-of-interest feature on here isn't as good as the Garmin products...less complete, bust still quite helpful in helping you find gas stations/ATMs, etc. Not quite so helpful with the restaurants, which tend to open/shut down faster than other POIs.

I was also looking at the Garmin C330, but decided on this product because the visual display/maps/brightness of colors and general readability of the screen appears to be better, based on reviews of both products. The Navman 510 has a pretty phenomenal screen for its price. Haven't had significant issues with reading the screen during daylight. Also, The windshield attachement device works great, and I have been able to position my unit right under the rear view mirror so that it is eye level.
Also, you can program multiple "Via" destinations (point A to B, B to C, C to D), which is important for a real estate agent, and is not available on the C330.

Do download the update on the Navman website. I am using a 256 MB SD card, and am able to fit about 5-7 states, which is perfectly fine for my driving needs. Overall, I would highly recommend this product. Great if you aren't familiar with your destination, but I am also using this even during normal longer distance driving, since it keeps me from making any inconvenient wrong turns.

After reading several reviews of the Euro version, I decided to purchase the US version when it came out. Compared it against the similar featured: Garmin Quest (smaller screen), Magellan Roadmate 300 (no battery), and the Tom Tom Go (more expensive). Have found the satellite acquistion is excellent and the displayed map good. Mine has a minor hardware glitch in that the volume wheel does not work. My major complaint is the software (SmartST Version 3.0) which I consider full of bugs. Often the voice prompts & map visual directions are at odds with each other; attempting to program off a City's Zone (must be the Euro Zip code?) is worthless & confusing so should be deleted from US edition software; unit periodically just freezes & locks up which requires a reboot to clear. Otherwise, once Navman fixes the software this will be a sweet little unit.

Navman iCN510 is altogether a more-than-acceptable GPS system - especially for what you can buy it at outpost.com. It's extremely accurate, gives clear voice directions, has a wonderfully clear 3.5" color monitor (although it's sometimes hard to see in direct sunlight), and has an incredible 3-D view that's a sight to behold!

However, it does have some issues. It appears there are areas of the country where it may not have the most updated map, especially if the area is a new development. But for where I live, it hasn't been a problem.

For the reviewer below who stated that this is only good for the car, please read the title of my review. It's designed for the car. As for not being able to 'waypoint' a location directly from the GPS, I'm not sure how he's defining 'waypoint', but if all you want to do is to 'save' the location of where you're at, you can do so using the 'Favorite' function. So let's say you're out on the town and parked your car at the intersection of Western and Wilshire and want to 'lock in' your location, you may do so directly from Navman. Then if you had to walk a few blocks and then lost your way after a night of merry-making, you can use your Navman to get back to your car! How cool is THAT?! You can do this because it's completely portable (fits in your shirt pocket) and battery operated (rechargeable, no less!) - unlike some other GPS which doesn't even operate without its umbilical cord attached to the car's cigarette lighter outlet! So I guess it's MORE than just an 'inCarNavigation', but also outCarNavigation!

I also initially had minor problem with the truncating of the streets, as well as giving different zones for a major city. But you can minimize or for most part eliminate this problem by knowing the exact address to where you're going, including the zip code! Then, you minimize/eliminate the number of 'zones' and/or truncation you need to go through. I've found this to be a minor problem in a large city such as Los Angeles, but not in smaller towns where there's less likelihood of overlapping stree names and so forth.

I've read that Navman will be updating their maps within a few months. Hopefully they'll also solve the truncating/zone problem with it. The bottom line is, for what you're likely to use it for, you can't beat it for the price! It may not be perfect, but if you're able to deal with some of its minor idiosyncracies, you've got a winner! I plan to keep mine!

After reading all the reviews below, I was a little nervous purchasing it. However, i decided to give it a shot. Like one review I read, as soon as I took it out of the box I downloaded the patch from the Navman website and installed it. I have not had any of the problems described here or any other website that has reviewed this product. It has been an absolute pleasure and for 1/2 the price of the other options out there I think that I did the best for my money. My only problem with it is that you have to manually end the route once you have reached your destination, not such a big deal just tapping the touch screen and hitting cancel.

This is a great product. A good friend of mine recommended it to me and since I was in need of a good, reliable out-of-box nav system for my car, I decided to purchase it.

Pros:
- At about 1" thick, it's the most sleek in-car navigation system on the market.

- Acccurate, real-time (no lag) navigation with voice prompts.

- Can't beat the price.


Cons:
- The first signal acquisition on a given day can sometimes take some time (but I'm assuming this is an issue on all comparable models).

- Directions on the highway: Sometimes the on-screen and voice-prompts for directions while on the highway can be vague.

- The built-in speaker was sufficient in my car when all windows were up and the radio was low/moderate. You can't really hear it with the windows down and volume low/moderate.

Addt'l notes:
- Like everyone else said, install the patch.

- I definitely recommend this product.