Customer Reviews

Nextar X3B 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

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

 

 

This is the first GPS system, I am using. So I am not in position to compare this with others. This is just my opinion and feelings after I have used it for a month.

The unit is slick, lightweight, comes with a carrying pouch. Display is bright enough to see clearly under the sunshine. The volume is loud enough to be heard clearly even in rough road condition and noise of engine.

Entering and saving data into the system is pretty easy and intuitive. When entering data, the software provides auto completion of city and street names and suggests address range once the street and city entered. In one word, entering the data, navigating to an address is pretty easy. After the system is powered on, it takes couple of minutes to be able to connect to satellite system for GPS signal and becomes ready for navigation withing 1 to 2 minutes.

Software works alright. It provides road names at every turn point so that i do not have to look at the gadget. When i go out off the suggested route it immediately recalculate the new route. In one case, when I did not connect the unit to power, it died because battery was out while I was driving; but as soon as I connected to vehicle power and switched on, it asked me whether I want to continue with current navigation and once I hit "Yes", it continued guiding me. That was great. I mostly traveled around tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for a month, but I was always impressed with the result.

Additionally it beeps an alert when car speed exceeds speed limit and there are two modes for that speed limit alert - you can configure manual alert or you can select automatic one - but it is very easy to switch.

The manuals talks about software update, but i did not find any ways to do that. i did not call their customer support yet. I did not try the other features like music, blue tooth, etc. yet. I will post an update when i use them.

This is the first time I am writing a review on Amazon, as I don't see any reviews written.

I was pleasantly surprised with this small machine. I have had this for about a month. Used all its features. Text To Speech is very useful to have. I got it for 180$ for a brand new unit, which I think is a good deal. Navigates well. Shows relevant POI's. Used it in 3 states (OH, NH and VT). Worked great!

Pros: Works great, recalculates directions well. Bluetooth works well. Speed alert is great feature. Good battery life. Good screen brightness.

Cons: The photo viewer takes forever to load photos. Hopefully Nextar will come up with new firmware/software upgrade to resolve this issue.
Can't search for some specific things, like bowling. Have to find through entertainment categories.

This X3B is the best with its price. I got it about $200 with TTS, bluetooth, MP3 player ... etc.
It's a play-and-go PNA right out of box. The satellite acquiring time is fairly short within a minute. It even got the Sat. locks in my living room. Once it locks, it never lost the signal.
I can select a quickest, a major, a shortest, or a local to route my address. The POI is sufficient enough to find what I'm looking for.
The TTS is working great that I don't need to look at the screen. It even makes a sound to inform me to turn. The speaker is loud enough to hear even with listening the radio.
The bluetooth privdes me a hand free connection to my cell phone without a hassle while navigating.
I highly recommend this GPS.

This is the first GPS I have, so I cannot compare it with other popular brands.

I am very quality sensitive user. So far I am very happy with it. Less than $200, I can have GPS (pretty fast response), MP3 player and Bluetooth for free hand call. Again more important thing is so far I feel its quality is good.

What the problems I have,
1) its POI is not very huge (Maybe same to other brands. It cannot show a 500 feet away Mobile gas from my home.
2) it has an external antena port, but in the manufacturer's website, actually it does not make this antena accessory.
3) No any CD software included, no any software for future update implied. (It comes with a USB port cable, I think it can talk with PC. It also has a small reset button on its back.)

Anyway, in general, I am very satisfied with it.

Almost everyone who rated this product below a four complained about frozen screens, which seems about right. The company had issues with freezing in the earlier models, but I have two and neither one has frozen once in the months that I have owned them. I've driven in MA. FLA. RI. NH. ME. NY. NJ. CA. OR. and TX. and have not had one frozen screen. Sometimes it lags, (especially when dragging maps) but that is no reason to discredit all the greatness this piece of equipment has to offer. Everyone complaining it's not up to date need to figure out how to log onto the computer with it. It's simple to do, and free for the first time. Everyone complaining about hardware failure (IE, USB cables not working), can go cry. They will replace anything that doesn't work, and USB cables are like, five bucks.

The Pros, (to name a few)
-Backlight screen easy to read day and night
-Headphone Jack so directions can be quieted for sleeping co pilots
-Speed Limit Warning
-Easy to carry, small compact (compared to Garmin, or Tom Tom)
-Price

Cons
-sometimes is slow
-can't use MP3 and GPS at same time
-have to pay to update

Honestly, this thing is pretty solid. Compared to other major brand GPS there is no competition. My mother, and sister both have the other brands, (Garmin, TomTom). I used them both in trying to figure out which one to go with. Both of them lost signals in the middle of trips to the point where I had to pull over and wait. That hasn't happened with Nextar. Both are huge and not easy to transport. Meaning your not going to pop it out of the holder and stick it in your purse or pocket. This thing is about the size of an Iphone. Your getting an out of dash unit, you don't want to leave it in your car on some occasions, It's so much easier with this unit. The best thing for me was the price. It's one of those things that you get what you pay for. I got mine for $80 on sale. So the customer service is not as good as Garmin's. The POI is not as accurate with stores, (Hospitals and gas stations 100% of the time though, priorities), the price is worth the slight quality drop. Believe me, I've gone toe to toe with all three contenders, the difference is not worth the price difference. Anyone trying to tell you anything else has not done a side by side comparison.
Keep it out of the sun and out of hot or cold cars. Extreme temperatures can cause frozen screens, it's never happened to me, but I know how to take care of my equipment.

Nextar 3.5-Inch Touch Screen Bluetooth Ready GPS Vehicle Navigator With MP3 Player

I have had this GPS for several months and am pleased with what it has. The bluetooth works great although you don't see the map or hear the directions when you are driving while talking and it was no problem connecting to my Blackberry, just download the instructions from the Nextar website (Google it and you will find the website).
The POI is adequate but I don't see any POI on a GPS that will be complete, so that's no big deal to me. It has a USB to PC connection and claims to be able to update the map. I have registered just a couple of weeks ago to see if I can get it updated and add more to it. The GPS picks up quick at times and slow other times, but I take in to account of weather and obstacles that get in the way at times. Other reviewers have pointed out that it was slow and I wanted to be clear on that point. I have also had mine lock up once and was able to hit the reset button and start over again. The voice is loud enough, I usually keep it two bars below the highest volume.
My job is in IT and I expect alot out of the GPS but put blame where it should be and not on things the GPS can't control. The voice directions are right on the money, the calculated travel pretty close. MP3 player works but you can't do GPS and MP3 both, no biggie to me, I have my blackberry a nexter mp3 player and my cd player in the car. Battery holds a charge for a long enough time for me to check where I am going when I leave the house or hotel and I keep it on the charger in the car while driving. I usually don't have to wait because it is connected before I leave on a business trip. The touch screen works great and I just use my finger to click on things. My pictures are too big to see on the GPS but if I took the time and made them smaller I could probably get them to work. It's a GPS, not a picture frame.
There are times when I feel I have a better route than the GPS due to the time of day or stop lights, traffic etc, but directions always get me there and the reroute works great and quick on recalculating. I use this in conjunction with my Blackberry which I can get addresses from an put them in the GPS. I have had a couple of streets not be in there, but I'm sure they will be there when I get the update, hopefully. Nextar has a great trade in policy where you can upgrade to the newest GPS they have, just go to thier website. You have the SD slot, it played my MP3's, so it works. It also has a cable to connect to the computer and that works. Pretty good unit overall, but I had streets and trips on my laptop, so this is a big step up for me. Bought mine open box new for $125 and feel like I got more than my money's worth.

I was thrilled when I received this unit, but after testing it for less than 2 hrs, sadly I decided to return it because the POI's are lacking...I was sitting in a store parking lot (surrounded by stores of all types: Best Buy, Target, Old Navy, Weis Mkts, Kohls, etc.) and it didn't pick up any of the stores I was near...only ones about 3 miles away. I'm really disappointed because I really do like the other features it offers and would recommend it to someone who's not interested in the POI's (or maybe it's just a Pennsylvania thing!?!?!).
To be fair, the good things it offers are: good screen size (3.5 is larger than you'd think!), speed alert, mp3, rerouting/avoidance options, voice prompt, touch "pencil" (I've found using fingers only leads to incorrect buttons, which can be frustrating), self-explanatory operation & more - Like I said, I really am disappointed, but I need the POI's! :(

I have used both TomTom and Garmin gps products before, but my mom purchased the Nextar system for 3.5inches to use for a trip. It was a terrible experience

The system itself is extremely laggy, and that kills the system. It takes upwards of 10 minutes (most was about 11 minutes) to acquire a satellite signal. Once it does have a signal, it will lag, and the location of your arrow will sort through multiple maps (all of them wrong, though) before finally stoping at the right one. the map will almost NEVER keep up with you. It is laggy in figuring out where you are, so early on i realized I had to look at the actual directions it gave because once the gps started talking (e.g. take a left onto ___) we would be past that destination.

So what I first tried doing was scrolling the map up - the gps would center an arrow that represented you, and you could touch and drag the screen to move the map and see whats around you. However, the system is so laggy, once you start dragging, the gps will slow down and the maps will load really slow, or sometimes the map would not move at all - instead it would repeatedly click (it clicks everytime you do an action) and then lag, and sometimes move the map, but sometimes not.

so by the end of the trip (with multiple missed roads along the way) i resorted to just reading the directions, as every other function was prettymuch useless.

Pros:
looks cool

Cons:
Incredible Lag
Very old maps
Very old/inadequate (did not even list target or shoprite) list of points-of-interest
Poor satellite connection

Verdict: chip out a little more and save yourself a buttload of pain

Just used the Nextar twice. It wouldn't holde a charge. It went down while we were programming it in less than an hour. When we really needed it on our second trip it quit just as we were exiting the turnpike and froze. The unit wouldn't come back on. It was plugged in and should have been charging as we were driving but it ran completely down then stopped. When we tried to recharge it, it wouldn't turn off and wouldn't recharge with the electric charger. I was going to try another one but after reading the comments I think I'll try another brand.

It worked fine before the battery went down but then it died.

Well first of all I ordered this product and it arrived very quickly.. But when I tried to turn it on it would not go past the loading screen, and froze up... I even tried pushing the reset button about a zillion times and it did nothing, so I sent it back and they sent me a new one. The new one worked fine with no problems, had excellent features for the price, and gave clear directions.. However after only about four weeks of having the second one it did the same thing as the first one and froze up. And no matter how many times I pushed the reset button, it still would not work.. Better off spending the extra money for a Garmin or a TomTom!!!