Customer Reviews

Sony NVU44 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-to-Speech (Gun Metallic)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought the Sony NV-U44 a few days ago on an impulse buy, as it was on sale at a local electronics store for $138, regular $250. I had thought about buying a GPS before, but I decided I needed one now because my son just began driving and he is not very good at navigating his way around! So after buying it I looked around and heard about the mediocrity of sony's other GPS units and I was a little worried about my purchase. I am happy to say however that this unit does not suffer from any of the issues that the bigger Sony GPSs face. It's touchscreen is snappy with almost instant loading of screens, the POIs are numerous and I haven't gone somewhere yet that wasn't in the GPS. It finds the satellites almost exactly after you turn it on, and route calculations are very swift. If it has to recalculate the route it is almost instantaneous and it is amazing! Also, the searching of addresses is very quick and when I went into the store to play with the other GPS units after I purchased this one I found none of the other GPSs I played with to be as responsive and quick as this one. I find that to get the best navigation you need to set the route mode to "shortest route" away from general and it is more consistent that way. I couldn't find any reviews of this GPS on the internet so I hope I helped, as if you are buying this unit you do not want to buy in the Dark! My only gripe is that the physical buttons are sometimes hard to press, but it is not like you will be pressing them very much, so it's something I don't mind really.

I have had this GPS unit for just over 2 weeks now and must say I like it quite a bit. This was my first GPS unit but it pretty much has everything that I need at the moment. I had been looking at GPS units the last few months, seeing prices drop and finally jumped at this one, seeing it was a Sony and had the text to voice feature. I'll list some of the pros/cons below based mostly on the features I found useful in this unit for it's price.

Pros:

1. Text to voice. Voice prompts volume can be changed easily and also muted completely if desired with just a few touches.
2. You can zoom in/out of map view with a few touches. Set a trip route and get an advance idea of how much the distance is, view of destination and also estimated trip time (which changes as you travel based on speed, stoppage etc.).
3. 3D view is helpful when you come to a busy intersection with multiple lanes. It will split the screen with the regular map view on the right side of the screen and a slightly larger frontal view of all available lanes and the ones you should be taking (highlighted), in the left side of the split screen.
4. Similar split screen with bars in the center to the next turn at busy junctions. The bar indicators reduce as you get closer to the turn, in addition to voice prompts saying how many miles/feet left to your turn.
5. If you miss a recommended exit, it recalculates fairly quickly where you need to turn next to get to your destination.
6. Lots of pre-loaded Points of Interest. I have enabled 'Banks/ATMs', 'Costco' & 'Shell' gas stations under my general settings and they regularly scroll by as small icons on my map as I pass them by. You can also type in 'Walmart' and it will list the closest Walmarts to you.
7. Fairly good design. Very simple and sleek, no flashy strips or jagged edges. The glass mount is also very nicely designed and sticks well to front glass.

Cons:

1. The touch screen could have been a bit more responsive. It is not very easy to touch the screen and scroll to others points on the map. Not that it is completely un-responsive, but would have been better if it flowed with more ease. Helpful if you want to trace the map to get an idea of route.
2. I have added 'Walmart' as a Point of Interest under my grocery store indicator general settings. However for some reason, none of the WM stores I drive by show up on my map. The Shell gas stations and banks show as small icons as they should but I have to search for Walmarts.

You will have to play around with the unit a bit to get to understand where to make changes to your settings. For example, you can change general settings so that your route is calculated for the shortest possible path by default, or that you avoid toll ways completely every time. Or you can leave it to look for standard routes by default, but make specific changes on the fly during a trip to look for the shortest route (options button) or avoid toll ways on this specific route. Reach a destination and save it for future navigation under different folders (can be renamed/added/deleted).

I bought this for our upcoming trip to Florida where it will be tested for what it's worth but at the moment, it is doing quite well at home. I am sure a lot of other GPS units will also have the above pros/cons but based on what I have read about other units, and what some friends have, I think this is a very good GPS unit, especially at this price (bought it from local Sonystyle store for $79.99). More updates after Florida trip if I find anything that needs to be added.

Pros: Great screen, many POI, text to speech, touch screen. dual display at intersections. Easily picks satellite and starts quickly. Easy to carry in a pocket.
Cons: Routing does not give shortest distance even when setting routing option to shortest.

It is a very useful unit as it has many points of interest and gives you a list of these with their phone numbers. The search feature is easy and fast. Internally it has 2 GB memory full of data.

The main problem is that the route selected is often longer than what you would normally use. Another reviewer on CNET has the same observation. for example to go from Katy TX to College Station, TX it routes you thru Sam Houston Beltway 8 toll road. When selecting to avoid toll roads it routes you even further west through 610 loop. both are much longer paths than SH-6 or Barker Cypress Rd. There is no option that will make it select the shortest path even when you know it. Sony needs to add a feature that allows adding a street to current route to force it to go that way. They also need to give shorter and quicker routes.

Same happens when coming from Rosenberg, TX to Katy, it routes you thru Beltway 8 toll road instead of SH-99 (Grand Parkway).
I am using the updated firmware (1.1) released on 12/15/2008. I did not try the original firmware. The new firmware is supposed to fix this same issue.

Pros: Text to Speech, Split Screen at intersections, Accuracy.... SONY
Cons: None so far

Having owned 2 TomTom Ones 2nd Editions that did not have Text to Speech, I decided to buy something that did and was fortunate to be able to find 2 of these NV-U44 units last week. I think I bought the last 2 in Jacksonville, FL. I had originally bought 2 of the larger NV-U94T's for $155 each new with the 4.8 inch screen. I thought that they just took up too much room when mounted. Granted, the U94T performed perfectly and the picture was great, but after giving more thought to the fact that I had no need for the Bluetooth or optional monthly fee traffic features, I decided to go with this less expensive little brother Sony U44. While I was impressed with the 94T, the U44 is like the 94T, but in a 3.5" display without Traffic and Bluetooth. The maps are the same as the 94T and are version 2008. That means they have current maps for now, but as new roads are being built....what is current today will be obsolete tomorrow. With the prices of a GPS being driven downward at an astronomical rate, it is almost as cheap in some cases to buy a new unit than to pay to upgrade maps. The text to speech is very nice. You can put it in a cupholder if you want and let it instruct you on turns without even having to mount it on the dash or windshield to view. The U44 is very accurate in directions, speed , mileage and ETA. The touchscreen is responsive. I use a rubber tipped stylus pen from my PDA to speed up the process and tap the numbers, etc. That helps since my fingers are big and I can tap one key at a time much faster. If you are looking for a great GPS, you will not go wrong with this unit. My gut feeling is that Sony is getting out of the GPS business. They had these on their website for $79.99 and their other units reduced anywhere from 50% to 70% within 5 months of coming out in production. All have been cleared out and posted as no longer available. I bought mine new for $59.99 each(regular price $249.99), but I suspect that since Sony no longer carries them that the price is being driven up on the web. I see them ranging in price online from $69 to $250.

I used it for 18 months and battery is not working anymore.
I can't find new battery to purchase and Sony customer Service told me this item is discontinued!!!!!!!!!! so after 18 months I have to throw it away!
Lucia

The GPS was working well for a couple of weeks and I was happy enough. Then when I returned from a trip to VA, it stopped working. Now the battery will not charge and the touch screen does not work. So it is dead in the water. I contacted Tech Support and they told me to return it for repair, so I am hoping to return it to Amazon for refund.
Too bad !!!

This is my fifth GPS. Three of my previous ones (a TomTom One, a TomTom One XL and a Magellan Maestro) were stolen and the third was a Magellan Maestro that I thought was dead but repaired. Nonetheless, I bought this one because I didn't want to spend another $200 on yet another GPS.

My favorite of my previous GPS' were the TomToms because of their user friendliness and their routing intelligence. The Magellans were just plain stupid and their user interfaces were klunky.

This Sony has a very nice user interface but doesn't quite reach TomTom level but it is good. Address entry and marking locations on this GPS is pretty good. I wish there was a GPS that would just put the current state as a default before you type but I haven't found one yet that does that. The order of entering the address is not what I'm used to. I think this unit does number, street, city, state. I like the reverse (state, city, street, number). But the entry feels less klunky than the Magellan.

At first, I was disappointed at how garbagey the graphics looks but I quickly got over it when I noticed that the response time this unit beats any other GPS unit I've had. The route recalculation speed on it is phenomenal as well. Also, the simplified graphics seem easier to follow. The voice navigation is much less annoying than others I've used as well.

All in all, it's a pretty good device considering it's sub-150. I'm going to keep using it for another week and if I still like it, my Magellan is going on eBay!

Update: I felt compelled to add this since it is pretty important to me. The unit is great but the PC software for this unit STINKS! In the TomTom, you can edit an address book with real addresses but with this software you have to enter actual coordinates. What geek knows actual coordinates of addresses off the top of his/her head? This type of nerditry is what makes Apple number 1 in consumer devices. They really got lazy on the software on which would otherwise have been a 5 star unit. The Magellan software wasn't any better so I guess that gives me some comfort?

I have purchased it as we have a second car after just moving to another state...boy i regret this purchase. In comparison to my Garmin 360 it's like night and day. this sony will guide you through 20 mp/h streets through one family houses neighborhood while there is a highway right next to it, and i'm talking miles of driving. we use it ONLY if it's absolutely necessary. Luckily for me o got it on sale for ~$80 but even then i would recommend to pay a bit more and get garmin instead.

The nv-U44 made by Sony has more features then could be expected. The only problem is that Sony no longer is in the GPS business and is not providing updates since the release of maps 2009a and firmware 1.1 release. The update map if you can find it is very pricey. Luckily I was able find the 2009a maps and updated my GPS. The firmware update is still on their site to download for free. This GPS was ahead of it's time with split screen,3d,Lane guidance,large POI database and the ability to customize numerous settings. I would highly recommend this GPS if you can find it at a low price. I have tried the other major brands and keep coming back to my Sony. Just keep in mind that sadly Sony is out the GPS business.

I enjoyed this GPS while it lasted. After 3 months of not-so-heavy use, it no longer picked up the satellites. I returned it to Sony and since they no longer have any left in stock (getting out of the GPS business?), they refunded my entire amount. Also, the battery would not hold a charge after several uses which I didn't care about too much since I had it mounted on the windshield and plugged in.

Overall, I liked the interface and it was very easy to learn how to use. The routing algorithm was a bit weird where it would take me off a major interstate too early, causing a longer trip. I did update the unit to the latest firmware and played with some settings but it didn't help. Some addresses where hard to find as I had to type in alternate forms of the street address. However, as long as my defective unit isn't a sign of common problems, I would recommend it as a cheap entry level GPS.