Sony NVU73T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.2 x 3.1 inches ; 7.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00153T624
• Item model number: NVU73T
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,010 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Manufacturer's Description (June 6, 2008)
Introducing Nav-U GPS from Sony. Complete with a brilliant display, intuitive touch screen and easy to understand menus, the NV-U73T portable satellite navigation is easy on the eyes. The model is thinner than a nickel is wide at 4.3-inches, weighs less than a half-pound and can be easily mounted in almost any vehicle.  Whether it's a trip across town or cross-country road trip, the features on the NV-U73T make it the perfect travel companion, ready right out of the box.

Pre-Installed Maps and Content
The NV-U73T comes pre-loaded with map content covering the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico with full street level detail. The NV-U73T contains 4 million points of interest and a brand icon function, providing recognizable waypoints along your route. The navigator also has a Memory Stick PRO DuoSlot to support the transfer of particular guidebook information.

Dual-View-3D Junction Guide
The NV-U73T features Dual View capability. As you approach your particular turn, Dual View 3-D will split the screen into two, highlighting useful information for the guidance on the left. The right windows keeps the normal map information, providing a clear view of what’s around the bend or in a highway merge scenario, or which junction to take.

Ease of Use
The Nav-U's Gesture Command eliminates the need for menu interaction when entering the most common destinations. Use your fingertip to draw a pre-determined shape on the screen and Gesture Command will calculate the way home, to the nearest gas station or an ATM.

Real Traffic Updates
Real-time traffic information radio reception allows the NV-U73T to constantly monitor relevant traffic conditions and automatically re-route you around trouble spots. Adjustable user settings also allow you to select the type of information you wish to display.  The Nav-U comes with a 3-month traffic subscription.

Text To Speech Capability
TTS (Text to Speech) also eliminates second-guessing when making a turn. The device utilizes spoken commands ensuring you are able to follow the directions by street names.

Super Suction Cup Mount
A Nav-U easily mounts within arms reach in virtually any vehicle. The Super Suction Cup makes mounting options endless. Once mounted, snapping a Nav-U onto or off of the cradle is easy with the intuitive locking design. The unit simply slides into position , locking when fully engaged. Removal is just as easy using the release button and reversing the process. Stable and secure while driving, the NV-U73T is easily adjusted when in use - no more finicky adjustment dials.

What's in the Box?
The Sony NV-U73T comes with a car cradle, antenna, XA-DC3 car battery adaptor, USB cable and an application disc. 

Product Description

Travel with confidence. The widescreen 4.3" touch-panel display of the nav-u portable navigation system provides turn-by-turn directions to where you want to. Traveling to your favorite destinations has never been this easy. The nav-u portable satellite navigation system has a sleek, 4.3" touch-panel widescreen display and can be easily mounted in almost any vehicle. The brilliant, high-contrast full-color graphical interface is also intuitive and fun to use. Whether it's a trip across town or cross-country road trip, the nav-u satellite navigation system makes the perfect travel companion. The NV-U73T comes pre-loaded with Map Content covering the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Enjoy powerful, portable navigation out of the box! With a touch-screen comes control via simple, on-screen finger movements. Commonly used commands such as ‘take me home’ may be accessed by gesturing an inverted ‘V’ on the screen versus paging through numerous menu screens. Step away from standard GPS mapping and towards a more complete navigation solution. Real Time Traffic Information radio reception allows the NV-U73T to constantly monitor relevant traffic conditions and automatically re-route you around trouble spots! Dual View capability displays dynamic route information, in addition to the conventional map view, to provide an even clearer view of what’s around the bend or in a highway merge scenario, which Junction to take. TTS (Text to Speech) also eliminates second-guessing when making a turn; the device utilizes spoken commands ensuring you are able to follow the directions by street names.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, BAD implementation, June 11, 2008

By 

Kavin G. Shah "shahkg" (Great Neck, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony NVU73T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

So I am in the market to get a GPS unit for my car, so after reading some mixed reviews about the Sony NV-U73 I decided to try it out for myself. Now I am a Sony fanboy so I was hoping that this product would do very well for me, especially since it was on sale at the local Radio Shack.

Let me start with the good:

1. Beautiful display, bright with lots of contrast.
2. POI's come up on the GPS as their logo...ie If I was driving past a Citgo, the Citgo logo was displayed on the GPS...very cool.
3. The unit will tell you which lane to be in for complicated exits/turns on the highway. When you approach an exit, it goes split screen and shows you which lane you should be in to take the exit.
4. Fairly accurate to tell you when turns are approaching.
5. Displays your speed.
6. Mount is very stick and can move in 360 degrees.

Now the cons:
1. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW...slow to pick up a signal, super slow to re-calculate a route, and tooth-numbing slow to calculate an initial route.
2. It can't handle hypens, ie if a house number is 28-44, your out of luck cause it can't find that.
3. Minor gripe, but the RDS antenna is not built in.
4. Takes forever to search POI's by name.
5. Mapping alogrithem is good, but not the best out there.

So, if this unit wasn't so slow it would be great. But it was taking about 3-4 minutes to acquire the GPS satellites, and another 2-3 minutes to calculate routes. Not helpful if you're in an unfamiliar location.

There are better units out there for the same price. Get one of those.

58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Looks can be deceiving, June 9, 2008

By 

Thatcher (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NVU73T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I had been leaning towards a Garmin nuvi when I first read about this unit, and after doing some research decided to give it a try. I must say that I really liked it for the first few days when I was playing with all the gimmicks that I haven't used before (my friend has a nuvi 350) like the split screen and touch-gestures.

However, once that wore off, the 73T really boils down to a pretty aggravating piece of equipment. The frequent errors I experienced finding Points of Interest around town aside, it did an absolutely horrendous job on a 2 hour trip that I take almost every weekend. There are basically 2 ways to get there: One that follows the same route 7 through a ton of little towns (the slow way), and a faster path which takes two different roads (22A and 4 for those of you keeping track) to do the same thing.

I will start by saying that the nuvi 350 opts for the faster way to begin with. The Sony on the other hand, spent the entire 20 miles of route 4 telling me to take every exit and turn around so that I could take route 7. Then, when I had finally made it to 22A, it started recalculating ways to merge with 7 again instead of simply following the direct shot to my destination. I had to enter about 5 different "interim destinations" along the way before it would finally let me take 22A in peace (with an ETA 20 minutes sooner than the route it wanted to take).

Short story: I made a wide variety of trips with this GPS while I had it (I returned it today and will be purchasing a nuvi 260W) and more often than not, I found myself ignoring the directions because there is a decidedly faster route that it simply refused to calculate. It has some nice features, but nothing extraordinary. The bottom line is that when I end up driving somewhere that I am not familiar with, I know there are other units out there that will do a much better job picking the best route to take which is what I look for in a navigation device.

62 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great little GPS!, March 3, 2008

By 

CeeTee (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NVU73T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I have been an avid user of Sony electronics for many years now. I was in the market for a GPS and like most people I was looking into buying a Garmin. However, when I saw the U73T in my local Sony Style store I figured I would give it a try. I have been using the unit for a few days now and I have not been disappointed. I live in New York City which is a convoluted maze of roads and highways. The unit makes a satellite connection very quickly which is impressive when you consider that I live in New York City surrounded by hundreds of buildings. Voice guidance is loud and easy to understand (So far I have not heard it mispronounce a street name). The U73T has consistently provided routes for me that were short and sweet. I have not suffered a system crash in several days of use and so far the unit seems very stable. The graphics are a little on the simple side but this is made up for by the awesome 3D split screen function. This feature was a big help to me when I found myself driving on an unfamiliar highway. It even tells you what lane you should be in before an important turn. The touch screen is responsive and easy to use. I had no problems teaching myself the interface and being that this is my first GPS, that's saying something! You can tell that a great deal of forethought and effort went into developing this product. Easy access to POI locations and an easy to use finger gesture command system make this GPS a helpful, easy to use driving companion. Rerouting is also fast and accurate. So far I am very happy with my purchase. I have seen my friends Garmin 350 in action and as far as I am concerned I think this is a better unit (I don't think the Garmin has 3D split screen). If you are looking for an alternative to Garmin I highly recommend the U73T.

Low Points:

1. Poor battery life: Full charge only last about an hour and 15min.

2. The touch screen can be a bit unresponsive at times.

3. Unit cannot locate certain addresses, I'm hoping a firmware update will fix this problem.