Customer Reviews

Sony NVU73T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I am a loyal Sony fan many would say to a fault. Just about every electronic I own is Sony except for my Ipod. Sorry walkman but thats the one thing I can't compromise on. Anyway, I had a small tom tom I bought when sony was not making any new GPS devices. I had thought Sony quit making them like there traditional desktop PC's and monitors. The tom tom was 160 bucks on special, came with bluetooth and was one of the easiest gadgets I have ever used. Never looked at the manual.

Once this little unit popped up, I could't help it and made an impulse buy. At 300 bucks it's pricey but believe it or not, a bargin for Sony. The unit is beautiful looking with a wide panel display and the maps have a sophisticated look to them compared to tom tom's cartoonish maps and plastic toy looking body. Even the menu looks sophisticated. This is what I love about Sony. Since Sony is not known for GPS units I was nervous about how it would perform.

The unit has performed surprisingly well thus far. The maps are fairly accurate with addresses but the signal takes slightly longer to connect than with the tom tom. Also, the tom tom is slightly more responsive to touch and the turn by turn direction voice is slightly smoother than sony's. These are minor gripes as the differences are very hard to notice. A neat feature the Sony has is it actually has brand logos of gas stations instead of the usual general gas can logo. This helps if you have a gas card to a certain brand which I do. Another neat feature is the automatic night mode. I don't know if it senses less light or goes by time, but it seems to turn the map into night mode at the right times. The only thing missing in this unit is the blutooth which is in the more expensive model. This is ridicoluous since my tom tom has blutooth and was half as expensive as this model. Luckily, I never use this feature. Basically Sony goes toe to toe with any GPS unit and has some little extra features except for blutooth.

One big gripe is Sony's continued absence of intruction manuals and reliance on their website to obtain these. I hate that. Unfortunately I did needed the manual unlike the tom tom as I was trying to familiarize myself with dual view feature which I could not figure out on my own. Tom Tom is awesome in this respect as it is super simple to use and no manual is needed. Of course Sony's infamous proprietary memory card is the only expansion memory slot on this unit which is another thing I hate about Sony but much like Mac's, they love make things complicated by keeping their technology proprietary and closed.

Here is the bottom line: If you are Sony fan, like brand names, like beautiful sophisticated looking gadgets and have the money... This unit is for you!

If you're like any NORMAL person looking for an inexpensive GPS unit that does the job well and simple, tom tom is for you. (Sorry Sony)

I am in LOVE with this unit! the screen is so large and bright compared to my previous garmin nuvi 350. When I fir got it, acquiring signal and recalculating route takes like 5 minutes, but after I got my free firmware 3.0 cd from sony and update my device, BAM it's LIGHTING FAST!!!! It sometimes even beats the speed of my Nuvi 350!!!

pros:
cheaper than the nuvi 350 and bigger screen.
and BEST OF ALL:
IT HAS QWERTY keyboard layout!!!
I hate nuvi's abcd layout with a passion, and with this, wow it's so comfortable.
Also it comes with FREE traffic antenna and updated service, unlike the nuvi which you have to pay $150 for.
no mp3 or anything, but I'm sure people use ipods for that...
btw:nuvi 350 recently got discontinued....

cons: no photo displaying ability
no mp3 player
no bluetooth
only uses memory stick pro duo

Long story short. In looking for a GPS I researched and tried Garmin, Magellan and TomTom. I then decided I needed a GarTomGellan. I thought I found it in this Sony unit. The screen is beautiful, the best in the industry. Once you get accustomed to it, the menus are very easy to navigate, and driving with this unit is a pleasure. The brand icons are great, an again, this screen is incredible. Unfortunately, where this unit falls short is in the navigation, which is main function of a GPS. Around town, the GPS did fine, getting me to my destination with ease. However, on a recent trip to Baltimore, where the roads and streets are a little more complex, it was a nightmare!. The unit had me leave the highway in 5:00 traffic, to take a back road into downtown DC, where I then got stuck in traffic for 1 1/2 hours. Once I followed the GPS through the DC tunnel, it routed me back to the same highway I was already on. I thought okay, a minor mistake, maybe I could let that go. Until I was traveling in the HOV lanes through Virginia (which the GPS did recognize I was in the HOV lane), and the Sony Nav-U73T kept wanting me to exit the HOV lanes to take some smaller back roads. To make matters worse, when I exited the highway to get gas, it recalculated my route through some smaller roads, adding 47 minutes to my trip.
To add insult to injury, the GPS appears to calculate the "closest" POI based on map (aerial) distance, not physical drive time. So for example, it may find a Target store that is 4 miles away, but when you select that store, suddenly the trip time is 32 min. That's because the store is physically 4 miles away, but it is across the river, which you have to travel around to a bridge to get to.

To sum up, this GPS would be fine if you live in a town where there is only one road to a destination. But if you live or travel to any major city, please trust me, you are going to have problems with this GPS, and therefore I would STRONGLY recommend trying a different unit.

I found this GPS at Sam's Club for the unbelievable price of $119, it originally retailed for $300. I soon realized why they were being `liquidated'!

As soon as I got it home, I went online and updated it with the most current system software-v3.12. I did this because I had read online that the OS that the device ships with is `quirky' but that the newest release solved most of the problems. I really wanted this guy to show me its best face.

After updating, I played with it at home to get used to the interface before hitting the road to try it out. The interface was not nearly as intuitive as a Garmin's, but in general it was OK. At this point I am still very happy with the 'great bargain'.

Once I was comfortable with the interface, it was time to hit the road. Before I pulled out of my driveway, I punched in a residential address that was about 5 minutes drive from my home. The true path to this address was quite literally one left turn onto the first road out of my cul-de-sac and continue straight on that same road about 1 mile, the house is then on the right side of that same road.

How did it do? On a scale of 1 through 10, it didn't even deserve a 1. The only part that it got right was the left turn out of my cul-de-sac! After that, it wanted me to leave the road that the house was on to a side road and then trek back to the correct road only to go across it to another side road! When it brought me back to the road that I should have been on the entire time, the destination was approximately an 1/8th mile from where it told me it was! I kid you not; it was like the thing was pranking me!

Just an FYI... The road that I should have been on the entire time has been there over a hundred years. I could see the correct path on the map that it displayed, the screwed up logic just didn't want to use it!

Cosmetically this unit is beautiful, the display quality is brilliant, the functionality of the unit is horrific! I am a self proclaimed bargain hunter and so wanted this to be one of my great buys, it just wasn't. I will be returning it and doing what I should have done to begin with, buy a proven GPS brand like Garmin.

Hope this helps!
Randy

I have had similar experiences of this model with everyone else here who has posted review.

This unit is a pleasure to look at, a very big screen and the graphics makes other brands look like cheap toys. The extra functionalities such as split screen and branded POI are nice touches. The maps and POI seem mostly accurate but was missing a local new highway interchange finished nearly 2 years ago.

However, the price seems a little high given its feature set.
More importantly, its performance left quite a bit to be desired since everything is just so SLOOOOOW compared to other navigation devices I have tried. From booting up to acquiring satellite signal to searching for POI, everything seems to take forever. I was trying to show this off to my friends in my car, only to have it keep us sitting in the parking lot for a good 5 minutes waiting for it to acquire a signal and find a local Starbucks. The re-route (e.g. after you miss a turn) feature seems a little faster, but is still uncomfortably slow as you are speeding down the road.

Bottom line, if these two drawbacks do not bother you and you are more interested in how a GPS looks, this is the right unit for you. To me, it's too much fluff and not enough substance.

2 stars. The nice screen and graphics keep me from giving it only 1 star.

Bought the unit on Feb 13. It had firmware v2.0 in it. As we all know the unit is practically unusable with that version. The website doesn't allow you to download update to their latest version (3.02) from versions 2.0 or lower. You have to have the version 3.00 to be able to do so. If you don't have a version 3.00 or higher, you have to order a free update disc, according to their website.

I ordered this update through their website on the same day I bought the unit. A few days later I called Sony to check if my order went through (had a gut feeling). I found out it didn't. Oh well, I placed another request over the phone right away. The Sony rep told me the CD would be sent the next day.

10 days later I called Sony again and asked if the CD was sent. They told me it was on back order (hello, CD on backorder?... is it manually assembly item or something?), and that it either was sent already or will be sent within the next few days. Hmmm... ok...

Fast forward a week. I call them again. This time I get notified that my case is "pending"... Further investigation reveals that the update CD can't be sent to the customer and that the customer needs to send the GPS unit for update to Sony. I then asked, what the heck were all of you smoking the whole month, why nobody told me this? Why so many people got their updates on CD in the mail, and I suddenly can't? I got no answer, other than meaningless "it's our policy".

So, the unit is going back to the store. If I knew it would go this way, I'd never bought it in the first place. At this time I don't think I'll ever buy any Sony product that requires any kind of software update. It's just ridiculous.

Bottom line: don't buy this thing, save your nerves. There are dozens of better products for the money.

I really like this navigator.

PROS:

1. Brilliant display in any light condition

2. GPS routing is generally very good and reliable

3. Basic user interface is pretty good

4. Elegant styling of the main unit and cradle.

SO-SO

1. Battery life is mediocre and mostly requires it to be connected to the power supply if you're going to use it for more than 45 minutes or so

2. Not enough controls on the view (for instance, the view always shows the direction of the compass, so if you're travelling South it will show you are going down. There is no way to change it to show you direction of travel as straight (I could do this with every other navi system I've owned). However, this is not a big deal since it does change to the driver view when you are approaching a turn.

CONS

1. You can to get used to the touch screen menu and controls. Once you figure it out it's good, but there is a little learning curve to know where things are. For instance I could not find the QUIT NAVIGATION for a long time! There is a section called Options, then More another section for settings and another that looks like settings but is not...

Overall, now that I have used to the UI this really is a solid GPS system. The Bluetooth is very good and can be used as a handsfree. It also has a memory stick slot and headphone jack and can be used as an mp3 player if you want. You can even output the audio from the navi unit to your car audio system using the headphone jack if you want...and most importantly, the dislay is simply great. It looks perfect from any angle and does a great job of showing the streets, turns and traffic flow.