Navigon N100 LOOX Portable GPS Navigator

Other products by Navigon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 2 x 1 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000OLO9B6
• Item model number: 10000100
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,385 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

If keeping your gadgets small and pocketable is important, and you need a capable GPS device that also boasts some slick media functions, then the Navigon N100 from Fujitsu-Siemens deserves a look.

The Navigon GPS Navigator is compact and strikingly elegant in design. View larger. View Navigon software demo - View device in 3D.

Robust 3D maps make it easy to see where you are going at a glance.

The user interface is easy to navigate.

Load up your music and jam out. The device supports MP3, WMA, and AAC music files.

Have some fun with the included games.

Design
One of the N100's most impressive features is its size. Measuring just 3.5 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches (L x W x H), it fits easily in the palm -- quite impressive when you consider how much is loaded into its diminutive package. The bright, 2.8-inch touchscreen offered great clarity indoors, but was quickly washed out in bright sunlight. A small slot on top accepts MicroSD media, and the included 2 GB card contains complete mapping and points of interest data for the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, and Puerto Rico.

A mini-USB port on the side of the N100 does double duty for charging and data connectivity, making it simple to upload music, photos, and videos to the device from your PC. Other highlights include a removable battery that lets you carry a spare when you're away from an outlet for extended periods, and a small (perhaps a bit too small) stylus that's tucked away in the rear panel.

Navigation
Powered by the latest SiRFstar III chipset, which is designed to improve communication with GPS satellites for smoother, more accurate navigation, as well as a 300 MHz processor, the N100 has all the right muscle--at least on paper--to provide a great handheld GPS navigation experience. The rubber really hits the pavement, though, when you evaluate how well the hardware interacts with the software on a GPS device.

Fujitsu-Siemens has chosen to go with Navigon's MobileNavigator 6, which has a slick, relatively easy-to-use interface, clear mapping details in 2D or 3D, and voice guidance. Our gripe with the software, though, was its rather sluggish performance on this device. Menus opened slowly, screens were slow to refresh, and some actions froze the device entirely, forcing a rather lengthy reboot process.

With a destination entered into the N100, the Navigon software does a passable job of getting you there, although it can struggle to quickly attain your direction of travel when you're first getting started, which can lead to bad directions and missed turns. Voice aids are handy, as is the N100's "lane advice" feature, which suggests which lane of a highway you should enter to be in the best position for the next maneuver. The N100's points of interest system is robust, offering easily recognizable company logos for common destinations -- now you can have the Golden Arches on your GPS screen, too!

Multimedia
The N100's small size makes it a perfect multimedia companion. Fill up a MicroSD card with all the music, video, and photos it will hold and you've got a great little entertainment center in your pocket. The applications that power the N100's media functions are a bit simplistic and unrefined, but they do the job. One big plus is the N100's support for a wide range of music formats, including MP3, WMA, and AAC. Video support is less robust; only WMV-format videos are supported. A world clock and calculator are included, along with two games, Bricks and Smart Pixie. The latter is a Pac Man reproduction that is sure to please.

At the end of the day, the N100 is a well-designed device that suffers from sluggish performance and a lack of polish when it comes to integrating hardware and software. However, if size is your chief concern when looking for a fully-featured GPS device, this one might be just for you.

Pros

• Small and pocketable
• Robust points of interest database
• Good multimedia features

Cons

• Sluggish and unresponsive at times
• User interface could use some refinements

What's in the Box
Navigon N100 Pocket LOOX handheld navigator, AC power adapter, 12-volt vehicle power adapter, USB cable, headphones, windshield and dashboard mount, changeable cover, 2 GB mini SD card, user's manual and quick-start guide.

Product Description

Other GPS units say they're pocket-sized. Meet the first serious navigation device that makes good on that claim. The brainstorm of Fujitsu-Siemens and navigation software pioneer NAVIGON, the top-rated Pocket LOOX® N100 delivers powerful navigation in a sharp, ultra-compact package that weighs 3.8 ounces and measures a diminutive 2.4 x 3.5 inches. Best yet, it offers souped-up features that heftier units can't touch: an intuitively easy-to-use interface, stunning maps with 3D graphics, lane guidance, automatic speed warnings and more. Intelligent integration of MP3, video player and photo viewer capabilities make Pocket LOOX an outstanding value.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just ok, November 16, 2007

By	Peter J. Sommerfeld "Peter" (Kitchener, ON) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Well I've had the product about a week. My feelings are mixed. Let me start off by saying I'm a 32-yo computer engineer so I may look at things differently than others. I will say things in the order of worst/most annoying first, and best last.

Dislikes:

The on-screen keyboard is ridiculously tiny. I have it mounted on my windsheild with the supplied mount so it's just arms-length away. The stylus is buried behind the unit and the mounting makes it hard to access so I don't bother getting it out to enter data on it so I use my finger. I probably hit the right letter/number on 60% of the time. Annoying, and forget about changing things while driving unless you like being in car pile-ups.

Entering things is slow for the reason above, but also due to poor user interface design. I can't change the a letter in a street name (that I know of) after it's entered. I have to re-enter the word. Sucks if all you got wrong was "Rd" instead of "Ave" or "St" at the end. There's other annoying things like this throughout the GUI. ie. Switching between MP3 player and map display should be 1 screen press, and pausing and/or going to the next song should be available from map screen with at most 2 screen presses. If they want to tout the MP3 abilities (which I specifically bought it for) they should have made the map/mp3 feature much more integrated.

There's only ~ 300 MB of space left on a 2GB SD card for music if you have the US+Canada map loaded onto it. I'm not sure if it supports a 4GB card because they are typically SDHC and I'm not sure that it supports that. 300 MB is about 50 songs. These days, I'm spoiled with having at least 10x that many on other devices.

Max volume is fairly quiet. The other problem I have (and this may be unique to me) is that I connect the audio out to an FM transmitter so I can tune to a radio station and listen to the Navigon playing MP3's. Now this could be a poor design of the FM transmitter, I'm not sure yet.

Likes:

It's so small. Fits in any pocket.

Long battery life.

I like the mapping GUI. It has a little checkered graph in the corner indicating visually how far you are from a turn, which is visible to me without squinting.

The GPS is accurate, and fast. The display will tell you how fast your car is going and it's a perfect match with the digital speed readout on my car.

Once it's been booted once, it's fast enough to get into map mode (although entering stuff like I said is a pain).

You can do a street-first search, before entering the city which is nice. That's said it should keep a list of recently-entered cities so that it doesn't have to search the whole state/province for you city.

The voice output ("turn left in 600 meters", etc) does not interrupt the MP3 audio and just talks over it. Some people say this is stupid but my freind's unit does interrupt and it's really annoying if you like the song. It should really a configurable option.

It really packs alotta features in for the $$, I think more features per $ than anything on the market right now. Of course cheaper things will come out because that's the nature of electronics.

So in summary it's good but a software upgrade would really go a looong way in useability. I would love to know if the SW can be upgraded because that would be a great feature and essentially you could have what seemed like a whole new unit.

-- Pete

76 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full-powered GPS Navigation with the benefit of portability, May 12, 2007

By	NM156 (Chicago, Il.) - See all my reviews

No longer do I have to print maps, stuff them in my pocket, read them while I'm driving, and encounter the inaccuracy that so often comes from online direction maps. I simply type my address into my Pocket Loox, stick it on the dash and start driving. After over 50 trips to unknown destinations, the device has consistently guided me accurately. With the device's built in point of interest database I have found countless instances where I have been relieved from having to know my destination's address. Just type in the point of interest (restaurant, ATM, Hotel, train station, shopping center, tourist locations, schools, businesses, hospitals, movie theatres, government offices, etc.) and hit the "start navigation" button and you're on your way. A couple of times I have had arrived at my destination early and decided to hit a starbucks or an ATM that does not charge fees. I simply enter the interim destination and the device takes me there and back. Given that this destination database is in-part powered by Zagat, I have been able to find not only mundane destinations like an ATM, but to find entertainment destinations like jazz clubs, high quality restaurants, and tourist destinations.

The coolest thing about the loox over other devices I investigated is its portability. It's so small that I can stick it in my pocket and use it as I wander around my destination. This came in handy at an outdoor mall when I was looking for a specific store. By using its points of interest I was able to be directed to the nearest store for the items I was looking for. On a recent hiking trip, the device was very accurate in communicating our position as it related to the surrounding area and our base camp destination.

As with any GPS device, it is mandatory that you are not obstructed by things like roofs (the device cannot be initiated indoors). I live in an urban environment and I have never had a problem being inhibited by buildings or the like, but you need to be outside when you initiate a new trip.

I can't express enough how cool it is to stick this device in your pocket and go. In my car the maps are brilliant enough to easily read, but you really don't need to look at the screen because the voice commands tell you exactly where to turn and when - it even alerts you to the lane you should be in for upcoming turns and warns you when you may be violating speed limits. When I have been traveling for business, the device's knowledge of my location and its accuracy has guided me to countless meetings without any worries.

I did have one difficulty with the device where it stalled and I had to actually pull over and stop and restart the device (because I had become so reliant on its accuracy, I was dependant on it to take me to my destination). I had fortunately save my destination as a favorite and so I didn't have to re-enter the information, just select the favorite destination and hit "start navigation" and we were off. Other than that one time, it hasn't let me down. Cool Gadget!

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My husband gave this one to me for househunting, May 26, 2007

By	Mom of 2 boys (NE) - See all my reviews

We are house hunting right now and my husband gave me this device so I can find my way around. I can say it really helped a lot, especially for house hunting trips with multiple destinations; you can preload all the addresses in route planning, store them, go back to them, sort them and look for Points of Interests in the area, i.e. where are the schools, the parks, the post office, etc. You feel like a local as they say on the packaging. Driving from the airport to the properties, I noticed this feature on the interstate that really helps you guide in which lane to be for the next exit; with all the traffic it is sometimes really difficult to switch lanes on time but this shows you how many lanes the interstate has and highlights with orange arrows which lane you should be in. I also liked the speed sign that gives you an audio and visual alert when you drive too fast. I found it easy to input addresses, Points of intersts or several destinations on a route. If you make a mistake you easily can go back and fix it without starting from scratch. After 2 or so letters it also pulls up a list so you actually don't have to type a lot. The device is small enough to fit into my purse and looks nice, too. To sum it up. Usefull device that gets you places. I recommend this one. Since this review I upgraded my device now to the Navigon 5100.