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101 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sony NV-U94T gps -- good deal, December 31, 2008
I'm a relative newcomer to GPS, but I'm learning quickly. I've tried out several, compared notes with friends and read dozens of reviews. The NV-U94T received uneven reviews - some liked it, and some (like CNET) were luke warm. My first reaction, however, when seeing it on display at Radio Shack was very positive, so I took a closer look.
Sony doesn't have the same reputation for GPS that companies like Garmin and TomTom have. I believe that this factor, combined with the initially high price for this device ($399 list until recently), and slightly flakey routing with the first firmware release, all led to this being a somewhat ignored model this fall.
Although the NV-U94T was just released this fall (August 2008?) as the top of the line for Sony's fall lineup, Sony decided to drop the list price from $399 to $199 just last week. While I was admiring the device when it was selling for $299 at Radio Shack before Christmas, when I went back there a few days ago and saw it at $199 (with a 30 day return option, and 90 day exchange option), I felt that I had to take a chance.
In short - it's been great so far.
The display is spectacular. At 4.8", this is the biggest, brightest, clearest display I've seen for anywhere near this price. The processor seems to be very fast: the user interface is crisp and responsive, route calculation is very fast, as is re-calculation when I drive off the recommended route. The unit boots up and acquires satellite signals in seconds.
The user interface is quite good, easy to navigate, and generally requires very few taps to get me to the desired function. Having dedicated menu buttons on the left of the screen, regardless of the display, means that I can always get to a top level menu with a single tap. The 94T supports a number of finger gestures (that got a laugh out of my teenage son!), such as swiping a large roof shape on screen with a finger to indicate that you want the device to navigate home, drawing a clockwise circle to zoom in or counter-clockwise to zoom out (both to presets that you select and set).
The feature set is pretty huge. Bluetooth can be used several ways: the device has a built in media player that can stream through your bluetooth equipped car audio system, and it can also act as a handsfree bluetooth speakerphone for your cell phone (works great). Text to speech is excellent, and you have a choice of voices and languages. There's a built in 6-way accelerometer and some kind of pressure sensor that help to keep track of your position if you briefly lose contact with the GPS satellites. They call this "position plus".
Sony's "super suction cup" mount works incredibly well. It's a fairly typical suction cup, but with some kind of gel disk on the bottom that's a bit tacky to the touch. It's not a true adhesive, so it leaves no residue. But it allows the mount to faster to a textured dashboard securely in seconds -- and can be removed just as quickly without leaving a trace. I like the ability to quickly mount it on my dash and remove it as well: my current car is leased and I'll be returning it in less than a year -- no way I'd put a permanent mount on the car. Also, being able to mount it on my dash is excellent: it's truly NOT obstructing my view out the windshield, and I've heard stories about the police in NJ ticketing people lately for having a GPS on the windshield blocking the view.
Not sure if this next point is common to all wide-screen GPS's, but the 94T goes into a split-screen mode as you approach intersections, showing you a detailed close up of the intersection on the left side of the screen, and the normal map on the right. The close up shows you all the lanes that are available to you, and which ones to use or avoid. Works quite well so far.
The device doesn't always pick the same route I would, but I imagine that no GPS will read your mind and always choose a route using the same logic that you would. However the routes it picks always seem to be within a mile of the same total trip length that I choose, with total trip time within about a minute or two of the routes I might choose in favor of the ones recommended by the GPS. It's actually got me reevaluating the routes I've used for years -- and it seems to be choosing well so far. Additionally, if you keep ignoring a recommended route in favor of your own, I read that it will start to apply a greater weight in its routing algorithm to your preferred routes, and eventually start using your preferred roads.
The unit I picked up this past week as recent 2008 NAVTEQ maps of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico installed with something over 5 million points of interest included. I've read that recent Garmin's have something like 6 million POI's -- not sure what I'm missing, and so far, it's found all my local restaurants, gas stations, etc.
The 94T also has a traffic receiver built in and a separate antenna you can string along the edge of your windshield. The 94T comes with a prepaid 3 month trial for the traffic service -- I haven't tried this yet, and don't plan to subscribe anyway. Hopefully my only future expense with this will be a map update sometime in the next year or two.
I picked up a nice aftermarket case for the 94T at Radio Shack for $20 -- it's designed for GPS's in the 4.5" to 5" range, and fits this one like a glove. The case looks and feels like a large generic horizontal cell phone case with a magnetic flap closure. I feel much safer carrying the 94T in this than having it bare.
Two things about this that I find a bit annoying:
1) I wish Sony didn't force you to use their "memory stick" media for expanded storage. I'd prefer more industry standard mini- or micro-SD, as they can be found cheaper than Sony's proprietary format. Not a big deal, but I prefer standards.
2) I've read that battery life on this device is only about 2.5 hours, while it appears that high end TomTom and Garmin units have double the battery life. I don't know when I'd use this without having it plugged into the car power cable. But I imagine that if I ever needed it on battery, I'd prefer to have better battery life.
Although the built in lithion-ion battery is not supposed to be user serviceable, Sony provides directions for removing it for recycling in the event that you're trashing the device. It looks exceedingly easy to open the device, and if the battery can be found for purchase (online somewhere I'd guess), it looks like it would be very easy to replace it if needed.
Anyway -- aside from the two minor gripes above, I'm loving the NV-U94T. I'll be trying it out on a few trips this weekend (a few hundred miles), and hope to give it a good workout. So far, I'm very happy with this, and at the new price of $199, I think it's a steal. (I'm inserting a link below, and you can pick it up at Radio Shack for $199, or order it directly from SonyStyle for the same price)
- Jon
Sony NVU94T 4.8-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic and Text-to-Speech
UPDATE 1/19/09: I've lived with this, using it every day (although I generally don't need it) to observe how it works, quirks, etc. As some others have posted, it occasionally comes up with a somewhat bizarre route -- but most of the time, the recommended routes are perfectly valid, and sometimes faster than the "obvious" routes that I normally choose.
I've been using this long enough now to finally experience the "learning" feature that I read about. Every day after work I drive south on the NJ Turnpike from Exit 11 to Exit 8A, and then take various preferred routes over to Princeton Junction. The NV-U94T attempted to steer me OFF the NJ Turnpike at Exit 9 every day, taking me on Route 1 south instead. The route is "valid", but doesn't take into account the fact that Route 1 tends to be a parking lot in rush hour. Knowing how bad Route 1 is, I ignore the NV-U94T's directions and continue south past Exit 9, at which point I hear, "Updating route!" and it figures out the new route from there.
Last week, the GPS stopped insisting on Exit 9, and actually guided me down my preferred route -- and did so consistently for the last several days of the week. As I note at the top of this write-up, I had read that the device actually tracks the times you ignore recommended routes in favor of other roads (I believe it was a Sony engineer saying this -- I'll continue to look for the link and will post it back when I find it) and updates the relative "weight" of your preferred road so that their algorithm will eventually recommend roads increasingly in line with your preferences. I was skeptical at first, but the new behavior seems consistent, and is in line with the item I read about the system re-weighting the route.
Last night I friend stopped by with his family, and happened to bring along *his* latest gadget acquisition -- a shiny new Garmin 4.3" GPS (not sure which model -- I think its a 760). We were taking both families out to dinner, and decided to try both GPS's side-by-side to see how they compared.
They both booted up about as quickly. The Garmin acquired satellites almost immediately, and the Sony took about 10 seconds more -- but then both held the signals for the rest of the night. Although the Sony calculates a new route quickly, the Garmin definitely seems to do this faster: about 3 or 4 seconds on the Sony, and almost instant on the Garmin. I'm guessing the Garmin has a faster processor. Note though: even though the Sony takes a few seconds to update a route, it's still fast enough to do this before I get to the next intersection after missing a recommended turn...
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best GPS For Us!!!, October 28, 2008
Everything that it says it does, it does. Wonderful! We bought a Magellan 4250 before and it was slow, hard to use, and if we wanted to check out POI's we had to cancel our route first. Not user friendly at all. But the new Sony is everything we need and lives up to our expectations of a GPS system.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great GPS, Best Price, February 26, 2009
I went to a local electronics store looking for GPS systems. They had several brands next to each other, and I was able to see that the screen on the SONY looked much brighter and was much more vibrant than any of the others that were on display. There were Garmins, TomToms, Magellans, and a couple brands I've never heard of before.
The SONY was not in stock at this store, and I wanted to get something for a trip I was scheduled for, so I ended up buying a TomTom Go630. The reason I purchased the TomTom was because I read about all the updates, and that is syncs with cell phones, that you can add voices, and update your own maps using mapshare, plus get traffic updates.
I'm very much a "techy" type person and I love to have gadgets with many bells and whistles. I got home, spent a couple hours downloading the "latest" maps and voices and all the other things I could download for free at the TomTom website (they have a program manager to install once your GPS is connected to the computer). Imagine how disappointed I was after spending a few hours to upgrade this GPS to find out that my house address (or street for that matter) doesn't show up on the map! After calculating and finding satellites, it gave my location as being in the middle of some field!!
I had my house built and just moved in last October, but the development has been in existence for 1.5 years now!! I downloaded a map that was over 2 GB in size, and it didn't have my street!!! On top of that, I used it to try to get to work the next morning and it came up with a route that would have added an extra 25 minutes of driving time! Oh, and I forgot to mention that it wouldn't sync with my Verizon Wireless Razor phone because it wasn't the latest model!! So although my phone could see the TomTom, the TomTom refused to synchronize with it!! That was the final straw. This TomTom was NOT cheap ($399) and was worthless!
I took back the TomTom and went to Amazon to see if they had the Sony... and sure enough... they did!! I had it shipped via the next day service. I downloaded the software from the SONY website and it connected to my PC without any problems. (I run Vista Ultimate) But, before I downloaded any of the software updates, I looked to see if it knew my current location... and OUT OF THE BOX it knew my street!! I then went to the SONY website to download the software upgrade, and saw that there was a NOTICE to all people who purchased this model... some of the models contain a VIRUS!!! Luckily it had the serial numbers of all infected GPS systems... which makes me wonder if that's why none of my local electronic stores have this GPS model in stock. My serial number was not affected by this, so I was very much relieved.
Anyway, this unit is FAR superior to the TomTom!! I have read a few reviews that said that the way this unit calculates routes are a bit "flakey" at times... but so far, every place that I have programmed was routed the exact same way I would go. I also was able to Sync this device to my cell phone!! It was quite simple to do... enter the same 4 digit pin number into both devices, they see each other, and the link was made!! Took less than 3 minutes!!
The fact that this model splits screens and shows exactly how far away you are from where you need to turn is a HUGE advantage over all the other units. And quickly changing from navigation view to "scroll" view is awesome too! You can scroll around to see what is around which is pretty sweet. And the Icons for the POI (Point of Interests such as Restaurants, Gas Stations, etc...) are much better than any of the other devices!
I've not yet tried the Traffic portion of this device, but the fact that it comes with an antenna is nice. Many other units that have this feature require an additional purchase. With this Sony, the antenna actually plugs into the mounting device. This may not sound like much, but the fact that both the antenna and the power adapter plug into the mounting bracket and not the device makes it very convenient to remove the GPS and take it with you. Removing the GPS is easy! You simply press a button and the GPS separates itself from the mounting bracket... you can do it with only one hand!
The speaker phone (Bluetooth) works okay. My wife claims that when I'm using it she can hear me fine, but that when she talks it "echos"... which is common with many speakerphones.
So, even though I've only had this SONY for 1.5 days, I LOVE IT!! I went to a seminar today, and not only did it get me there without any problems, I was able to use it to find a nearby Starbucks to get a cup of coffee!
Finally, the last awesome feature that I wanted to talk about is the approximate arrival time. It's been extremely accurate!! This unit tells you not only tells you what the time will be when you arrive, but tia also tells you how long the trip took when you reach your destination!! (It speaks it to you when you arrive)
If you are on the fence, I highly recommend this unit!! It has a TON of awesome features, and is EXTREMELY easy to use! The screen size, appearance, and user interface make this unit a winner!! Considering that this unit cost less than $200 and outperformed a model that was twice as expensive should speak volumes.
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