Cheap Navman e-Series GPS Navigation System for Laptop Computers (Electronics) Price

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Customer Reviews of Navman e-Series GPS Navigation System for Laptop Computers

Works well enough to keep.
I'm a GPS beginner, and the average PC-user. Bought this product straight from the company about 2 wks after it came out. Driver installation on the laptop was problem-free, and the NavMan picked up a fix (MS Streets&Trips 03, XP) once we were settled in the car, ready for a week-long road trip. Our destination was a 4-5 hr drive, and during this time the device driver seemed to stop functioning at least once per hour. This meant that the TripNav cable had to be unplugged from the USB port, then plugged in again (but no re-boots). Pain in the butt. Also, occasionally we were driving along the bottom of the Atlantic, or in some land location >100 ft below sea level, according to TripNav. Who knew the Mid-Atlantic states were such lowlands, or that a lil' hatchback had such amphibious capabilities? In any case, despite these wrinkles, TripNav was very helpful in preventing us from getting lost in unlit backwoods of NC at 2 AM, and we made it to the Outer Banks and saved about 100 miles in time, gas, and money, than if we had taken the long way 'round.

During a week of driving all over the NC coastline, with the GPS and laptop always guiding, we always reached every destination without wasting time being lost. However, we always had the same problems mentioned above. After returning home, there was a new XP driver available on the company website, which I promptly downloaded, installed and took for a test drive at least 5 times. Crashed my laptop every time. So THAT driver was uninstalled and the old one returned.

Instead of 1 star, I'm giving the TripNav 2 stars because:
1. There's still the possibility of firmware upgrades which will
make this thing work properly. It is, after all, a
relatively new product and driver bugs, while pains, are not
surprising.
2. The main reason I bought this was to prevent my getting lost,
and it accomplished that. (It's very sad, but I get lost in
my own neighborhood, and I grew up here).

3. It wasn't bad enough for me to return. For $100, this GPS
is better than no GPS, especially for those long hauls.
Until I can afford a great one, this'll do.

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Beat the high cost of specialized navigational systems
I bought the eSeries device, even after reading several negative reviews because Navman offered a 30-day money back guarantee, and I just had to see if it worked. My only alternatives would have been to buy some hand-held GPS unit along with a serial to USB converter, because my brand new (8/2003) laptop does not have a serial port. By the time I would have paid for a handheld unit, a serial converter, and a car-lighter power supply for the GPS unit, I would have paid 4 or 5 times what the total e Series solution cost me. After reading negative reviews about some of the top-brand hand-held units, I decided the risk was worth it - none of them work perfectly. I must confess... I bought Microsoft Trips & Maps off a bargain table at a well-known warehouse store for under $20, and found an offer for the e Series inside, that I could only use by buying direct from Navman.

I just returned from a trip to the Oregon Coast, and I am very happy with the product. All of the problems people reported are there. It can take up to 5 minutes to get a fix; the unit is not WAAS enabled so about 4 times it showed us crashing through a forest instead of on the highway. I have no idea if the e Series was in error, or the maps are wrong... it doesn't matter. I knew where we were. Some of the real-life details were not on the maps, and some things on the map were not found. The search for things like ATM's and restaurants was not perfect. Once, it lost connection with the satellites, but recovered in about 10 seconds. The position of the car shown on the map was always about 4 to 6 seconds "late". The maps don't rotate so when you're going South, it looks like the icon is going "backwards" on the display.

I don't care about any of those things. When we were driving in total darkness, on a small, curvy mountain highway, in a strange place, we knew we were on the right road, headed the right direction, how far we were from our destination. It was like having a night-vision screen on my lap. We found Mo's and had a much-needed late night cup of chowder. We were never lost. On the whole trip, we really needed it only 3 or 4 times, but what a joy to have such a powerful tool.

The Microsoft Streets & Trips software doesn't seem to have the problems I've read that Rand McNally has. The auto icon is always on screen, and centered when it reaches the edge. You can zoom in and out as much as you want, and the icon is on the display.

I'd have to do a similar trip wih an expensive, in-car system to know if they had any of the same problems or not. I know there are some advantages to them - always on, no wires strung about, no PC on your lap, etc. Do they always rotate the maps so that the car icon is always going "forward" or "up"? Do they have the same 4 to 6 second delay? Do they ever show you off the actual highway?

I also know the PC version has some advantages - huge display, massive zoom in and out capability, tools like "distance between points", trip routing and other things that must be really tough to do on the dashboard.

I'm happy with the product, and will not be sending it back.

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Pretty Maps; So-so Navigation, DISMAL Routing
THE PRETTY GOOD:

Rand McNally makes pretty maps, though
- You need to download an updated version to run on XP
- Level 1 display (whole continental US) only aligns its layers in 800x600 screen mode (but zoomed-in levels 2+ adapt to any screen size).

You can alter the map display to myriad available schemes, or make your own. Special display mode for night viewing, automatically engaged after dusk, for example. Very pretty.

THE USEFUL BUT TROUBLESOME:

At its heart, the issue is the integration of the NavMan GPS with Rand McNally's StreetFinder!
NavMan hooks up trivially easily, and starts looking for satellites (once you have the Windows-XP update downloaded from Rand McNally's site; otherwise the software hangs). Unfortunately, the antenna had a wretched time finding the satellite signals. I could get my position at home on my desk, or out in a field with the antenna laying in open grass, but it couldn't find satellites in my car, on the dash, mounted inside the windshield, or even on top of the car. I could get a fix holding it out the driver's window, but this isn't a recommended practice!
After two weeks of frustration, I discovered the secret - embedded in my windshield is a slight shading film that is also my car radio antenna, which blocks other signals from penetrating. However, there's a 3 x 12" clear rectangle in each upper corner of the windshield, through which the GPS antenna does receive! You'll have to find *your* spot.

Other troubles include
- The map and the GPS track don't stay aligned when you go through several zoom and scroll clicks
- The GPS can navigate to a point or a route (e.g. distance to the next turn), but it looses the route from time to time, and sometimes can't resume tracking it from mid-route.
- You have no control over the routing, like in other software, to avoid toll roads, take or avoid highways, or do multiple waypoint routing.
- The maps seem to be vintage 1999-2000 or so (3-4 years old now), and missing new streets and addresses. There is no apparent way to download updates to the map database.
- Its address "geocoder", which turns an address into a point on the globe (Lat/Long), is quite picky with your way of writing the address, and may not be able to "find" it. Some times, editing the address can produce a match;
- It has a built-in address book to use in your drives, but no apparent way to import or export an existing address book (e.g. Outlook) into the software, or keep changes coordinated with your existing address book, except through lots of typing, cutting, & pasting.
- Every single time you turn on the GPS you have to Agree to follow the rules of the road while using it, which is (a) annoying (b) just legal protection for Rand McNally and (c) seems to push against its only significant use, which is to track what you're doing while driving. (The laptop isn't usually useful to track your progress while, for example, hiking.
- The TTFF (time to first fix, receiving enough GPS satellites) of "48 secs." is an average -- a first fix may take 2-6 minutes, and a reconnection may take seconds.

THE WRETCHED AND DISMAL:

RM's Directions work,
BUT YOU NEED AN INTERNET CONNECTION TO COMPUTE THEM!
(i.e., the software loaded off 4 CDs only includes data to display; the route computations are on networked servers. On the road, you need to compute all your routes at home or in the hotel, and God help you if you are in a strange place in the car and need to find the route out. You're on your own. This seems made for those who have a roaming (wireless) Internet connection, live in the car.)

All in all, some nice concepts here, and they'll really be terrific when they're debugged, and StreetFinder & NavMan are working flawlessly together!