I have had a navman pin for over 6 months. It works pretty well. Some cool features:
- routes well. it occasionally (often) will not go by the very best route, however it will get you there in the end without you having to resort to a street directory.
- reroutes quite quickly if you ignore its directions.
- uses a 3d map view which works very well
- It is also a pda so you can run windows mobile 2003 software on it and of course use it as a pda.
- built in gps receiver (good and bad) good in that there is less fidling around than using a bluetooth unit - bad in that you have less choice in antenna placement unless you use an external antenna. Hasn't been a problem in my pintara. Can someone tell me if gps reception works on the dash of a euro (is the windscreen metalised like some bwm's)?
- Since it is a pda, you can put addresses in your pda contacts database, and used this to navigate to your contacts address in the navman software - cool.
- navman pin comes with a car connection kit
- well priced - less than $900 now
- good battery life
- small - fits in your back pocket. Transferable from car to car.
Not so good features:
- It is not built into the car so it always looks a little messy attached to your windscreen. I think I would prefer a built in setup despite the extra cost.
- You always have to take it with you when you leave the car so it doesn't get stolen - so there is the minor inconvenience of connection and disconnection.
- It annoys my girlfriend when it gives me voice directions because she would rather tell me what to do
I have used a copy of destinator 3 on my navman pin for about a week when I first got the pin and found it to be very frustrating compared to the navman software. It makes much more routing mistakes and I just had to stop using it and went back to navman. It was just that annoying.
Please note that Destinator working poorly for me is most likely related to the quality of the routing info in the maps. I live in Sydney, so for Sydney - avoid destinator 3. It may work great in other areas. The destinator maps are actually more detailed than the navman maps (more small streets and more points of interest, also destinator maps show street numbers where navman does not) however the large amount of routing mistakes in destinator are a huge issue.
I have heard good things about the copilot software that you can get with a mitac mio 168 (navman pin is a rebranded mio 168) but I have not used it. If you get it try and get the latest software. Copilot 5 has been out overseas for at least 6 months but I have only seen version 4.5 in Australia. V5 looks really good. Not too sure about v4.5. It is missing some of the features of navman. Have seen this for AU$859 (copilot 4.5 and 168 together). I have not seen any Australian reviews of this though - only overseas.
Another unit I was considering before I got the pin was the Garmin's StreetPilot 2610. It got excellent reviews. This is a dedicated car navigation unit. It is an on dash unit and is transferable from car to car and has some nifty features. Costs more than a pin though - seen it for $1550.
hope this helps.
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