The best Value for your money
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| Review Date: October 23, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Armando-Malwani, MN, USA |
| I was a previous owner of a Garmin 750. I must confess the features that I really admired in the 750 were its ease of use and its multimedia capability. However, the lack of bluetooth capability (useful in states where answering your cell phone while driving is illegal) and the lack of free traffic updates (which required an optional reciever and subscription) were a turnoff and did cause some inconvenience. Then I discovered the sheer joy of the Navigon 7200T. It's the best GPS you've never heard of. The free lifetime traffic updates, optional freshmaps service-which provides 12 map updates over 3 years for less than what Garmin would charge for one update, the Zagat ratings, logically arranged POIs were just what I was looking for. The cons were the lack of Mp3 playing capability and the lack of an FM transmitter. However, I do carry my ipod around quite a bit and i already have an FM transmitter for my ipod. So, I could easily forgive Navigon for this minor infraction. I highly recommend this product over any similarly priced item from any competitor. |
Great GPS!
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| Review Date: November 23, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Lindsay Martin, |
I love this GPS. I originally started out with a Garmin nuvi (not sure of the exact model. 760 maybe?) The Garmin was nice, I really liked it, but in order to hear it you had to turn it up to max volume which was always scratchy/static-y. So I did some research and found this GPS.
I was a little unsure at first, since it's not a common brand and some of the reviews were a little skeptical to me. I purchased it however, and I am so glad I did!
The demo mode is great, which is a mode that works when there are not enough satellites to completely calculate your route. (like if you're in your house) This mode starts you at a location close to your final destination and highlights the route, so it shows you part of how to get there. Very nice to me since I like planning.
The lane assist is also VERY helpful. It highlights all the possible lanes that you could be in so you are never doubting if you need to switch lanes, etc. I feel this would be a very nice improvement for Garmin.
The 3d views are also very nice and realistic. I especially like how this GPS highlights fast food restaurants, rest stops, car dealerships, etc. VERY helpful when driving and you need to make a quick stop.
The only con I've found with this GPS thus far is the fact that you can't search for something by its title. For example, you can't search for McDonald's. You'd have to search for a city and then find McDonald's from there. So if the city doesn't have a McDonald's but a city 5 minutes away has one, you may not find it.
However, I've found that you usually know what city you're in, so searching for restaurants, etc. is easy by searching nearby instead of a specific city. But still just being able to type in a certain restaurant would be nice and my Garmin was able to do that.
Overall, I love this GPS. I don't regret buying it at all. Major improvement over my Garmin. The Zagat rating feature is very handy, as is the traffic alerts. It also says "caution" when you drive 10mph over the speed limit (if you turn this feature on. my dad found this to be annoying, but i find it handy). I feel that Garmin has a lot to learn from this GPS! Great buy, especially for the price! |
Amazing GPS! Beware of misinformed nitpickers...
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| Review Date: June 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Irwin M. Fletcher, Valkenvania |
First off, anybody considering buying this GPS, PLEASE do not listen to the many misinformed reviews here. You also don't have to listen to mine, but I will state the facts and not misinformed opinions. For the price and bang for the buck, I just can't see this GPS being beat. Just hear me out.
To start, YES, Navigon has exited the North American market. But they have blatantly said that they will still support owners of their current products and honor anybody who has or acquires FreshMaps (Navigon's map update service). Please don't let people tell you otherwise. The Q2 2009 maps were just released a few weeks ago.
With some digging, you can still find FreshMaps cards available to buy. And they WILL still activate on Navigon's website and they will honor it, whether it be a 2-year or 3-year card. I just purchased one the other day from TigerDirect for $39.99. They can be found with some deep digging.
Also, within 2 or 3 years, would you REALLY need the most updated maps? Do streets in your town change that often? Within 2 or 3 years you will probably want to upgrade your GPS anyways. And if not, I'm sure the most current maps will get you where you want to go 99.9% of the time for a couple more years to come. For reference, before I got this device I was using 3 year old maps on my Garmin StreetPilot C320. I never had any major problems getting to where I needed to go. I believe map updates, for the most part, are overrated unless you are constantly going places with new roads. If that's the case, then you and only you will know how many updates you need per year or years.
Moving on to the GPS itself, for around $200 new and $179 refurbished, this GPS cannot be beat! The feature set is incredible at this price and it all works as advertised regardless of what some people have said here. I've tried it all.
Routing is great. Satellite lock is great. Voice entry WORKS! You just need to train it in the environment and have the GPS in the location that it will be in daily. Once you do that, it works like a charm. Bluetooth WORKS! Let's face it, not EVERY bluetooth phone will be supported. That's just reality. Not even TomTom or Garmin can make that claim, so don't knock Navigon for it. All I can say is that I paired my Verizon HTC Touch (XV6900) with it flawlessly, it imported my contacts flawlessly (with names and numbers) and I have been making many calls with it flawlessly. No complaints.
Traffic works exactly as advertised. It has given me very accurate updates, and it offers to reroute you if you would like. Flawless. And please DO NOT listen to people who say since Navigon isn't in the USA anymore that the free traffic for life will die. IT WILL NOT! The traffic updates have nothing to do with Navigon providing it. It comes through TMC (Traffic Message Channel) which pulls traffic updates from your local FM radio stations. Unless all of your local FM radio stations go out of business at the same time, you will still receive the free lifetime traffic updates. Don't let misinformed people fool you.
This thing comes with a great mount and I have had no problems with it. It stays secure, and it's very easy to pop off the device if you want to take it with you or secure it somewhere else.
Reality View Pro and Lane Assist Pro are vital features and work as advertised. Reality View Pro has helped me so much already since owning this device. It gives you a beautiful and accurate graphic on the screen showing you of highway interchanges and which side of the highway you should be on to stay on your course. The Lane Assist Pro pops up a little lane graphic with arrows in the lane you should be in so you can be in good shape for your next turn. Both are vital features to me and just are the icing on the cake of this feature loaded device.
To put a cherry on top of all of this is the Landmark 3-D View and the Zagat ratings on restaurants and attractions in your POI database. Landmark 3-D View is a very cool, albeit cosmetic feature of this device. It will show "major" landmarks in 3-D. And the Zagat ratings of thousands of POI's is also a nice feature. That usually sells separately for other models. It will give you reviews and ratings for thousands of restaurants, attractions, etc from Zagat's database.
In conclusion, maybe this device was released buggy, etc. But I haven't seen a GPS from any other company that hasn't. With a software update and much use so far, this unit has been fantastic and every feature works as advertised for me. Beware of nitpickers and misinformed people. I am glad I wasn't swayed by negative reviews and that I gave this device a shot. Well worth the money and for this feature set, you will not find anything close. Thanks for reading and enjoy the 7200T if you have or get one! |
Best GPS for your money out there, provided you have common sense!
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| Review Date: March 22, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. Bhasin, |
If you have more horse sense than a horse, you will love this GPS; if you are unable to use modern consumer devices without a 1-800 number, please stick to paper maps.
This GPS has all the features one could want from a GPS, and no I dont want a mp3 player, with video and back up camera in my GPS!
This unit is the real uber GPS, highly responsive, very very accurate, with 8.2 million POI's after the latest FreshMap update ($30 for 3 years of updates), full of features, looks beautiful and best of all Navigon plans on adding more features to it along the way...basically you are buying a GPS that Navigon will maintain as its top of the line unit by way of updates!
LOVE this GPS....way better than any TomTom, Garmin, Magellan or for that matter any other Navigon as well! |
1st time user
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| Review Date: May 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Big Bill, Tulsa,ok |
| This is my first GPS. It is easy to operate and works as well as I expected. The only proplem the first unit (amazon replaced) was not able to keep connnected to blue tooth. The replacement unit is working fine. The features found in this model are more expensive on other brands. For the money is seems to be a great unit. I would recommend it. |
This thing works!
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| Review Date: May 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Joseph Bodmer, Falls Church, VA United States |
| Used my Navigon 7200T from Washington, DC to Hyatt Regency Princeton, NJ. She works every bit as advertised. I'd like some more configuration options, like the ability to have the reality view stay up long before and after exits appear, and I'd like to have her tell me she's "Recalculating", not just ignore me when I've obviously taken a slightly different route (just because I know one) and her just keep trying to politely direct me back onto the route she was previously calculated to take. Oh, and the voice-command works very well. All in all, this is one powerful tool. Almost forgot, the traffic alerts: they could come up with a better audible alert to tell me when there's traffic issues up ahead - and maybe pop-up an easier, bigger button to go take a look (to read about it) or even to read the message back to me? What's nice is they make updates to the software, and its functionality and you can sync those updates through a software package they offer online for free that does all the work. So, I'm definitely going up on the website and filling in the suggestion box. Very cool overall impression for a British-built device. And for the Amazon price of $199.00 versus the retail $550.00, or for that matter, the cheapest $399.00 "discounted" price I found online, this unit should be more than spectacular for everyone but those with the biggest fingers or the most limited command of the English language - and not even the Queen's English, just good ol' Country-boy English. |
NAV-7200T
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| Review Date: May 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Flaskia Fennell, Killeen, TX |
| I've had the 7200t for about two months and overall, I'm very pleased with this unit. I live in Killeen, Tx and have tested it around Austin and Dallas, as well as trips to Memphis, TN and Magnolia Ms. Display - very good. The street names are white against a black background, which is very easy to read. The other screen options are also clear and easy to see. When passing things such as chain restaurants, gas stations, banks, etc. the display will show the company's icon instead of the generic. Great buy, and well worth the money. |
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