Lately for most of my travels I've been using the Garmin nüvi 310, mainly because I was able to get hold of this with full European mapping at not too bad a price. This has generally performed very well, although it has delivered a few 'prat nav' moments, sending me on slightly off-beat routes; I think like most sat navs I've used, it is a bit biased towards recommending the shortest, rather than the fastest or most sensible routings, even when set to 'fastest' rather than 'shortest'.
I also had a chance to look at Medion's latest stuff last week - although this has traditionally been a budget supermarket brand for consumer electronics, there seems to be a determined effort to push the latest stuff up-market, so there are lots of piano black high-gloss casings. Hope to get my hands on some of their latest stuff for testing, so hopefully will be able to let you know whether Medion's latest gadgets are as polished in terms of performance as their flashy appearance suggests.
Showing posts with label sat nav. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sat nav. Show all posts
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Friday, 21 September 2007
High speed running in Germany
I've just been fiddling with my sat-nav after using it extensively on my recent trip through Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
I noticed that it has recorded a maximum speed for the trip of 129mph, which I reached (legally and safely) in a brief burst on a completely clear stretch of the A5 between Basel and Frankfurt. The Alfa 159 (2.2 litre four cylinder petrol version) I was driving at the time felt like it had more to give, but I would have required a much longer piece of empty road to max it safely.
But don't go thinking that the Autobahns are a high-speed paradise. Long stretches of the A5 have a 120 km/h limit, have only two lanes in each direction, or are clogged with traffic - that means average journey times probably aren't much better than they would be in the UK.
I noticed that it has recorded a maximum speed for the trip of 129mph, which I reached (legally and safely) in a brief burst on a completely clear stretch of the A5 between Basel and Frankfurt. The Alfa 159 (2.2 litre four cylinder petrol version) I was driving at the time felt like it had more to give, but I would have required a much longer piece of empty road to max it safely.
But don't go thinking that the Autobahns are a high-speed paradise. Long stretches of the A5 have a 120 km/h limit, have only two lanes in each direction, or are clogged with traffic - that means average journey times probably aren't much better than they would be in the UK.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Great spots 8 - 'Porsche Design' sat nav at the IFA trade show in Berlin today
A quick snatched post at Schoenefeld airport on the way back from a brief visit to Berlin to take in the IFA broadcasting and consumer electronics trade fair. Excellent show, but extremely difficult to navigate given the mind-boggling complexity of Berlin's exhibition complex.
Not all of it was automotive stuff but today I came across Porsche Design's sat nav. I think it's from the branch of the family that designs sunglasses rather than sports cars but a highly stylish item nevertheless. No doubt it will command a hefty premium but I doubt it'll do a better job of getting you to where you want to go than the stuff that's already out there from Garmin and the rest.
Not all of it was automotive stuff but today I came across Porsche Design's sat nav. I think it's from the branch of the family that designs sunglasses rather than sports cars but a highly stylish item nevertheless. No doubt it will command a hefty premium but I doubt it'll do a better job of getting you to where you want to go than the stuff that's already out there from Garmin and the rest.
Friday, 20 April 2007
I'd be lost without it
A meeting yesterday with Medion UK, the British arm of the German consumer electronics company that rode to success on the back of its Aldi special offers. Medion's products are always solid, good value for money efforts, and the company's entry in the group test of after-market sat navs I carried out for the Indy last year was no exception.
The latest Medion sat navs incorporate the sorts of improvements that you'd expect in terms of software, displays and so on but have an extra ingredient as well - with their curvy casings, they are much more stylish than the company's previous devices which had a slightly sober, rather workmanlike appearance.
Anyway, the extra features are all very well, but in my experience, the main thing you need to look out for is whether, like Medion's models, a given sat nav will accept a full UK postcode as an input address, which saves time and cuts down on errors (some work to a lower level of detail, usually the first digit of the second part of the postcode). More or less everything else is a question of personal taste and preference, and I don't think I've actually come across a bad portable sat nav in all my testing. Even the cheapest, simplest model will do a pretty good job; they all use the same basic GPS data after all.
The latest Medion sat navs incorporate the sorts of improvements that you'd expect in terms of software, displays and so on but have an extra ingredient as well - with their curvy casings, they are much more stylish than the company's previous devices which had a slightly sober, rather workmanlike appearance.
Anyway, the extra features are all very well, but in my experience, the main thing you need to look out for is whether, like Medion's models, a given sat nav will accept a full UK postcode as an input address, which saves time and cuts down on errors (some work to a lower level of detail, usually the first digit of the second part of the postcode). More or less everything else is a question of personal taste and preference, and I don't think I've actually come across a bad portable sat nav in all my testing. Even the cheapest, simplest model will do a pretty good job; they all use the same basic GPS data after all.
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