I recently received the Nextar MN2707 GPS Navigation System from my birthday. I have been using this product for a few weeks now and have found that some of the existing bugs and operation glitches make some features effectively unusable. Specifically, the lack of a random-play feature for the MP3 player, coupled with the stop-play operation when the navigation voice warns of an approaching turn makes the MP3 player unusable while navigating to a destination - or navigation unusable while listening to MP3s. I have a more complete list of bugs that I believe need to be fixed which I will post when I find my list again...
UPDATE: a recent firmware update mutes the navigation voice while MP3s are playing. Not the best fix but better then before. I haven't done a full test of the features since the upgrade, and there was no upgrade documentation, so I'm not sure if any of the other bugs were fixed.
5 comments:
Hi. So do you recommend this unit for GPS and maps only purpose?
Thanks,
Hi.
How about the GPS and driving direction functionality of the product. Did you find it accurate or completely lacking?
Thanks!
The GPS and driving functionality is great. I am about to post a blote on how I punched in a location and gave the unit to my parents to use to find their special weekend getaway for their anniversary. Follows the roads well and provides verbal queues of upcoming turns "right turn in 500 meters" for example. Works very well for this. BUT trying to find a destination location can be a pain since the search functions don't work very well. The preloaded "Points of Interest" or POIs work great but user defined POIs seem to snap to the nearest intersection, not the actual location flagged, which can be annoying on a long road where you want end up at a specific house.
I like the MP3 player functionality, but the limitations on how songs are played (ie. one at a time or all starting from the beginning) really limit my enjoyment of the unit for MP3. I send an email to the company every couple of weeks hoping to nudge them into a software update - feel free to join me in the fight!
I don't have a lot of experience with other similar GPS units of this size and with these capabilities, so it is difficult to recommend this unit over something else. I like the unit - it just has limitations - but probably I would find the same in other units as well.
I am also composing a more complete list of "bugs" for this unit - should be updated on listed by the end of the weekend if you want to check back.
Found this blog via google ... was trying to decide on buying the MN2707 as it's on sale this week at CT for CAD$400. Ended up picking one up last night. So far so good. One thing I had to figure out was for smaller towns (I'm outside of Ottawa) it goes by the name of the Township and not the Town itself. Other then that I'm still evaluating it. So far I think the screen size is great, startup and sat lock-on is quick. The fact that it runs Linux is pretty cool, hoping there might be some hacks for it in the future (media player would be nice).
Thanks for the blog SIMPIG!
-C
Just picked-up an MN2707 from CT (sale $400) - have foudn very little onfo on this unit on the internet, so decided to leave my findings/opinion:
I like the large screen, value for the money, but I dislike the following: Voice warning to next turn is last-minute (500 meters), unlike many other units which warn far earlier. Similarly related is the very small "distance to next turn" display on the screen. Don't like the street name display (not map like, hard to place name on street). Day/night display is manual, as is volume control. But...
the most significant problems are these: I've found the unit fairly inaccurate (compared with other mfrs - I currently have a Magellan Roadmate 760, also have experience with other units), often being off position by 50-100 meters (note: I doubt it is the GPS tracking that is off, I suspect it is the map database that is not as accurate as it should be, for Canada/Toronto/GTA, at least) - this sometimes makes turns confusing, and relates to the last/bigest problem: When a destination is entered, it will give an error msg saying is cannot calculate a route unless you are on one of the systems known streets. This means that if you are in a shopping mall parking lot, it will not create a route for you, nor save the attempt. You must drive close enough to the road, then punch it all in again. This problem is made worse as when I am at my mothers house (the person this was purchased for), the map is off - short driveway, car within 5m of road, but the unit thinks we are some 75m off the road, and will never calculate a new route while sitting in the driveway, we have to drive on the road a tiny bit, and repunch the destination - saving in the address book helps, but is extremely cumbersome.
Note that I've found the maps on the Magellan extremely more accurate (never had the location/turns being off), and if you are off the map, the unit takes routes fine, calculating from the nearest road, displaying the roads surounding your offroad position, and first instruction being to procedure to start of route (it of course recalculates based on whatever road you first hit).
Quite simply, based on the last two problems, the unit has a certain usefulness, but I would not recommend it. We'll be returning the unit, and looking at the lower cost Garmins, the Tom Tom, and possibly just getting the lower end Magellan Roadmate (same as the 760, but doesn't anounce street names, just turn instructions, and limited map) for about $150 more than the Nextar.
As for opinion, it seems to me many mfrs don't put in that last little effort or care, and that makes such a huge difference in the functionality of their products.
RJ
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