GPS Review: Dual XNAV3500P Portable GPS Navigation System
Well, it'srefreshing to see that people can be honest in their reviews; here's some information on a GPS that you should stay away from. Here we have some words from a straight forward review that ranks the Dual XNAV3500P as Poor: "What really differentiates navigation systems is the quality of the user interface and routing algorithms. Unfortunately, the XNAV3500P from Dual Electronics misses the mark on both."
At a street price of $999, this thing isn't cheap, and for that money you could get one of the biggies with better features and proven track records.
"To begin with, when initially powering up the XNAV3500P, you'll find no maps loaded into memory. That means if you select Show Map from the Navigation submenu, you'll get a blank screen. Before you can view a map, you must first select and load a map file from the map selection menu and choose from among the maps stored on the SD card. The map choices are unhelpfully named \Storage Card\Major1, \Storage Card\Major2, and so on, up to \Storage Card\Major6. You have to consult the quick-start guide to see which of the six files contains the grouping of states with your current location. Similar products from Garmin, Lowrance, Magellan, Navman, and TomTom all come with at least a preloaded base map.
Once you overcome this initial hurdle, you can choose between a 2D or a 3D display from within the Show Map mode. You can also set the map's orientation by choosing whether your course is displayed "up" on the screen or if north will always be "up." A hand icon allows you to navigate around the map by dragging it, and a "center" icon redraws the map centered on your current location."
One innovative feature is that the unit has turn signals on it.... yes, turn signals. Mounted on the ide of the unit are turn signals. These signals light up blue when approaching a turn, and when about 600 feet away, they blink red. Innovative, odd and not the reason to buy this thing.
We're not going to go through it all. It's got a bunch of features....... and sounds pretty disappointing on many fronts. Maybe the article is wrong, but the issues sound insurmountable.
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Posted by Scott Martin at September 17, 2005 12:02 AM
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