Garmin StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 GPS Announced - Media Hubs for the Car
Garmin let news slip on the StreetPilot 7200 and StreetPilot 7500 late last week, and this morning announced - another addition in their string of new products in the GPS line. The StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 add many new features to the top end of the Automotive GPS category, building on a new chassis that has a HUGE 7 inch 16:9 ratio screen for viewing navigation, and maybe even your onboard videos! The featureset is huge, and it raises the bar for the category. (See related article on the StreetPilot 2730)
"The 7000-series was designed for larger vehicles - such as RVs, conversion vans, semi-trucks, and buses - because of its seven-inch screen, automotive and entertainment features, and portability," said Gary Kelley, Garmin's vice president, marketing. "When designing this new StreetPilot family, we considered possible events that could impede a driver's progress and then created ways to avoid those delays. By seeing traffic and weather delays in advance, a driver can save time by following a route around the delay."
Where to start? - The Cool Stuff!
FM Modulation
The StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 allow for FM modulation through the 12 V power adapter. The frequency can be selected through a menu on the GPS unit. In my experience, one frequency may be enough for day to day operation, but you may find yourself digging through this menu repeatedly for a long trip; maybe they can get a selection for a few favorites right off the main menu? This drives the ability for lots of other stuff...
Video
The unit comes with this huge 7" touchscreen (480 x 234 pixel WQVGA TFT) in a 16:9 aspect ratio that is the basis for lots of cool stuff. The unit offers video inputs for your viewing enjoyment, through RCA (left, right, video) to 1/8" inputs. Yes, this will allow you to watch DVD. Probably an issue if you are driving down the road, but the folks at Garmin have huge plans for this, I can tell, and watching a DVD sometime, somewhere is in their sights. This also allows for plugging in back-up cameras; something that you may not need on your sedan, but is a big plus on an RV.
MP3 Player - Internal and External
The Street Pilot 7200 and 7500 come ready for MP3's, an increasingly popular feature for GPS units. You can upload to the hard drive or use the SD slot to add music storage to the unit. You can browse and then play by artist, album, genre, and playlists. There is also a line-in jack and the ability to listen to your mp3 player (iPod) that will automatically let you listen to your music, while also being alerted when there is a turn to be made, etc.
XM Receiver
The unit has the ability to receive XM satellite signals for traffic, stock and weather information through an XM smart antenna. (Additional $3.95 over the music subscription, or $9.99 alone.) This is only one option for receiving traffic.
GTM-10 FM antenna - FM Based Traffic reception
The StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 also have the ability to add on the GTM-10 FM antenna that allows for the reception of FM based (subscription) information for traffic incidents.
Traffic Avoidance
The big plus for these high end GPS units is the ability to look at real-time traffic incidents and route you around the problem. The streetPilot 7200 and StreetPilot 7500 categorize the severity of the traffic incident: Low - traffic still flowing, Medium - traffic a bit congested, High - traffic heavily congested or stopped. With a touch of the screen you'll be able to route around the incident.
Custom POIs and Proximity Alerts
Not a totally new feature on these units, but the StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 have the ability to upload custom Points of Interest, and then the ability to set proximity alerts. More popular in Europe where there are more speed cameras, the idea is that you can drop in a custom POI for the speed camera, and a pop-up alert can tell you when you are getting close... a potentially big money saver for you.
Remote Control
Yea, might seem like a waste, but when you have this thing on a dash that's more than an arm's length away, a remote control is great. These units will most likely be very popular in the RV set, so this type of thing would be great for those expansive dash areas.
Dead Reckoning - 7500 Only
The StreetPilot 7500 adds the capability to have dead reckoning. With a certified technician installation of a cable to connect to the odometer, the StreetPilot 7500 can track how far you are going when the GPS signal is lost for some reason. Presumably this can help determine where you are in general terms when you are traveling in challenging situations - like in the concrete canyons of a city, or in heavy cover of the mountains of forests.
Other Stuff
Yea - it's why you bought the thing, but let's cover the GPS things.... It comes with a pretty advanced set of features here, including the ability to save routes, edit them by adding stops (advanced route planning), turning on a track logging feature that allows you to record mileage (good for business mileage tracking), the ability to save favorite locations, the ability to designate a "home" location that is two clicks off of the main menu - very fast to navigate home, and the typical list of customizable features that allow you to navigate all over to POI's and back with the already loaded detailed maps and POI database.
All that I can say is, wow, that's a lot of stuff. Can't wait to get one at the GPS Lodge.
ReadMore 7200 and 7500
Suggested Price StreetPilot 7200 - $1500 available in December
Suggested Price StreetPilot 7500 - $1800 available in December
Read More in: Automotive GPS | GPS News | GPS Reviews | Garmin GPS News | Garmin GPS Reviews
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Posted by Scott Martin at October 31, 2005 7:03 AM
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