Review: Navman F20

Navman recently introduced an affordable product to the market in the Navman F20, a unit that flirts with the $300 price level in some online shops. So, do you get a bargain or a bad GPS for that?

The compact Navman F20 is a compact feature solid GPS that has an accurate direction engine, but in a recent review it was found that the Navman F20 has an outdated POI database, and a smallish, weak speaker. The slim and very portable unit is easily swapped from car to car, and has some easy to use navigation buttons on the housing that gets you quickly to some core functions, like finding gas or parking. The unit ships with maps pre-loaded on a 2GB SD card, and with some easy set-up you are ready to navigate out of the box. You get voice prompted navigation but not text to speech that is found in higher end units, so it won’t say most street names.

Overall, CNet says, “We found the directions accurate, and the unit was quick to recalculate our route when we veered off track. That said, we had a hard time hearing the voice prompts, even with the volume up to its highest level.” They called the unit "Very Good" overall.

ReadMore on the Navman F20 Review at CNet

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Posted by Scott Martin at November 3, 2006 9:09 AM

I recently purchased the Navman F20, about 3 weeks ago, and it is a great unit. I cnnot see myself spending $500-700 on a GPS unit, but this thing has everything you would need. It is very quick to claculate routes...within seconds...and gets a GPS fix within 1 to 2 minutes if started after a long period of being turned off. The windshield mount works great for me. I rest the bottom of the mount on my dashboard and it really looks good and is very easy to put on and take off. The only complain I have is with the POI database...it is a little outdated and the Restaurants option does search by cuisine option....but if does a good job ....You can also search for POIs in anyother city. Overall a great unit anf for $300..Thats the lowest price at Crutchfield right now....I think even people you dont need it should get one :-)

Posted by: Mo B at November 3, 2006 9:56 AM

I purchased the Navman F20 in early 2007. I would recommend to others "Don't buy this POS GPS"!

The USA maps are over two years old. You cannot enter addresses unless you know the Zip Code first. You cannot simply enter a City and State name, highway, etc. Navman does not provide free upgrades, but they will sell you another map on SD Cards for $149. Any SD Photo card will work in the unit, you can simply drop the card in your reader and the USB port or direct port. Of course Navman will not provide the software update files, only the overpriced memory card with outdated information.

I purchased the PC Connectivity Kit. This was a big waste of time and Money Also.

It does not work out of the box because the factory supplied software drivers for USB ports is corrupt. After a lot of online research (Before I could use it), I found a service pack (SP2) from Navman. Of course it did not work either when installed since their "Fix" places the drivers in the wrong folder. You can then manually update the drivers using the Hardware Device Manager in Windows XP.

OK, so now four weeks later I finally got the NEW unit working and connecting with the PC. Great, until I started to use the "F-Series Desktop" program and found it useless to my needs. My old Garmin Color Street Pilot about Size of a compact car with Serial Connections...Was still a better unit.

Using this mostly generic program, you can only manually enter POI waypoints and manually name them when you have the Latitude and Longitude. Lot's of fun with a GPS that only accepts full street addresses. It will work OK with the POI's that are manually entered in a very time consuming manner, including with cute little Icons you can add. Audio and Visual alerts, and range in miles, feet, etc. can be set for the POI in the Unit, but not with the useless software.

You can back up the data or restore it, add existing .csv POI files if it has been created manually in advance on MS Excel.

As far as "Favorites" addresses, routes, etc. forget it. It just does not exist or work with this piece of Junk.

You would think Navman cared? Try contacting their "Customer No Service" Department and get any help. Especially if you are an American that is beneath the time and trouble of this Eurotrash company.

My mistake was, and will take the blame for it, the same information I am giving you is available online with a simple search on the Device. I bought it on impulse due to the low price and immediate need for a job I was working.

Using the F20 on a daily basis I learned several things. If the zipcode for the US maps starts with a "2", the state does not exist according to Navman. So North and South Carolina, Virginia...You can't get there from here. Yes, I made sure they were loaded. Of course Navman thinks CT, WA, and NY are Southeastern states on the mapping programs.

Bottom line is, you will see many of these online on Ebay, Amazon, etc. (Including mine) for those people that have learned from their $349 mistake on buying this piece of Junk.

So, I'm going back to Garmin. Right here in the US with excellent customer support and FREE MAP UPGRADES!!!

Navman can kiss my big white hairy A$$! (or Arse for the Eurotrash company that built it).

Posted by: High Tech Redneck at February 22, 2008 8:27 AM