Garmin 250w or something else?
Discussion
Quite fancy s'thing for a hol in France next month to take the pressure off my sleepy mapreader.
FiL has a Garmin 250w from Halfords which seems to fit the bill. They're selling them for £130 ish at the mo, which is about what I want to spend. A few questions:
Should I be considering any other systems, or is this one OK?
What are the Nokia phones with satnav like, because I'm due a new one of them? I'm guessing it's probably better to have one thing or another...
FiL has a Garmin 250w from Halfords which seems to fit the bill. They're selling them for £130 ish at the mo, which is about what I want to spend. A few questions:
Should I be considering any other systems, or is this one OK?
What are the Nokia phones with satnav like, because I'm due a new one of them? I'm guessing it's probably better to have one thing or another...
Most SatNavs now are fine and pefectly capable of doing the job. It's more a case of you feeling comfortable with the interface and it seeming clear to you. Personally, I prefer the TomTom interface to Garmin which is why I changed over this year so I'd spend the extra £60 on the One XL Europe or try and find a used Go720.
As for the Nokia phones, they're fine for finding a pub when you get disoriented in a strange city but I wouldn't use one for in the car. Screens are too small, no touch and I don't believe that the N95 comes with turn by turn instructions and that it costs extra (I could be out of date/plain wrong here though). My Nokia 6110 Navigator has turn by turn but it would be hopeless in the car. Of course, the 3G iPhone has a bigger (and touch) screen and GPS though no idea what it's like. Now if Apple can sort it so it works in landscape (and a car mount to match) they could be onto a winner.
As for the Nokia phones, they're fine for finding a pub when you get disoriented in a strange city but I wouldn't use one for in the car. Screens are too small, no touch and I don't believe that the N95 comes with turn by turn instructions and that it costs extra (I could be out of date/plain wrong here though). My Nokia 6110 Navigator has turn by turn but it would be hopeless in the car. Of course, the 3G iPhone has a bigger (and touch) screen and GPS though no idea what it's like. Now if Apple can sort it so it works in landscape (and a car mount to match) they could be onto a winner.
Edited by stemll on Sunday 15th June 23:08
Garmins route choice is absurd in the UK and Europe, it really takes you round the houses.
I would look at the Navigon based systems from Navigon themselves and also Sony and Panasonic.
You can set it to fasest car and fast route and it will keep you on motorways unless it is obvious that coming off is quicker. They don't have loads of other stuff on them, so you can't use your phone through it, or download Yoda voices to it etc. but for nav routing they are seriously ahead of everything else imho.
I have a Garmin 310d, tomtom 720 and Sony 92T and the Sony is the winner, it just gets you there quicker than the rest.
I also have the Garmin app on the N95 phone, it's OK but still silly route choices.
I would look at the Navigon based systems from Navigon themselves and also Sony and Panasonic.
You can set it to fasest car and fast route and it will keep you on motorways unless it is obvious that coming off is quicker. They don't have loads of other stuff on them, so you can't use your phone through it, or download Yoda voices to it etc. but for nav routing they are seriously ahead of everything else imho.
I have a Garmin 310d, tomtom 720 and Sony 92T and the Sony is the winner, it just gets you there quicker than the rest.
I also have the Garmin app on the N95 phone, it's OK but still silly route choices.
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