Technology
Features
Sat-Navs - are we nearly there yet?
As a certain hill-loving nun once pointed out, let's start at the very beginning - it is, after all, a very good place to start. And, chances are, she'd have a found a quicker route into Switzerland if she'd had a Sat-Nav, writes Neil Davey
Sat-Nav is short for satellite-navigation system, an electronic device that typically fixes to the inside of your windscreen, and then uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate your position and the guide you to your destination.
You've no doubt heard nightmare stories about how sat-navs have written off cars by directing drivers through rivers or, in one recent incident, saw a group of school children taken to an Islington street called Hampton Court rather than the palace where Henry VIII lived. These, it must be pointed out: a) are rare; and b) generally involve abject stupidity on the driver's part.
Used properly - ie, apply common sense when you're being told to drive through several feet of fast-moving water - most sat-navs on the market will save you time, petrol and stress. They also provide men with an alternative option than the grudging asking of directions. They can tell you where the nearest petrol station is, help you avoid roadworks, speed traps and traffic jams, show you points of interest - in the case of the ViaMichelin X980T, for example, it can guide you to the nearest starred restaurant - and generally provide a stress-free driving experience.
So where to start? Many systems now come with all sorts of all-singing, all-dancing extras. Some of these are useful, such as Bluetooth connectivity, which means your sat-nav can double as a hands-free phone kit. Others - the ability to play MP3s and store photos etc. - are the sort of bells and whistles you probably don't need.
(One word of warning though: new Peugeots, Citroens and Renaults can feature heat-reflecting windscreens. These reflect GPS signals too. If you have one of these cars, you might want to check before you buy.)
If you're new to sat-navs, a good starting point is the Navman F20. It's a basic piece of kit but it comes loaded with maps of the UK and Ireland, features voice-guided navigation (you can switch that off when it gets annoying - which it will) and its 3D graphics look clear on the 3.5-inch colour screen. Button-use is logical and, best of all, it costs £149 and works straight out of the box.
Also good is the Tom Tom ONE. This is particularly good when it comes to pointing out places of interest and the 'junction zoom' feature - exactly what it sounds like - can be useful too. Mapping is slightly better than the Navman F20 and the choice of routes - quickest, shortest, avoiding toll roads, the Congestion Charge etc - is useful and easy to navigate. It is a little more expensive at £179, although is does have Bluetooth connectivity.
Moving up the scale to £229 is the Navman N40i, which allows you to navigate to pictures as well as maps and voice instructions. This, somewhat inevitably, is called NavPix but it's a very simple system: find the picture of what you want and tap the screen. Job done. New pictures can be downloaded, quite simply, from the NavPix website. There's no Bluetooth facility but it does feature a decent enough 1.3 megapixel camera. It also comes with European maps as standard.
Finally - and one to have gadget-fans salivating - is the TomTom GO 710. This comes in at a whopping £299 but does pretty much everything except make you coffee en route. The LCD touch screen is four inches wide and that extra width adds a surprising amount of clarity. Maps of the UK and Ireland are standard and it comes with an SD card, with maps of western Europe. You can even be directed in French if you want - or German, Italian, Spanish or 32 other languages. Also, with more than 50 voices to choose from, you can merrily switch when one gets on your nerves or switch that off, listen to your iPod via the device or speak to friends and family via Bluetooth.
* Prices were correct at original time of publication.
