Navman S500HF Reviews

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“I bought this because of the features such as traffic,...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 29/01/2010

I bought this because of the features such as traffic, handsfree, google local search and junction views which together with the larger than average screen size seemed to set it above others in the price range. I ended up being very disapointed and it went back. Things to note are: The software keeps freezing and giving an "unrecoverable application error" screen meaning you have to turn it off and on again. The touch screen is very unresponsive and rather than a touch or gentle tap you sometimes need to give it a hefty prod to get any response at all (which tends to knock it off the stand!). The handsfree microphone is very unresponsive meaning you have to shout to get the other person to be able to hear anything and if the unit is more than about 2 feet from your mouth it won't pick up your voice at all. Other issues with the handsfree calling are when you receive an incoming call (assuming you can get the unit to recognise your tap on the "answer call" button there is a delay of about 20 seconds between the call being answered and being able to hear the caller or they hear you - several people just assumed there was nobody there and hung up. When making a call you sometimes hear a ringing tone and sometimes don't. The speaker is very tinny and distorts above 80% volume but really to hear it on the move you need to have it at 100%. The junction view sounds useful but note that it only works on motorway intersections (e.g. m4 to m5) not on normal motorway junctions and even then the view screen doesn't come up until its too late as you would have already been in the wrong lane by then. It also wanted me to get in the lane to get back onto the m4 when trying to leave the m4 westbound to go onto the m5 northbound - it suggested I follow signs for m4 South Wales even though the route was set to Gloucester! It also wanted me to take the 5th exit off a roundabout that only had three exits! It seemed very keen to take me down minor narrow lanes rather than major roads that were only a few metres longer. The final destination of every journey I tried was about 500m away from where the destination address actualy was, even for buildings that had their own postcode. Also beware that the nice shiny black bezel scratches if you so much as glance at it so a case will be essential if you are going to carry it around and as it is bigger than most other 4.3" units you can't use a universal case.
The google local search does work well (if your phone supports it) so you can access a much larger range of POIs than other units that just rely on ones that are in their memory. The keyword search also works well saving you having to think which category to search in but given the touchscreen's issues & software instability you still get fustrated using it. The traffic picks up what you need to know and displays it on the screen in a recognisable format but doesn't seem to advise of delay time (or maybe I didn't have it long enough to find out) and to re-route to avoid a traffic warning requires quite a few menu inputs so not ideal whilst driving. The standard map view may be a bit plain for some and it doesn't make the best of the screen size. There are a number of map colour scheme options to choose between so you should be able to find one that suits you. The speed warning were a bit of a nuisance as it had the wrong speed limits for a number of roads - both ways - it was telling me off for driving at 37 in 40 limit that it thought was a 30 but on another road that was reduced from delimit to 40 about four years ago it still thought the national speed limit applied.
After getting a refund I bought a Garmin Nuvi 265WT which so far has performed flawlessly and has a much better feeling of quality and the touchscreen, handsfree and traffic all work as you would hope. (and it was £30 less).

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