Top GPS Guide

While the 470 looks great on paper, it’s distinctly less attractive when situated on your dashboard, suffering from display and mapping issues and an interface that could be friendlier. But good postcode searching, fast calculation and substantial points of interest save it. It’s also available as the cheaper GoPal PNA460 without Bluetooth and traffic updates.

Never mind the brand name, just feel the size. Medion has recently emerged as a major player in PDAs, PCs and sat-navs, with the 470 following its tradition for providing a full range of features at a reasonable price.

Its 22mm black plastic case is small and light (200g), with a large 109mm (4.3-inch) widescreen display that’s bright and sharp enough for daylight use. Unlike most sat-navs, you can operate the touchscreen with either your finger or the stylus provided — this definitely helps when trying to select exact spots on a map.

Street level maps for 32 countries are provided, with UK data pre-loaded on a 1GB SD card. GPS sensitivity is average for the latest sat-navs: it locks on through windows, usually within just a couple of minutes. The display is simple but clear and voice guidance is timely, crisp and loud.

Address searching (with full postcodes) is easy, as is navigation to thousands of useful points of interest, such as local restaurants and tourist sights as well as national chains. Route calculation is fast and reliable, including speed camera alerts.

Conclusion

Despite its definitive feature list and decent build quality, it’s difficult to recommend this Medion. Its key function of navigation has just too many quirks, from a weak map display to a confusing interface.

The extra features don’t add much value, leaving you a unit that would have been more attractive stripped down to the basics and with more attention paid to mapping and guidance.

Tags: 1gb sd card, confusing interface, couple of minutes, feature list, gopal, GPS Guide, local restaurants, mapping issues, medion, national chains, plastic case, points of interest, postcodes, quirks, substantial points, tourist sights, traffic updates, voice guidance

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Posted on September 4th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: GPS Guide