I currently own a MIO that I purchased on Black Friday 06 and planning to upgrade. The Mio is a competent little unit, but I was hoping to get a unit with text-to-speech, newer maps, updated POIs, better interface, and better routing. Here comes Navigon 5100.. at $160 it came with Text To Speech, Lane Assist, 3d reality view, Zagat ratings, and Free TMC! Could it be the magical upgrade I was looking for?

After 1 day owning the unit and using it to drive around, this item is going back to Amazon. And here's why.

1. First thing I notice was the HUGE windshield mount that looks cool, but it's a major pain to use. Rotating the device around was very awkward and I was afraid that it would snap off. Another annoyance: On highways the mount just shakes road vibrations! My Mio didn't do that.

2. You must HOLD the button for 10 seconds for startup and shut-down. In addition, you must click OK to the EULA agreement that you wont use this unit while driving ( you know what I mean ) etc etc. This makes the unit impractical for quick turn-on and go like my Mio does.

3. The keyboards (or any other buttons, for that matter) are TINY. I have relatively small hands and I'm having problems typing my destinations.

4. The UI are clunky. I was interested because I heard Navigon has a very pretty UI, but I'm disappointed. The 'Flash' menus are nothing to be excited about. The maps on most streets are plain white and hard to read.

5. It takes many taps to do the simple things I can do right away on my Mio. For example I can simply move the maps around with Mio while I was in 'navigation mode.' With this Navigon, I need to click on the little button on the bottom right which pops up a menu, and select the button for 'move your fingers around to scroll map' view.

6. There's a 'direct access' buttons for specific types of POI (which allow you to quickly see surrounding POIs with 1 tap) which is very nice, but then it directly routes me to the POI I selected ( I cant just view the phone number etc - to do that I have to do it through the regular POI screen)

6. The fonts are very small. I'm talking TINY small.

7. And here's the killer for me: The speaker is very soft. The unit when cranked all the way up is barely audible on highways, and the sound is already cracking. My Mio is way louder.

So those are the reasons the unit is going back. It's too bad - I really wanted the unit to be the upgrade I had wanted. Just to wrap this review up on a good note, the positives (for me ) are:

1. The unit looks very pretty.

2. Navigation is pretty good and accurate.

3. Voice guidance (when you can hear it!) spells out street names pretty accurately.

4. It says which side of the road your destination is (this is very neat)

5. It can display speed limit, your speed, altitude, etc. Lots of information.

6. There's dedicated 'direct access' button which has its limitations, is a nice feature.

7. Route recalculation was pretty fast.

There you go. I hope this review serves as a caveat emptor - Keep in mind that you DO get a host of features for a very low price, but it has its (for me, major) shortcomings. What that shortcomings amount for you is for you to decide.

I map for a living so this unit makes sense.

I was worried about buying this model when I first read many reviews on this site as well as other sites carrying the Navigon 5100. The price however was too luring at 178$. I am pleased to find that the 5100 works great if you follow the recommendations in the manual.

I am a GIS analyst so i do have experience with maps and creating products similar to google earth. I will say that the Navigon is a great model for a intermediate user. I bought my mom a garmin unit because she will not take the time to read the manual nor does she care about extra funtions like optimum route, excluding tolls or 3d view.

First issue I read about was battery failing.

If you charge your unit for 6 hours (as recommended) when you initially buy your unit you will not have issues with your battery or recharge.

As stated in the manual, powering on takes a while. This is kind of a drag and i'd say one of my "cons" for the model. Powering on and off takes 7-10 seconds.

Many people complained about the unit rerouting with U-turns. This is something that you can turn off so they obviously didn't read the manual.

Rerouting is fast and includes traffic in calculation. Something Garmin does not do. You can also select what kind of vehichle you are in (bicycle, truck, motercycle, car) to add another factor to avg speed and rate calculations.

One of the best features for me and others i work with is the log funtion. If you need to log milage for tax purposes this is a great function. Or if you need to track workers to see if they go home during lunch or leave their car idle for hours this is great as well. With rising gas prices our company saved over 10,000$ due to this tracking.

The GUI is easy to understand if you go through the manual although not as "smooth" and fast as the Garmin unit.

Poi's are outstanding tons of symbology and even better if you get the freshmaps update.It's on sale through amazon for 56$ for 3 years. Totally worth it.

One thing you won't find in the garmin unit is an info button that tells info about the POI as well as a phone #.

All roads come from Navteq or Tele-atlas which is where Garmin gets their roads from. So complaints about roads being different on a Garmin doesn't make sense.

I do like garmin's POI loader. Very nice if you have work data that you need to add to your unit.

I haven't played with the navigon's POI's I suspect if you follow format and add through notepad then your only restriction would be the size of your card.

I must warn it's probably more advanced and not as user friendly as Garmin's POI loader.

Just kidding I got it for the navigation capabilities; however, the windshield mount looks like it was modeled after the alien spacecraft from the blockbuster War of the Worlds movie- so cool!

I've been a GPS user since 2000 when I first rented a car with a GPS system. Since then I've used various GPS software and hardware on Window CE devices and most recently on an AT&T 8525 PDA phone. I switched to a dedicated GPS since trying to run GPS navigation software on a phone gets complicated when calls start coming in.

Quality- Built well, thin, probably couldn't hold up to drops or abuse but overall it's a nice unit. Did I mention the mount? Absolutely beautiful design/concept. It securely holds the 5100 very well

GPS Reception- Folks have complained that this unit takes a long time to acquire satellites. I haven't experienced this. Typically time to acquire 5 to 7 satellites is approx 30 seconds to 1:30. Please in mind that acquiring satellites can be hampered by building (sky scrapers), cloudy days, positioning of the unit on the window (i.e. GPS units need clear visibility of the sky to receive good reception), heavy rain/snow and time of day/rotation of the earth. Overall no complaints; it performs very well.

Interface- For me the interface was very close to one version of software I had a while back on a Windows CE PDA. It does take time to learn the interface so don't think of this as an ATM or self-checkout lane at the store. Read the manual. Overall it works and I can find POIs or enter in addresses with ease. Doesn't seem sluggish to me. Only downfall is that I cannot sync my outlook contacts to it. Several settings are available in this unit for customization.

Screen- A tad bit washed out but not bad. You can still see the POIs, streets, etc. when driving. For the cost it's reasonable. You can adjust the screen brightness. There is a night time mode.

Navigation- The "Optimal" routing setting works best for me. It calculates routes driver would typically take. I've tested this and it works very well. Re-calculating routes works very quickly for me. Calculating a long drive, such as from Portland, OR to Dallas, TX does take some time to calculate but given the distance covered, I'm happy it can do it!

Text to Speech/Volume- The voice quality is good. A female's voice is used. She prompts me well in advance of the street name and direction. The volume when maxxed out is adequate but it's not going to over power your car radio or beat the howling wind @ 55 mph. Typically when I'm going some place I don't know I roll the windows up and turn down the radio. I pay attention.

Versatility- being able to swap between cars is ideal.

Traffic Reception- Stellar! This unit prompts me with traffic condition warnings. There is no subscription for this service as it taps into the local radio stations that broadcast this service.

I was really concerned about the negative reviews on this unit, but overall I'm satisfied and my friends consider me the "return king." Looking forward to many drives and not getting lost.

Cheers,

Brian

I've been looking at GPS units for a long time, unable to decide based on all the hype. Along came Navigon. The free map upgrades and lifetime free traffic service really piqued my interest. This unit is simply great so far. I tried it on two trips this last week, one a short 200 - miler and the other a 1300 mile adventure to Oklahoma. I had been on both before, sans GPS, so this was a test. "Miss Daisy" ( that's what I call her ) did very well on both. She got a little flummoxed when I took alternate routes locally, as I know my local roads, but the "recalculating route" feature worked very well. I really like the Reality View on major interstates - showing upcoming exits and lane changes that way is superb. The traffic alert worked great, even without the external traffic antenna. There is major construction ongoing around Indianapolis and she took me on the exact alternate I had already used before, no problem. The so-called "hockey stick" windshield mount is rock-steady and actually looks great - much better than all the other mounts that hang right in your vision next to the mirror, with ugly wires dangling all over. The only real negative so far is the volume on the voice alerts. Even at maximum loudness it's hard to hear with the radio on or any traffic noise. The pronunciation of some roads is a little off, but whose isn't? Every area has different accents and no computer-generated voice could ever perfectly duplicate regional speech ( think New York versus Georgia for example ). The battery is listed to last 4.5 hours and I got just under 4, but I think that after "exercising" the battery a few times it'll be fine. Even so, if you only need to plug in the DC cord every 4 hours I see no problem. I'm planning another long trip next week and I'm sure Miss Daisy will do fine. A note to those who don't read the setup instructions : you really should -- even if you "know it all" about every GPS out there. After setting my preferences ( POI, etc.), it does what it's told. All in all, I think Navigon has a winner here.

I did a little research before deciding on the Navigon 5100. The features that sold me on it were: 1) Text to speech 2) Real time traffic 3) Reality view (tells you which lane you should get into) 4) Upgradeable maps 5) Lots of POIs.

I have yet to actually need the unit to find my way, but I have put it to the test on a journey I know well. The GPS connected to the satellites in a reasonable amount of time. I live in a wooded area so I suspected it wouldn't connect instantaneously (my Sirius radio takes a bit of time too). It did try to bring me on the shortest route, but that would have taken me smack dab into the middle of the Yale campus in New Haven. I took my usual route and it quickly and flawlessly re-mapped the route. I was impressed at the number of POIs it found. I actually had to filter them down a bit because they were cluttering the map so badly. It found churches and schools that I didn't know existed in my own town.

I also liked the windshield mount. I heard other people complain about the mount but I thought it was very convenient. It let me tilt and postition the GPS in virtually any way I wanted.

Now I didn't give it a 5 because it has some flaws (perhaps a future update could fix). The text to speech was good but the female voice had a decidedly German accent. The easily pronounced streets were fine, but I live in Connecticut where 30% of the street names seem to be of American Indian origin. It was comical hearing the German lady try to say "Quinnipiac" or "Totoket".

Another flaw was that the audio wasn't as loud as I would have liked. With the volume I play my music (moderate but not loud) I had to strain to hear the directions. I hooked up a small pair of external speakers and that made it easier to hear.

So all in all this was a good investment. I'm sure you could spend twice as much and get a more polished product. But you probably couldn't get all the features that this unit has. If they fix the few minor flaws, Navigon will be a force to reckon with in the American GPS market.

After much deliberation over which one to buy, I choose the Navigon, predominantly because my BX had it on sale ($395 Aug 07) and because it came with North American and European Maps.

I read other reviews, that warned that the speaker volume was very low, and that there were potential problems with the mounting system.

Well....They are correct. The mounting system officially broke in December. It has a bayonet lug system, but the plastic depressor piece broke which means it stays on the mount, or I wrestle it off when I need to take it down.

Volume on the system is a problem. Even on its highest setting, it struggles to compete with a moderately loud car stereo, and has no chance of being heard over 2 kids under six in the back seat, and a wife who takes any opportunity (like a 20 minute or more car ride) to begin "relationship" "discussions".

Also, my Navigon has Frozen up twice. Its running Windows CE, so that shouldn't be a surprise, but getting it unfrozen is a lot more difficult than CTR+ALT+DeL. Their website is absolutely no help either.

There is no forum, so you are forced to only search through Q&As that have been chosen by the company to put up. So there is lots of "I love my Navigon, where can I buy leopard skin protective covers for it" and nothing to help someone get their GPS unfrozen.

A lot of people have trouble getting a decent route. This may be due to the settings. You have several options for route picking... Fastest and Shortest come to mind. That might mean that the fastest route is longer, but uses roads that travel faster (65mph). Shorter routes might take more time because they route you through ever school zone between you and your destination.

This is an excellence GPS device. It is a German design, similar quality as BMW and Mercedes. Very accurate and intuitive. Recently, Navigon just came out with a system upgrade for this device. This software upgrade improves overall system peformance and includes the hibernate mode feature(save battery life). I love the windshield craddle design and quick release button. Moreover, Navigon is the only GPS on the market with the free traffic information. The speaker is very loud with volume control. Yes, you can charge and use the device at the same time. This device has a bookmark feature to create a new point of interest and save it as your favorite. Before you buy, google search for prices. [...]

I bought this device for my wife for christmas and have been happy ever since. The unit looks nice, menus are intuitive and easy to read and the integrated lifetime traffic service is a fantastic feature. If you are looking for a device that can be everything to everyone this probably not for you (and likely no GPS unit is because it doesn't exist). However, if you are looking for a reaonably priced unit with a number of higher end features that can help you navigate your daily life a bit easier, you will not be disappointed by this device.

Navigon 5100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

After much studying of features among the top tier of GPS providers, including Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan, I finally decided on the Navigon 5100. I've used a Garmin when I rent cars, and while they have a great POI database, they don't include free lifetime traffic updates like the Navigon does. Since that was one of the main points of my purchase (I live in St. Louis where they've closed one of the Interstates for two years), I didn't want to shell out more money for a traffic service. Nor did I feel like I wanted to buy one of the much more expensive units that could interface with my cell phone, etc. I supplemented the unit with software that allows you to add your own POI databases to the unit, and now I have something quite workable and more flexible. The preview of more complicated interchanges is nice, and I like how it warns you a mile ahead of your turn so you can start changing lanes early...the Garmin's I regularlly rent don't do this. I'd buy again, and have been happy with it for what I paid.

Pro:

Sleek design

Sleek mount

Lane Assist for exits

Shows traffic updates & construction sites

Shows speed limit

Cons:

Horrible POI & not easy.. Garmin & Tom Tom r so much better.

CRASHED after 4 hrs of use & I was stuck in ME. Had to ask ppl for directions to get back to MA.

Returned it to the store today.