Navigon 7200T

OK, now there is something that can stand up against the heavily popular navigation units like Garmin or Tom Tom. Not really an easy task if some people think that they can surpass these two great walls. However, some do succeed and Navigon is one among those successful people. Navigon is looking forward to capture some consumer market with the new Navigon 7200T. Perhaps you may be a little bothered about the previous releases from Navigon! Even I was but a face to face interaction with this device has changed my thinking line. Yes! I do admit that some of the previous glitches still make their presence felt but I noticed a marked difference in terms of functionality and the added features. I guess that it is time to go for a ride with the new Navigon 7200T.

Design and looks:

The good old black is back. The black matte casing of the new Navigon 7200T gives it a new glow that attracts people. Size still remains a modest one to be used in your personal car and also you can carry it along with you for vacations. I really love this feature and I can use it even with rented cars! Great! Ain’t it?

The company really gave a sophisticated look to the model with the flat screen and I also noticed a marked difference in terms of the sharpness and brightness of the screen. Well, this time people will not say that I don’t have a choice! Responsiveness of the touch screen has increased and the onscreen keyboard of the unit was also lucky to have a bigger size! The option of predictive text has been added to make life simple. Wow! A great thing for lazy people like me!

User interface and usage:

The user interface of the Navigon 7200T is quite intuitive and there are four major options in the main menu. It includes: My Destinations, New Destination, Voice Entry and Take Me Home. However, things were once again annoying while using the map as I had to tap through options to get the map access. The interface is not really as clean as the Tom Tom or the Garmin models. But, compared to the other Navigon units, the interface is undoubtedly simple! Coming back to the usage and navigation, things were impressive. The Navigon 7200T has included maps of Canada, Puerto Rico, United States and U.S. Virgin Islands. Ah! The marked improvement was finally there. I managed to enter address using voice. All I had to do was to read something sitting inside my car so that the Navigon 7200T could learn my voice and understand the environment. However the sad news is that the voice command can only be used for entering address and not for any other purpose. Routes were calculated in fast, optimum or short mode and gave me the option to avoid toll roads and highways. I could really save some bucks.

The POI database is really huge and contains all the major categories. A 2D and 3D map mode makes navigation much more complete than ever before. It even allows 3D views of the landmarks. Great! One thing that really took me off the ground out of sheer happiness was the support for multi-destination routing. Yes folks, it allowed me to add multiple stops on my trip! Now, visual aid is a general thing that you find in any GPS system and the Navigon 7200T is not an exception. The additional features were the audible prompts, which included the functionality, which is popularly known as TTS (Text-to-speech). My ears had a treat when the unit prompted the street names! The integrated Bluetooth allows to pair the Bluetooth enabled phone and make calls while using the GPS unit as a hands free speaker. There was something that was a surprising element for me. The Navigon 7200T offers something free and that for the entire life time! Will you like to guess? Alright, let me help you with that. It is nothing other than lifetime free and real-time traffic updates. The sad picture is that I really cannot avoid dining with my wife in a restaurant by blaming the traffic. She knows also has a Navigon 7200T with her!

Conclusion:

Though a bit slow on performance, the Navigon 7200T can be a great asset for those who want some good help with navigation and is bored of using a Garmin or a Tom Tom. So, there is no point waiting. Grab and enjoy!