Mini-Review: Navigon 2100 DACH

While I'm quite capable of finding my way around using a good old fashioned map, this gets kinda tough when I'm not the fellow passenger anymore but the driver. And to be honest, just driving a car and keeping an eye on the traffic surrounding me can be challenging enough without having to worry about where I am and where I need to go and oh damn, was that my exit or… So, the first accessory I bought for my car back in July was actually a Personal Navigation System (aka PNA) which was delivered even before the car itself. After reading several very positive reviews, I settled on a Navigon 2100 DACH.

My experiences with that unit though were quite disappointing at first. The reason was a defect in my unit which caused the on-screen menu popping up out of the blue and the touchscreen losing the touch-part of its functionality soon after with the menu hiding the map, thus rendering the unit visually useless (while thankfully still keeping the audio directions functional – otherwise I'd probably still be trying to find my way out of Weiterstadt after taking the wrong exit). I had to send my unit in twice to get it finally fixed – first time the support claimed to have repaired a “wrong software version”, while the actual cause – some broken screen cable – was found on the second try and fixed for good. The good thing about this hiatus was that I lost my fear of driving around without someone telling me when to turn left and right¹⁾, and as of last fortnight everything finally works as it should. I'll just blame the problem on me getting some lemon and shut up about it

Thus, let us start with the review itself.

The Navigon 2100 comes with a SiRFstar III GPS chipset, which so far guaranteed fast GPS fixes and quite exact positioning from inside my car²⁾. It has a 3.5inch touchscreen with 320x240px (aspect ratio 4:3)³⁾, an internal speaker that so far proved to be sufficiently loud and clear when driving faster than 150km/h, and a TMC unit with the antenna integrated into the power cable, which means that you won't have yet another cable lying around inside your car which was a big plus for me. All in all, the small thing is rather good looking: small black case, light-weighted but sturdy. I attached the included device bracket to one of the air grilles using a Richter adaptor. I prefer this solution over the use of the included windshield mount because this way the fellow passenger also has access to the unit, the length of cables dangling around is reduced and I have an unlimited view out of my windshield. The suction cup mount worked great as well though and proved to be very stable on my first drives.

The OS of the Navimon⁴⁾ is a Windows CE 5.0. Yes, I shuddered at this at first too. I was reconciled after I found that one can get ScummVM to run on it though⁵⁾. The navigation software is Navigon's own Mobile Navigator in version 6, which is also available stand-alone for Symbian and Windows Mobile devices.

The user interface is very intuitive – I didn't read the manual yet⁶⁾ and nevertheless managed to arrive safely and on time wherever I planned to go. However, what I'm not very happy with is the speed of the user interface: it's rather sluggish and slow, especially when crawlingmoving around the map. Teh interwebz suggests switching off the animated menus, which I did even before reading that hint, but it's slow nevertheless. Other reviewers seem to mostly focus on the ease (or difficulty) to enter addresses into the unit, because the small screen makes the on-screen keypad quite small. However, I can not second this complaint as I do this before a trip while nothing's moving or vibrating thanks to a rolling car yet, and it's fairly easy to use the keypad then.

Featurewise the unit provides – among other things – a driving lane assistant, which I found to be very helpful on the occasional interchange, as it gives you a visual indication which driving lanes are right and which are wrong. Additionally, one can purchase the optional “RealityView” addon, which provides additional static images of the road signs at the interchanges as well as an extended driving lane assistant. However, so far I was not up on spending 30€ on such a feature, as I'm quite happy with the standard version. Also included is a speed limit indicator in the upper left corner of the screen, which helps to remember the current speed limit according to map data, and an adjustable warning if driving too fast according to this data, which gives me a nice heads-up when my right foot becomes too tired. What I immediately uninstalled, although included, is the radar warner – besides the usage of those things being illegal in Germany, I don't have a high opinion of them regardless of this and always try to drive like a radar control is close anyway by staying below the speed limit.

All in all, I'm satisfied with the software. While the UI is slow, this isn't an issue while on the road (see below), and it's intuitive, which IMHO is a big plus. It also comes with a couple of nice gimmicks like the driving lane assistant and the speed limit indicator plus warning.

While actually part of the software, I thought a quick discussion of the routing part of the Navigon deserved its own section in this mini-review thingy.

The algorithm so far seemed to very solid and decided on reasonable routes, even over 300km. While the initial calculation of the route can take some time (I think it was somethings like 20secs for the trip down to the Black Forest with four or five waypoints), recalculation in case of a missed turn is very fast – it successfully helped me to survive an unplanned odyssey into the depths of Freiburg thanks to some construction sites. The routing algo also takes care of incorporating TMC data into routes as soon as it becomes available (if configured this way) – this takes a tiny while longer than the rerouting after a missed turn though. I actually have this feature switched off, as I prefer to trust my intuition instead of some electronic device, but the TMC data is integrated into the map in the navigation view as well and thus gives you a nice heads-up if something's jamming ahead.

The supplied map data seems to be pretty much up-to-date, and you get a 30-day lasting fresh map guarantee included with your unit. Navigon also offers an optional 1-year update service, but I can't say anything about that yet.

All-in-all, and although we got off on the wrong foot thanks to the broken touchscreen cable, I'm very happy with my Navimon. While it lacks additional (and IMHO unnecessary) features of its competitors like Bluetooth integration, MP3 and movie playback and what-not, it's an inexpensive little good-looking PNA that does one thing very well – getting you securely from point A to point B. Just FYI: Navigon has since released a follow-up model with the 2200, so there might be an even better entry-level PNA out there now