Navigon 7210 review

Navigon 7210 Review

Reviewed by: Brett James

Reviewed on: 29 October 2008

Navigon has been working hard to get a foothold in the UK's satellite-navigation market, releasing devices such as the 2150MAX and the 8110. But these two appeal to only the lowest and highest bidders, leaving out the healthy mid-range market. Which brings us to the 7210, Navigon's reasonably priced sat-nav. While it retains many of its predecessors' key features, it also manages to add a few of its own. The 7210 is available to buy now for around £280.

Positives
Although the 7210 retains the same build quality as its predecessors, it's been cosmetically improved -- Navigon installed the 109mm (4.3-inch) screen flush to the casing. Not only does this improve the design, it also gives the screen a bouncy feel, which makes pressing icons easier.

The device retains the core features and familiar Russian-doll-style interface, but has a new direct help option, which provides quick access to your nearest hospital or pharmacy, for example.

Additionally, you'll see the introduction of 3D landmarks and a new Curve Warner safety feature to go alongside the safety camera database, speed warnings, Lane Assistant and Reality View Pro. This will provide real-time, on-screen representations of the lanes and motorway junctions you're navigating, which is helpful indeed. Another cool feature is that the 7210 will alert you both visually and audibly if it detects any dangerous bends in the road.

While some might find those safety features distracting, the on-board text-to-speech support works alongside them to minimise the time you need to look at the screen, and we think that's helpful.

The 7210 performed well in our tests. When we were driving, the SiRF-titan receiver could maintain our position without a problem and initial routes were calculated quickly. The screen coped well in bright outdoor conditions and maps looked great, with plenty of useful driving aids available, such as real signposts and points of interest that are represented by distinguishable corporate logos.

There's also a useful Logbook function that allows you to import trip data into Excel and manually adjust steps in an itinerary before a journey to improve efficiency.

In addition to using the conventional text-based smart-speller inputs for destinations, you can also import Outlook contacts or add points to the maps as favourites. More importantly, these points now show up on the map as a small flag symbol.

As you would expect, the 7210 has voice recognition software to allow you to speak your destinations into the device. While this takes a while to train, it was uncannily accurate during our tests.

Lastly, the 7210's Traffic Message Channel, which reports traffic accidents and other travel information to drivers, seemed up to speed. We compared its reports to a live Web site and the 7210 picked up the same incidents alongside our chosen route, which is a good sign.

Negatives
Although route calculation was fast, we did notice that re-route calculations were not as quick as they could be, when compared to the 8110's SiRF-Star III chip. It was nothing to lose any sleep over, though.

The on-board Bluetooth feature for providing hands-free support simply did not work properly, however. We hope the useful Navigon Fresh program -- a PC portal that provides updates -- will have a fix soon.

Another annoyance was the speed of the smart speller and voice recognition. While they're both useful ways of inputting destinations, they should be quicker in operation. Additionally, 3D landmarks are limited to select cities, which makes the feature irrelevant if you're using the 7210 in, well, anywhere except those select cities.

Conclusion
Though the 7210 has many of the same features as its predecessor, it has some additional software and design enhancements thrown in the mix, such as 3D navigation, direct help options and safety alerts. Still, the 8110 maintains a slight edge in terms of performance. The difference is negligable, though, if you're looking for something in a lower price range.

Edited by Marian Smith