Sony was late to the GPS market, but is finally bringing its trademark style to satellite navigation, with the slimline, widescreen Nav-U NV-U92. This in-car unit promises simple pan-European guidance, real-time traffic updates and a hybrid navigation system that copes with urban canyons. It's available now for around £300, with the UK and Ireland-only NV-U82 version around £50 cheaper.
Strengths
If there's one technology that Sony has mastered, it's the LCD display, and the U92 comes with one of the widest, sharpest and most colourful screens we've seen on a sat-nav. The 122mm (4.8-inch) screen is visible from across the largest dashboard, and even (admittedly sharp-sighted) back-seat passengers might be able to follow the clear 2D or 3D maps.
Route display is as smooth and clear as a TomTom, with sensible colour-coding of roads. Icons are kept to a sensible minimum: you can adjust sound, pull up menus and navigate to the nearest petrol stations at the stab of a finger.
The Sony's skinny housing (it's just 20mm thick) has some clever touches. At the back, a pop-out GPS antenna doubles as a dashboard rest, if you haven't got round to fitting the lovely 'soft gel' windscreen mount. This is designed to be speedily removable, without leaving tell-tale marks to lure thieves.
The speaker sounded a touch resonant to begin with, but soon settled down to deliver clear and timely Radio 4-esque female diction. The U92 also speaks destination road names out loud at junctions -- a real help compared to older sat-navs.
The provision of European maps covering 21 countries in the U92 should suffice for all but the most adventurous drivers (the cheaper U82 covers just the UK and Ireland).
An efficient search system uses full postcodes, albeit with an annoyingly non-Qwerty virtual keyboard. It was fast (two minutes) to acquire an initial signal, and held it well. An internal acceleration sensor keeps the sat-nav offering guidance, even when the GPS signal is lost through tunnels. Route calculation was very fast, and guidance was logical, if not especially imaginative. You also get Bluetooth syncing with your mobile for hands-free calling, and free TMC traffic updates (these are optional with the U82) and re-routing.
Weaknesses
The Sony's huge screen means that the unit is hardly pocketable outside the car. It also adds weight and seriously affects the U92's modest (2.5-hour) battery life: this isn't a device for tourists wandering around on foot.
The widescreen shape looks fantastic on the dashboard but doesn't actually make the Sony much easier to use. If you could have rotated the U92 into a portrait position, it might have been more interesting, but as it is, you end up with a fair quantity of unused pixels on either side of your route. And for all the display's generous real estate, displayed data such as time, speed and place names are on the small side.
If you wander off the planned roads, route re-calculation is sluggish, although at least the U92 generally avoids issuing hasty or conflicting instructions. Actually, it's usually rather terse, remaining silent where a basic instruction would save worry, such as choosing lanes at a motorway split.
Gesture commands, with which you can request directions home just by writing a single pre-programmed shape on the screen, are little more than a gimmick.
Conclusion
If you're concentrating totally on navigation, the U92 is a great deal, boasting excellent GPS sensitivity, fast, reliable navigation and a screen that looks a million dollars. It isn't exactly cheap, but it does represent good value.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters
User reviews6
Add your review
Bob Buchanan 18 February 2011
Good: Great screen, good vocal instructions
Bad: Can't upgrade, does not like MAC takes ages to locate signals on start up.
Comment: I have had from the week it came out, so maps are 3- 4 years out of date. Can't update maps on line. It does take ages to start up, sometimes as long as 30 minutes, in the car. It is quicker if done out of the car.
I do like the fact that it relocates if overshot and is unusual if it tells you to make a Uturn. It has been brilliant in France once it has the signal located.
Because of the above and that Sony appear not to want to support the satnav I am considering buying a Garmin or TomTom.
evanstim 24 October 2008
Good: Style, soothing voice of unit
Bad: Reliability, lack of Vista support, slow
Comment: Sony, Sony, Sony... how could you get this so wrong?
Where do I start... the unit lets me down whenever I need it most. It completely hates being turned on in a new location from where it was turned off. When you power it on afterwards, for example, when you get off a plane, it takes ages (up to 40 minutes!) to hook on to a satellite. This is not acceptable! I'm in a new country, sitting in a hire car, no idea where I'm going, and this stupid thing is just sitting there, teasing me, not finding any satellites.
The number of times it has let me down because of this...
The lack of Vista support is just astounding, as is the stonewalled response from Sony - they told me to locate an XP computer. This is NOT acceptable!
The unit also suffers from operating system problems - about once a week it crashes, telling me that the memory card has been removed (it hasn't). This means the system needs to be reset.... and you can guess this always happens when I am relying on it.
The TMC system on it is slow. It reports problems too late, and does not remove problems after I have passed them, so it still reports red alerts even though the route to my destination is clear. This is REALLY annoying, I have to keep going into the screen to see if it is reporting someting new.
Even when it does find something in your route, it's too hard to tell it to avoid the trouble spot. Why? Why isn't there a button you can press to say 'Avoid this incident'?!?!?!?
The "full" postcode search does not work. Too many missing post codes. Including my own home postcode!
The touchscreen is not the best - you press one button, it selects another. The way the 'keyboard' isn't a qwerty keyboard is just nuts.
POI is okay, but out of date. How do I update this? Oh, that's right. Sony won't support me because I have Vista.
Speed cameras - this is a good feature - but why doesn't it tell me what the limit is when it is telling me the speed? It knows my speed - when I am not in navigation mode it displays your speed - but when you are navigating it hides this. Why?!?!? It also reports cameras which are off piste, sometimes way of your route. Why?!?!?! Oh and the cameras are out of date, I need to upload an update. Oh that's right, Sony won't support Vista.
The maps are out of date. No downloadable updates. I have to fork out £70 to get a DVD sent to me. Probably which I can't update because I have Vista.
In short - DON'T buy this unit. It's expensive, unreliable and not fit for purpose.
Steve K 3 January 2008
Good: Looks good
Bad: Does'nt do what it says on the lid
Comment: What can I say, when it worked it was brilliant. Trouble is, it didn't work very often, as more often than not it wouldn't find a satellite and as to updating the software with camera positions and TMC via the Sony web site, it's a mess as you have to go around the houses to do something that should be quite simple and then when I tried to log back in to the site my profile just wasn't there. So I gave up and sent it back, oh sorry didn't I say, this was the second unit as the first one didn't work either so it wasn't a one off.
On a good note the Customer Support is excellent, apart from once when the bloke couldn't be bothered.
Conclusion don't bother, buy from a manufacturer with experience of these things.
See all 6 user reviews