Navman iCN 510 review

This is my old in car navigator (until it was stolen!). I purchased it in Dec 05 at the end of its life cycle and after the 520 was launched. I was able to get a free upgrade of the maps and firmware from the manufacturer which updated the device to the same level of functionality as the newer 520 (good deal). The process of upgrading the firmware and registering the software was a little involved however I had no problems by following the instructions. You do need internet access to be able to register the software and you can't use it until this has been done. I think this is related to the upgrade rather than the standard functionality, so I assume if you don't upgrade the software then this is not required.

The hardware itself is well built and good quality. The Navman ships with 2 chargers (for the car and house), a mounting bracket for the car and a remote control I have found the screen a little glary when in the car, however it is no worse than the Magellan Explorist. The mounting bracket for the car is of very good quality and it is quite easy to realign the Navman to eliminate most of the glare on the screen. The small size is good in that it is easy to slip into you pocket when you leave your car. This is one of the key benefits of this device over some of the larger dashboard devices on the market such as Garmin and Tom Tom.

It was not immediately obvious how to get the demo mode to work, but once I got this organised it is quite easy to play around and see how things work.

The PC software is used to load the maps to the device. It can also be used to load custom Points Of Interest (POI). I have purchased speed camera and red light camera data for Australia from eBay for $20. There are a number of vendors and they do differ in what they sell - I learnt that the hard way and actually purchased another version first before getting it right. I have now purchased the data from Les Byrne which has separate files for speed cameras and red light cameras. In my opinon buying from Les is the way to go, and Les has a policy of sending you the file for evaluation first, and then you pay him if you like it. More information about Les's speed camera data is available at http://www.fixedspeedcameras.com.au

The map management software serves no function other than to load the maps to the device, unlike the DiscoverAus software from Magellan (admittedly you have to buy DiscoverAus separately). I did have a problem when I upgraded my maps to the new version - the SD card that shipped with the device was only 128MB and the newer maps were 144MB.

The Australian maps are provided to Navman by Sensis/Whereis, and despite getting the 2005 version of the maps, I have found that there are quite a few problems, particularly in regional areas. There are roads on the Navman that don't exist. I have also noted that the ETA function drastically over estimates travel time in some circumstances. I assume this is related to the maps in that they use some sort of algorithm that estimates travel time based on speed of each road segment. I have completed journeys that took 10 mins that were estimated to be 25 mins by the Navman. I have since found a website to post map errors on a forum I was looking at.

The internal battery is described as a "backup battery" and when I first started to play with it at home, it only seemed to last around 1 hour before needing to be recharged. Since then I have done some tests on the device and was able to use it continuously in the car for almost 6 hours before it fell to a critical power level. I also discovered that you can get more than an hour of operation out of the device from when the "low power" message comes up until it really needs to be charged.

Despite the manufacturer making it hard to find this out, you can use your Navman to record your track history. This is done using the logging feature with the device. You then need to convert the log file into something more useful, but it is easy enough to do.

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