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| Navigon 7100 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Navigon
Category: CE
List Price: $649.00
Buy New: $324.93
You Save: $324.07 (50%)
New (5) Used (5) Refurbished (2)
Avg. Customer Rating:  221 reviews
Sales Rank: 2475
Color: Piano Black
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: No
Tracks: Unknown
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 1 x 5 x 4
MPN: 10000140
Model: 10000140
UPC: 898110001051
EAN: 0898110001051
ASIN: B000S11K5U
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Traffic updates are great October 24, 2007
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
I took a leap of faith and I bought the 7100 primarily for the free traffic updates. I am in St. Louis and the main highway through the city is going to be under construction for the next two years or so. So far I have been impressed. The display is very nice and easy to read. I like the 3d mode vs. the 2d overhead view.
The traffic updates have been accurate and helpful in planning travel around town. Recently I was heading into Illinois for a golf outing on a Saturday morning and was surprised when the 7100 told me that the highway was closed. Thinking that is was a mistake, I ignored the unit and sure enough the highway was shut down due to an accident. After exiting it a part of town that I was not familiar with, the 7100 rerouted very quickly to get me back on track.
I also really like the Blue Tooth however I wish it would synchronize with my contact list and the speaker could be a touch louder (I drive a truck and the tire noise drowns it out a bit). On the first use it took about 5 minutes to get a signal lock, but now when I power up the unit now it get the satellite lock in less than a minute. I can see the reality view being really nice when in a strange city, but for me I don't need it in my home town were I know the interchanges.
Now my wife could get lost in the backyard and can barely turn on a computer. After teaching her how to input an address I can send her off knowing she will get there and home again. So far she keeps coming back. I recommend this unit to anyone looking for a GPS device.
 NICE BUT NOT FOR ME October 19, 2007
5 out of 26 found this review helpful
I OWN THE NAVIGON FOR 2 WEEKS AND WAS VERY DISEPOINTED.
TO START WITH THE MOUNT CAN BE USED ON CAR WINDSHIELD ONLY AND I DRIVE A TRUCK SO THE WINDSHIELD IS FLAT AND I COULDN'T USE IT.
AT NIGHT THE SCREEN IN THE LOWEST BRIGHTNESS IS TOO BRIGHT AND ANNOYING.
I WANTED TO KNOW SPEED LIMITS NOT JUST ON THE INTERSTATE BUT ON US HWY BUT THE NAVIGON DON'T HAVE THAT INFO.
I HAD TO RUN FROM CHICAGO TO DETROIT AND HAD TO USE SOME TOLLS BUT DIDN'T WANT TO GO ON IN TPK AND OH TPK SO I HAVE TRY TO GET THE ROUTH CHANGED AND THE UNIT WAS VERY SLOW TO CALCULATE.
ON INTERSTATE THE NAVIGON WILL TALK A LOT MORE THAN REQUIRED AND IT WILL NOT BE JUST " GO 100 MI " , IN INTERSTATE DRIVING EVERY CROSS INTERSTATE
WILL TELL YOU TO KEEP GOING STRAIGHT EVEN THAT YOU KNOW THAT.
IT WAS ALSO HARD TO GET TO THE POI THAT I WAS LOOKING TO FIND AND WAS HARD TO ONDERSTAND HOW TO PUT A POI IN OR HOW TO USE MANY OPTIONS.
IM TIRED OF WRITING
THERES MORE BUT YOU RTY IT FOR YOURSELF
Really enjoying my Navigon 7100! October 18, 2007
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I've had the 7100 a little over a week. I've traveled from NJ to Philly several times. And if you know anything about the Philly streets, being narrow and plentiful and one-way, a good GPS is a life-saver. Well, the 7100 has been great. No bass-ackward routing at all. I've also gone to Baltimore this weekend from NJ. No problems with the routing to Baltimore or the routing within the city... as far as I know. The 7100 not once had me doing a U-turn for no reason at all. It directed me to the proper lane in plenty of time on the highways and other two-lane roads. I love the "Reality View"!! I had no idea that the 7100 would tell me to get in a left-turn lane in advance (when there was a left-turn lane), in order to make a left turn. And vice-versa for a right turn. Nice!! Seems like the mapping software is up-to-date.
It has been a very good GPS for me. During my testing around my neighborhood and to my job from my house, routing will change depending on if you select "Fast, Optimum, Short, or Scenic". So after entering my destination to work for instance, I looked over the "turn-by-turn" routing for each of the routing selections. I found that the route that I usually drive to work, the "Short" route selection was dead-on. The "Fast" route, took me to I-295 for about 20 miles, then connected me to the route further along in my usual route to work.
I think the 7100 knows when traffic is heavier. Can this be true? Because when playing around with the "Optimum" route, when I selected a destination during 2PM, the routing was slightly different, but not worse, from when I selected the same route at 5:30PM. As a novice GPS user, my question is, do GPS units know about traffic patterns at specific times of day and route you accordingly?
All in all, I've very satisfied with this unit. I'm not a "shill" for Navigon for heavens sake!!! I could care less who owns NavTec and who writes the mapping/routing software. All I care about is getting to my destinations with no headaches or idiotic routing. And so far, the 7100 has passed my testing and real-world routing criteria and as I said previously, I'm very satisfied with this GPS device.
A clear winner for me October 7, 2007
454 out of 465 found this review helpful
I ordered my Navigon 7100 at the end of August and received it on September 7th. In the last few weeks, I have been all over .... New York City, Washington, Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, San Francisco/Oakland, California, etc. For most of those journeys I have had my Nuvi 660 next to the Navigon 7100. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Overall, my personal conclusion is that the Navigon 7100 is for me the way to go. I will be packing up my Nuvi 660 in a few days and sending it off to one of my kids.
Below I will list some Pros and Cons of the 7100. The 7100 has not by any means been flawless. But its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. And most of my complaints are easy software fixes. I feel that Navigon has gotten the message from those of us in the USA and is attempting to address our issues. They won't be here long if they don't. They may believe that they have the superior product but they may go the way of Beta in the Beta / VHS competition, if you remember that from years and years ago.
I have spoken to higher ups at Navigon and they could have brushed me off. Instead, once I got that far, I found someone willing to listen, acknowledge their shortcomings and say they will fix things. So far they have done so with the 4 GB fiasco. The rest remains to be seen. I am hopeful. I believe that they will now do what it takes. The people I have dealt with struck me as sincere and willing to do what it takes.
By the way, while I adjusted the route profile based on recommendations on forums and even from Navigon to the Optimum setting, I have found the Fast profile setting works best for me.
I also have turned off the Menu animation setting which seems to work better for me.
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Pros of 7100
Excellent screen and info. I like info and I get all I need with the 7100. I especially like the upcoming turn arrow showing up if it is a close turn to the next turn you are taking.
The 7100 adjusts for your time zone automatically. You need to do this manually on the Nuvi 660. In California my 7100 showed the correct time while my Nuvi was on Eastern time. I was only there a day and didn't bother to change it.
The 7100 makes it easy to engage the night/day mode, as well as 2D/3D mode. Though an auto setting for day/night would be a nice add-on, it is too easy to do manually to make a difference for ME. And I like the color scheme of the night view. Very cool.
Ability to block portions of route and have trip recalculated. Makes life easier if I want to avoid certain roads.
Seems to lock onto 1 or 2 more satellites than 660 when I was able to check, not always though, but a lot of the time which may help explain my next observation.
Its position in relation to the road in my observations was a bit more accurate than the 660. I would be just about passed the exit ramp when the 660 would show me just entering it.
I found the refresh rate to be a bit more frequent than the 660. While it may be an optical illusion, it seemed to be moving more often than the 660. Again, this is my personal observation and might help explain the above observation.
Reality View is excellent. It has helped me on countless highways. Once though it showed one more lane than the highway had. But it helped me navigate the right way anyway. This is probably the number one feature for me.
Lane Assist is not visible when Reality View is on, but if you hit the screen to disable Reality View (quick feature and easy to do) I often see the Lane Assist present there. Helped me getting to Oakland, Ca. airport as I exited and needed to turn left by showing me both lanes were left turn lanes way ahead of the pavement markings showing me that. Helped me to decide what lane to use for the upcoming turn.
Speed warning (caution) has helped me keep my speed where I want it to be. Though I got used to it and needed to remind myself that it isn't always there, especially on the local streets.
Time of arrival is more accurate for ME than 660. The 7100 would on short trips show 5 to 10 minutes longer to get there but ended up being closer to the actual time of arrival than the 660. On a 5 hour trip the 7100 showed arrival to be 35 minutes longer than 660 at the start. Ended up being closer to actual arrival time than 660. Nuvi kept adding time, even though trip was going smoothly. Much prefer a more conservative approach. Again this is what I experienced in my journeys.
Fairly fast recalculation of route when turn not taken (I did that intentionally at times to test it out). Though once it seemed to take forever.
Traffic info reception is excellent. External antenna not needed in major cities, but helps in outlying areas.
Windshield mount is easy to put on and take off. Stable and secure. Wobbles on occasion but not noticeably an issue for ME. Brings the 7100 closer to you than any other system I have used that I mounted on the windshield. And I found it has lots of adjustment options to get the view I wanted. Had my doubts at first, but love how it just floats near you. My Nuvi mount would fall off until I started using water on the rubber mount before attaching. Even then once or twice it came off.
Easy to spot a McDonald's on your route and by turning in its direction get to it fairly easily rather than search the POI database.
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Cons of 7100
No feature to avoid HOV roads/lanes. I have an entrance ramp near me to a major highway that is open only during morning rush hours and is only for HOV use. The 7100 always wants to take me to that highway that way. I can never use it since it is only me in the car. And the times it tells me to go that way it is closed anyway.
I enabled the feature to avoid U-Turns, but the 7100 tells me to make them anyway, even if I could easily go around the block. I could understand it doing so if I am at a dead end but that hasn't been the case. There has been a clear view of the sky and good reception at the time.
My saved destinations do not show up on the map. It would be nice to see them as I go near them. The Nuvi shows all my destinations on the map as I go by them.
Text to speech needs improvement. While I have found that most streets are named, the pronunciation is awkward. If not spelled in a conventional way it is mispronounced. Centre becomes Cen-tray. Marble is Mar-blay. Stonefield becomes Stoney-field.
Toll roads are labeled as TOL for some reason. Even though there is plenty of space for it to be TOLL. As a result the text to speech says, turn onto xx "tall"... for TOL.
Battery life is not as good as I expected. It has a nice warning though to tell you that the battery is almost gone. Maybe Navigon should check with Apple and its iPhone for a better approach.
Finding a Point of Interest if you don't know the city it is in is difficult. The Nuvi will tell you all the POIs close to you, though you have a long wait as it loads them to get to the next screen. If I want a gas station nearby it doesn't tell me if it is ahead of me or behind me. The Nuvi would give me arrows to help me see where it was. Not knowing could mean circling back to get to it rather than hit something along the way. Its POIs on the route don't give you a lot of options. I would much prefer getting a list to choose from than the ones the unit selects to position on the route I am taking.
Long start up time. Though it is a breeze when I stop for gas and get going again. It took seconds for the 7100 to crank up the times I bought gas or had a quick lunch. My Nuvi was still loading as I headed on my way. Blocks away it joined the 7100. Most of the time though (other than the quick stop routine), the Nuvi was the winner here.
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Again, these are all MY PERSONAL observations. I know others have had different experiences on many of these observations.
All in all I find the Navigon 7100 to be an excellent GPS for MY needs. And even though I paid a higher price for it when I bought it than it sells for today, I think I got my money's worth.
Is it perfect? Not at all. It has many things that could be better. Is it the best GPS I have come across and owned? Yes, I can honestly say that it is FOR ME. I have owned the Tom Tom GO, the StreetPilot III, the Nuvi 350, 360 and 660. For now, this is the one for me. I change GPS units often. Buying the newer maps was not worth it for me since if I added to that price what I could sell my GPS on ebay for it would come close or fairly close to buying a newer model. And I need the latest maps, which are outdated when they are released.
All in all, I am sold on the Navigon 7100. For ME it is a clear winner!
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10-18-07
In the last few days I have been to Memphis and Boston. I must say I am happy to report that the start up time when I get into my rental car seems to be quicker. Also, while I didn't expect to get traffic info in Memphis and almost didn't hook up the external antenna to pull in traffic, when I did I got an alert quickly about a 2 mile congestion spot on a highway on my route. I hit avoid and got diverted to side streets which got me to the hotel fairly quickly. I passed over the highway I was to go on and sure enough it was stop and go traffic. Really saved me time and aggravation.
In Boston I noticed a few things.... one is that in the underground tunnels the 7100 kept moving along the route even though the speed i was traveling showed up as 0 (zero). As some may know Boston had a major construction project (The Big Dig) that put major roadways underground. I doubt I was getting any satellite coverage as I was under water for a time as well. I liked this feature. Reminded me of my old Tom Tom that kept moving as well. My Garmin would just shut down and tell me I had lost satellite coverage. And I had no idea what my next turn or exit would be. Not so with the 7100 (at least that experience the other night). One drawback though, when I got out into open space the 7100 told me to turn right.....there was no exit ramp, nothing but barriers on the highway. After a few seconds it must have gotten its fix and all was well.
I must say it really, really proved its worth when I exited the Mass. Turnpike for my hotel. The ramps and roads were so convoluted I would have never found my way at night. In fact, I just listened to the voice guide me and for the most part kept my eyes on the road. It was great!
I did have to turn off all the POIs since there were so many in the Boston area. I wish there were a simple way to do that rather than having to uncheck all 30 or so of them one at a time. Once I did, the screen was uncluttered and easy to view.
Regarding traffic, I got an alert for a Route 9 ramp being closed. I didn't expect that one since Route 9 is not a highway though it is a major roadway, but with lights all along it.
By the way, the Hertz gate agent noticed it on the windshield and said, "That is a nice unit. What is it?" I didn't expect that and was surprised to hear him say it.
All in all I continue to be extremely pleased with my experiences.
Simple October 4, 2007
5 out of 26 found this review helpful
I know my home town very well, but now that I am out of grad school, I am traveling more and need something to help and this is doing just fine.
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