I bought the Sony NV-U83T GPS navigation unit. Is it better or worse than other brands?

Question

This is the only nav unit I've ever used so I don't know if they're all the same or if this one is sub-standard. I'm certainly not impressed by it. The maps give very few details unless you zoom all the way in, and then the screen's not big enough to provide you with useful information.

I chose the Sony because I'd just bought a new Sony computer and I thought I'd be avoiding potential compatibility issues, but there's not a lot you can do with the unit when it's connected to a computer anyway.

Answer 1

Although Sony makes wonderful products, they have tried hard in the past 10 years to penetrate the North America  GPS PND market, sad to say they are not ready yet.

I would compare the Sony unit to a Navigon, LG, Panasonic, Alpine or even Mio portable navigation device but it is not as good as the Garmin, TomTom or Magellan.

If you wish to see the difference, rent a Garmin Nuvi 760, a TomTom 920 or a Magellan Maestro 4250 and do a side by side comparison with your new Sony, I think you will find the Sony is sub-standard and not ready for prime time.

You can rent your comparison GPS units from GPS4Rent http://www.gps4rent.com/ should you wish to do a comparison with your Sony unit.

There are no issue with the computer being compatible with all these GPS systems, most PC and Mac will work fine on these newer GPS products running MS 2000 or XP.

Good luck