Aldi Sat Nav for £150

[Dave]

Just wondered if this is worth the £ do you think?

[Grumps]

just like the one that Medion have on their web-site for £179. Might be worth a look if it can be used as a standard PDA too.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

diversions in progress so you can avoid on the long journey. :-P

[John Cartmell]

When it says 'major' roads in Western Europe, which UK roads are likely to be missing? For use by foot/bicycle the answer should be 'none outside private estates' - but is that the case?

[Alan]

Ones like the Aldi unit don't, but if you have TomTom with their subscription service it does, and traffic, to navigate you round it.

[Broadback]

Read the survey of SatNav in (I think) the Telegraph on Saturday, not for me!

[Mike Dodd]

Hmmm, didn't read that, but I know I can rely on TomTom to get me to where I need to be far easier than paper maps. But you do have to have a backup for when things go wrong (hmmm, memories of tearing around Nerviano (Italy) looking for a company when I'd left the GPS receiver turned on overnight, and had forgotten to bring the charger).

When they work (99% of the time) they are brilliant. The remaining 1% of the time is a right bugger.

[john2]

AIUI this unit probably uses WinCE OS and hasn't got the ability to use Tom Tom for a PPC. So you're stuck with the s/w it comes with.

john2

[T i m]

Garmin GPS V .. takes 4 AA's (I normally use 2300mA NiHM) .. Duracells found in petrol stations worldwide and 20 hour battery life .. ;-)

And no stupid "Scott Scott" TV adverts .. !

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

I 'fixed' one for a bloke .. (he was plugging the power / charger lead into the earphone socket ), when powering up it took quite a long time and from memory it looked like a Windoze box. Not sure I'd want to trust my journey to Windoze anything but .. ? ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[Alan]

In message , John Cartmell wrote

It will have all the roads in the UK but they probably will have a get out clause saying 99% of the roads. Changes to major roads take around two years to appear on the maps and 'new' housing estate roads may take a lot longer.

There are only two main companies supplying maps to the SatNav manufactures, Navteq and Teleatlas and the experts claim there is very little difference between the two UK databases.

A friend of mine purchased a similar offer from Lidl a few years back and the Navteq maps were better than I had on my Tomtom unit (Teleatlas) with regards being up-to-date.

The major roads of Europe will be equivalent to Motorways and perhaps the major A roads in mainland Europe.

[Tim Morley]

Or some of the Garmins (the more expensive ones, they call it TMC I think) do it without subs :)

[Gav]

and buy for around 50 quid a gps reviever(bluetooth) yeah it's not perfect but it costs 50 quid. that model above is ok, i have seen it working at it does the job but common sense and the ability to read road signs is essential with all sat nav. so to summarise, £9.99 get you an atlas of the universe and takes time to read, £379 gets tom tom 'all whistles and bells' fitted find where you fit and buy it!

[mrcheerful]

unit which reroutes you round accidents and road works etc.

The voice is clear and the instructions usually are easy to understand. Battery life is about 4 hours.

mrcheerful

[SoWeezy]

TomTom Mobile with GPS receiver for around the same price, if not cheaper, and it's one less gadget to carry around. permanently hiding the gps receiver in your car is much easier than having to hide that gps system every time you get out of the car, or carrying it around.

JMO