Motorola has quietly released its new GPS units - MOTONAV TN20 & TN30 - and the two are going to be for sale only at RadioShack. The TN20 rocks a 3.5-inch touchscreen with NAVTEQ provided maps and more than one million searchable points of interest. The big bro TN30 is equipped with all the TN20 functions, but has a larger 4.3-inch touchscreen along with Puerto Rico and Canada maps. Allegedly, these units are available now for $199 and $299 respectfully only at Radio Shack - besides this one on eBay.
Unfortunately, Motorola has to be jonny-come-lately and join the GPS ranks. Motorola has miserably demonstrated from previous attempts at stepping outside of their core business of making cheap throw away chips/radios/phones, that they cannot meet expectations of their advertising. If you are a customer considering this, and since it is so far away from Motorola’s main business, you have to ask yourself, do they even actually make it, or is it a rebranded throw-away with no support. I have had previous bad experiences with Motorola both when they are in their core business, and outside of it. From lousy reception M70 TDMA phones, to faulty High-Dollar MPX-220 Windows smart phones, to un-rechargeable bluetooth headsets. In my opinion, everytime motorola tries to launch something new, they screw it up. In the products I mentioned above, they had rushed/poor research and development. In some cases, they did not even make the items, but rather had them produced by competitor and rebranded. Customer service/support will probably direct you to India and be useless. I think this is another one of those el’cheapo Motorola throw-a-ways. Does it have a user replaceable battery? It has been my experience with Motorola, that they use poor quality batteries in their other non-replaceable equipment (bluetooth headsets, etc) which causes an early death to the component when the battery will not charge. Who provides the map service/technology? You can almost bet it is not Motorola but a 3rd party. Does this mapping technology have the most complete roads? They state that it has 3.5 million points of interest–do you really want to know who paid them advertising to list all of the Mcdonalds/burger joints/gas/hotels–or would you rather have the most accurate city/roads/highways? Two other important things; does it have an “exactly where you are now” function–If you are traveling, have an emergency, can you tell the police/tow truck your exact loaction? Does it have a detour function, whereby you can tell the GPS that a road is under construction/blocked, etc, and have it give you an alternate route. If it does not have either of these features–ALWAYS plan on having and using an old map as the GPS is useless when you need it most. Anybody can download directions from Mapquest or Google–it is when something goes wrong, that a GPS is supposed to assist you–if it lacks detour and exact location, it is fairly useless when you need it most. My question is; why would anyone want to buy one of these, when dollar-for-dollar, you could buy a Tom-Tom or a Garmin who both have decades of research and development under their belts and the most state-of-the-art maps (with future upgrades possible) fully featured for the same price. I think Motorola needs to go back to making throw-away phones.
It uses Navteq mapping–oh god! That is what is used by my piece of crap Pioneer GPS. When trying to update online–there has not been a change since 2006 (it always tells me it has the latest) and does not update. The maps are so flawed and out of date, when driving in Florida it continously tells me that I am driving in the ocean–when driving to the west coast, several major highways are not even on the Navteq mapping software. You might as well forget major cities like Dallas–it keeps telling me to go down one-way roads THE WORNG WAY. I would definately find a different brand with “proven performance” rather than the latest fad of the week.
Also, I have found Motorola’s out-of-country customer service to be one of the worst I have ever used. It is extremely difficult to try and talk technical terms with an “English as a second language” tech person. First you wait for hours to talk to them, then, it frustrates you to death because they cannot understand you, nor you them. If their tech support goes to India for this product–I would avoid it like the plaque.
My father drives a 40 foot motorhome with a tow vehicle behind it. He travels by himself. He has had the misfortune of having piss-poor GPS mapping software send him down dead-end streets, and direct him into places he could not get out of, or turn around in, without major help and blocking traffic for hours. An accurate GPS mapping program is essential. He now runs a 720 series Tom Tom and has not had a problem in the past year. He updates it online before every trip and it has worked for him with a few minor hic-ups.
I have been trial using a Garmin Nuvi from Fryes electronic store (they let you try it for 14 days with no questions asked return if you do not like it), so far it has been working pretty good–a complete night and day difference from the Navteq mapping in the Pioneer GPS. I have been using the stipped down version. It has been my experience that when you put bluetooth handsfree capability on the GPS it doesn’t work very well. It is hard to hear the other person–and they almost can never hear you over the road noise.
Of all the features, text-to-speach (voice prompt) driving directions are extremely important–in fact, I would say mandatory. On these type of lower priced units, the possibility of mapping errors is probably higher than on premium units. You need the GPS to speak to you so that you do not have to look at the screen to know where you are going. Especially when it makes an error like sending you down a one-way street the wrong way. If you are too focused on looking at the screen, you might have an accident. If you have a voice prompted GPS that tells you the directions–you can stay focussed on the road and not the little screen of the GPS.