Buy.com has what I consider to be a very intriguing deal on an affordable GPS system from Nokia. Inexpensive is one thing, but the $99 Nokia 500 has two features that make it worth looking at: Bluetooth for using your phone hands-free and an FM transmitter for playing music files loaded on an SD card over your car’s stereo system.
Other features:
- 4.3-inch touchscreen (16:9 at 480 x 272 pixels)
- 400 MHz Samsung CPU
- 2D and 3D view
- Turn-by-turn directions with text-to-speech
- File support for MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC+, MPEG4, 3GP, WMV, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG
- Bluetooth 2.0
- SD card reader with support for up to 16GB cards
- FM transmitter
Buy.com says that supplies are limited and this item was ranked 1,599 in popularity yesterday but is up to first place today, so get a move on if you’re interested.
Nokia 500 [Buy.com]
Aamoth you stud, you just picked out my sister’s Christmas present. Thanks buddy.
Hi,this is jack from GuangDong,China .we are mini speaker manfacturer ,it is can apply to the ipod,cellphone,mp3/4 and so on .do you have interesting?pls contact me to know details.
yes please send more information thanks jack
Everything you said about this unit but you forgot to mentioned what Map does this unit came with?…..USA, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, does it include asia?
That’s a really good question. Does anybody know?
lotsa maps on the incl. CD… North America, South America, India, Europe, UK etc. they all have diff. size files, so with the incl. 2GB SD card you can only add so many until u run out of space… if you were to replace the 2GB with a 8GB card, i think you can fit em all in… i just got my unit yesterday so havent used it enough to compare with my Mio maps. Instructions are simple to understand, bluetooth paired with my Razr pretty quickly and efficiently, FM transmitter worked on my home theater system just fine, had some difficulty catching signals at first, but now has decent strength.
How do I download maps of India for my N 500 Auto Navigation system
I bought one from Buy.com yesterday morning and it arrived today (FAST) I have the Garmin Nuvi 200w and this has much more features. It came with a preloaded USA and Canada 2 GB SD card.
I bought one yesterday and it was waiting at home when I got back from work today. Buy.com is making a serious play on Newegg with that kind of shipping. Haven’t tried it out yet though, planning on giving as gift for Christmas. What do you think of it beyond features? I love my nuvi 205.
I ordered one in haste before I left for the day. When I came home I surfed for some info on the unit. Sad to say, Nokia does not appear to support or acknowledge this product on their website, and neither does the map supplier. No retailers have it in stock, which adds to my concern. I tried to cancel, but it was to late to do so. Can any of you who have the unit offer any encouragement? Without map updates, tech support, etc., it will be a write-off in short order.
Nokiausa.com sells this Gps on their website for $500 so this is not an item they don’t support ! This is a fantastic unit at a super price ! :)
Here is the link ;
http://www.nokiausa.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_934301
I just received my GPS yesterday. I purchased from Buy.com as well. The big selling point for me was the Bluetooth. I’m in CA. and hands free is required. The unit will not pair with my IPhone so far but, I’ve only tried ten times. If all else fail, I’ll read the manual!
Mine paired fine with my iPhone, but won’t work for calls… I did get the contacts to upload, but no luck otherwise.
got it yesterday for $99. I just used it and it does not speak the names of streets or exits. It just says turn right, turn left. Follow route…tried to load US maps on it from the DVd and the sd card is only 2gig. Not enough room for the download. Do I have to go buy a 16gb sd card now?
I bought one of these for my wife and I must say I’m very impressed with it for the price. Very good unit.
Debra, to enable text-to-speech (tts) you must select a voice that has this option. I believe there are 2 of them pre-loaded on it. :)
Mine arrived today and I am hesitant to open it for fear that then I will be unable to return it ( which I doubt you can, anyway). All this talk about maps and sd memory. I expected that the maps would be stored in internal memory, not the SD chip. The “features” tout the SD memory to be for music, pictures, video, etc. It makes little sense to have the maps stored on the same chip that one would use for music, etc.. Anyone else have any more answers about that aspect of this unit? Has anyone delved any further into the warranty, tech support, or even Nokia’s acknowledgement of this unit? What have you all found out?? Thanks …… Ed
Thanks Joe V. You were right. :0)
I am thinking I would still need a 16gig
sd card for a movie.
Seems like a good deal as far as I’ve gotten.
Something else I just thought of ….. a few weeks ago I purchased a Jabra handsfree speaker for cell phones that has the FM transmit capabilities as this unit does. The frequency range is only FM 88.1 to 88.9 tho, and unfortunately in my car I pick up distant radio signals or “hash” across that band of frequencies. Is the Nokia limited to that spectrum also??
Thanks …..
Ed, This GPS is not limited to the same range as your FM transmitter, I’ve used 87-101 FM range so far with out an issue. When traveling across states the FM transmitter presets where very handy. :)
Well that certainly is good news Joe! I greatly appreciate your response and your input here. Still haven’t decided to break the seal, tho! The map memory thing just does not make sense, to me anyway!
Ed
Joe … I just found the User Manual on Nokia’s Europe web site. You are correct, maps are on the SD. Found another bothersome fact in the manual …. the battery will wear out after “several Hundred” cycles, and is not replaceable! I interpet that to mean a useful life of only 600 hrs optimum for the device …. then you toss it away??
Nope, just means you’ll want to use it plugged into your car lighter socket — which I generally do anyway.
I got mine fo $99.00
Sweet deal, the only problem is that it looks like the bluetooth ill not pair with iPhone? Si that right? Did anyone was able to pair it succesfully with iphone?
Haven’t received mine yet but from what I’ve read it’s a very good deal. Noticed a comment above that Nokia doesn’t have this product on the website but it’s available at (http://www.nokiausa.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_934301). Looked at the list of compatible phones and they only list Nokia products :(
does not appear to play wma music even though says supported…MP3 is fine
yes Buy has been nice about expediting shipments even when you choose the free shipping option
I paired with my HTC ATT Tilt without a problem, so probably a iPhone specific issue above
First day use – battery seems to drain quickly or may be has been in inventory for a while
Well, I finally decided to open the box and see for myself. I charged ‘er up and set out to program it. The unit paired immediatly with my AT&T LG Shine720, but would not download contacts. I find that disappointing as I had hoped to have an alphabetical list of my contacts so I would not have to fumble with the phone. I could not find a way to enter contacts manually with names … can anyone help with that?? This is my first GPS, so I was amazed that it showed my house address when I turned it on. The text to speech for streets is great! The US maps were pre-loaded and there is about 900MB left on the SD chip ….. not bad! I am still concerned about the battery …… is this indeed a non-replaceable battery?
I just got this morning. Looks nice…good price…..but I can’t enter address…it says no such address….I don’t know what should I do……
good unit but the most important reason why i bought this is the blutooth and it doesnt work. i have the iphone and the wife has the curve none of them work it transfer the name but no number.
able to put songs couple of movies on 2gig.
price is good but cant put contact.
any body tried to wotk with their iphone or curve? any success?
regards
good unit but the most important reason why i bought this is the blutooth and it doesnt work. i have the iphone and the wife has the curve none of them work it transfer the name but no number.
able to put songs couple of movies on 2gig.
price is good but cant put contact.
any body tried to wotk with their iphone or curve? any success?
regards
I’ll try to reply to several of the questions asked already.
It’s a good buy for $99 — if you don’t want yours, I’ll buy it from you! :-)
It connected with my Razr cell phone and downloaded the contacts right away.
The 2 Gig SD card (provided) should be able to hold all the maps one would use. Face it, who is going to drive in North America, Europe, and South America all at once ? ! ?! ?! ?! ?
All you have to do is connect the GPS to your computer with the SD card in the slot and you can “drag and drop” files (music, pics, etc., onto folders on the card. There is a utility on the CD to move map data on the CD to the SC card. You can also delete unnecessary map data (like Europe if your in the US) from the card, therefore making more space for your pics and music (if you must have such on your GPS).
The battery doesn’t last very long (about 2 hours) but you’re provided a DC connector (and it also works with a Razr DC connector with the mini USB connector)
Some of the logic to load an address, go to a place, etc., isn’t the most intuitive, but if you practice with it you’ll find it’s pretty doggone good.
I got my nokia 500 from Buy.com a few days ago.. First thing the sd card was missing. I haven’t contacted them yet, but I had a spare 2G card and loaded the mapping from the cd. I haven’t had time to try it on the road yet. I’m trying to enter an address and I can’t seem to enter the zip code. That’s where I’m at now. The Nokia euro site ( http://europe.nokia.com/A4577610 ) has a downloadable Update Wizard which you need to install to update the latest software version, which mine doesn’t have. It will walk you thru the update process (or so they say), I haven’t had the time to try it yet. So far I’m not too optomistic.
Anyone else have a problem entering addresses?
Mike, mine is also missing the micoSD and adapter listed on buy.com’s page. I wrote to both buy.com and nokia(from their website) on Nov 7th. Buy.com replied saying, they cannot help me, I need to contact Nokia. No response from from Nokia yet. Did you get yours yet? Whom did you contact? thanks
I sent an email to Buy.com customer service and haven’t heard back yet. I guess it can be returned, but I used a spare 2G card I had and loaded the mapping on it. I still haven’t checked it on the road yet, but it seems to be working ok so far. It’s still a good deal w/o the sd card which is worth about 10 bucks. If I contact Nokia, I’ll try the europe site which seems to deal with the 500 navigator product including FAQ’s. BTW, that site says the voice recognition feature only works with the female voice. Keep me posted on that sd card rip off……Thanks
As you suggested I tried to use the European site. But, it asks for location, selecting US forwarded me to NokiaUSA.com site. So, I tried Finland, the web site was not English. Finally, I called Nokia USA 1-800 number. Nokia USA told me they cannot help, and Buy.com is responsible for the missing part. I agree that I can buy the SD from elsewhere. But, I was expecting better customer service from both Buy.com and Nokia. I didn’t expect them to cheat (rip me off).
Hope you have better luck with these scumbags.
Cy……I contacted Nokia by phone, and they said they can’t back up second party sales. So I emailed them and said even if they didn’t believe the problem was theirs, A reputable company like Nokia should make good on such a minor problem anyway for the sake of good customer relations. I got another email saying they would like to help me but Nokia doesn’t supply micro cards anymore and the 500 navigator can’t use the full size card. My last email to them proved them wrong re the sd card compatibility based on info from their own site. As far as Buy.com is concerned see my response to Ed.
Hey Mike! I’m sitting here trying to figure this thing out also. The manual sure is lacking in specifics. I haven’t looked at the CD tho! Anyway, you select destination,.. address, …. zip code … enter the zip and then tap the little “magnifying glass” (search) in the lower right corner. You will then be offered county selections for that zip …..and again the key is that you have to tap the search symbol. Be sure to Bookmark it if you want to save. You can save and retrieve under the Favorites on the Destination page.
I’m still trying to figure out how to manually enter a phone contact. That list is not on the SD … must be in internal memory. Good Luck!
Thanks for the address input hints. Just a note on the cd….it contains the contents of the cities file (I don’t know why the name, but it contains all the mapping) and a copy of the manual, which is identical to the hard copy. After loading the new sd card, I checked the software version and it was V1.0.62 which is not the latest. I don’t know what version the sd card that is normally packed with the unit has, but the cd doesn’t have the latest.
Hey Mike! Mine came with the SD card loaded with the US maps. It is a standard sd card, not a micro SD. Took the unit out today … the voice directions were great, only made one mistake, telling me to turn right when the plotted course showed left. Not to cool if you do not watch the display! Never had a GPS before so I do not know how common that is. Another thing that happens is if I pan out, the scroll block takes off on it’s own and bottoms out … displaying the entire North American Continent. Then … I cannot get it to move up to a useable scale. Also, I had hoped to be able to use the voice command dialing with my LG phone since it will not load the Contact List, but no dice. It will only voice dial the downloaded #’s. The battery does’t last long when driving …. I wonder what effect leaving it plugged in when in use has on the battery! They warn against leaving it plugged in when charging, but I assume that means when not in use. I have not found any active tech support from Nokia’s site, USA or Euro. Bummer!
Ed……I got a chance to check it on the road yesterday, just a short trip in the neighborhood. It misnamed some streets and routed me in strange ways around local streets that didn’t make sense. I don’t know if the version I’m using needs updating (I’m using the disk download). In the meantime I wrote Buy.com a complaint re the missing sd card, and today I get an email telling me they’re sending me a new order along with a prepaid return label which I never requested. Strange. I thought they ran out of them. As far as the battery, I have another navigator that I’ve used for years, and I always keep it plugged in the car on my trips to FL.
I’m slowly coming to the conclusion it wasn’t such a bargain afterall!
I must agree with you Mike, especially with TomToms and Magellans showing up for the same price. I really bought this one for the bluetooth phone feature, but that is a wash. Seems they designed a GPS around their own phones …. big mistake. My wife’s Samsung works with it tho …. go figure! I wish Buy.com had been more upfront about the deal …… I’ll bet there is no way to get a refund on this purchase, unless, of course, this was Nokia selling them directly thru Buy.com. Whatcha’ think?
I missed this buy.com deal. Does any one know if this supports voice commands like the Magellan (higher priced units). What I mean is say starbucks to find nearest starbucks.
If someone wants to ship their unit to me I will buy it from you. Send me a message. I have seen these selling on ebay for just over hundred (netting seller below $99 after ebay & paypal fees).
I just bought the Nokia 500 from Buy.com for $92.00 + shipping. I’ve been watching their website daily and finally the price dropped. It’s around $150 now.
Welcome David! I hope you will share your experiences with the 500. I must say the Bluetooth/cell phone feature is fantastic! Much better clarity and sound quality than the $80 Jabra speakerphone I bought at Costco. Using the 500 with multiple phones is a snap! I did find a way around the inability to download my contact list from my LG phone, sorta. While paired, tapping favorites allows you to program in phone #’s that will autodial. Only problem is I cannot find a way to enter a name with the #. The navigation is precise and fun for me … a first time GPS user. I still have a problem with it zooming out full scale when I tap the “-” on the scale bar. Recalibrating the screen did not help. Cannot zoom back in after that happens. Has anyone found any active support from Nokia yet??
Received My Nokia 500 Yesterday and have had time to play with it. Ed you are right about the zoom issue. Sure would be nice if they did one firmware update before moving on to their next Gps unit or even giving up on them all together since they purchase Navteq. I new it was a gamble to purchase this unit, due to lack of information on websites. Seems as though Nokia is almost ashamed of this unit. Sad, because it could be great. I’m going to try the navigation today to see how it works. After about fifteen minutes of playing with it I was able to work everything. Adding pictures, movies and pictures is nothing to. However, a upgrade in sd card is in order. I have the Verizon Motorola Krave and it works flawlessly. Contacts downloaded. Really simple to do. Oh one more thing. The POI is ridiculously small. Does anyone know a way to update? Looked on the card and I’m not sure but there is a .cdt file that is 164 mb so that might be it. Will have to do some research on this one.
Well I had another day to play with the Nokia 500 and there are somethings I like and dislike.
Pros:
Price – $92.00 + $7 shipping
size – 4.3 is better than 3.5
Amount of features
Mp3 good
Video good
TTS – good
TMS – doubt I’ll use it due to where I live
Bluetooth – Works great with Verizon Krave
Gps from what I have used seems to be accurate
Cons:
*FM Transmitter is fair. I tried on the weakest station signal and it works, but there is still static in it. Usable yes, great no
*POI – Let’s face it, the POI’s are very small. Almost embarrassing to use. It does have some key ones in it, but from researching it seems as though you can not add custom poi’s as you can with TomTom and Garmin. I doubt they are going to do any updates either.
*Alpha keyboard entry – This should of been qwerty like everything else. Sucks to go back and forth using these types of entry.
*Little to no support from Nokia’s website or anywhere as to matter of fact. I haven’t call or contacted them for anything, but I dread the day if I have too. Last firmware update was in March of this year. I’m sure they have found more bugs in the system or decided upon enhancements. Leads you to wonder what there motive is!
*The unit doesn’t power on from standby when external power is applied. Goes the same for powering off. It’s my understanding that the Garmin’s do this feature.
Overall Like I stated before. For the price you can’t beat it, but if this unit was lets say $250 – $300, then I doubt there would be this much conversation about it. Most people are internet savvy and do research before buying something. At least I hope they do. In all honesty, it was the price that sold this unit because there is basically zero information on this unit out. With Garmin and TomTom you know what you are getting.
Well, it seems mine is a lemon too. Beautiful looking, but still a lemon. I tried 4 phones, but none managed to wake Nokia’s BT up. Phones locate N500, but not other way around. Half the value of this unit is gone then.
I tried to do things from the scratch by resetting unit to factory settings. It fried software instead: now my only option in voiceskins is male voice (Canadian English, no less). I thought I loaded maps from SD card, but when I tried to insert another one with music, unit became unusable (maps remained on the card!). Go figure.
It does work well as a GPS device, but nothing more.
Ouch! That hurts, Dries! Been awhile, and cannot remember the BT pairing sequence, but when your phone found the Nokia and you entered the “0000″ code in the phone, what did the 500 do? Just curious ……
The music thing has me wondering also. As I see it, the maps do not load into whatever internal memory this thing might have. It accesses the SD card as needed (I think). So removing the card disables the GPS function. I guess you have to put the music on the same card …. but does one have to create a folder on the card and copy the MP3’s to that folder? What would you name the folder??
My latest glitch is trying to use the FM transmitter function. Setting up the 500 with an unused FM freq., sound thru the radio is very weak. If I place my hand near the 500, it becomes loud and clear … I suppose my body acts as an antennae. Whats’ with that?? Anyone???
It is difficult to believe Nokia would market such a device, troublesome and lacking as it is. Maybe it’s me ….. I dunno!
I hope others will jump in and share their knowledge and experiences as time goes on!
Indeed, it’s odd that a company like Nokia would launch such half-a** product. $99 is OK for a cheap GPS, but N500 retails for several times more (unless Nokia knowingly unloaded a batch of defective units to a discounter. That happened before).
When my Moto E6 located N500, the latter rejected it number of times. It didn’t even blink.
Another major hassle is awful battery life. It drops 50% within 30min & USB connection is getting wobbblier & wobblier. Now it only charges when unit is flat on my desk & cable is tilted left at slight upward angle. Really rugged ;-), but then it was made in China.
My old Taiwan-made Garmin 330 is a tank compared to N500. Good battery life, turns itself off, intuitive, easy to use etc. Bad thing Garmin charges $80 for basic maps update. I gambled $99 on Nokia & lost.
Ed, I didn’t even get to using FM transmitter. Might be a good thing. LOL.
Hello Dries!! You are not making my day! (LOL) I was concerned at the outset when the manual described all the things that could damage the battery, and then tell you that the battery is not replaceable! That makes the 500 a $300 disposable! How “Green” and sensible is that, Nokia? A question tho … you discuss charging on your desk. Did you get an AC charger with yours?? I do not see anywhere in the manual that it can be charged thru the USB data cable. I’ve been charging mine in the car. It takes a long time, for such a short operable period. That large 4.3″ screen uses a lot of power, I assume. Oh, BTW, I see they raised the price to $129.95! Trying to make us feel better, I guess! (VBG)
Take care …..
Hello Dries!! You are not making my day! (LOL) I was concerned at the outset when the manual described all the things that could damage the battery, and then tell you that the battery is not replaceable! That makes the 500 a $300 disposable! How “Green” and sensible is that, Nokia? A question tho … you discuss charging on your desk. Did you get an AC charger with yours?? I do not see anywhere in the manual that it can be charged thru the USB data cable. I’ve been charging mine in the car. It takes a long time, for such a short operable period. That large 4.3″ screen uses a lot of power, I assume. Oh, BTW, I see they raised the price to $129.95! Trying to make us feel better, I guess! (VBG)
Take care …..
Buy.com didn’t raise their price. It was being sold through Buy.com by ANTOnline for $100. Here’s the original description I read from dealnews.com: “ANTOnline via Buy.com offers the Nokia 500 In-Car GPS Navigation System, model no. 02702Z1, to $90.30. With $8.03 for shipping, it’s $2 under our mention from November and the lowest total price we’ve seen.”
They must have sold out because the Buy.com listing now shows the GPS as sold by Buy.com directly at $129. HOWEVER, if you go to ANTOnline’s Web site, you can buy it for $90.30 + $10.21 for shipping. That’s not much more than when it was sold thru Buy.com earlier today.
Since I always charged my Garmin via computer USB, I tried the same with Nokia. It works just as well. Nokia’s manual is overdue for serious editing.
Hey guys…….Here’s my experience with the infamous Nokia 500:
REVIEWS- There are many reviews out there, just google “Nokia 500 review”. Here’s a few:
http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navigation/nokia-500-auto-navigation/4505-3430_7-33175920.html
http://www.yournav.com/content/review/434/Nokia-500-solid-but-lacks-subtlety.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/24/review.nokiagps/index.html
http://www.navigadget.com/index.php/2008/03/10/nokia-500-review
SUPPORT- When I got mine, it was missing the 2G map card. I contacted Nokia support site:
http://europe.nokia.com/A4577610
After a few emails with customer support they sent me a map loaded 2G SD card within a couple of days. Meantime I used the Nokia cd to load the maps on a spare 2G card I had, and that worked just fine.
BATTERY POWER- Not that great staying power, but I have another navigator and I never really ran it entirely on battery power for any length of time. In the car it’s always hooked up to the charger while in use (and that doesn’t harm the battery. The harm comes when it’s left on charge for long periods without being used). I’ve charged the nokia with the included charger and with a 110v to usb type and they both work fine.
FM TRANSMITTER- I loaded the same map card with a music folder as instructed by the manual and it played perfectly over my car radio even on stations that were broadcasting weak signals.
BLUE TOOTH- I can’t say much here since I don’t use it.
PERFORMANCE- I haven’t made a long trip with it yet, but my road test locally was very accurate. The text to voice is only available with the english speaking woman’s voice. Odd, but so what. The manual zoom is a problem but there is auto zoom whenever you slow down if that’s any consolation. Hopefully future software updates will correct this.
COMPLAINTS- My only complaint is the humongous windshield support.
Mike
When they say a Video – Do they mean a DVD can be downloaded
to an SD card (say 16gb) and viewd on this GPS?
thanks
Debra you can use a program called DVDFab that turns dvd in a drive to a selected format. For the Nokia 500 that would be .mp4 You can search the web for software that will to do this for you. An average dvd movie is 5-7gb. Programs like DVDFab compress it down to fit your screen size. The end result is a watchable movie that is only about 500mb. That means with a larger sd card you can have several hours of movies, music and pictures. Great world we live in.
P.S. Make sure the sd card is a SD High-Capacity (SDHC).
Thanks David. VERY helpful!
I recently purchased mine at Buy.com for $129 a few days ago, but Amazon has recently lowered their price down to $129 too.
Now to the issues or misunderstadings that some people are having.
Powering up from standby works both under battery power mode or charging mode. All you need to do is hold down the top power button for about 2-3 seconds and let it go. It will come on trust me I’ve done it.
BT pairing only works on some phones not all phones…duh. There are different versions of BT as well as differet BT mode support so don’t expect every phone to work with this Nokia 500…duh. My LG CU500 pairs fine and the speaker phone works great, loud and clear. My contacts however would not upload so I have to make calls using my handset, not a big deal.
You can charge this Nokia PND through USB so any charger that works as a USB power outlet will work as a charger. USB standard output voltage is 5V. At home I use an old Motorola USB cellphone charger, it’s rated 5V and 550mA. The Nokia car adapter is rated 5V and 1A. It takes longer to charge with my Motorola charger because the current is about half of Nokia’s car charger. Slow charging is better anyway since there’s little risk of overcharging if you forget to unplug the charger after the battery has been fully charged.
The memory card that came with my unit is an official Nokia brand 2GB SD card NOT microSD or miniSD. It comes with folders already created for MP3, VIDEOS, and PICTURES as well as CITIES for the maps. I copied all the files and folders from the 2GB card onto my 16GB card and it works without a problem. Music and videos play, however it seems the videos have to be below a certain resolution and framerate. I have to play around with encoding different videos to see what the optimum resolution/framerate is. The 4 product demo videos that are included on Nokia SD card are of the following specs. I will try and see if I can make a video that runs at 25 FPS since 15 FPS is not very good IMO.
Audio – AAC, Stereo, 44.1 kHz
Video – MPEG4 480×276 15 FPS
Bitrate – 768kbps
Finally if you want your battery to last longer just turn down the brightness and leave it in batterysave mode where the screen dims after 30s secs.
Some other things that I’d like to mention. The windshield mount is very high quality/sturdy and made in Germany. The suction cup is not your standard mill. You have to operate the lever when mounting/dismounting which creates a very strong and reliable suction.
For the little money that I paid for my unit, it’s a great deal. It does what it’s supposed to do with a nice big 4.3″ widescreen and includes BT speaker phone capability. The built-in nonreplaceable battery isn’t a big deal because this will be mainly used in the car not carried around in my pocket. Regardless the battery will likely last a few years when used strictly as a portable which is the same as any IPOD or IPHONE. In a few years PNDs with the same features as this Nokia will be dirt cheap so when my battery dies I could just buy a new better unit.
I just found out that this thing also plays lossless WAV files too. Now I’m gonna try and see if it can play lossless WMA files.
Finally got to using the GPS in my car and I’m very happy. The FM transmitter not only works with music but it also works with the navigation voices as well as the BT calling function. I got everything to play through my FM stereo loud and clear. I do get static every now and then when driving but not too often. I also did have a problem with the FM transmitter turning off after 1 min of inactivity but I found an easy solution and that is to have a song play in the background which keeps the FM transmitter continuously on. An even better solution is to make a *silent* MP3 or WAV file and have that play in repeat mode in the background to keep the FM transmitter from automatically turning off. I’ve found that this is really only an issue if you want the navigation voices to playback through your stereo. The Nokia has its own speaker so the voices can playback through that too if you don’t want to fiddle around with the FM transmitter.
Bought a Nokia 500 for my wife for an early Christmas present. I was hoping this would help her in her car, as I have a Prius and she’s come to love the built in nav and BT integration ;)
Anyway, she had a Blackberry Pearl. Pairing went fine, but no contact numbers uploaded. Her Pearl was defective, so she got a Curve. Again, BT pairing went fine, but no numbers uploaded. In addition, although the voice dialing prompt is transmitted to the 500, it will not accept the command. I saw that somebody said that only the numbers in the 500’s contact list can be dialed, and since they did not transfer… no dice. Also, would pair with my iPhone, but only a few numbers transmitted over.
Bottom line… if a company is going to tout BT integration… then it damn well better integrate with more than just Nokia phones! And while some people have stated that dialing the phone is not a problem… IT IS. Why have BT integration if you have to fumble with the telephone to dial it? That’s silly, and dangerous. Better to not even have the feature integrated… and I would have purchased a SEPARATE BT handsfree system!
Hi – I just bought this GPS but can’t seem to turn on the text-to-speech function on the GPS. I wonder if I have some European model? Under voiceskins, I only have one option and that is to select “male” voice. Nothing else. I don’t see any other options with “TTS”. Does anyone know how to resolve this? Are there more voices available for download off of the User Manual DVD? Thanks!
Nokia 500 GPS, A tip for all, those of you who cannot get it to speak street names, well it’s simple, go to language setting and set it to english US, Not Canada english, go to voice and set it to female (tcc) done, I spent a day trying to solve this, if you set it to canadian english it only gives you male voice option.
wow, i was hoping someone figured out how to make a blackberry transfer the numbers as well as the contact names during the contact download process. Any techies out there, can you think of the reason why it’s not working… why only the names are transferred?
don’t have a blackberry to try transpher, however, mabye it does only transpher the names, after that you might beable to edit your contacts on gps and fill in the rest?
For those having problems downloading contacts for BT. It will ONLY download contacts that are saved to your phones internal memory. If you have your contacts saved to the sim card , the will not be downloaded.
Here’s a little longer review I have on amazon regarding this gps. I also got it for $99.99 at buy.com.
I purchased this gps from another vendor for $99.99. Great price for the features, which include 4.3″ screen, Text to speech, Blue Tooth, and FM transmitter. For the price, you just can’t beat this. There are two short falls for this. One, is the way in which you enter the address. If comparing to a garmin, this gps requires more information. Here’s the thing. If you’re entering an address for a rural area. You have the option of entering a zip code. You dont’ need to. But you may find out that it cannot find the street name for the give city you’v entered. So, you have the option of going back and entering a zip code. But really, how many people will know the zip code of an area other than their own home address. But, once you enter the zip code for a rural area, it then breaks down the zip into a smaller area per zip. So in my case, when looking for my home address, I needed to konw the township of the zip code that I was interested in. Now really, who would know that? This is the biggest flaw for this device. I don’t see this as an issue for a city zip, but the rural areas, yes. Once it’s found the address, no problem this thing works great. One last issue. There is the ability to zoom out on the map. But there is a bug in the firmware in that if you hit the zoom button too fast, it will zoom all the way out to the world view of the map. Then you cannot get back to your local view unless you end your navigation, and then start over. This is not a problem, you just end the current navigation, then start again and you can choose recently found and then you’re done. But it it an annoyance. For those that found the FM to be a problem, I think the issue is that it uses the dc power cord for part of the antenna. I noticed that if I used the FM just from battery power, there was static and not a very good connection. But if I had the GPS plugged into the power, it was great. No problem. And for those that could not get the gps to download contacts from their phone, you must konw that it will only download contacts that are stored in the phones internal memory. If you have your contacts saved to the sim card, they will not down load. So bottom line, I would give this a 5 star, if it were not for the address entery, which is really the basic funtion that a gps should be able to do, and do well. Hope this review has helped some people decide on their purchase of this gps. One last note. In all honesty, it would appear that Nokia has entered this gps into the North American market as an afterthought. The reason I say this is that the bugs that I have listed, are a very easy and quick firmware update. If Nokia was serious about this product in the US, then the bugs I’ve listed in this review, would be a simple firware update. But I don’t get the feelling that Nokia is concerned about us in the US.
Glenn you nailed it. After making my first gps unit a Nokia 500 and followed by a tremendous amount of research before and after, I just took the gamble . The Nokia 500 is not a bad unit, it just needs some updating. I wouldn’t recommend this unit to anyone that wasn’t a tech savvy person. Let’s face it, if you bought it just for the navigation and poi’s then you made a terrible mistake. A Garmin Nuvi 200W that has sold for around $140 before on sale. The bottom line is if you get this unit for around $100 then it’s worth it, but I seriously doubt that Nokia will do any updates to this unit. Sad very sad. Stick with Garmin. They do update their software, maps and poi’s. Frequently!
I got this today but can’t figure out how to charge it; the USB cable to the computer doesn’t charge. Do I have to charge it in the car ONLY?
Doug – YOU ROCK! Thanks for answering my previous post about charging – apparently the amber light comes on when it is charging and turns green when it is finished. I’ll just plug it in and let it go until it is charged! Thank you. Happy New Year all! nhnonna in lakeport nh
Now I’m stumped! I got the green light after charging the Nokia 500 GPS, but when I hit the power button, nothing comes on the screen. What am I doing wrong?????
MY APOLOGIES FOR WASTING ANYONE’S TIME – I have to LEARN to READ THE MANUAL BEFORE I go on to this site. I am just fine – read up on it and I’m moving along just fine now. Again, I’m sorry I wasted the time of those that had to read these messages. nhnonna in Lakeport NH
I got this poor excuse for a gps as a Christmas gift and two days later packed it back in the box and gave it back to my parents. I tried to find a car dealership which was supposedly 3.2 miles away and I got sent down the NYS Thruway for 70 miles. The map is very inaccurate and jumps around in map mode when you pass every street as if it expects you to turn dow one of them. I would not recomend this gps unless your sole purpose is to get lost.
Got a real factory GPS in one car. Bought the Nokia 500 for the second car. Set a 25 mile trip on it and the rout it wanted/insisted that I take would have taken me up Mountain Road that is a 4 wheeler Jeep type of roar over the mountain. No place for a car. Glad it was in my area and I didn’t follow the GPS. It seems to take weird roads and alleys. Would not recomend it. It’s nothing like the other GPS in my other car.
To the person who can’t turn it on — use a pencil to slide the ON switch on the bottom of the unit. Does anyone know where to get an AC charger?
hi
can anybody tell me for sure if Puerto Rico’s map is included?
so i wont loose my money
thanks
I live mainland states and I tried looking up streets in San Juan and it worked for me. So I guess yes is the answer.