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Navman S90i Satellite Navigation Unit With European Mapping | 
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| Brand: Navman
Category: CE
Buy New: £179.99
New (5) from £179.99
Rating:  12 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 29.8
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 6.1 x 5.2
MPN: S90i
Model: S90i
EAN: 4712511701739
ASIN: B000UX1KRY
Release Date: September 11, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | • Sat nav unit for Western Europ with 4.3 inch touch screen, Western Europe maps, real time tra |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Travel across Europe taking photos as you go, with the S90i from Navman!This hybrid GPS has taken navigation to a new level. Thanks to its 2-megapixel sensor, the S90i lets you take photos of all your visits and excursions. The S90i is also programmed with NavPix, so you can choose and calculate your route based on photographic images stored in its library. You can even download images from the Navman website and save them on your GPS.The S90i also comes with a TMC antenna to keep you informed of traffic conditions, so you can avoid jams and detours along the way.The S90i provides clear, precise navigation instructions on its 4.3? touch screen, while the Navman Desktop Manager software displays a detailed summary of your travels.With its vocal guidance system, Bluetooth function and Text to Speech technology, the S90i has all your navigational needs covered.Travel in complete freedom ? and in pictures ? with the S90i from Navman.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Waiting for "Service Pack 1" January 10, 2008
Paul Mason
52 out of 54 found this review helpful
I bought the S90i to replace an old "AA Navigator" PDA sat nav as a Christmas present for my wife. Over the Christmas period, we travelled about 500 miles on a break to Cornwall and used the journey as a test & familiarization for the S90i. I also took my VDO Dayton sat nav (Navteq maps) and we completed the whole break using the S90i with the VDO Dayton as a comparison.
Dave Matthews has already given a good review of the S90i and I support pretty much all of his analysis, so I will just add a few additional thoughts. I will look at two aspects (i) does it do a good job at getting you from A to B and (ii) how usable is it, including the additional software such as TMC, TTS, POI & Bluetooth.
Point (i) does it do the job? - the answer is yes. Directions are very clear and timely which, coupled with the great display, makes for stress free navigation.........but there are a few niggles that detract from an otherwise great performance:
When compared with the accuracy of the Navteq maps, the S90i Tele Atlas maps do not seem to be as accurate. 500 miles around the South West is not a definitive test, but a couple of incidences of incorrectly identifying the number of exits at roundabouts and an attempt to direct me across a field to join the A30 in Devon had me worried. As a comparison, the Navteq VDO unit (map date early 2006) gave me all the correct data for the roundabouts and A30 junction. To see an example of the poor information, take a look at Bondhouse Lane (Devon) on Google Maps in Satellite View - this is also Tele Atlas based - and you will note that Tele Atlas thinks the road goes straight into a farmer's field! At least the map data stops the road in the field - The S90i compounds the problem by thinking the road actually joins the A30. Luckily, the VDO Dayton (with 2-year older maps) got me back on track and onto the real A30 junction 5 miles away. This particular map error has been submitted to Tele Atlas for resolution.
Another small niggle is that the S90i seems to regard dual carriageways as Motorways - so joining a main carriageway such as the A30 is accompanied by an instruction to "join the motorway". Surely, the Navman programmers could use "Motorway" for motorways and something like "Main Carriageway" for other arterial roads?
The route calculation is fast enough but I consistently found that the estimated time of arrival was over optimistic - unless, of course, you are the Stig or Lewis Hamilton. This is the opposite of the VDO unit which is highly pessimistic. Splitting the two ETA's at the start of the journey actually came close to the real outcome!
My final comment on the "getting from A to B side is the address search facility which requires the selection of the country you wish to drive to before entering an address. This is fine if you are travelling around Europe, but if you spend most of your time in the UK it would be considerably more convenient if a "Home" country could be nominated as default address base but with an option to select a different country if travelling abroad. Removing all but the UK map (via the Navdesk software provided) significantly reduces boot-up time and makes UK the default map for address input. The euro maps can be added again later when travelling abroad.
Now for point (ii) - the additional functions:
I noticed (as Dave Matthews did) that the Text To Speech (TTS) function was not working on the S90i. I could not find any ON/OFF setting for TTS and so left it until my return home to find out why. The answer came from an Australian website - which told me that only some of the Navman voices have TTS capability. The English female voice does not provide TTS whereas the English Emily voice does. Switching voices to English Emily gave me full TTS functionality. The TTS service now works really well, with good pronunciation of upcoming streets - but WHY do Navman not include this useful snippet of information in their instruction manual??. I guess there may be a number of "out of the box" users of the S90i that are using a non-TTS voice and just resigned to the TTS service not operating!
The TMC service also worked well and provided traffic information faster than the VDO unit. The setting that worked best (for me) was to limit warnings just to events occurring on my programmed route.
Similarly, the Bluetooth telephone function worked well. Pairing with a Nokia 6111 was quick and the S90i automatically pulled in the address book from the phone as soon as it paired. This function worked as well as any dedicated Bluetooth hands free unit.
The NavPix camera also "does what it says on the box" but I found the wide-angle (non-adjustable) lens just a bit too wide angle. I think that maybe the NavPix concept just does not work for me - I am happy, in hindsight, to store addresses in my favourites rather than pictures. However, if you like the concept, then yes - it works.
The inbuilt safety camera warnings only operate when travelling at a speed above 80% of the legal road speed. Travelling at 55mph along a 70mph dual carriageway will result in no safety camera warnings. This initially made me think that the notification system had an intermittent fault. As with the Text To Speech service, Navman has decided that it is not worth telling anyone about this in the instruction manual; however you can find this out if you dig around in the support section of the Navman website. Personally, I would like to be informed of ALL upcoming cameras irrespective of the speed at which I am driving, but I guess that Navman has undertaken considerable user opinion on this and concluded otherwise.
A follow on from this is that even when the safety camera warning is provided, the sound is much like the gentle tinkle of a fairy wand and not particularly attention grabbing. Driving along at 70mph with wind noise, tyre noise and passengers in the car, the warning sound can easily be missed. The on-screen warning is similarly missable being a small speed indicator in the bottom left hand side of the screen. The AA Navigator (which had many faults) at least had a full-screen visual warning which quickly alerted the driver even when the sat nav screen was positioned well away from the driver line of sight.
Something that I am still checking is that the S90i does not appear to filter safety cameras on the opposite carriageway. Travelling on the A30/A303 there were many instances where the camera warning was picking up opposite carriageway cameras and not just the ones on the direction of travel. Maybe this is just a POI accuracy issue.
POI accuracy also came to my attention when driving to a POI Petrol Station. Even though the unit is equipped with data only a few months old, the petrol station had long since been demolished and the site was overgrown with weeds and waiting redevelopment.
I have now abandoned the Navman safety camera database and disabled all the Navman built in camera POI's. Instead, I have a subscription to a third-party camera database and have installed this camera data as additional POI's. This is quite straightforward but does require connecting the S90i to a PC with internet access. Using the Navman Navdesk software, the option is also provided to install your own warning sounds. This has enabled me to abandon the standard Navman "tinkling fairy wand" sound with a decent voice warning along the lines ("Warning, Speed camera 500 yards ahead!"). Anyone wishing to do the same can record their own WAV warning files with a microphone directly on their PC.
Conclusion - the S90i is good at its main job of providing voice & screen based navigation within the limitations of the Tele Atlas map accuracy. The TTS, TMC and Bluetooth additions all work well and make this a good all-round machine. Abandoning the inbuilt camera POI's in favour of third party ones with better (home made) warning messages considerably improves the safety camera warning ability. As with other reviewer comments, the overall feeling is that this has been rushed to market with poor supporting user documentation. Assuming that Navman release "Service Pack 1" based on feedback then this has the potential to be a really good navigator, shifting from 3 stars to 5 stars. If Navman would only change to Navteq maps then all would be perfect.
I have sent a copy of this review to Navman and suggested that they might like to add their comments.
 S90i - Really great looking sat nav, does everything I need! October 21, 2007
C. Miller (Surrey, UK)
38 out of 42 found this review helpful
Just got a Navman S90i sat nav, really impressed. Looks great in the car for one thing and seems to have everything I need for navigating around. Display is very clear (much better than Tomtom or Garmin devices I've used before - graphics seem a lot nicer) and although I wasn't completely convinced at first, the NavPix camera really does come in handy. If you haven't taken snaps and used them to navigate before, it's really easy/convenient to do, even fun! So much more I could go on about but really, if you're looking to buy a 'high end' sat nav check out the S90i, I love it!
 Released too soon! November 11, 2007
E. J. Williams (Cumbria, UK)
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
I'm not normally one for writing reviews but I have just recieved my S90i and whilst i can agree with some of the other reviewers comments regarding ease of use and features, i have to say i'm not very impressed with number of problems
So far in 3 days i have encountered 5 problems with the unit, some of whch appear to stem from a Windows Vista compatability problem. The problens are:
1. Camera does not work. Each time you push the the camera button the unit resets itself
2. Does not connect to the supplied software, just sits in an eternal loop. When you disconnect it, again it resets itself.
3. Looses the bluetooth pair as a result of the above
4. Does not allow the transfer of the phonebook or messages from the phone, but does alow the recent calls list to transfer
5. Information supplied in the manuals and via the Navman wedsite is very thin on the ground at present and not particularly clear.
All in all, i feel they released the product before all the bugs had been ironed out. I'm sure a software update will arrive before long which will resolve these issues, but for the moment i regret the decision to buy this sat-nav.
UPDATE 10/12/07
Having had the system for a while now (~3weeks) i thought it was time for an update.
I would move up from 2 stars to 3 (if amazon would let me!!)as i am now more familar with the positive side of the unit especially the clarity and ease of use.
I've been communicating with NAVMAN regarding the problems for some weeks now and have been advised of an overdue software update, which may resolve most of my problems above. It was due out on the 3rd of decemeber but i have yet to see it. Not a good sign....
I have also found that the TMC aerial (my main reason for purchase)works better now i have fixed it horizontally along the bottom of my windscreen. The aerial appears to need to be very very straight so be advised! Even so travelling up the M6 i lose the signal for long periods at a time. That may not sound too bad, but after a period of time the traffic hotspots "timeout" and the unit assumes that as they have not been updated then they are cleared - bit of a problem if you are aready stuck in the traffic and there is no TMC signal.
Navman S90i is an expensive unsupported piece of junk December 5, 2007
M. Cook (Australia)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
Supposedly the cherry (or top banana) of the Navman In-Car range .... but its actually a lemon !
I have a Navman S90i. Through normal use, a bug in the operating software rendered my S90i completely and instantly useless.
It is stuck in a loop between the splash screen and a re-occurring message, with no choice of exit or any other way to break the cycle. Even turning it off for any length period does not help.
I have contacted technical assistance through the Navman website and no support has been forthcoming.
So, my lovely, brand new and top-of-the-line Navman is currently a very expensive paper-weight, as it has no other useful purpose.
You would not want to trust the S90i to get you out of trouble. In an instant, it can bug out on you ... and you are on your own.
My Navman case ID number for my reported technical problem is 419466 ... and if anyone from Navman eventually cares to get back to me about this problem ... please do so !
Excellent Navman November 9, 2007
Journeyman (Shropshire, UK)
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
Not fully used this yet but initial feel for the product is very pleasing. Goods arrived prompt and all working fine. useability of this product is ace. so user friendly and easy to get through navigation menus to source what u want. Not used camera yet but if its like the rest will be well pleased i'm sure.
Screens and menus so clear on screen and no buttons to fiddle with as all screen touch navigation. Everything on board as well from camera data to traffic info and camera to log destinations as images not post codes. great idea!
All in all this is good value form money and at a great proce on Amazon as RRP is 299 at time of writing.
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