Reviews

Good product. Works as described. Only get it if you need to use your GPS unit indoors.

As many reviews have suggested, I also had a Garmin Nuvi 660 that had been slowly getting worse and worse reception until it finally would get no signal at all. I had it for over 3 years and traveled extensively with it, so figured it was just the end of the road. I read something about trying this product and figured it was worth a shot for the price. This completely fixed the problem, and in fact, never have any issues with the unit trying to find satellites. The only drawback is that for traveling purposes, having to takes this along is a bit of a headache. (I'm talking about on planes and using rental cars.) As I have stopped traveling and can just keep it in one car, then it is not really an issue. Overall, very pleased. It saved me from having to buy a new GPS.

For whatever reason, my nuvi stopped acquiring satellites... this external antenna works great and saved me from having to purchase a new GPS... a superb investment!

How can you go wrong? Works like the original Garmin external antenna without the price of the original.

Worked with my Garmin nuvi 755T. I didn't need to use it going over the Rocky Mountains but it seemed to increase signal strength in areas of my house that usually drops a bar or two.

Reviews

Nice concept,but won't work for me. Clips are hard to get to and if your Vent vane is loose the mount will swing back and fourth on turns. Using suction mount for now.

I purchased this vent mount just to see if it would be sufficient and since the windshield mount would not remain attached, not to mention the theft-inviting attribute of the windshield mount. The unit is very good once attached. Attaching and removing the unit is difficult since the pressure points where the clips are opened are very difficult to operate. This difficulty is enhanced by the fear that the unit could be broken fairly easily. Once attached, it is very good overall--enough adjustment is provided for angle and rotation, and on my 2 vehicles, the unit is stable without excess movement or vibration. This has been born-out with a 3200 mile trip to Mexico on rough roads, especially in the Mexican interior--possibly due to the tight clamping that is unfortunately part of the hassle factor of removing/attaching to vents--while mounted in a 2004 4X4 Supercrew on round AC vents (which is recommended against by the mount manufacturer). Depending on the vehicle, leaving the unit on the mount is much less inviting to thievery vs. dash or windshield mount. Removing the GPS unit that I have (see my review of Magellan Maestro 3220 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-to-Speech) leaves an even decreased theft-attraction, and again even less when removing the GPS backplate attached to the vent mount. 4 stars due to overall effectiveness but be forewarned per removing and attaching hassles to AC vents.

Reviews

Can only agree with inetcruise - not only did I find the connection loose and unreliable but in trying to get it to operate correctly, the connector broke off completely. Spend a bit more cash for better quality.

Never connects snugly. When I use my regular wall outlet power adapter, I get a snug connection -which charges my GPS, but with this car power adapter, it's not charging it cause it won't stay snugly in place. What a POS.

Reviews

This makes the 8th (eighth) Navman I have purchased in as many years. I buy them for my wife for her hobby,horseback riding. They only last a year so warranty does not help. Also trying to register them is so hard it's almost not worth it, They don't include a warranty card in their paperwork and the website is a dead end.Also no phone number to call to register. I wish I could find another product like it that she could use. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

I bought two, one for me and one for my girlfriend. That was over five years ago. Mine just went bad. My (ex)gitlfriend bought a more expensive GPS and now is going to give me her W300 (thats what it was called then). When it goes bad I will buy a more expensive GPS. But over 5 years of constant use isn't bad.

I received this GPS as a gift. After the first few weeks, the display went bad and it no longer shows my speed or distance. Nothing works to change the display anymore. I would invest in something more worthwhile. It was a waste of good friends money!

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!! Mine worked ok first few times then wouldn't display correctly; it would also turn off on its own. Just not worth your money. Only will give a lot of frustration.

Well, it was good for about 5 weeks after that it just died. No battery replacement would bring this baby back to life. At least I got to keep the arm band. Save your money.

Reviews

You have to input your address search twice to get this unit to make it work; there have been a few times it will not find the address that you may be looking for in its database. If you try to run both the navigation software and all the other database software it seems to slow down its processing speed. If you ever lose battery power completely you will have to reload the navigation software all over again! I do NOT particularly recommend this unit (even though I own one!)

Horrible software - very hard to enter addresses. Lets say you're looking for restaurants, you'll need to enter a 'Area'. So you enter a city - it will bring up several options with the same city name. You don't know which to choose. It cannot serach for POIs based on the current location. Worst gizmo investment I ever made.

I got this as a gift in Christmas of 04. All the other things you have read are basically true: good value, lots of accessories included, everything you need is in the box, except a decent sized memory card. I was very impressed for the first couple of weeks of use. No database or software is going to be perfect, so I can understand the strange routings and the incomplete/incorrect street information. Having to install NavMan into the thing straight out of the box before you could use it was also really annoying, but I guess you would have to do that anyway when you buy a larger memory card. Trying to find a town or address was definitely very clunky and almost impossible. Still, for the money, I thought this was pretty decent, at first. First problem was when I tried loading some other software on for hiking. Turns out you have to power off/kn the unit or else the gps receiver would not be released by the navman software for use by the other program. Cycling the power made all memory go away, so I was forced to realign the screen and go through the annoying Windows tutorial every time. I gave up on the topo software. The biggest problem by far is that the battery cannot hold a charge. If you take this out of your car for more than a few days without leaving it on a charger, the unit seems to forget that the Navman software was ever installed. What a huge hassle! I went through this a couple of times, then it seemed like even when leaving it on the charger it would go south. So, when I went to grab it and go on a trip, I had to mess around for 20 minutes reinstalling everything each time. Finally, it would not "remember" the installation at all, and I contacted NavMan tech support. They were pretty nice and sent me a refurbished unit, about a year after I first received it. It worked OK for a couple of trips, and I was careful to leave it on the charger, but then a couple of months later, I went to use it, and... dead again. I have officially given up. Again, I believe this is a Windows/platform problem more than a NavMan problem, but it still amounts to a useless piece of junk. Anyone want to buy mine, cheap? I have since gotten a Garmin ETrex Vista Cx, which is 10 times better, includes a barometric altimeter and electronic compass, and always works when I turn on the switch... what a concept! The screen is smaller, but it still gets the point across, and I can take it hiking and biking as well. Garmin gouges you for software and maps, but I would still rather have something that will actually work.

I have a Navman Pin 100 and the latest software SmartST 2005 and it still sucks as a GPS unit. The new software offers very little if any improvement over the old. The Tech support is poor also, they know the problems but can't offer any real solutions for you. I put my address in and it told me that there was not enought info. Would not recommend this unit to anyone looking for a GPS solution. If they would improve the address location there may be some hope for the thing. Battery life isn't very good either. I've tryed putting address in every way possible and it is still a crap shoot.

I've been using my PiN 100 for almost 2 years now and on an almost daily basis. I drive all over the state of Oregon and Washington for my job. I have to make multiple stops daily and to almost always never the same place twice. The PiN has done an excellent job at getting me from point A to B. For me, the GPS finds it's location typically within 1-2 minutes. Definately not the 10-15 minutes others have stated. The software can be a little difficult to find an address at times. I start with a zip code, then the street. If the street can't be found, I use the City for the search instead of the zip code. It will auto-populate the street names with just a few letters. Keep in mind, if the street is misspelled in the software (has happened several times) you may only want to put in the first few letters to see if it comes up with a close address. Another factor to consider is the date of the maps. There have been at least 2 map updates since this product was released. There have also been 2 major software updates since release. SmartST v3 and SmartST 2005. 2005 being the latest. It runs $99.95 from the navman store. I'm still using v2, and will be upgrading to 2005 this week. I've found this GPS/PDA to be the best purchase I have made in a very long time, not only because I find it very easy to use (I am however an experienced technophile) but also because it was very cheap considering it's competition. I also suggest looking into the updated software. One of the many new features is the ability to plan a route, going from point A to B, To C, To D without having to stop and put in a new address at each location. The PDA functions are what can be expected from Windows Mobile 2003. I have watched movies I ripped from DVD while on a plane or waiting at the airport. I've listened to MP3's, played games, and of course managed my contacts and calendar all while on the road. If I go out of town, I load a new map into my PiN and plug it into my rental car to get me around. It's familiar and I know how to use it. No need to pay the extra fee from the renal company, I've got my own. There is only 1 problem that I have had in my 2 years of use. My car adapter has failed me this week. It's broken and needs to be replaced. I just ordered a replacement online for $20, delivered. I paid $399 for my Navman 2 years ago during a promotion. It's by far the best $400 I've spent in years!