The ubiquitous development of the GPS market and related devices began around the beginning of this century. But the technology of reception, transmission and tracking appeared much earlier, and the priorities of its use were set by military intelligence. A little later, the technology became much more accurate, and access was opened for its use in civilian household devices.
Today, literally every smartphone or tablet is equipped with its own GPS module, and that is why so many motorists use the same smartphone with a tablet as an alternative to the navigator. Nevertheless, navigation technology is still in demand, and manufacturers continue to amaze their consumers with all sorts of new products and gadget functionality.
The fierce competition of smartphones and navigators was in the hands of ordinary users of the latter, because the pricing policy of brands that produce gadgets for cars has become much more loyal, and devices have begun to produce with a good filling and sensible display.
Analysts of many independent groups are already sleeping and see how the Windows CE platform, on which the navigators work, switches to the more widespread and accessible Android operating system, whose slow but sure “conquest of the world” cannot be overlooked.
In order to compile a rating of car navigators, the very assortment of goods presented on the shelves of car dealerships and Internet sites was analyzed. After the team of testers decided on the current models of navigators, all the gadgets were tested and passed a test drive in the same conditions. Warm, hot and cold starts with measuring the response time of the device in the GPS network, convenience, ergonomics, equipment, functionality, display characteristics and battery life - all of this was evaluated and the corresponding rating that car navigators deserved.
The ranking of the best was based on the following critical indicators.
Navigation and platform
In order to determine the response time of the device in the GPS stream, bench starts were carried out in cold, hot and warm modes. Hot starts were carried out on the order of 10-12 times for each device, warm ones - no more than 5 times, and for a cold mode one inclusion was enough.
Further, in order to indicate the rating of navigators, estimates were given of the operating system loading speed and the response of preinstalled software. Then it was taken into account the time that the gadget spent on laying a route both between cities and within a large metropolis; how quickly the navigator determines that the car has gone off course. Also, one of the significant factors was the speed of the device in downloaded and pre-installed applications and the performance of the gadget on the cards.
Ergonomics
The rating of navigators for a car also includes the convenience of the gadget: fasteners, adjustment options, the reliability of the locks and the ability to turn in different directions. The device’s filling was evaluated, the amount of internal memory, equipment, dimensions and weight of the device, the presence of a DVR, that is, everything that depends on the place that it will occupy in the cabin and on the glass, are taken into account, since all additional piling can affect driver review.
Display
The rating of navigators with a DVR cannot do without a high-quality display of the device. Many gadgets that are equipped with an outdated TN-matrix will not please their owner with a clear and understandable image on a sunny day, so preference was given to current models using modern IPS-scan.
An important factor for the navigator, in addition to the matrix, is an indicator of the maximum brightness of the display, which was also tested on all prepared samples. Here you can also include a sufficient diagonal of the gadget, pixel saturation and the touchscreen in motion.
Functionality
The rating of navigators included an assessment of the functionality of the device. These include the operation of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless protocols, traffic congestion, and the condition of nearby roads. Devices with a built-in video recorder automatically received an additional score. Gadgets with support for the Android operating system were also on the priority list, because the device could support many more applications, unlike the Windows analogue.
Offline work
Together with other characteristics, the rating of navigators took into account the battery life of the device. After charging the battery to the brim, the testers turned on the gadget's display for maximum brightness and tested in city traffic jams with a constant change of route and on the track with a stable direction.
Test results
The first places according to all the above criteria went to Garmin navigators: Nuvi 3590LT and 2595LT models. Having received the largest number of positive ratings, the gadget proved that with it the driver is not afraid of traffic jams, nor a constant change of route, nor the bright sun.
Models have the ability to free download the state of roads and traffic jams via a TMS receiver, they are distinguished by a good and reliable GPS signal reception, the presence of wireless communication protocols with the device and an excellent touchscreen response. This also includes very convenient mounts on the windshield and on the front panel of the car, and the ergonomic mechanism allows you to see the image on the screen without any twitching.
Silver went to the Prestigio GeoVision 5850HDDVR navigator, which showed itself perfectly while working with the touchscreen, was distinguished by good quality of the DVR, convenient mount and a fairly bright display, losing to the “gold” models only in screen resolution and functionality.
The navigator rating gave bronze to the Treelogic TL-431 gadgets, Explay ND-51 and teXet TN-822. All models showed mediocre results for almost all of the selection criteria described above. Unresponsive touchscreen, dashcam quality, poor performance when working with maps and preinstalled applications, late notification of the wrong route and the lack of the ability to download road conditions - all these factors deservedly indicate the last place in the ranking.