The rating of navigators with a DVR for a car

The widespread development of the GPS market and related devices began around the beginning of this century. But the technology of receiving and transmitting and tracking itself 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 devices.

Today virtually every smartphone or tablet is equipped with its own GPS-module, which is why 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 surprise their customers with all sorts of novelties and functionalities of the gadget.

The tough competition of smartphones and navigators has turned out to be convenient for the users of the latter, because the pricing policy of brands that produce gadgets for cars has become much more loyal, and the devices started to be manufactured with a good filling and an intelligent display.

Analysts of many independent groups are already asleep and see how the "Windos CE" platform, on which the navigators work, will switch to the more widespread and accessible operating system "Android", whose slow but sure "conquest of the world" can not be overlooked.

In order to make a rating of car navigators, the assortment of goods presented on the shelves of auto shops and Internet sites was analyzed. After the team of testers was determined with the current models of navigators, all gadgets were tested and passed the test drive under the same conditions. Warm, hot and cold starts , measuring the response time of the device in the GPS network, convenience, ergonomics, configuration, functionality, display characteristics and battery life - all this has been evaluated and the corresponding rating is deserved by car navigators.

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-flow, stand-offs were held in cold, hot and warm modes. Hot starts were conducted on the order of 10-12 times for each device, warm - no more than 5 times, and for a cold regime, one inclusion was enough.

Further, in order to denote the rating of navigators, an estimate was given of the speed of loading the operating system and the response of the pre-installed software. Then we took into account the time that the gadget spent on routeing both between cities and within a large metropolis; How quickly the navigator determines that the car has come down from the established rate. Also one of the significant factors was the speed of the device in the downloaded and pre-installed applications and the performance of the gadget on the cards.

Ergonomics

The rating of the navigators for the car also includes the convenience of the gadget: fastening, adjustability, reliability of the latches and the ability to turn in different directions. The filling of the device was evaluated, the amount of internal memory, the 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, as all additional piles can affect Driver review.

Display

The rating of the navigators with the DVR can not do without a high-quality display device. Many gadgets that are equipped with an outdated TN-matrix, will not please its owner with a clear and understandable image on a sunny day, so preferences were given to current models using the modern IPS-development.

An important factor for the navigator, besides the matrix, is the indicator of the maximum brightness of the display, which was also tested on all the samples prepared. You can also include enough diagonal gadget, the saturation of pixels and the work of the touchscreen in motion.

Functionality

The rating of the navigators included an evaluation of the functionality of the device. This includes the work of wireless protocols Bluetooth and "Vai-Fay", traffic congestion and the condition of nearby roads. Devices, which had a built-in DVR, automatically received an additional score. Gadgets with the support of the Android operating system also appeared in the priority list, because the device could support many more applications, in contrast to the "Winds" -analog.

Autonomous work

Together with the other characteristics, the rating of the navigators took into account the time of the autonomous operation of the device. After charging the battery "to the brim", the testers turned on the gadget's display for maximum brightness and conducted tests in urban traffic jams with a constant route change and on a track with a stable direction.

Test results

The first places on all the above-described criteria went to the Garmin navigators: the Nuvi 3590LT and 2595LT models. Having received the greatest number of positive ratings, the gadget proved that with it the driver is not afraid of traffic jams, nor the constant change of the route, nor the bright sun.

Models have the ability to download the state of roads and jams free of charge via a TMS receiver, they have a good and confident reception of the GPS signal, the presence of wireless communication protocols with the device and an excellent response of the touchscreen. Here you can include very convenient fasteners on both the windshield and 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 navigator Prestigio GeoVision 5850HDDVR, which performed well with the touchscreen, excelled in the good quality of the DVR, convenient mount and bright enough display, losing to the "gold" models only in screen resolution and functionality.

The rating of navigators gave bronze to gadgets Treelogic TL-431, Explay ND-51 and teXet TN-822. All models showed mediocre results for almost all of the above selection criteria. The non-transparent touchscreen, the quality of the DVR, poor performance while working with maps and pre-installed applications, later notification of the wrong route and the lack of the ability to load the state of the roads - all these factors deservedly point to the last place in the ranking.