Navigo V2 PLUS Review

Okay. So here's the info that I desperately wanted and couldn't find when I was planning to purchase my Navigo V2 PLUS.

For those that don't know, Navigo manufacture a range of Satellite Navigation systems (GPS) that are generally available on ebuyer at incredibly reasonable prices, although it is widely held that the supplied navigation software, TurboDog, is not particularly good. However, they are also very easy to adjust from their delivered configuration to run other navigation software, which has lead to them being hugely popular.

The model I was interested in, the V2 PLUS, also has Bluetooth, allowing it to pair with your phone and act as a hands-free unit, and a media player with FM transmitter, which should allow you to load your MP3s on to it, play them and tune the car stereo in so you can hear them through that.

This seemed like a good idea to me, as I am just about to change cars and for a few quid more than the cost of yet another fascia/wiring adapter to fit my MP3 CD player I could have a SatNav too. So I tried to find reviews about how well all this stuff worked but came up with nothing. I asked on forums and googled, but so great is the obsession with 'hacking' the unit it's hard to find anything else.

So in the end I just bought one. And as a service to anyone else who might want to know how well it works, rather than how easy it is to make it run TomTom or iGO, here are my thoughts. I will split it into two parts, the first being 'as delivered' and the second as the 'enhanced' version, after building a new flash card with the immensely easy NAVIGO_V2_MENU_SYSTEM from thepctailor.com.

As Delivered

Bluetooth Hands-free

Pairing with my phone was straightforward and the pairing gives the option of Hands Free and Wireless Stereo operation. Once a pairing has been created, a small icon is present in all screens other than the Bluetooth area that indicates the status of the connection. Clicking on this icon will take you directly to the Bluetooth screen where you can make calls and the like. Unfortunately, given the lack of real estate available on a 3.5" screen, it is almost impossible to put this icon anywhere that is not in the way - especially in the navigation application.

So far I have tested this only once. I made a call when I was in a region with fairly strong coverage to my partner's land line.

• The call quality was very poor and kept breaking up - this may not be the fault of the Navigo
• With the volume loud enough to hear, the speaker was being overdriven and distorted
• The voice instructions from the navigation cut in over the phone conversation - this is probably a good thing!

One final note: should you switch to the Bluetooth screen, even if you don't want to pair a device, then the little icon is activated and you're then stuck with it, getting in the way.

Media Player

There is a basic audio/video player included on the unit, accessible from the main menu. When you select it, you must browse for a media file and click on it in order to start playing it. Listening though headphones, the sound quality is perfectly acceptable. When it reaches the end of the current file, it moves on to the next available in the selected folder - although I have no idea what order it is picking them in; it certainly isn't file name order. There is no way of cueing up files or creating play-lists as far as I can see. When you move back to the main menu the player keeps playing, allowing you to run other applications such as your navigation software.

So, with my music merrily playing in random order, I started up TurboDog. At this point, we have a problem: there is no way of getting back to the media player without exiting the navigation software. So if I reach the end of the files in the folder and want to choose some more, or I want to skip a track, or pretty much anything else, I have to quit out of TurboDog. This means it forgets about any route that it might currently be following. Useless.

Other than that it seems to be relatively sensible. The music isn't cut for the voice announcements from TurboDog but they are still audible. If your phone is paired up and you want to use it then the music is paused until you're finished.

Unfortunately this business of having to quit TurboDog is a real killer for me. It means it is nowhere near convenient or functional enough to replace an MP3 capable head unit...and all I really want to do is play/pause, skip tracks, adjust the volume and navigate folders. It would also be nice if it could traverse sub-folders for media files to play like most MP3 CD players do.

FM Streaming

Obviously you need to choose a frequency that doesn't interfere with any existing radio stations. It seems to work relatively well, however, every time you click or drag on the screen (maybe to move that damned bluetooth icon out of the way again) you get a crackle of white noise interference on the channel. Not so much that it obscures the audio but enough to be noticeable.

Also, enabling the FM cuts all audio to other sources (speaker and headphones) so if you don't have a receiver tuned in you will hear nothing. This had me panicked for a while after my test as I thought the unit was broken and the sound had packed in.

Enhanced

I'll just concentrate here on any differences from the 'as delivered' configuration. Bluetooth operation remains unchanged - annoying icon and everything.

For starters, the 'Navigation' option now starts up another menu system which gives access to all the extra software that's been loaded onto the SD card. This includes TomTom 7, iGO 8, MioMap 3.3, CorePlayer and a number of other games and utilities. So, essentially what we have in the sphere of my interest is a couple of different navigation applications and a different media player.

CorePlayer

CorePlayer is still a pretty basic media player, but at least we have the option of cueing a number of files before we begin. It is also capable of using play-lists, so with a bit of prior thought I could sort out enough listening to last me a pretty lengthy round trip (on a bad day this could be three or four hours each way).

Other Navigation Software

So, at the minute I've got a slightly better media player and there's a little strip visible at the bottom of the screen, so I can get back the menu system and start up my choice of navigation software. As I mentioned, in this 'distribution' I have a choice of TomTom 7, iGO 8 and MioMap 3.3. Now, I'm not going to go into a review of the different applications and how they compare to TurboDog; I'm sure that's been done elsewhere.

So now I've got CorePlayer and TomTom running but I've still got the problem of not being able to switch between them. As it happens, TomTom is a little more clued up and if I exit the application to go and mess with the player it remembers my route when restarted and picks up where it left off. I had a quick look at iGo and MioMap and they are the same: they restart with the same route if one was active when they were quit. Unfortunately this doesn't rule out the possibility that you might miss a vital navigation instruction while pratting about with your music.

Now then. Under the Apps menu we have the option of running Windows. So I click that and I get a Windows taskbar. This is looking hopeful: a taskbar may offer the possibility of switching between running applications like a real Windows machine. So I start up CorePlayer and then TomTom. Unfortunately, the taskbar obscures some of the application along the bottom, including some of the key buttons and their labels. So this currently doesn't look like such a breakthrough after all. I have a quick look at iGO and it's the same: the application still runs full screen so the taskbar inevitably obscures some of its widgets.

Even if I put up with the navigation applications being somewhat obscured, the taskbar doesn't seem to register the applications quite as I would expect and switching can still be a little haphazard. So I still don't really have a solution that allows me to switch neatly between running applications and that doesn't interfere with their operation in any way. There is one final option left that might provide the answer...

"Hacking"

So far the non-standard operation of the Navigo has been achieved simply by loading a different SD card with different software. I still have the supplied SD card and the unit itself has not been altered in any way, so if I wish I can simply plug in the original card and no-one would be any the wiser.

There is another option. This involves making some changes to the firmware on the Navigo system itself in order to explose the underlying operating system and turn it into a full-blown Windows CE device. At this point it may be too much messing about - especially if I might want to reset it to factory conditions. I just don't know...

Conclusion

At present I'm so disappointed with the media playing operation I'm not sure whether to persist or give up. It's evident that as a SatNav it is perfectly capable, and there's the added bonus of being able to choose which software you want to use with minimal fuss. Given that the basic V2 (without BT & FM) is about £20 cheaper maybe I should just return this to ebuyer as unfit and go for that one - put the diffrence toward the aforementioned fascia/wiring adapters.

I'll let you know.