Hands on with Sony's Nav-U NV-U94T GPS

GPS units may be headed toward commodity status, but developers continue to innovate, adding features and cutting prices. I've spent a few days driving around town with two new standalone GPS units -- Sony's Nav-U NV-U94T and the Telenav Shotgun.

Here are some thoughts on the Nav-U. (See the next post for a review of the Shotgun.)

Sony's top of the line GPS unit has all the bells and whistles you could ask for. The 4.8-inch touchscreen is huge and bright, a real centerpiece among pint-sized GPS devices. The fun begins when you mount the Nav-U on your dash: It doesn't stick to the windshield with a suction cup but rather to the dashboard, via a removable 3M-designed adhesive. I was skeptical, but this works amazingly well even on textured surfaces: The Nav-U doesn't move from its perch unless you want it to (and then it comes off easily). The unit itself connects to the mounting system seamlessly, too, via a unique docking connector. You can have it disconnected or reconnected in less than a second, leaving the dock behind.

In use, the Nav-U offers generally good GPS connection times, offers reasonably good driving directions (a few suggested turns were specious), and an easy-to-comprehend system of primary colors, "turn here" notifications, and a soothing voice that tells you all of this. The split screen system, which shows close ups of each intersection where a turn is required, is a real standout. My only real complaint: The Nav-U has no sense of how long driving takes, regularly telling me a 15-minute trip would be completed in just 2 minutes. I often spent longer than that waiting at a stop light. Inputting destinations can also be a pain: The Nav-U is just not very intuitive when determining what city or street you're planning to drive to. On the other hand, the unit's gesture control feature is killer. Want to get directions home? Draw a "roof" symbol on the screen and off you go.

Navteq maps for the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico are included, with five million POIs included (mostly gas stations, it seems). Traffic updates are also available: You get three months free with purchase, then you have to subscribe. As well, the unit doubles as a Bluetooth speakerphone and a media player (via a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot).

At $400, the Nav-U is on the expensive side for this market, but by and large it's worth it, especially with that monster LCD. I don't have trouble recommending it as one of my favorite GPS units available right now. Search around for discounts.