Navigation Systems: a Guide to Selecting GPS Navigation Systems
Naturally, the choice of navigator directly depends on your needs. There are many elements of such devices, which should be taken into consideration. They include functionality, ease of operation, memory capacity, power, design, and ergonomics. Below, we’ll describe the most important functions and things to consider when choosing a navigation system for your car.
You can conventionally distinguish two types of navigation systems, designed directly for cars: factory and portable. The first type is the systems, which are initially present in the car and fit nicely into the interior of the car. Such GPS navigators have extended functionality (for example, steering control), convenient warranty service along with the rest of the car and high resale value. However, if you suddenly decide to update the base of your navigator, then you will either have to pay a pretty sum or sweat a lot. In addition, there are a number of limitations when using such systems while driving – for example, the navigator can not always be adjusted if the car is on the road.
As for the portable systems, they also have many advantages and disadvantages. First, their cost is much lower than that of the factory navigators. Upgrading them is quite simple, you can often do it very quickly and, moreover, for free. However, the warranty in this case usually is less than one year and these GPS navigators do not look very nice: they have extra wires hanging down, the cigarette lighter is constantly used for powering the navigator and some functionality is missing.
Nevertheless, both types of navigators always find their audience. Of course, the list of the above-mentioned types of systems can be complemented by smartphone and tablet navigation, but they largely overlap with the above types. Below you can learn about the functions of navigators, which you should pay attention to first.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS
Automatic route guidance
The function, undoubtedly, is the most necessary in the navigator: it allows you to specify the final destination of the trip, and then the navigator itself will create the best route to it. In this case, you can specify the final destination on the map or find it in the list of addresses and various city institutions – pharmacies, schools and so on. In this case, the most important will be the functionality of maps and the power of the device, because the effectiveness of the routing and data processing depends on these indicators. Therefore, the more extensive is the map base and the higher is the processor frequency and RAM capacity of the device, the faster and better it will show you where to go.
Voice prompts
One more important point in the work of the GPS-navigator – the voice prompts. When you are on the move, for the most part should be looking at the road, so the voice prompts, which show you when and where to turn, will be very helpful. Here again, the maps play a role – if the database contains data on the location of radar and traffic police posts, and information about the traffic updated online, the male or female voice will definitely tell you about all the problems that may await you on the road.
GPS-receiver
How accurately the navigator will determine your location and driving speed depends directly on the quality of the built-in GPS receiver. It all depends on how many satellites the navigator can find and how fast it does so. If the navigator has a good receiver, it should find satellites in seconds and even in difficult conditions, when the car is among the tall buildings or trees.
Maps
The maps themselves, loaded on the car navigator, are also of great importance. In most cases, navigation systems have their own map systems, which cannot be loaded on devices from other manufacturers. The exception is tablets-navigators based on the Android operating system, which allow you to purchase any navigation system in the application store Google Play (or download it for free). The maps themselves may differ in many parameters – appearance, usability, detail and speed, as well as functionality. In general, in the realities of our country, the easiest option would be to use Android-navigators (unless you strongly care about the clutter in the cabin). Such systems offer a really great choice of systems at a small price, ease of updating and use. In addition, such maps interact quite closely with the Internet, so you can learn a lot of important things from other motorists.
When choosing a navigator, you can also take into account a number of other points: the possibility of touch control, bracket mounting and so on. However, today almost each GPS navigator has it all – there are touch screens everywhere, and it is quite easy to choose a mounting bracket, blessing the choice is very large and they are not expensive.
It is important that your navigator was convenient for you – the size of the device is also important here. Although you can find 4-inch navigators, but it is much nicer and more comfortable when the device size is at least 7 inches – then the control is greatly simplified, because the display shows more objects, and in some sense they look larger and clearer.
By the way, when buying an Android navigator, you get a full-fledged tablet at your disposal, and the more powerful it is, the better. After all, on the tablet you can watch a movie, and music, and play games. However, unique systems like the proven Garmin have an easy to use and adaptive interface, which makes them a great choice for fans of maximum convenience.
The memory capacity is also important: the more memory the device has, the more maps you can load on the navigator. If the device has a large amount of memory or the possibility to expand it with SD-cards you get the opportunity to download almost a map of the entire world with detailed descriptions of the roads – if there is such a need, of course.
The capacity of the built-in battery is very important for travelers. If you often come to unfamiliar areas, the device can always be taken with you – then the roads of new cities can be explored without problems even on foot.