[4 of 4 customers found this review helpful]

Invion 4V506-IUS Portable GPS Unit Review

Excellent GPS unit at outstanding price

"I ordered this unit on cyber-Monday [...]. I fired it up and keyed in some addresses to the address book.Pros: - Large, bright screen. Note, though, that when it is running on battery, the screen will dim after a few minutes, presumably to save power. This is easily solved by connecting to the cigarette lighter in the car.- Rapid satellite acquisition. Less than a minute.- Rapid route recalculation. I ignored its directions this morning, taking a different routes. As soon as I passed a street where it wanted me to turn, The Voice informed me of the next street on which to turn.- Multi-function. This baby plays movies! I have recorded some shows onto and SD card, using the Neuros recorder, and they play just fine on the Invion. Also displays photos, e-books, plays MP3 files (though I have not tested those yet.)- Screen switches from bright background to dark background at night (clock-based, I assume). This makes it easier to see at different times. (The switching is an option that can be turned on or off.)- Good number of points of interest; it claims more than 1M. I know it had my local [...] as well as a local diner in the POIs. - 2D and 3D views of the itinerary available. I like the 3D effect!- Dead simple to install. The suction cup on the mounting bracket is strong, the mounting arm swivels in multiple degrees of freedom, and can be locked in once the user is happy with the position of the unit.- This baby is all screen: the on-off switch, volume control, and connections are on the sides of the frame, so they don't take up real estate on the front.- The touch screen is very responsive to inputs.- Ability to select how addresses are entered: you can start with State, City, Street, Number, or start with Number and work up to State.- Or, you can just click on a point on the map and get a route to that point.Cons:- Gosh, I dunno. The voice is kind of synthetic, but not unpleasant. Some more expensive brands offer selections of voices and accents. But I wouldn't pay twice the price of the Invion to get an English-accented female voice. (The Invion voice is an unaccented female computer voice.)Having had the unit for less than 24 hours, I am reluctant to give it 5 stars: don't know what the long-term reliability is. (Which is why I sprung for the extended warranty from [...].)So far, I have no complaints, and all praise for the Invion."