[15 of 17 customers found this review helpful]

Navigon 2100 Max GPS Navigator Review

GREAT SIMPLE GPS

"The only difference between the 2100 and 2120 is that the latter has maps for Canada, whereas the 2100 is for the 48 contiguous states in the US.I purchased the 2100 model from Staples (online) for my husband (who's 54 yrs old) because he was afraid to go alone to new places for fear of not finding his destination on time (or at all), despite my excellent written directions and hand drawn maps! I used to be his navigator but am not able to go with him at times. He's been extremely happy with it & said the best part is if he misses a turn because of traffic or not being able to move into the correct lane, how he doesn't get upset trying to get back to where he was. He just continues until new directions are spoken. There was only 1 problem in the beginning and that was operator error, not the GPS' fault. When you turn it on, you need to hold down the ON button for a few seconds. He had programmed in his destination the night before & saved it; then he turned the GPS off. The next day, he drove to pick up his friend without turning it on since he knew how to get there. He knew the unit would just recalculate from where he was.Then he turned it on.... well, he tried to.... he was just pressing the power button and it wouldn't turn on.... he drove back home, very frustrated. I was going to hit the reset, figuring there was a glitch, but decided to turn it on before pressing the reset and when he saw me hold down the button & it turned on right away, he hit his forehead with his palm & groaned. Off they went and were "only" 8 minutes late for the friends' doctor appointment because of backtracking here. I decided on the Navigon after listening to people discussing GPS' and decided to look into the Navigon brand & read the reviews in websites including this one. Was I surprised to learn that it was on sale for seventy dollars off the regular price ! My husband told several of his friends & co-workers about the Navigon 2100 and one also bought it online (like we did) and another went to the Staples store in person to buy his (some of their stores were out of stock because of the great sale). One of those people called Navigon's Tech Support 888 848 0701 (7am - 9pm Central) M-F because his HOME was actually 10 hours before the GPS said it was. They had him download an update & now, not only is it more accurate, but there are more Points Of Interest, including [...] which previously had not shown up on the unit. Also, obsolete places were eliminated! The downside was that it was a 2 GB download and it took over 14 hours. He called back and was told that it was because their SERVER is in Germany and it was running slow. Our friend told the tech support guy that they should put the download on a disk & mail it to people who call with a problem. He said they are trying to improve on that here in the US. The visual display is bright & crystal clear ~ it's very easy to see and has a night/day setting. The volume is easy to change and it speaks to you "louder, louder" or "softer, softer, softer" in response to the number of times you tap it. The OPTIONS button at the bottom of each screen (after the initial screen) are opened & closed by tapping the word "OPTIONS". It's actually so simple that a non-computer user would be better at it than someone who's used to browser back & forward buttons, etc. The choices of POI are excellent; I especially like that you can begin with "nearest" search and then if you don't like what was displayed you can click "more" to expand the search area. All in all, it took about a half hour to figure out how to get into all the subcategories & make changes & save them because the information wasn't in the Quick Use Guide that came with it. This could have been resolved quicker if I'd just gone to the Navigon website. Other things I like is the REALITY VIEW ~ very cool ! Also, since my husband is directionally challenged, I have it set so the compass shows the direction he's traveling. I've also set it up to show the Speed Limit of the road he's on and the speed he's traveling (in case he "forgets" to look at the speedometer ~ LOL). Supposedly it will alert you if you exceed over the speed limit by a certain amount of MPH but it hasn't happened yet because here in NJ, you don't speed unless you are prepared to pay dearly (not just the ticket but for the insurance premium increase for 3 years). Lastly, for people who are concerned about aesthetics... yes, the GPS looks nice ~ it's thin & smooth. IF we didn't get such a great deal (sale) and if we didn't mind paying quite a bit more over the reg price, I would think that the 2100 MAX would be the same but a larger display and probably more POI. I took the time to write this lengthy review to be as complete as possible because we are both really happy with this GPS unit and for us (we don't even have/need a cell phone!) we still can lead the simple life we do."