Invion 4V506-IUS Portable GPS Unit

"As with the other InVion I tried the maps on this unit date from 2007 and there are no updates available nor do they predict when there might be an update."

"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."

"I was a little skeptical at first, seeing as I could hardly find any reviews on this company, let alone this unit. I decided that with the sale price (and a coupon on top of that!), I had to try it out. At first, I was going to go with one of the other "well-known" GPS manufacturers, but for the same price of their entry-level models, I was able to get a unit that had the same features as the higher-end models. It not only comes with the larger 4.3" screen and text-to-speech, it also has maps of the entire U.S. (including Hawaii and Alaska) along with Canada and Puerto Rico! It's a Dutch-based company, so I'm pretty sure that they'll have Europe as well. It also plays MP3's and MP4's to boot. Get's a signal quick and reroutes in case you miss a turn very fast. So easy to use. Can't say enough good things about it...highly recommend it. Hope this helps out any potential buyers on the wall."

"I received this 4V506 few days back. The only advantage I found is 4.3 screen. Here are my finding:i.Few times voice prompts are very inaccurate, its says be in right when we need to be in left.ii.Maps does not show few street names. You will not be able to find out on which street your are currently.iii.Maps quality is bad as compared to Mio C220 which I had earlier. Look and feel is below the standard.iv.The Destinator software needs lot of improvements.v.Though you are not in any road, eg. if your at shopping mall. It will place you at the nearest road available.vi.Touch screen response is slow.vii.Sometimes it will not position itself at present location, totally shows different state.Reroutes after few seconds should say nearly a minute.viii.Rerouting is Fast, but not accurate. I missed my home. It didn't say turn back (earlier Mio C220 used to), but gave a big itenary (but route is corrent, but very long, its 5 Miles for few steps backwards).ix. The charging cable given is very shot and is spiral model. Thus you can only mount the GPS in Middle of windshied. Still in My case the cable gets released from GPS due to the spiral model cable which pullbacks the cable. The is a very big disadvantage. Probably need to buy a better one.Personally I felt like this product is for a techy guy who can play with it and make it perfect.Out of all the support from Invion is very bad. Thus consider above before choosing this product."

"I got the 4V506 yesterday and tested it out on my way to work and home. So far this product has been great. The satellite acquisition is speedy fast. Also the route recalculations take less than 10 seconds to recalcualate which is extremely convenient. Text to speech with mp3 capabilites for this price is amazing. The unit comes installed with the destinator version 7 software and navtec maps. I live in northern VA and the interstates here were completey overhauled about a year ago and the maps on this device were updated to show the new changes. The User interface is very responsive with no lag at all and the screen is crisp and sharp. Overall this is a great buy for the price and loaded with tons of features."

"This is an excellent feature-loaded GPS, but with a few stupid choices made by INVION are killing this product. I faced the the two common problems that other reviewers in this thread faced and the following simple solutions fixed them.



1. Unit does not power on.

Solution: The unit has a silver colored key-lock slider on the side of the GPS. If that slider is in lock position, the unit cannot be powered ON. Put the slider in the unlocked position and press the POWER button for a few seconds and voila! BTW, I could power the GPS and start using it by charging it for only 30 minutes.



2. Could not find navigation software.

Solution: If you start the unit without the correct SD card in it, it resets to default options (which have an ERROR in them). Alternatively, if you clicked on MAIN MENU->System->Initial Setup (the silver button on the top of the GPS next to the power button gets you to the MAIN MENU), the default options (with errors) get loaded. If the navigator stops working for you, NOTHING you do to the SD card can fix the problem since the problem has nothing to do with the software on the SD card. However, you can easily fix the problem from the MAIN MENU . From the MAIN MENU, go to Settings->Nav. Setup. This will open a screen asking you to select the Navigation software. Using the round browse button on this page, browse to \NANDFlask\Destinator\ and double click on Destinator.exe. This is the actual navigation software executable. After pointing the Nav. Setup to the correct binary, the navigation software should start work correctly.



These are just my two cents, based on my own experiences. Hope this helps those who face these simple but frustrating problems."

"["..."]"

"After loading the software several times, I thought Oh no, another thing that doesn't work ! But, after that glitch was overcome, with just a little effort, I began to load addresses and destinations, quite easy to do, and began to test it. I purposely put in an address that I was going to 2nd on my list, and it kept updating constantly to advise me how to get to the destination. VERY ACCURATE !If you get lost with this in your car, either you don't have it ON or you are sound asleep ! It gives notice at 1 mile, 1/2 mile and .2 mile and then at the turn. Very accurate, even up here at the Canadian border !I am so glad I purchased this unit compared to several others I had looked at for more $$$ and smaller screen.Very pleased with purchase and the way [@] took care of me."

"I bought this GPS for my wife based on its text-to-voice commands, 4.3" screen, and low price. We are very satisfied. Its best features are that it gives the next direction in plenty of time (it both speaks and displays the next turn), it alerts the user as to what to do at most unusual intersections, the display is easy to read, and the controls are relatively intuitive. Its worst features are nitpicks: it mispronounces odd names (Waples Mill Road should rhyme with maple rather than dapple) and it fails to warn that two roads that overlap for about 100 meters are about to diverge (so that it would be easy to take the wrong fork if we did not know better). The device locks on firmly to the windshield. All materials and construction seem to be very good. We recommend this unit."

"I liked how compact it was and how easy the touch screen was. THe only problem is that it wasn't reading the SanDisk Card so it was completely useless to navigate. I called Mfg. Co. and was e-mailed a link to download the maps again but that didn't work (it took about 10 min to download). THey wanted me to mail them the disk but I tried a new disk and that didn't work so I returned the GPS and wasted a lot of time."