steam03

I don't know if it's a good idea to buy the PSP for GPS. Anyone have any inputs? THis is my case


The in-dash navigation systems are indeed nice, esp the Pioneer ones. But they are too expansive to have a aftermarket GPS. So I have been looking at some cheaper ones and came across the Garmin Nuvi 750/760/770.

PROS: It has a decent size screen 4.3" and the style of it is not too cheap. Also, it can run on battery so I don't have to stick use those bulky mounts on the windsheild and have dangling wires hanging around and the Power Slot always open with the big piece of plastic plugged in. I personally can't stand that setup...I can also bring the nuvi along when i leave my car so I don't have to deal with all the hiding the GPS and mounts and stands and all that.

CONS: I have only been reading some reviews and some say this thing is pretty slow in response and the screen lags as well.

ALTERNATIVE: I then came across the new PSP SLIM $170 with the new GPS function $60 from Sony Japan. The looks on the PSP and the resolution of the screen, response time and all that would own any of the GPS out there BUT a big question would be......since the PSP isn't dedicated to the GPS function, would it lose the functionality of what a GPS (nuvi) would have? Does anyone have any insights on this issue? Would PSP be not as accurate, respond even slower..etc?

Looking to discuss with you guys.

bc811

Garmin all the way
the best bang for your buck

jcondon

My boss picked up the Garmin 260W for 317 off of QVC a couple weeks ago. He went to a wedding in NJ last week in the pouring rain. He is directionally challenged and had never been there before. Worked great and said it was the best money he has spent in a while.

He let me borrow it the other day to check out. Recently I had had two loaner TSX's to compare it to. While the built in is nicer for less then $350 it works well enough and is portable. I will likely pick one of the Garmin's up sometime soon.

rex.

Get a Garmin with the specific features that interest you. I use to sell them when I was working and never a complaint from customers who knew how to use it. The Sony "NAVU" that was out was garbage IMO, so I doubt a PSP version would be any better.

dlee74

Garmin 260W. Get a friction mount too. I am enjoying mine.

HoRRo

My friend has the PSP with the GPS unit. If you don't mind waiting literally 5+ minutes to grab a signal, it's a decent GPS system.

I personally use a TomTom ONE XL, works great (no lag). Only (intermittent) complaint is slight inaccuracy (off by half a street or so) in downtown areas where I'm surround with 20+ story buildings.

LukeaTron

That's called mult-path interference. All a GPS satellite does is broadcast the time down to a small fraction of a second. Your unit measures the difference in time it sees from several (at least 3, usually more) satellites and figures out how far away from the satellite you are. Since the position of satellites is know with great accuracy you can use your distance from several points to figure out your exact location.

In the city, these signals are bouncing off all the buildings and taking a path to you that is longer than a straight line. It takes a small amount longer to get to you and your unit then see's the distance as greater than what it actually is. This is unavoidable and all GPS units suffer the problem.

odannyboi

Do not get a psp solely for GPS

If you want it for the GPS and other stuff it can do (games, sync up w/ PS3, store music, hell, even answer phone calls later on), then its a great deal.

Saeyon

same

jcondon

On my bosses 260W there was SOME lag. But, it wasn't really that bad. Maybe 50 to 100 feet? Not as quick as the built in TSX GPS but, certainly very usable. Other then the suction cup windshield mount thing there was nothing else in my car. The battery on this model "only" lasts 4 hours. For me more then enough. The models you were looking at might have a longer battery life. Some of them are 8 hours.

I personally will end up with one of these at some point. Maybe a different model.

PACman

When selecting a portable GPS unit, I researched on http://gpsmagazine.com/ The site answered more than my share of questions. I settled with a Garmin Nuvi 660.

Revenant

I mentioned it on another thread but definitely Garmin 660 (or higher model 600 series) all the way, our family has 2 and I've sold 2 other friends on them. I'm not sure about the new 700 series as I haven't tested one yet but have played with them in stores and find that the touch screen is not as sensitive as the 600 series models. The plus of the 700 series is that they're a bit sleeker looking and do not require a fold-out antenna.

But I personally doubt a PSP can "own" a Garmin 660+ model regarding initial signal pick-up time (anywhere between 10sec to max >1 min), accuracy, re-route time (literally in seconds), text to speech, and even course mapping (eg. mapped a route from Toronto address to Ohio address in less than 15 secs). Also the touch screen helps for inputting addresses quickly.

Regarding the setup, I picked up a vent mount from ebay from these guys (they have a real online store as well):

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Car-Vent-Mount-fo...QQcmdZViewItem

and the setup is simple and not cluttered looking (my interior shot):



Everybody has their preferences and opinions about which company is best (Garmin, Tom Tom, or Megallan) but even though Garmin is a bit pricer, I stand firmly behind their product.

swirlie

I put together a PSP GPS recently, but haven't used it much past testing. The screen is nice and it's definitely fast enough, even with the old PSP (that only has 16megs ram, instead of 32megs). Signal acquisition time is more dependent on your gps receiver, not the PSP itself. I'm using a Holux gpslim236 with a hacked PSP, not the PSP-290 gps receiver from Sony. Outside, it acquires in under a minute from cold start. Warm/hot it re-acquires almost instantly. Horro, I've heard Sony's receiver can be pretty insensitive and loses signal fairly easily.

Software is the real issue. I can't speak for Sony's packaged software, but MapThis! homebrew is decent. Bear in mind, this is completely open-source, so it's far from complete. It does, however, have a very nice, clean interface. It has most of the major features you want: navigation, turn-by-turn directions*, voice prompts, speed/direction indicators, trip time, average speed, etc. What it doesn't have: on-the-fly route calculation (and therefore no re-calculation if you miss a turn), built-in maps, built-in POIs, street names in voice, etc. No route calculation is the big one for me.

Maps aren't a big deal. It ties in to a number of map datastores, like Google Maps. There's a handy utility you use to select your area of interest and download your maps. You can also create routes/POIs the same way. There's also a webpage somebody is hosting that lets you type in 2 addresses and it'll output a route file for you. With the PSP's wifi, just find a hotspot and you're good to go.

No route calculation is a big negative currently. If you don't have a route downloaded, you can still find an address (it can geocode addresses) and plan/draw a route yourself. BUT you only get voice prompts with downloaded routes.

Voice prompts are ok. With the audio out jack (and the TSX's aux in) you can pipe it through the speakers, or just use the PSP's speakers. Voice prompt files are just mp3s, so you can customize them to whatever you want. The proximity of voice prompts playing according to when you reach waypoints is a little odd right now, though. If 2 waypoints are close together, the farther one seems to override the first waypoint and you get a wrong direction called out. Eek.

The next couple issues aren't the fault of the PSP, but of Google Maps. Google Maps seems to have some interesting geocoding sometimes. It placed my gf's place a block away. It also chooses some bad routes. For testing, I let it plan a route I take twice a week. GM wanted me to go about 10 blocks farther around (taking bigger streets), instead of cutting down a smaller street that gets me directly to my destination. This happened with a few routes I've tried.

I'm sure there are other issues I've forgotten, but that covers most of them. As odannyboi said, I wouldn't get the PSP solely for GPS. But as a cheap nav system that also gives you a lot of other features (games, etc), it's good. Besides, sometime when I have more free time, I can pick apart MapThis! and add my own features/fixes/etc to it if I want.

scheißterhöffer

How accurate is the pronunciation of the text to speech? Does it butcher street names, or sound unnatural and choppy? I'm down to the 260W and the 250W. Only difference is 260 speaks street names, I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the extra cost.

dlee74

I'm content with my 260W because it says the street names while you drive. It has a wide angle screen so that others can see. I had a previous GPS that stated just so many feet for the next turn which is good but stating street names are a nice added touch. I really don't need those extra features that the higher models have. I just need a GPS that takes me places. I don't like the suction cup because it's a pain to stick on every time you want to use the device. The friction mount is by far the best to hold the Garmin Nuvi. You just click and place the friction mount anywhere on the dashboard and go. It detects the satellites pretty quick. The voice is still a robotic-like voice but has long as it's clear. So to answer your question, yes is it very clear. I wish I can add a sexy voice to it. lol
http://www.amazon.com/GARMIN-4-3-Inc...5559609&sr=8-1
You also want to get a case to store the Nuvi when not in use. By the way, you can even use it when walking to a destination because it has a pedestrian mode.

steam03

Oh, I wanted to get PSP for GPS since the screen is so nice and it has games and movie features as well. But I can live without games and movie, and the PSP GPS doesn't sound too good to use. I think I will pay a lil more for a real GPS then.

DOes 260W come in black also? It looks like 260W is pretty similar to the 700's minus the FM traffic.

FM (with opt. receiver) - Does that mean it can have live traffic condition? (Extra cost?) How much does that opt. receiver cost and how does it look? Does it work in Toronto too?

dlee74

I think it comes in one color. Not sure about the traffic conditions. It has a great detour feature if you are in a jam. You can download extras on the garmin site for the device. http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/services/
It does cover Canada.