GPS, Cobra announces NAV ONE 5000 GPS unit
By Donald Melanson 
posted January 4th 2008 12:46PM
posted January 4th 2008 12:46PM
While it's not specially-designed for truckers like some of the company's other GPS units, Cobra's
just-announced NAVO ONE 5000 device certainly looks like it'll get the job done for the average driver quite nicely, even if it may not exactly stand out from the pack. This one's biggest selling point, it seems, is its "ground-breaking" OptiView ultra-bright, five-inch touch screen, which the company claims is easy to view even in "extreme lighting conditions." Otherwise, you'll get Cobra's usual speed and red light camera location alerts, a "My Favorite Brands" feature that'll let you know when your nearing one of over 800 well-known restaurant and retail chains, text-to-speech functionality, optional real-time traffic data, and built-in Bluetooth for handsfree calling, among other standard features. If that works for ya, you'll be able to get your hands one of these for $510, with a 15-month traffic service subscription setting you back another $160.
just-announced NAVO ONE 5000 device certainly looks like it'll get the job done for the average driver quite nicely, even if it may not exactly stand out from the pack. This one's biggest selling point, it seems, is its "ground-breaking" OptiView ultra-bright, five-inch touch screen, which the company claims is easy to view even in "extreme lighting conditions." Otherwise, you'll get Cobra's usual speed and red light camera location alerts, a "My Favorite Brands" feature that'll let you know when your nearing one of over 800 well-known restaurant and retail chains, text-to-speech functionality, optional real-time traffic data, and built-in Bluetooth for handsfree calling, among other standard features. If that works for ya, you'll be able to get your hands one of these for $510, with a 15-month traffic service subscription setting you back another $160.
WELL am mad !!!!!!! I have one ..it has to be updated and the usb does not work ..when i 1st got it.. well it failed crashed on me i called them and they told me to update it i said ok after 3weeks and i got home and plug in the usb and the ac plug .the usb on the $450 paper weight said sorry usb dont work. it has got me lost.. keeps going back to where you went off route (sorry cop said i cant go that way) besides that it works well if you can put up with that LOL
I have tried several other GPS units, and I must say this unit has the absolute WORST routing of any GPS I have seen. Besides picking the worst routes, it constantly keeps telling me to return to the Interstate highway that I am currently driving on. It also just told me to make a U-turn, 1 block before arriving at my destination.
Wow, I live 2 streets down from that Wendy's and 294 South as shown is my daily commute home! How awesome... must buy now. 1st post too...
That's funny.....I work a mile East of of that McDonalds!
Chicago FTW
Ya know, I appreciate the leaps in GPS navigational technologies that we've had, but for god's sake: Why in the hell can't anybody make a GPS Device with a pretty GUI? I find it slightly annoying that I can tell there's a Wendy's coming up at the next exit, but it looks like an pixelated pile of vomit on my display screen.
With the exception being "pixelized", that actually describes Wendy's pretty well.
The GUI's are leaps and bounds better than they were even a few years ago. I'm actually kind of kicking myself for buying what was a good deal on a refurb Magellan unit just a couple months ago because already there are units with prettier GUI's out there for about the same price. (My Magellan does have text to speech, which is nice and still rare in cheaper units.)
You have to remember that you're going to be viewing this from several feet away. Nothing looks pixelated from that distance. Even my ugly interface looks smooth, just ugly. There is only so much detail your eyes are capable of seeing.
It's just like the whole argument about whether or not you can see the difference between 720p and 1080p on a 42" TV from 7 feet away. Same concept. Your eyes have a limit to what they can resolve. You see all these blown up closeups of GPS units here on Engadget, but that's not how you actually use them in real life.
Actually, re-reading your comment it sounds like you do own a GPS unit. But I don't know how old it is, and I still think you're being thrown a bit by the way the pictures of the newer models look here.
Whoopie do! Now we get to have ads in our GPS device.
Pop quiz:
It's 8:20 in the morning, the guy is driving NW, yet he's facing the sun. On what continent is he driving?
Mars
Australia.
Everything is backward down there (under) I hear.
Does kinda make you wonder about the reliability of this unit. Good eye though.
COBRA!!!!!!!!
Knowing is half the battle.
Damn! How'd I miss Ikea again?
Go Chitown! Looks like there's a lot of other Chicagoians here.
Is Cobra's office in Chicago? Somone should tell GI Joe...
Ahhh...ill stick to my Tom Tom for my money !!!!
today showcasing the drive north from chicago through skokie, weird. There's a great mediterranian restraunt called Pita Inn just east of there on dempster.
Really great food.
@Jeebus, somewhere in the artic circle i'm pretty sure you could pull that off, I'd look it up if your handle didn't suck.
My Cousin, who worked at Motorola as an engineer for almost 20 years, left to go work for Cobra about 2 years ago, on thier new GPS division. So to answer a previous post, the units are engineered in Chicago, they are probably produced in China or Korea. Anyway, getting to the point of my post, my Cousin and the rest of the Cobra GPS Department was let go a couple of weeks ago. I am guessing that they saw a market that is oversaturated with devices being made by everyone under the sun and needed a write-off for 2007. Just food for thought, this will probably be the last Cobra GPS device we will ever see unless they start rebranding someone elses product like everyone else does.
Funny how you never see the real display on those pictures of GPS devices, it's always the sticker they put on it, or a photoshop.
Hmm... Let me see if I can play Nintendo DS games on this thing...
Its funny doesn't this thing look like a giant TomTom One GPS unit lol.