Insignia's NS-CNV10 "Connected GPS" unit gets unboxed, examined

Best Buy's new cellular-connected Insignia NS-CNV10 (and larger NS-CNV20) certainly has the specs to get noticed, but if the few first impressions that are now cropping up are any indication, it looks like it may not be quite as solid a bet as it seems on paper. The biggest drawback, according to both GPS Lodge and GPS Trackblog, is a decidedly lacking interface that runs on top of Windows CE, which is described as slow, visually unappealing, and simply not that easy to use (all things fairly important in an interface). On the upside, the cellular connectivity and integration with Google Maps apparently does work as promised, and the free service for a year certainly makes the somewhat hefty $399 price tag a bit more bearable. If you're still undecided, you can dig into the links below for a few more first impressions and, of course, some requisite unboxing pics.

Read - GPS Lodge, "Insignia NS CNV-10 Connected GPS - Unboxing & First Impressions Review"
Read - GPS Tracklog, "Insignia GPS first impressions"

[michael @ Oct 20th 2008 2:41PM]

I like my Dash Express.

[OneLove @ Oct 20th 2008 3:38PM]

I refuse to buy anything with "Insignia" on it!

[athousandleaves @ Oct 20th 2008 2:47PM]

Possibly a silly question, but GPS units that pull up restaurants & such... do they use a GSM/cellular connection of some sort or is it actually all in the software on the unit?

:S

[Jon @ Oct 20th 2008 4:22PM]

On most units, it's a pre-loaded and often updatable database on the unit. They're called POI (points-of-interest) databases and are generally one of the selling features of the GPS. "This GPS has a 6 million POI database" etc.

These databases coexist on the GPS with the actual map data itself.

[Britt H @ Dec 24th 2008 7:29AM]

This unit actually uses a SIM card... yes, a SIM... the same thing that cell phones use. Free for 1 year then after that... who knows the rate?!

[WaffleTeamStrike @ Oct 20th 2008 2:58PM]

wow the stylus really sets this apart from other gps units...meh

[chefgon_ign @ Oct 20th 2008 4:04PM]

Insignia is synonymous with unusably bad UI. If you are looking for a list of features that contains more than "cheapest piece of junk available", you had best not even glance at any Insignia products.

[deadsleeper @ Oct 20th 2008 8:31PM]

I have been demoing an Insignia CNV10 for the past 3 days and so far I love it. Ive had couple Garmins prior and a TomTom and I feel the Insignia units are up to par. The mount is great because there is a USB jack built in eliminating the need to connect the cable to the back of the unit every time you reattach it. When I had a Garmin this was extremly annoying. There is also a volume knob on the outside of the unit which is very convenient when I have to temporarily turn the voice down. The traffic updates are great and easy to read on the display. I have found the interface very intuitive and its fairly easy to avoid a specific intersection or road while en route. Google search works about the same as my google map search on the my iphone. So far I have no complaints. Highly recommended.

[Big Sam @ Oct 20th 2008 11:28PM]

I'm trying to get rid of using a stylus on my phone, why do I want to add one to my GPS?

[egloskerry @ Oct 21st 2008 12:03AM]

Not everything that is store brand is bad. For example:

My Geek Squad UPS, made by Cyberpower. We also carry Cyberpower UPS units.
My Insignia upconvert DVD player, made by LG. We also carry LG dvd players.
There is a Rocketfish heatsink made by Coolermaster, but the surface looks horrible and needs lapping badly. Other than that, I'm sure it's a decent heatsink.

But yeah, a lot of it does suck. The TVs aren't that bad, but stay away from small CE stuff. The mp3 players are average. We just released Insignia digicams and flash HD camcorders, which look beyond cheap. I'll look to see who this GPS is made by tomorrow. Probably some contract Chinese factory.

However, considering we get Tomtom and Garmin stuff 50% off, I'll be staying away from this.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Oct 21st 2008 5:08AM]

I remember you from Buddy Pic.. years ago. I also remember you were an asshole and we used to argue about stupid shit.

[bzdrvr @ Oct 21st 2008 1:17AM]

After reading a lot about NS-CNV10, I ended up getting one last Friday. Usually I steer away from off-brands such as Insignia. In this case I decided to give it a chance, given the two way capabilities.

My honeymoon with the device was over very soon after unboxing it.. Here are a couple of issues you all should be aware of if you consider buying this device:

1. Google searches are very inaccurate. Doing the same search for the same location on CNV10 and local.google.com produce *entirely* different set of results. I'm not sure how that is even possible, if the device uses google search engine correctly. Worse yet, the results get exponentially worse as you scroll down the list. In several cases the search results had entries >600 miles away from my location! Local.google.com didn't produce any results beyond my local area, which is expected.

2. GPRS signal can fade out from no apparent reason. While I had solid coverage on my cell phone, the GPS unit had lost connectivity to the towers. When the signal was recovered, I had to sometimes power off/on the unit to restore access to the google servers.

3. The touch screen interface needs a lot of help. Sometimes a single tap produces multiple taps, sometimes none (even though the unit makes a clicking sound to indicate it registered the tap).

Did I find anything positive with this device? Yes, BestBuy took it back without charging me the 15% restocking fee.

Please, consider twice (or more if necessary) before buying this unit, at least until it has matured a bit.

[Britt H @ Dec 24th 2008 8:22AM]

You don't need to use the stylus... I don't. I find it is actually easier to use the index.

[John @ Feb 1st 2009 8:26PM]

The comments on this unit are fairly accurate. As a GPS it is fine, not extraordinary (I had a Garmin that got stolen out of my car before this). The internal database is very week. But the Google search has worked great for me. It is rather slow sometimes to connect to the cellular signal, but it eventually does so every time.

One thing I found is that by clicking on the GPS signal icon you get a raw lat/long display. So far I have found no other back doors. Has anybody else found anything?