Hands-on with Navigon's newest GPS units

Navigon had a shockingly large presence at CeBIT this year, and considering just how many issues these Europeans seem to have with following directions, we weren't at all surprised to find it among the most crowded booth at the entire show. Needless (and harmless, might we add) jabs aside, the firm had a number of its latest GPS units up on display, and while the model numbers (and software, obviously) were a touch different than the US models announced yesterday, the hardware was definitely the same. We really dug what we saw, too, as the curvaceous, thin designs really caught the eye and the LCD displays were all bright and easy to read. If you're hungry for more pics, you know where to look.

Hands-on with Navigon's newest GPS units

[stephend Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:48PM]

Do the damn things have an OFF switch now, instead of the standby button that continues to drain the battery after a day in the glove compartment?

[f1rehead Posted Mar 3rd 2009 2:55PM]

Hold down the standby button for a few seconds and it will turn off.

[lecti Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:52PM]

What's the deal with GPS with non-qwerty key layout!? It's like asking someone to use rotary!

[pitoUTK Posted Mar 3rd 2009 3:31PM]

I know it's annoying. It's taking a standard and throwing it aside for no particular reason at all. It makes no damn sense.

[ajeezy Posted Mar 3rd 2009 3:32PM]

Yea I always wondered that cause my parents have an older Garmin and it has an ABCD keyboard. But my grandparents recently got a newer one and it has the qwerty and it makes it SOOO much easier

[Onashi608 Posted Mar 3rd 2009 4:11PM]

I came here to make this exact same comment. I get so annoyed with these keyboards!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:53PM]

Cool name.

This design is rather big, and and thus reduced battery life. There it's best used within the automobile .

[Sircolby45 Posted Mar 3rd 2009 5:12PM]

Whenever I read up on a Navigon a while back most of the reviews complained that the touch pad was not very responsive. I wonder if they have made any improvements on this?

[FThorn Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:44PM]

Well, my parents have no interaction with QWERTY - they neither type on a typewrite or have ever used a computer. So, this would be simply intuitive.

[youfacethetick Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:02PM]

I was involved in a navi system and I fought bitterly for a qwerty keyboard. the idiots claimed the alpha layout is natural. not for anyone born past 1960 - which would make up 95% of the navigation system's users.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:48PM]

The best thing to solve this type of issue -- let the user decide which keyboard layout they prefer to use -- ABCD or QWERTY. Why didn't they do that?