CNET Editor's rating: 6.3 out of 10
Reviewed by
Bonnie Cha
Review date: 11/19/07
The good: The entry-level Navigon 2100 features a sleek, compact design and has an affordable price tag that includes text-to-speech functionality. The unit has an integrated traffic receiver, so you have the option of adding traffic updates at a later time.
The bad: The system is sluggish, and route recalculations weren't efficient. The user interface isn't as intuitive as that of the competition and can be especially confusing for first-time buyers.
The bottom line: Though the affordable price tag and text-to-speech functionality are nice, the Navigon 2100's sluggish performance and roundabout route recalculations are a turnoff; you can get a better entry-level portable navigation device in the Mio C230.
Navigon's line of portable navigation systems seems to follow the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, offering three different flavors with one to hopefully match your tastes and needs. For the gadget hounds and GPS enthusiasts, there's the Navigon 7100 with its advanced features like Bluetooth and traffic services, while the Navigon 5100 is more of a middle-of-the-road system for intermediate users. And now for beginners, there's the Navigon 2100. The entry-level unit has an attractive price point of $249, and includes text-to-speech functionality for speaking actual street names, which you don't often find at this price range. In addition, you have the ability to add more functionality, such as traffic services and refined points of interest search, once you become more familiar with GPS. That said, we were turned off by the sluggish performance and inefficient route recalculations. The user interface can also be confusing and overly complicated. As a result, for first-time GPS buyers, we'd recommend the Mio DigiWalker C230, which offers ease of use and similar features.
Design
The Navigon 2100 is a miniaturized version of the Navigon 5100 and 7100. It features the same, sleek black finish of the other two systems but has a smaller footprint at 4 inches wide by 3.1 inches tall by 0.8 inch deep and 5.6 ounces for easy transport between vehicles. It's compact enough that you could feasibly use it while navigating on foot or mounted to a bicycle.
Despite its petite size, the Navigon 2100 still manages to pack in a standard 3.5-inch touch screen. Maps and text appeared sharp and vibrant, and we were able to read the display in various lighting conditions, including bright sunlight. The onscreen keyboard is a bit cramped to quickly and easily enter addresses, and unfortunately, there's no stylus included to help with the situation. In addition, the system's sluggish performance slows down the address entry process. (See Performance section for more).
The user interface is fairly easy to use, though not as intuitive as other systems. The main menu page includes five clear options: New Destination, My Destinations, Take Me Home, Show Map, and Options. However, as we've noted with other Navigon product reviews, once you dive deeper into the applications, things can get a bit confusing and laborious. The function of all the icons on the map screen isn't clearly identified, so we'd recommend giving the user manual a quick read or familiarizing yourself with all the unit's functions before heading off on your first trip.
The rest of the 2100's design is minimal. On top of the device, you'll find a power button and a jack for an external antenna. The SD expansion slot is located on the right side, while there's a reset hole on the left spine. Finally, the mini USB port is on the bottom.
The Navigon 2100 comes packaged with a car charger, a vehicle mount (windshield and dash), an SD card preloaded with U.S. maps, and reference material. For better or worse, the 2100 doesn't ship with the modern-looking windshield mount included with the Navigon 5100 and 7100. Instead, you get a more traditional accessory, which did a good job of holding the system securely in place.
Features
The Navigon 2100 is equipped with a SiRFstarIII GPS chip and includes Navteq maps of the 48 contiguous United States preloaded on the included SD card. To start planning a trip, you can enter a location by specific address, point of interest, recent destination, user-defined home, and so forth. The 2100 can calculate routes in one of four ways--fast, optimum, short, or scenic--and gives you the option to allow or avoid highways and toll roads. There are also options for creating routes via pedestrian or bicycle mode. As with most portable navigation systems, you get text- and voice-guided directions, but unlike many units in this price range (with the exception of the Mio C230), you also get text-to-speech functionality so you'll hear actual street names instead of more generic directions. Other standard navigation features include automatic route recalculation, multistop trips, simulated demos, and speed alerts.
Like the other Navigon products, the 2100 has a comprehensive points-of-interest database that includes branded icons for major corporations, such as McDonald's, Chevron, and Shell. Categories include all the major attractions, such as gas stations, lodging, and restaurants (searchable by cuisine type) as well as more specific items like museums and railway stations. Unlike the Navigon 5100, the 2100 doesn't include Zagat Survey ratings and reviews out of the box. You can add this feature for an additional $39. This gives you Zagat Survey ratings and reviews for POI--more specifically for hotels, night life, attractions, golf courses, and restaurants--and the ability to search for these entries by top service, best buy, and so forth.
You can view maps in 2D or 3D mode, and with day or night colors. The map screen shows you plenty of data, such as the name of the street you're on, distance to next turn, estimated time of arrival, remaining distance, a compass, signal strength, and more. You can always choose to hide some of these elements via the Settings menu, since the screen can get pretty overwhelming with all the data and points of interest. Like the 5100, the Navigon 2100 also has Reality View. This feature gives you a "photorealistic" view of complicated intersections, such as major highway exchanges, with a 3D image of the road. For example, you will get a semirealistic view of what the road looks like ahead of you, including road signs, so you're not completely confused as to what exit to take.
As an entry-level and budget-friendly GPS device, the Navigon 2100 doesn't offer much more--no Bluetooth or multimedia capabilities. However, you can add traffic functionality to the device. The unit already has an integrated traffic receiver, so the only thing you'll need is the $99 traffic service. Though the price seems a bit stiff, this is a lifetime subscription so you won't have to have to renew or pay monthly fees.
Performance
Despite being powered by a 400MHz Samsung processor, we thought the Navigon 2100 felt underpowered. Similar to the Navigon 5100, there was a couple second delay for an action to register after tapping an icon. For example, when entering addresses, there was a lag between the time we pressed a letter or number and the time it actually showed up onscreen. During our first couple of tries with the 2100, we didn't realize there was such a delay and went about entering our address, only to realize halfway through the process that the system hadn't registered half of our commands, so we had to go back and re-enter the information, which got to be annoying real quick.
For our road tests, we took the 2100 out in San Francisco, and from a cold start and under cloudy skies, it took about 5 minutes for the unit to get a 3D fix on our location. Subsequent starts ranged from instantaneous up to 2 minutes. While driving around the city, the system did a good job of tracking our position, but as expected, it did lose a signal when we drove through the Broadway Tunnel. That said, once we exited the tunnel, the 2100 picked up the signal almost instantaneously.
We also entered our standard trip from the Marina District to CNET's downtown headquarters, and the Navigon 2100 quickly calculated directions. We checked out the list of turn-by-turn text directions and found the route to be accurate. Once on the road, the voice prompts were loud and clear, but we thought the text-to-speech directions were a bit robotic and not as smooth as some of the other systems we've tested. Also, while route recalculations were swift, the Navigon 2100 didn't always return with the most efficient routes. We missed a number of turns to test this feature, and on several occasions, the unit told us to make u-turns, sometimes when not permitted, when a simple right turn would have gotten us back on track. Fortunately, we were familiar with the area in which we were driving, but not exactly what you want if you're new to an area. The Navigon 2100's 1,100 mAh lithium ion battery is rated for up to 3.5 hours of use.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great GPS for $149 @Office Depot
I purchased the Navigaon 2100 at Office Depot a couple days ago for an amazing $149.00. Regular price is $...
I purchased the Navigaon 2100 at Office Depot a couple days ago for an amazing $149.00. Regular price is $249 but this week Office Deport is offering a $100 instant rebate. I also own the Garmin Nuvi 680 with blue tooth, photos, mp3s and after using the 2100 for three days, it gives me better route calculation then the 680. Signal strength is better and rerouting is faster and the unit does not tell you that it is recalculating. It just does it. I love this feature. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Read the online manual on the navigon web site. Also reality view is cool and during travel of a planned route you can press the directional arrow to hear the instructions repeated. I love it. I live in northern virginia and it works great. No real problems. Call Navigon support and they will email you a form to complete and return to get free lifetime traffic.
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by drewhat (see profile) -
November 19, 2007
13 out of 14 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 out of 10 - Excellent don't believe the review
Stood in line at 4:30 AM on Black Friday (in freezing weather) to purchase a comparable competitor for $99 (...
Stood in line at 4:30 AM on Black Friday (in freezing weather) to purchase a comparable competitor for $99 (Mio C220), it announced turns but not street names which got confusing ... eventually I returned it and got the Navigon 2100 for $149. The graphics are better than anything else out there on the market, and it announces turns AND street names. Don't believe the hype about the "Big 3" - Garmin, Tom Tom, Magellan ... whatever. They might have more control over the market and more slection but so far this product is doing excellent for me and I would recommend.
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by feedbag14 (see profile) -
December 2, 2007
9 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 out of 10 - Good Gtreat unit but Routing is bad
I tested the 2100 along with a Magellan 2000 and the magellan stayed on the proper course while the navigon ...
I tested the 2100 along with a Magellan 2000 and the magellan stayed on the proper course while the navigon 2100 made me get off main roads, take little side streets and then get back on the main road about 10 minutes out of the way. Also, on a trip starting from my house, there is a very quick and direct way to the expressway. My Megellan gets me there almost exactly the way I would drive. The navigon didnt and I had to go into the turn-by-turn directions and put a RED X in some of the directions I didnt want... Only then did it figure out the way I wanted to go.. Well.... it started to but then wanted to take me another way. the Magellan was dead on with the directions...
I really wanted to like this unit but I think the Magellan wins for the routing it takes you on which is dead on correct...
Updated I did some more testing today of the 2100.. I, again had it side by side with my magellan 2000 and the navigon provided BETTER routes about 95% of the time. Sometimes the megellan had me going in places I wouldnt go and the navigon had a straight route. about 5% of the time the magellan was better. Even though I have though about returning it, I am beginning to like it. I see most GPS units have quirky ways of routing and none are perfect... especially in this price range... and the POI display while not having everything is greay to see as far as actually seeing the name if the place and not just a symbol..
7 out of 10 - Very good Good, if within $200.00 (with traffic)
I own a 2100T (not BF sale@Staples). First off, 2100 vs. 2100T is *T* includes the traffic subscription. Here ...
I own a 2100T (not BF sale@Staples). First off, 2100 vs. 2100T is *T* includes the traffic subscription. Here are my thoughts -- first off, the unit is small, good-looking with a very effective car mount. Upon startup, it acquires GPS signal quickly. It can be protected with PIN # against theft. The touch-screen can be calibrated. Reverting to factory-settings are possible.
Coming to more important stuff, one can search for an address using street name first, or city/ZIP code combination. The map included covers the 48 contig. states only. Also, it's feasible to store 500 addresses in Favorites for quick retrieval. 1 good feature is defining a route having multiple points and being able to save the whole route combination itself. Without GPS signal, it's possible to review the route in a map, giving TTS and turn-by-turn using *simulation*.
After putting in the address, and assuming GPS signal is active, a turn-by-turn listing can be displayed, where even specific roads can be blocked. Post blocking, the system can be made to re-route and then use that route for navigation. In terms of routing, there's considerable options available. Fastest route, optimal route, shortest route, scenic route, avoid/allow/forbid tolls, avoid/allow/forbid highways, avoid/allow/forbid ferries, avoid/allow/forbid U-turns, mode for bicycle, car, truck or walking. While driving, taping the map it displays a *block* option, which is like .5,1,1.5,3,5 mile sketches, if activated, system auto blocks that sketch in front and tries to re-route alternative route (traffic congesion, etc.) - a very handy feature. Option to switch from 2d/3d at tap of the map. However, what the unit does NOT do (some GPS units do it) is detect your speed and if less than normal auto suggest detour options. The system display on the map the next turn and the turn-after (if almost immediate). In fact, also if it's situation like *bear immediately left, after right turn*, etc. shows both of them, thus it's possible to detect earlier what's coming up. Good feature. In case you missed what was said, tapping the turn icon again causes TTS to kick in and repeat.
In case traffic is activated, which is for life and the charging cable MUST be plugged in, system shows a small icon on map, if clicked shows all active traffic information. Again, can be configured to show ONLY traffic relevant to route. Furthermore, immediate traffic details are displayed on the map itself (radius approx. 2 miles). System can automatically route you thru alternative routes or can be made manual. A VERY +VE point being the subscription is lifetime, once bought - it's forever ACTIVE!! Very powerful feature.
Re-routing, in case of missed turns are quick but read issues below.
TTS functionality has a single voice only (lady) and is of good pronounciation. Nevertheless, there's some peculiarities, which one can get used to. Generally, states to bear left, or keep to the left/right much earlier, gives clear road-names, very accurate in saying *NOW, turn right/left* etc. If there's multiple turns (city) avoids saying each & every road name to avoid confusion. The speaker, however is on the low side. Might have slight difficulty in hearing at high speeds. However, the system uniquely provides an important feature called auto volume increase with speed increase. Very effective. In case you're going over speed-limit and you've configured to warn you if over 10 mph, TTS does do a *caution* statement. The volume is configurable, directly from the map and can be muted too.
The map itself is highly customizable. It's possible to display speed limits, set warning if exceeing limit at city/highway levels and that too at 5 mph, 10 mph, 15 mph above limit settings. Can show/hide altitude, speed, distance to destination, duration of travel, ETA, compass, street-names. The display itself is bright (brightness can be configured, both at day/night levels separately) and has separate day/night views. Note - the unit does NOT switch to night view automatically. The associate time settings are done automatically. The 2D zoom provides another important feature - auto-zoom. At higher speeds, etc. ; system auto-zoom to cover more area, etc. The amount of zooming itself is configurable. There's a button providing further options like browing the map itself (pulling/pushing it up/down, left/right), tapping a point on the map which showing details about that point and if there's any recorded POI at that point, etc. Very good and nice. Manual zooming of the maps is possible. However, locking the map-view preventing changes if accidentally tapped, etc. is not possible. The orientation of the map can be direction of travel (default) or always North.
The Reality-View is very effective. It *kicks* in at critical junctures of travel, where there are complex turns involved showing clearly which lane to stick to, etc. However, keep in mind it's static and automatically appears. Once turn is over, switches to map view. Again the view can be turned completely off.
Coming to POIs, it offers a set of POIs which can be searched and navigated to, from the main screen. There are multiple categories of POIs and each almost always have sub-categories. The search can be based on *Nearby* (if GPS signal is active), *City* or *Nationwide*. Once either of these options are selected, a search can be done based on category or sub-categories. If *Nearby*, it displays a set of choices which can be expanded to include more radius. Similarly at city (by city name or ZIP code) or nation-wide hunt of main corp. brands. Further, there's a quick selection of critical categories at immediate availability for searching is possible - max 3. For example, parking, restaurants, WCs. The search is displayed as a list with up/down buttons and the keypad vertically oriented in the split screen. The keybad is ABCD format which can not be changed to QWERTY. Auto completion is possible and active. The up/down arrows displaying the list are very sluggish and hang quite a lot. The actual icon for the brand-name is displayed alongwith the POI name. Re-tying POIs, changing categories/sub-categories, etc. are cumbersome and inefficient. The database is also very, very limited and does not include almost all major brands but are more inclined to include mom/pop shops. The POIs can be made to display in the map itself and the types of POIs to be shown on the map are configurable, the good part being they appear as icons on the map. My observation is it makes the map very cluttered. Tapping the map provides an option to display immediate POIs in vicinity or route and then adding such a POI as an intermittent route point. Effective but the type of POIs available by default (being low) makes this ineffective. A critical -ve point being users are NOT allowed to add their custom POIs, or share other users' compilation, etc. You can only save the address as a favorite, for your personal use. Separately ($40) a Zagat survey lifetime subscription can be bought - which provides for Zagat surveyed POIs - an option to review the ZAGAT ratings given for the POI in the system itself. I don't have it, thus can not comment.
Pushing the top button causes immediately the product to go into standby mode, thus switching it on is very quick and good (activates the PIN # option, for theft deterance). It does NOT auto detect vehicle switch-off and thus has to be manually switched off.
The cons lies mostly with the POI database, sluggish search/display/modification options available. The next -ve point lies in the routing display. Many a times, it'll display a rather zig-zag route with weird roads, etc. and need to be carefully reviewed (turn-by-turn listing) prior to embarking on the travel. On a personal note, users should ALWAYS use the "short route" option by route-points are within city limits or short distances and "optimal route" if interstate travels. If route is missed, although re-routing is quick - again can be weird and can really take you on a trip down the highway! This is true also for automatic traffic re-calculations. There's supposed to be a firmwire update in January 2008 addressing this problem. On a lighter note, there's numerous others who have NOT reported any routing issues; thus I think it's case-by-case basis and mostly to do with the NavTeq maps being used. A proof in the pudding lies in the fact that many-a-times the system will ask you to take an exit, go couple of miles and then re-join the highway again! This normally happens if system detects a portion of the highway to be *missing* in it's database - normally caused due to extreme compression of the maps itself (to fit into the SD card). This is not pronouced much for 2100, since it has ONLY 48 states of US. But for higher models, i.e. 5100, 7100 - which has the whole of NA - it's more pronounced behaviour. Also reported, in quite a few cases, the traffic, even if activated - does not work. You'll need to talk to support for resolving this. There are NO media-players, headphone jack, AC adapter, PC update options for software/firmwire, CD/DVD containing help manual, etc.
Navigon support - for me has been quick and good, while others have reported problems. Again a case-by-case. They have quickly responded email queries too (24 hrs. turn-around time).
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by baivab (see profile) -
January 11, 2008
5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 out of 10 - Excellent good in general, great for the money
I have had it for about 4 days and I like it. Yes the Garmin and Tomtom have more features ...
I have had it for about 4 days and I like it. Yes the Garmin and Tomtom have more features but you pay for those things. I don't want/need a gps unit that plays mp3's and shows pictures. I wanted a unit that had text to speach, multi route, and was compact. I didn't really need traffic updates but if I change my mind I can add it later. This unit powers up and acquires the satelite usually close to 1 to 1.5 minutes.
Here is my one gripe, the mounting arm to the windshield is hard to get the unit in and out of and the other downside is the power cord is seperate from the mounting thing. So everytime you want to take the unit off the windshield you have to take it off the mounting and then unplug it. No biggie. I like it, great price, great unit. I recommend it.
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by shlurpee (see profile) -
November 15, 2007
5 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Better than NUVI 350
I took me 3 months to buy this, I first started looking at it on September, when it was advertised ...
I took me 3 months to buy this, I first started looking at it on September, when it was advertised on Time Magazine, was going to buy on Black Friday, but wife did not want one. I bought mine on X'ams.
I read all reviews, I like doing research before buying something, and my feeling after reading them all (I went through 4 web sites) was that this had a lot of potential and that a lot of users did not really use it before jotting down their thoughts.
I have used NUVI 350, and 670 before and I thought they were the best, I was wrong.
NUVI takes to long to link onto satellites,over 2:10 (twice it took over 20 minutes, I am not kidding) with NAVIGON it has not taken me more than 2:10 (the shortest 1:50) even on a rainy day.
Comparing the 350 against the 2100 (had them both in the car) the 350 showed the same route, same distance. The NUVI showed a shorter ETA than the NAVIGON, but while driviing the NUVI will go up.
As far as being user friendly goes, I preffer the NAVIGON, its more like windows, and although the NAVIGON is pretty much standard like the other manufacturers, the NAVIGON is really easy to get used to and faster.
The reviews that I read daid that the NAVIGOn took sometime to show the addresses while typing, that is because it shows the options, narrowing them. Something that can be construed as a nuisance, but its not.
The 3D really view is awesome, my wife likes it, now she can drive herself on the instersate without having to call me, and ask me what exit to take. I wish I had the 7100, for bigger view, but its too pricy. The speed warning feature is good, I like it.
The cons: POIs, no Post offices and no fire departments. Car mount is good but does not have the "ball" behind the mount, therefore you can only move side wise and not tilt it.
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by JaimeCayo (see profile) -
January 11, 2008
4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular It is Simply Great!
This device is worth its money no doubt! The interface is a lil slow which a lot of people complain ...
This device is worth its money no doubt! The interface is a lil slow which a lot of people complain about, but once you get used to it, its not that bad. I havent experienced route calculations to be slow. Traffic updates lifetime for $99 - thats incredible. This has a lot of features which anyone can use if you read the manual. They are not very complex. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who are directionally challenged like me or want to navigate with ease Read more
by velvaluri (see profile) -
November 30, 2007
4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 out of 10 - Good The Jury is still out
I bought this on Black Friday at Staples for $99. Set up was easy - I was able to put ...
I bought this on Black Friday at Staples for $99. Set up was easy - I was able to put together minutes after leaving the store and use it to drive home. I agree with the findings of the other review in terms of the response time and entry of addresses.
The BIG problem is - the screen and map freeze up in the middle of most of my trips - annoying to say the least. I am planning to call customer service today. Their resoponse will be a big factor in my decision to keep or return the unit.
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by croot2 (see profile) -
December 11, 2007
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 out of 10 - Good Very good design but sluggish interface
Very good design, light weight, accurate, TMC is great since it comes free with the unit .Reality view is in ...
Very good design, light weight, accurate, TMC is great since it comes free with the unit .Reality view is in static mode once activated. another downside is search feature is cumbersome and the device keeps on hanging and you will need to reset it which makes it very annoying otherwise overall for the price and features it's good.
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by doclevis (see profile) -
November 24, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
3 out of 10 - Poor this product is not as simple to operate as others
the navigon 2100 is not a simple gps to navigate through. the response of the touch screen is very disappointing. ...
the navigon 2100 is not a simple gps to navigate through. the response of the touch screen is very disappointing. programs are not simple at all, i compare this with my wife`s garmin nuvi 200. easy to operate easy to navigate & easy to program.i thought most gps would be similar to operate. was i wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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by scodyd (see profile) -
January 9, 2008
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