.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
.TITLE GPS devices head-to-head: Garmin vs. Delphi (should you buy either one?)
.AUTHOR James Booth
.SUMMARY In our current age of gadgetry, a GPS device is one of the more in vogue devices. In this head-to-head comparison, Senior Editor James Booth will be examining the Garmin Nuvi 350 and the Delphi Nav 200. Both devices are entry-level units, geared toward the new-to-GPS consumer.
.OTHER
In our current age of gadgetry, one of the more in vogue devices is a GPS receiver. A lot of people want a GPS device, need a GPS device, or think they need one. But how well do they actually work? In this head-to-head comparison, I’ll be examining the Garmin Nuvi 350 and the Delphi Nav 200. Both devices are entry-level units, geared toward the new-to-GPS consumer.
.CALLOUT Neither device found the shortest, the fastest, or the most direct route.
Garmin is a GPS-related name that most will find familiar. Delphi is a name most will associate with automotive entertainment systems, in particular the XM satellite radio, and not with GPS. Taking advantage of their satellite association, Delphi is now tossing their hat into the GPS arena. Both units are shown below in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A The Garmin Nuvi 350 (left) and Delphi Nav200 (right).
.BREAK_EMAIL Navigate your mouse click to this vector in order to read the full article.
.H1 The Garmin Nuvi 350
Garmin’s Nuvi 350 in Figure B, is promoted as a portable GPS navigator, traveler’s reference, and digital entertainment system, all in one; a pocket-sized personal travel assistant ready for adventure.
.FIGPAIR B Garmin’s Nuvi 350 GPS device.
Out of the box, the Nuvi 350 comes preloaded with the City Navigator street maps for North America. These maps include a POI (points of interest) database containing hotels, restaurants, ATMs, and gas stations. It can also accept user-created points of interest.
.CALLOUT The Garmin points of interest, on the other hand, were flat-out wrong.
The Nuvi will give you turn-by-turn voice directions to any destination, announcing street names and exits. Navigation, like that shown in Figure C, is presented on the user’s choice of a 2D or 3D map with configurable, car-shaped, vehicle icons.
.FIGPAIR C The Nuvi 350 provides turn-by-turn voice directions.
As well as being a GPS location and navigation device, the Nuvi 350 also features a range of travel and entertainment options. Included are an MP3 player, a JPEG viewer, and an audio book player, which requires a membership to Audible.com. On the travel side, the Nuvi offers a world travel clock, currency converter, calculator, measurement converter, travel guide, and language translator. These last two are additional purchase subscription options though.
Finally, Garmin offers an FM TMC traffic receiver and traffic services for the Nuvi 350. The traffic receiver and service can notify you of accidents and road construction on your route, allowing you to reroute and avoid traffic.
.H2 The specs
The Garmin Nuvi 350 is a pocket-sized device, measuring 3.8×2.9x.87-inches. It has a 3.5-inch diagonal, QVGA, 320×240 color touchscreen. It weighs 5.1 ounces, and is powered by a non-removable lithium-ion battery for eight hours of use. It can also be powered by your vehicle’s power outlet. Finally, it comes with an SD expansion slot for add-on maps, services, and multimedia content. The Nuvi 350 from Garmin retails for $535.00.
.H1 The Delphi Nav200
In Figure D is Delphi’s Nav200, an entry-level, pocket-sized, GPS navigation device.
.FIGPAIR D The Nav200 from Delphi.
It comes with NAVTEQ maps of the US and Canada preloaded on a 1.5GB SD card. It provides turn-by-turn voice directions to the destination of your choice, through multiple way points if desired, on a 2D or 3D map. The NAVTEQ maps feature points of interest on locations such as gas stations and repair shops, restaurants, motels, and ATMs for locating any needed service in your local. Figure E shows the navigation map.
.FIGPAIR E Turn-by-turn navigation with the Delphi Nav200.
Also included on the Nav200 is an MP3 player, photo viewer, movie player, a calculator, world clock, and the Othello game; also known as Go, or Reversi.
As an additional purchase option, Delphi offers a Real-Time Traffic Kit. The Nav200’s traffic service uses RDS-TMC (Radio Data System-Traffic Message Channel) technology for up-to-the-minute traffic data on extreme weather accidents, road closures, and traffic jams. With the data, the Nav200 is able to adapt the route and navigate around the obstacles or delays.
.H2 The specs
The Delphi Nav200 measures 5.3×3.2×1-inches, weighs 6.7 ounces, and features a 3.5-inch diagonal, 320×240 color touchscreen. The Nav200 is powered by a non-removable lithium-ion battery, or can use your vehicle’s power adapter. And finally, an SD expansion slot holds the map card, or other cards containing your multimedia files. The Delphi Nav200 retails for $250.00, with the Traffic Kit going for an additional $200.00.
.H1 This review
I must confess up front, this is my first foray into the field of GPS devices. From one point of view, some may think me less than qualified to cover this type of product. But from another viewpoint, it makes me better qualified. I come to the review untainted by previous experiences, like the consumer buying one for the first time.
First off, and probably the most important, I found the maps on both the Garmin and Delphi units to be accurate and up-to-date. While driving, cross streets, turns, and announced directions come up accurately and on time. And the Garmin’s speed indicator was right on with the speedometer of my vehicle. The Delphi unit has no such speed function.
.H1 Route navigation
The appeal of a GPS device isn’t so much to tell you where are, but how to get where you want to go. In fact, you could say that route planning and navigation are the most desirable features of consumer GPS devices.
Users expect their GPS devices to provide them with the shortest, fastest, and/or most direct route to their destination. And it was in this regard that I was most disappointed in both the Garmin and Delphi units.
In order to test the route planning features of both devices, I used destinations both local and out of town, comparing the generated routes to those in Mapopolis and my own best-known routes. I have used Mapopolis as my mapping and route navigation utility on both the Palm and Pocket PC platforms for nearly a decade, and found them to be one of the most accurate and reliable on the market. Unfortunately, Mapopolis has left the consumer market to focus solely on OEM sales.
Prior to taking up the pen, I was a regional truck driver, with a city route in the out of town destination where I tested both devices. So I feel more than comfortable in judging the accuracy of the route planning and points of interest.
Both devices offer the ability to compute directions based on the fastest or the shortest route. Sadly, I found that neither device was capable of compiling the shortest, the fastest, or the most direct route. In fact, they both take the driver quite a bit out of the way. Both will get you to your destination, just don’t expect it to be the best route available. While Mapopolis provided much better routes, and more sensible directions, it was unable to compile the most direct route as well. However, unlike the Delphi and Garmin units, the Mapopolis software didn’t take me out of the way.
Regarding the points of interest, Delphi was quite accurate. In fact, it was accurate to businesses that had opened in just the past few months. The Garmin points of interest, on the other hand, were flat-out wrong. And on the Delphi unit, the POI icons and names were visible at any zoom level, whereas on the Garmin device, they were only visible at the closest zoom level.
While on my out of town trip, a family reunion with the in-laws, I checked Garmin’s Nuvi 350 to see what points of interest were nearby; it listed a Dunkin Donuts a mere 1.5 miles away. Alright! We don’t have Dunkin in my area any more, so I could really go for some of their coffee and donuts.
I followed the turn-by-turn voice directions and map precisely. But when the Garmin unit declared that I was at my destination, there was no Dunkin Donuts. In fact, there was no indication that there had ever been one at that location. I don’t recall one being there when I had a delivery route in the area either, that was why I was so elated to see one listed on the POI. For verification, I then checked the Delphi, which did not list a single Dunkin Donuts anywhere in the entire metro area. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed.
.H1 The extras
These days, we consumers like to feel they’re getting the most bang for their buck. I think this is why both Garmin and Delphi felt the need to pack in a load of extra features like games, photo viewers, calculators, and MP3 players. My feeling is that valuable storage and computing space is being taken up by a load of unnecessary applications — storage and computing space that could be used for generating better route planning.
With the prevalence of all the portable media devices, I don’t need or want those features and functions in my GPS device. What I do want in my GPS device is accurate maps, accurate directions, and accurate points of interest.
I wasn’t all that impressed with these extra features anyway. The Garmin device would play MP3s while navigating, but the Delphi would not. Neither could create a playlist; merely play the files it detected in order, or shuffle. And the Delphi’s video player was just horrendous. It took nearly a dozen separate tries to encode a file at a low enough resolution and bitrate that it would even play on the device. And by that time, the quality was so poor it was worthless. The audio was scratchy, and the image kept getting darker and darker, until it was no longer even visible.
With all of the other devices capable of displaying photos these days, cell phones even, I don’t think we really need one more. Calculators? Well, okay. I can see how that would be useful. But games? Audiobooks?
I was unfortunately unable to test the traffic features of either device. Garmin did not include it with their unit, but Delphi did. It really didn’t matter though, as there wasn’t a traffic signal in any of the areas I was testing.
While the Delphi lacks the majority of the other travel-related features of the Garmin, such as the phrase translator, travel guide, etc., they are additional purchase items on the Garmin anyway. And when the base unit costs $535.00 to begin with, they just aren’t worth it.
The fact that Delphi’s maps were on an external card really bothered me. I think it’s just a bit reckless and irresponsible on their part to put the most important thing the device offers on a removable card. The maps should be stored in the device’s onboard memory; period. What if the card gets lost? Sure, you have a backup on the computer at home, but what if you’re in an unfamiliar area, one where you need those maps, and you lose the card? You’re screwed.
.H1 Conclusion
I’ve been told that GPS devices are kind of like idiot savants; good at one thing, but not much else. From this experience, I can say they’re pretty good at telling you where you are, but they aren’t very good at telling you how to get anywhere with any degree of common sense. And even this isn’t entirely true. The GPS device owned by ZATZ Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz is firmly convinced the neighborhood he lives in doesn’t exist.
In all truth and honesty, I was quite disappointed in both the Delphi and the Garmin devices. Had I purchased either one, it would have gone back to the store for a refund toot-sweet. Aside from the less than accurate points of interest on the Garmin, and the inability of either unit to plot a direct route, the battery life of both units was only in the neighborhood of two hours.
Although the Garmin device boasted no claims as anything other than an automotive device, the Delphi does. It contains profiles for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as for motored traffic. But with a battery life of only two hours, it’s virtually worthless in that capacity. As a cyclist or pedestrian, it’s extremely unlikely a navigation device would be needed for only two hours of activity.
.BEGIN_KEEP
I don’t normally like to come down on a product, or "trash" it, but I think in this instance it is important to let customers know what to expect with these devices. They will get you where you want to go, just don’t expect it to be the shortest, fastest, or most direct route. And don’t rely on the points of interest as carved-in-stone accurate. Due to all of the shortcomings, and so few positives, I’m afraid I can’t recommend either the Delphi Nav200, or the Garmin Nuvi 350 for purchase, and rate both devices at 2 out of 5.
.RATING 2
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Learn more about [[http://shopdelphi.com/consumers/mobilenav/nav200/|the Delphi Nav200]].
Learn more about [[https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=6290|the Garmin Nuvi 350]].
Learn more about [[http://www.mapopolis.com|Mapopolis]].
Learn more about [[https://www.dunkindonuts.com/|Dunkin Donuts]].
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.END_KEEP
