Sony NVU44 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-to-Speech (Gun Metallic)
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The Sony nav-u portable satellite navigation system is more than basic digital maps; it is the system that gets you where you need to go quickly and efficiently with intuitive features that help you along your journey. The latest Sony navigation system brings Photo Viewer to an already packed and helpful unit.
Features
- 3.5-Inch Anti-glare/high-brightness touchscreen Display
- Pre-installed Maps of North America
- Supports Memory Stick Duo Media
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 8 x 3 x 10 inches
- Weight: 2 pounds
Sony NVU44 Geat Value
Performs well and is accurate. Clear voice and tried in different States and all worked well. Better than my built-in in another car.
Some very useful features; But a few basic features missing
Good:
1. Navigation voices aren’t robotic.
2. When you search for a Point of Interest – for example Pizza – as you travel, it lists all the Pizza restaurants in the general vicinity and indicates their general direction in relation to your position with an arrow; I find this very useful.
3. As you drive, there will be a yellow triangle adjacent to your position. This triangle constantly points to the general direction of your destination, so you know if you are heading towards the right direction.
4. Good POI – both the data available as well as the search function
5. Reliable navigation and map
6. Quick Satellite fix
7. Announces how much time it took to reach the destination at the end of the trip; too bad it only announces it and doesn’t store or display it.
Bad
1. No option to “Avoid Highways”
2. Three calculation conditions – Standard, Avoid Tolls, Shortest Distance – all mutually exclusive to each other. Which means it cannot navigate the shortest toll free route. It is either shortest distance or Toll Free, not both.
3. Not built to last; either that or you should be extremely delicate when handling this. The USB socket broke of the circuit board in mine.
4. Does not offer even a basic trip statistics feature.
As of this writing, I believe Sony discontinued its GPS products. And that is not surprising. I do not see their usual engineering or design in this GPS
Looks good, easy to use, BUT….
Bought this unit for $79 from Sears. Everything seemed great at first except I noticed that the selected route was sometimes bizarre. Occasionally I’d follow the bad route just to see where it took me – but most of the times it would just route me back to the original road.
The more significant issue was the quality of the unit. My first GPS failed to hold a charge very quickly. Strike 1. I sent it in for service and they offered me either a different colored unit (red) in exchange or a refund. I chose the latter and immediately bought another one at Sears. Well – this one held a charge at first but after a few months the charge would last for only for less than a day, so every time I used it I was forced to connect the cable. Strike 2. I sent this one back for service and got the same story – no exact replacements available but we’ll upgrade you or give you a refund, which I gladly accepted to avoid an inevitable strikeout.
So I’m now back to using my Garmin E-Trek handheld in my car and much happier. Currently hunting around for a new unit but it definitely won’t be a Sony!
Way better than you know who
This is the best unit ive ever bought and it is so easy to use.
Whats not to love?!
I have had this product for over a year now – more like 18 months, and it has come to be a part of my purse!! It is small enough to be unobtrusive and versatile enough to use for both interstate and local route quest. The most beautiful thing about it for me, is that it does exactly what it was designed to do – take you from point A to point B without a lot of navigational jargon…Awesome! Now, I wonder how I ever got around without it…(kind of reminiscent of the cell phone wave huh!!!) One thing though, it is not for the town car or cab driver who is looking for an alternate, faster, less congested and sometimes obscure route ‘cos it may not have that(though you can upload route to it online – don’t ask me how though!). Having said that, I think that if you are concerned about safety issues as a lady or a guy in a strange neighborhood, this is the GPS for you because it only plots well established routes and all those shady back hoods are conveniently left out….wonder if that was on purpose…hhmmmmm.
Goo to use, poor product quqlity
This is SONY brand, you trusted what you bought.
. Functional: good, no complain about it.
. Quality: minimum marginal quality. Used this GPS a few times only, the power ON/OFF button then broken, a part moving around inside, the GPS couldn’t be powered ON anymore, totally dead.
. SONY agreed a replacement.
its a waste
It’s a very easy to use product but it always take you through the longest paths. plus the destination it shows you will be about half a mile away from where you want to go. some of the street name are not right.need to update the map asap
Unfortunately it broke
The GPS was working well for a couple of weeks and I was happy enough. Then when I returned from a trip to VA, it stopped working. Now the battery will not charge and the touch screen does not work. So it is dead in the water. I contacted Tech Support and they told me to return it for repair, so I am hoping to return it to Amazon for refund.
Too bad !!!
cant find streets
unit will not find some streets by street names it decides that I need to know the county road number. It also will just not find some roads that have been around for over 20 years. Sony tells me that if I buy their $50 map update it “might” fix the problem. I wasted enough money buying the unit. It does no good to have a gps that is lost half the time. I’m going back to Magellan.
Not Bad At All, I Like It Better Than Magellan
This is my fifth GPS. Three of my previous ones (a TomTom One, a TomTom One XL and a Magellan Maestro) were stolen and the third was a Magellan Maestro that I thought was dead but repaired. Nonetheless, I bought this one because I didn’t want to spend another $200 on yet another GPS.
My favorite of my previous GPS’ were the TomToms because of their user friendliness and their routing intelligence. The Magellans were just plain stupid and their user interfaces were klunky.
This Sony has a very nice user interface but doesn’t quite reach TomTom level but it is good. Address entry and marking locations on this GPS is pretty good. I wish there was a GPS that would just put the current state as a default before you type but I haven’t found one yet that does that. The order of entering the address is not what I’m used to. I think this unit does number, street, city, state. I like the reverse (state, city, street, number). But the entry feels less klunky than the Magellan.
At first, I was disappointed at how garbagey the graphics looks but I quickly got over it when I noticed that the response time this unit beats any other GPS unit I’ve had. The route recalculation speed on it is phenomenal as well. Also, the simplified graphics seem easier to follow. The voice navigation is much less annoying than others I’ve used as well.
All in all, it’s a pretty good device considering it’s sub-150. I’m going to keep using it for another week and if I still like it, my Magellan is going on eBay!
Update: I felt compelled to add this since it is pretty important to me. The unit is great but the PC software for this unit STINKS! In the TomTom, you can edit an address book with real addresses but with this software you have to enter actual coordinates. What geek knows actual coordinates of addresses off the top of his/her head? This type of nerditry is what makes Apple number 1 in consumer devices. They really got lazy on the software on which would otherwise have been a 5 star unit. The Magellan software wasn’t any better so I guess that gives me some comfort?
Good while it lasted
I enjoyed this GPS while it lasted. After 3 months of not-so-heavy use, it no longer picked up the satellites. I returned it to Sony and since they no longer have any left in stock (getting out of the GPS business?), they refunded my entire amount. Also, the battery would not hold a charge after several uses which I didn’t care about too much since I had it mounted on the windshield and plugged in.
Overall, I liked the interface and it was very easy to learn how to use. The routing algorithm was a bit weird where it would take me off a major interstate too early, causing a longer trip. I did update the unit to the latest firmware and played with some settings but it didn’t help. Some addresses where hard to find as I had to type in alternate forms of the street address. However, as long as my defective unit isn’t a sign of common problems, I would recommend it as a cheap entry level GPS.
Not bad for the price
I just purchased this gps system for about 79.00 at SEARS. I had some running around to do today and I just pluged in all destinations and the little device was really accurate. I am a first time gps buyer so I can’t say what I am suppose to get and what I am not suppose to get.
You can clearly hear turn by turn directions.
Im satisfied for now
**Cons*** None yet
Great GPS For Price
Sony Nav-U 44 is extremely reliable GPS. I’ve been using this GPS for past month. It hasn’t misdirected me even once. It has very loud and clear instructions. Recalculation of alternate route is very speedy. Overall a great piece.
poor performance
I have purchased it as we have a second car after just moving to another state…boy i regret this purchase. In comparison to my Garmin 360 it’s like night and day. this sony will guide you through 20 mp/h streets through one family houses neighborhood while there is a highway right next to it, and i’m talking miles of driving. we use it ONLY if it’s absolutely necessary. Luckily for me o got it on sale for ~$80 but even then i would recommend to pay a bit more and get garmin instead.
GREAT GPS!
Im a first time GPS owner but I have had this little thing for a few months now and it is indispensable. Don’t let its small size fool you, this thing can do just about everything. The only complaint I could make is that the directory for entertainment, food, is largely incomplete. Overall this thing is really great, but I got this product for about $100 elsewhere.
OLD MAP
I bought this GPS thinking it was coming with a SUPER SUCTION CUP mount which would not require a dashboard adhesive disk in order to mount it on the dash. Wrong, unlike the description says, it came with regular windshield suction cup and adhesive disk. So, I’d have to mount it on my windshield and wipe the ring mark off before getting off my car to avoid jerks breaking my car’s window to steal gps. Disappointded, but not a huge problem, I thought.
My biggest disappointment came from the fact that it came with old map which seem to be several years old and what’s worse is that Sony seems not to be willing to update it any time soon. It failed to accept the house numbers of buildings such as 24 hour fitness that I’ve been going for the last 2 years. Also, POI does not find the WAL-MART which opened more than 2 years ago. It looks like Sony is selling the device with a 2006 map data. I’ve been using this for 3 days, and I am returning it tomorrow.
Great GPS
Pros: Text to Speech, Split Screen at intersections, Accuracy…. SONY
Cons: None so far
Having owned 2 TomTom Ones 2nd Editions that did not have Text to Speech, I decided to buy something that did and was fortunate to be able to find 2 of these NV-U44 units last week. I think I bought the last 2 in Jacksonville, FL. I had originally bought 2 of the larger NV-U94T’s for $155 each new with the 4.8 inch screen. I thought that they just took up too much room when mounted. Granted, the U94T performed perfectly and the picture was great, but after giving more thought to the fact that I had no need for the Bluetooth or optional monthly fee traffic features, I decided to go with this less expensive little brother Sony U44. While I was impressed with the 94T, the U44 is like the 94T, but in a 3.5″ display without Traffic and Bluetooth. The maps are the same as the 94T and are version 2008. That means they have current maps for now, but as new roads are being built….what is current today will be obsolete tomorrow. With the prices of a GPS being driven downward at an astronomical rate, it is almost as cheap in some cases to buy a new unit than to pay to upgrade maps. The text to speech is very nice. You can put it in a cupholder if you want and let it instruct you on turns without even having to mount it on the dash or windshield to view. The U44 is very accurate in directions, speed , mileage and ETA. The touchscreen is responsive. I use a rubber tipped stylus pen from my PDA to speed up the process and tap the numbers, etc. That helps since my fingers are big and I can tap one key at a time much faster. If you are looking for a great GPS, you will not go wrong with this unit. My gut feeling is that Sony is getting out of the GPS business. They had these on their website for $79.99 and their other units reduced anywhere from 50% to 70% within 5 months of coming out in production. All have been cleared out and posted as no longer available. I bought mine new for $59.99 each(regular price $249.99), but I suspect that since Sony no longer carries them that the price is being driven up on the web. I see them ranging in price online from $69 to $250.
Excellent Navigator
The Sony NVU44 is excellent. It is accurate and easy to use. I use it daily at home in Ohio and it worked perfectly on a recent vacation to Hawaii.
too cheap to be good
I returned it after a month of using it
There was a death pixel on the screen
so you know..
Great Deal!!!
I just bought this as my first gps and tried it immediately; I’ve noticed its solid construction and neat design, it was very accurate and easy to use. However, I had little difficulty downloading its firmware, but the tech at sony was very helpful and we did upgrade its software in just 15 minutes!
For $98 (including tax and 2 year no questions asked repair/replacement warranty) with features like: Text to speech, 3d maps, dual view, touchscreen and etc.. I would say its a great deal!!!