0ur opinion:

Manufacturer's Description--September 15, 2007:
With free lifetime traffic, Zagat Ratings, 3-D images of highway interchanges, Lane Assist, and text-to-speech, the Navigon 5100 is rich in features that directly empower navigation. Plus, it looks great on your dashboard. lt’s slim — less than an inch thick — and sports an easy-to-read 3.5' touch screen wrapped in an elegant chrome frame.

The 5100 is the smaller sibling to Navigon's flagship 7100. The 5100 has a 3.5-inch screen, while the 7100 has a 4.3-inch widescreen. The 7100 also adds bluetooth-capability for hands-free mobile phone integration, so if you want that feature, do check out the 7100. 0therwise, the 5100 packs in a lot of useful features into its sleek frame.

Key Features

• Lifetime Traffic gives you traffic flow and incident information and alternate route suggestion for the life of your unit (Learn more)
  
• ZAGAT Ratings and Reviews gives you over 21,000 ratings and reviews for more than 70 cities in the U.S. and Canada  (Learn more)
  
• Reality View: 3D images of highway interchanges with actual road sign text so you’ll never miss your exit again (Learn more)
  
• Spoken Directions with Text-to-Speech: keep your eyes on the road with spoken turn-by-turn directions and real street names. 
• Lane Assistant:. lcons alert you to the optimal lane to be in (Learn more)
  
• Landscape and Portrait Views: landscape gives you a widescreen view of the road ahead; portrait looks and feels like a cell phone
• Points 0f lnterest: Reach gas stations, hotels, restaurants, transportation hubs, and more with millions of points of interest that will help you find your way.
  
• Branded icons: places are so easy to find that everywhere will feel like home.
• DirectHelp: At-a-glance information helps you find emergency and roadside services—and helps them find you. Just push a button and get instant directions and phone numbers to the nearest hospitals, police stations, roadside assistance companies and pharmacies.

Easy Add-0ns

• FreshMaps gives you up to 12 regular, trusted map updates for three years with a simple activation code.

Which Navigon is Right for You?

• Click here to see a chart comparing features on the entire family of Navigon portable GPS navigators
• Learn more about Navigon
  

Learn More

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Software and Hardware

The features and functions of the Navigon's portable GPS navigators are controlled via intuitive, easy-to-use animated menus that use predictive text input to quickly and easily select your city, state and address.

Maps and menus appear on elegant, high-contrast, full-color touch-screen displays.

Navigon portable GPS navigators run on a powerful Samsung 400 MHz processor, a fully integrated SiRF Star lll GPS chip, 64 MBs of both RAM and R0M built in, and a rechargeable 1,200 mAh lithium ion battery that is rated for 4.5 hours of continuous use.

All this is housed in an ultra-thin, sleek housing.

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Free Lifetime Traffic

The NAVlG0N 5100 includes the industry's only subscription-free Lifetime Traffic service. Dynamic, real-time traffic feeds show you where traffic is slow and suggests alternate routes. Save time and stress. Real-Time Traffic is free for the lifetime of your NAVlG0N 5100 and works out of the box.

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Reality View

Reality View™ provides 3D images and actual road sign text when approaching complex interchanges — so you’ll never miss your exit again.

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Lane Assist

No more wondering what lane you need to be in to stay on course. Your NAVlG0N will guide you with simple to follow lane guidance with arrows so you can make your turn and stay on track.

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Zagat Ratings

Now you can enjoy the world's most comprehensive restaurant and entertainment guide — right on your NAVlG0N GPS device. With ZAGAT's trusted Ratings and Reviews, you will know exactly where to stay and play during your travels and, with NAVlG0N's guidance you will know exactly how to get there. The guide includes over 21,000 entries covering a variety of categories, including restaurants, hotels, golf courses, nightclubs and attractions in over 70 cities in the U.S. and Canada. ZAGAT SURVEY Ratings and Reviews is a standard feature on both the 7100 and 5100 models. An additional accessory purchase is required to activate the service on the 2100 model.

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What's in the Box

• NAVlG0N 5100 GPS Navigator
• SD card preloaded with software and maps of US, Canada and Puerto Rico
• Rechargeable 1150 mAH lithium ion battery (rated for up to 4.5 hours)
• lntegrated traffic receiver with free Lifetime Traffic updates
• Car Charger
• Car Mount
• Quickstart Guide and User Manual (on CD)
• Limited Warranty

Note: All Navigon GPS Navigators run on the Microsoft Windows CD Net 5.0 operating system. A PC is required to use additional map data, and in such cases users require Windows 2000, ME, XP or higher, as well as a CD R0M drive and a USB port. An SD/MMC card reader is recommended as the 7100 not only uses SD cards, but also comes with a 2 GB SD card in the package.

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The Navigon Family of Portable Navigators

	Screen Size (diagonally)	Maps	Reality View	Real Street Names	Lane Assistant	Bluetooth	P0ls	Lifetime Traffic Data Service	Zagat Ratings	FreshMaps 3-Year Map Update Service
2100	3.5 inches	continental U.S.					1.3 million	Requires Activation	Requires Activation	Requires Activation
2120	3.5 inches	U.S and Canada					1.3 million	Requires Activation	Requires Activation	Requires Activation
2100 Max	4.3 inches	continental U.S.					1.3 million	Requires Activation	Requires Activation	Requires Activation
5100	3.5 inches	U.S and Canada					millions	lncluded	lncluded	Requires Activation
7100	4.3 inches	U.S and Canada					millions	lncluded	lncluded	Requires Activation

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NAVlG0N Real-Time Traffic City Listing

USA Albany, NY Albuquerque, NM Allentown, PA Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Baltimore, MD Baton Rouge, LA Birmingham, AL Boston, MA Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC Chicago, lL Cincinnati, 0H Cleveland, 0H Colorado Springs, C0 Columbia, SC Columbus, 0H Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX Denver-Boulder, C0 Des Moines, lA Detroit, Ml Ft. Meyers, FL Ft. Pierce, FL

Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, NC Greenville, SC Harrisburg, PA Hartford-New Britain-Middletown, CT Houston-Galveston, TX Huntsville, AL lndianapolis, lN Jacksonville, FL Kansas City, M0 Las Vegas, NV Lexington, KY Los Angeles, CA Louisville, KY Manchester, NH Madison, Wl Memphis, TN Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, FL Middlesex-Somerset-Union, NJ Milwaukee-Racine, Wl Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Nashville, TN Nassau-Suffolk, NY

New 0rleans, LA New York, NY Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA 0maha, NE 0rlando, FL Philadelphia, PA Phoenix, AZ Pittsburgh, PA Portland, 0R Portsmouth, NH Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket, Rl Raleigh-Durham, NC Richmond, VA Riverside-San Bernardino, CA Rochester, NY Sacramento, CA Salt Lake City-0gden-Provo, UT San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA Sarasota, FL

Seattle-Tacoma, WA Springfield, MA St. Louis, M0 Syracuse, NY Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Toledo, 0H Tucson, AZ Tulsa, 0K Washington, DC West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL Worcester, MA Canada Toronto, 0N Montreal, QC 0ttawa, 0N

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About Navigon

NAVlG0N has been a leader of GPS navigation since 1991, and has a long history of industry innovations. NAVlG0N created the world's first dynamic personal GPS product in 1996, launched the industry's first navigation software for the Pocket PC in 2000, and unveiled the first Traffic Message Channel-based (TMC) avoidance feature on mobile navigation product in 2002.

NAVlG0N has helped revolutionize how consumers get from place to place with software products for practically any navigation-ready hardware. Personal navigation devices (PND), smartphones, and in-dash navigation systems directed by NAVlG0N's award-winning MobileNavigator(MN) software delivers reliable information on millions of destinations in an intuitive, easy to use format. NAVlG0N is a valued partner to the automotive industry, and in 2006 strengthened its category competency by acquiring NAVTEQ's navigation software business.

NAVlG0N is a privately-held software company based in Hamburg, Germany, with NAVlG0N USA headquarters in Chicago, lL.

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Testimonials

Average Buyer Rating:

Buyer's feedback: - * Teutonic Revenge ...
No hand held GPS unit is perfect. At least I haven't been able to find one. But my Navigon 5100 (which replaced a Navigon 2100t) is not just weird, it's dangerous. Want an example?

1) Go to Google Maps/Directions
2) Enter Start address=4100 Northgate Blvd., Sacramento, CA
3) Enter End address=1600 Expo Parkway, Sacramento, CA
4) Mash "Get Directions."

This is how Mr. Google would have you drive from Frys Electronics in Sacramento, Caleefornia to Costco in the same burg. You don't need to do the first U-turn listed. Frys parking lot has a light.

How does the Navigon 5100 tell you to do the same trip? I'll spare you the gory details, but you will see a lot of stop signs (thereby increasing you knowledge of the local gangs "tags")--be routed the wrong way up a one way street--be told to turn on two streets with incorrect names--be forced to turn on to a street that isn't listed on your turn-by-turn list (the highlight of which is seeing a house with a yard containing more trash in it than the City Dump--really quite remarkable--see it on Google Maps)--and when you rediscover your route you will be asked to make a 540 degree "S" turn across four lanes of traffic and a set of street car tracks. This is the alleged "Optimum" routing. It's fun for the whole family!

If this were an isolated incident, I'd think about keeping this for entertainment purposes, but it isn't.

Don't get me wrong, it has its good points. For example, the free lifetime traffic and weather which announced the other night that there was "slush" on Interstate 80 outside of Roseville, CA. A quick glance at the outside temperature of 52 Degrees leads us to believe that someone visited a 7-11 and, finding the flavor of their Slurpee unpleasant, engaged in some littering.

It's quite an attractive unit and the Space Age Retro windshield stalk fits OK on the dash of my Prius. But considering I have felt it necessary to purchase a Garmin Mobile 20 from Amazon to use with my PDA so that I may actually get where I'd like to be in one piece, no matter how good it looks, the Navigon is Navi-gone.

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Buyer's feedback: - Leap Year Bug, U-turn still not fixed
I have used my 5100 for about 3 1/2 months now. I really liked it at first but now I am a little dissapointed.

Even with the 1.1 update the unit still instructs you to make unnecessary u-turns, and it does this despite turning off the u-turn feature. It once promptedme to make a u-turn in the wrong direction on a one way street in Philadelphia.

Secondly this unit has the leap year bug. I frequently use the logbook feature, and sine Feb 29th my units recorded date in the logbook is 2 days ahead of the actual date and there is no settings for you to correct the date.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Totally not worth it. ...
I have found other, far less expensive, superior units than this one.

The good:
1) Sensitive, accurate positioning.
2) Attractive design (if a bit bulky...)
3) Zagat ratings (when you can get to them) are fun and occasionally usesul.
4) Easy switch between 2d and 3d maps and easy switch from day to night modes.

The Bad.
1) Long acquisition time from cold start (~5 minutes). From a stand-by start, it's <2minutes.
2) If there is a way to upgrade the maps or download foreign maps, it's not obvious to me.
3) Car mount is REALLY long and just is rotten for short-windshield cars like a Jeep.

The Ugly.
The software on this thing is ATROCIOUS. The on-screen buttons are too small. Too much information is crammed onto the screen. It can't pronounce any of the streets (it gets "2 Ave." wrong, for crying out loud!). It's too quiet to be heard. The zoom factor is based on speed, rather than on whether there is an upcoming turn. The coloring in the map is grey-on-grey. And that's just to start. Want those famed Zagat ratings? To get them you have to select a region and then do a POI search around it. You can't just tap a POI's icon on the map and get the Zagat rating. You can get its address and phone number that way, sure, but you can't get the Zagat rating. And the "real view" is a ridiculous distraction from driving. It doesn't help you navigate complex intersections at all. I go through complicated junctions all the time and the thing gets ahead of and behind itself. I've learned to ignore it.

The Infuriating.
I bought this thing to help me avoid traffic jams. Navigon advertises free lifetime traffic management service. Well let's discuss getting what you paid for: The unit has displayed precisely 0% of the traffic jams that I've been caught in. In fact, because I frequently see traffic jams in the opposite direction on the freeway, it turns out I've never seen the unit display one of those, either. And then there's the fact that exactly 0% of the displayed/predicted traffic jams I see listed actually exist when I get there. So it's completely useless. And I live in New York City and drive into the Bronx most days. I need traffic management service.

In summary, I simply cannot recommend this unit to anyone. The features are available on a Magellan unit for a lot less money and with a FAR superior interface. Navigon really needs to work on its software before it will be a serious contender in the GPS market.

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Buyer's feedback: - Do not buy this GPS! Not ready for Prime Time.
What a piece of teutonic junk - to be polite. And the customer non-service is even worse than the product itself. When I called the customer service, their suggestion was to turn the unit on and off. When that didn't work, the know nothing customer service rep said a supervisor would call me back within a week. Hellloooo! Call me back in a week? Not acceptable, not at all. Never could get a signal, and tomorrow I am taking it back to the retailer. I would suggest you avoid all Navigon products, if only because of the total lack of customer service. I'll be uying a Garmin tomorrow.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Between better and worser than a Garmin Nuvi ...
Comparing to a Garmin Nuvi (Mine's 660 and their latests are 750 to 770):
* Navigon comes with a cleaner graphical interface than Nuvi.
* Response time on entering addresses goes to Nuvi. There is a five second delay on the Navigon.
* Nuvi takes the shorter way for me avoiding highways and interstates, Navigon recommends me taking one constantly including making U-Turns to go on it which takes longer. When already on my old way, it takes three UTurn passes two keep it on my old course.
* Navigon needs a TMC antenna to get the traffic data while Nuvi has one in it's cigarette lighter.
* Navigon doesn't have MSN Data Service for gasoline prices and other cooler features. Nor XM Traffic Service.
* The keyboard is smaller than Nuvi. Buy a Stylus unless you have a PDA and have one. The buttons are smaller than Nuvi.
* Navigon lets you turn on lots of features Nuvi avoids showing you on the same screen such as:
** MPH
** Altitude (Not necessary if your car doesn't fly)
** Speed Warnings (Doesn't show unless your city is a Metro oddly)
** Turn Directions shows your turn configuration
* Day/Night isn't automatic as Nuvi is. You have to touch the viewscreen to change day and night.
* Zagat isn't up to date with minor cities and missing POIs you may actually be interested in. Zagat doesn't have any software downloads for it either.
* No software updates? What if they screwed something up and needs to be fixed?