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

---

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.

---

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.

---

Reality View

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

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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

---

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.

---

---

Testimonials

Average Buyer Rating:

Buyer's feedback: - * Rich feature set crippled by major shortcomings ...
I currently own a MIO that I purchased on Black Friday 06 and planning to upgrade. The Mio is a competent little unit, but I was hoping to get a unit with text-to-speech, newer maps, updated POIs, better interface, and better routing. Here comes Navigon 5100.. at $160 it came with Text To Speech, Lane Assist, 3d reality view, Zagat ratings, and Free TMC! Could it be the magical upgrade I was looking for?

After 1 day owning the unit and using it to drive around, this item is going back to Amazon. And here's why.

1. First thing I notice was the HUGE windshield mount that looks cool, but it's a major pain to use. Rotating the device around was very awkward and I was afraid that it would snap off. Another annoyance: On highways the mount just shakes road vibrations! My Mio didn't do that.

2. You must HOLD the button for 10 seconds for startup and shut-down. In addition, you must click OK to the EULA agreement that you wont use this unit while driving ( you know what I mean ) etc etc. This makes the unit impractical for quick turn-on and go like my Mio does.

3. The keyboards (or any other buttons, for that matter) are TINY. I have relatively small hands and I'm having problems typing my destinations.

4. The UI are clunky. I was interested because I heard Navigon has a very pretty UI, but I'm disappointed. The 'Flash' menus are nothing to be excited about. The maps on most streets are plain white and hard to read.

5. It takes many taps to do the simple things I can do right away on my Mio. For example I can simply move the maps around with Mio while I was in 'navigation mode.' With this Navigon, I need to click on the little button on the bottom right which pops up a menu, and select the button for 'move your fingers around to scroll map' view.

6. There's a 'direct access' buttons for specific types of POI (which allow you to quickly see surrounding POIs with 1 tap) which is very nice, but then it directly routes me to the POI I selected ( I cant just view the phone number etc - to do that I have to do it through the regular POI screen)

6. The fonts are very small. I'm talking TINY small.

7. And here's the killer for me: The speaker is very soft. The unit when cranked all the way up is barely audible on highways, and the sound is already cracking. My Mio is way louder.

So those are the reasons the unit is going back. It's too bad - I really wanted the unit to be the upgrade I had wanted. Just to wrap this review up on a good note, the positives (for me ) are:

1. The unit looks very pretty.
2. Navigation is pretty good and accurate.
3. Voice guidance (when you can hear it!) spells out street names pretty accurately.
4. It says which side of the road your destination is (this is very neat)
5. It can display speed limit, your speed, altitude, etc. Lots of information.
6. There's dedicated 'direct access' button which has its limitations, is a nice feature.
7. Route recalculation was pretty fast.

There you go. I hope this review serves as a caveat emptor - Keep in mind that you DO get a host of features for a very low price, but it has its (for me, major) shortcomings. What that shortcomings amount for you is for you to decide.

---

Buyer's feedback: - Downgrading origional review from when I first bought this.
I've removed my original two star review from when I bought this. After 9 months of use I'm giving this a one star review. I'd give it less if I could.

This GPS is so painful to use it sits gathering dust in my glovebox.

Likes:
Free Traffic.
Attractive looking.

Dislikes:
1. User interface is insanely convoluted.
2. Touch screen requires lots of pressure to work, very frustrating.
3. The buttons on the user interface are stupidly small, combined with a not so sensitive touch screen its barely usable.
4. Boot up time is stupidly long, 10 seconds of which you have to HOLD the power button. Guys, how about a simple on off switch switch!
5. Unit is slow to calculate and respond to user input.
6. Scrolling around maps is difficult at best. Nearly impossible to use for just mapping.
7. Traffic is not displayed in a useful method. Requires multiple button clicks while driving for traffic avoidance.

I could go on with more dislikes, but I get angry just thinking about the frustrations of using this. Save your money and avoid this unit.

---

Buyer's feedback: - * returned this ...
already own a garmin nuvi, and returned this for a tom tom, both are easier to use, and straight to the point.

---

Buyer's feedback: - Junk
I've had problem with this GPS ever since I bought it. I even called
customer service for help and they never called me back. I wouldn't buy it if I were you. You get what you pay for.

---

Buyer's feedback: - * practical GPS ...
After testing several GPS units, no one is perfect. But Navigon 5100 is a very practical GPS in affordable price, and it is less mistake and easy to use compared to Garmin Nuvi 750 and 680 in road tests. High recommend! It would be better if there are more POIs(including search options) and alternative hook.