Q4 GPS Navigation System With MP3 Player Review

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(More customer reviews)We recently traveled from Michigan to New Jersey and then down to SW Virginia with a few stops included to see relatives. My wife decided to purchase the Nextar Q4 which she found on sale at a local department store the day before we left. As we were busy preparing for the trip, I did not have time to set up the unit, but I did get it charged so that I could work with it later, when we were in Pennsylvania with relatives.
Setup took 10-15 minutes, but I am the type who tends to read the manuals first before pressing all the buttons. Setting the date and time was a little tricky and it is not immediately intuitive how the selection process works, but with trial and error I got it right. Programming in destination addresses worked okay, however, the touch screen seemed slightly off for point of contact, but after getting used to it, I had no problem getting it to respond. There is a 'point of contact' adjustment utilty that can be adjusted and I may not have done that correctly the first time. The address selection function remembers previous selections and narrows down the search process quickly to a city, street or address number in just a few steps. Getting through the streets in an unfamilar city was really much better with the street announcements prior to, closer to and at the point of the turn. I found the voice announcements understandable. If you miss a turn, the unit will tell you to turnaround as soon as possible, however it you continue, the system will recalabrate the route using a different path. When I learned multiple paths to a destination, I just turned it off, since it can become annoying with the turnaround requests. Another issue for me was the screen backlighting. My close eyesight is not the best, and I use readers (or sunglasses with bifocals) to see close up text. When the unit was mounted on the dash in high light conditions, I had trouble reading the screen. I could not get a backlight setting that improved it enough in that position for me. I have not seen other units so it is hard to make comparisons, but having some better/improved lighting settings/options would be desirable for me.
I may review some of the other GPS offerings with this in mind.
All in all, it worked very well, but then we are not experienced users of GPS systems or who know the options available. We do not need cell phone or MP3 or picture viewing features, so that makes our requirements a lot less. One feature that I think is useful is the traffic information which this unit cannot provide. There were several instances where knowing about congestion or road construction would have been useful in selecting a route. If I were going on another long cross country trip, I might opt to upgrade to a system with this feature. Otherwise, this is a very good unit for the uninitiated and the first time user, and it saved some significant time finding some points of interest, restaurants, and hotels along the way. If you are used to reading a map to determine routes, trusting one of these systems to guide you safely through unfamiliar territory takes a little getting used to, but I am definitely hooked and will have some type of GPS system when we travel in the future. I complemented my wife for making a good purchase. She has better intuition that I do anyway!

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4.3" touch screen display with text-to-speech (English)Pre-loaded with USA and Canada map on 2GB SDcard1.6 million points of interestTurn by Turn voice prompts2D or 3D map viewing modes with built-in compassMP3 playing and Photo viewing modeBuilt-in stereo speakerHigh sensitive antenna/earphone outputIncludes AC/DC adapter suction-cup pouch and USB cradle

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