Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)We enjoyed the convenience of traveling with our Roadmate 500. When you arrive in a new city somewhere, you are tired and unfamiliar and no matter how much you love each other, getting lost on the way to the hotel is good for some cranky exchange.
The 500 is obsolete as far as European maps are concerned so with an upcoming 3 weeks in Italy, it was time to see how far the new portables have come. My Lexus GX is disappointing and ridiculously expensive for what you get. It is non-intuitive (IMHO) and you cannot change anything underway requiring pulling over in spots equally as dangerous as Toyota/Lexus feels changing while moving is.
It came down to Garmin's sexy and capable NUVI 360 and the fishfinder Lowrance company's iWay 250C. I tried both side-by-side to see how they performed. You cannot go wrong with either one and I found the differences negligible for my needs. Navteq maps are superior to anything else in the USA and Tele Atlas are the benchmark for Europe. Lowrance did that right among other things. NUVI uses Navteq which is apparently very good in Europe as well but Tele Atlas is reprted to be better there.
Both are intuitive out of the box. The NUVI is sleek and slightly smaller and both are about the same weight. The NUVI resolution is superior and the voice street names are great. Lowrance will name some streets and the others are clearly annouced as "Left turn in 400 feet" or whatever. The NUVI sports Bluetooth capability with your compatible phone but the volume is not suffient to make it useable even in a nice quiet Lexus or equivelant so that is wasted on me. The MP3 capability is of little interest to us but we may learn more and find it uselful. NUVI will play your MP3's while navigating which the 250C will not, I don't care.
As far as POI's, the 250C found more for me but it was a relatively small sample so don't make a decision because of this. I found the real resosn for owning either one is the navigation. It is hard to justify paying twice the price for same maps and a slightly inferior voice capability. The auto version of the mapping on the Lowrance is so cool as it knows to give you the grander picture when you have some distance before the next turn andkindly switches to an expanded view when necessary.
The mount on the NUVI is excellant and so is the Lowrance. Both have enroute travel power cords and both have supplementry maps on cards wherever you want to go. I will keep the Lowrance and return the NUVI, the price is just not worth the difference, at least to me, although your mileage may vary...
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Lowrance 000-0125-03 iWay 250C 3.5-Inch Portable GPS NavigatorThis compact, portable color GPS navigation system features built-in battery power, a stereo MP3 music player, and a picture viewer, making it the perfect companion for your next trip across town or across the continent. The iWay 250C includes a 2 GB MMC/SD card preloaded with NAVTEQ mapping detail for the USA and Canada, complete with millions of accessible points of interest (POIs).
The iWay 250C sports a sunlight-viewable, 3.5-inch, 16-bit color TFT touch-screen display with 320 x 240 pixel resolution. The display features optimal brightness for viewing in all driving conditions. The device also features a stereo MP3 audio player with a digital media card slot for loading audio files with an SD/MMC memory card. A full-featured picture viewer is also provided, allowing you to display JPEG photos stored on MMC/SD memory cards.
The real strength of the iWay 250C is in its advanced navigation features. The device features a built-in, precision 12-channel GPS receiver with flip-up antenna for enhanced reception. You can also add an optional, compact RAA-5 remote GPS antenna with a built-in magnet for placement on the roof of your vehicle. The iWay 250C's touchscreen employs easy-to-use menus that make navigation a snap. Choose from three selectable mapping displays: 2D Track Up, 2D North Up, and Elevated 3D. Meanwhile, turn-by-turn audio and visual cues, including auto-zooming and automatic recalculation of directions after a missed turn, make for effortless navigation. There's even a straight-line navigation feature for off-road and marine use.
Users from different countries will appreciate the iWay 250C's ability to offer voice directions in seven languages as well as display text in 12 languages. The unit also features street address searching, plus auto-routing choices to help you avoid toll roads and interstates. You can even avoid left-hand turns.
The iWay 250C comes with enough memory to store up to 1,000 addresses, and the included 2GB MMC/SD card is preloaded with NAVTEQ mapping detail for the USA and Canada. The maps also feature millions of accessible points-of-interest. The device also supports all current plug-and-play map/chart options from Lowrance (FreedomMaps, Fishing Hot Spots Elite, LakeMaster ProMaps, and NauticPath). The maps can also be updated via the device's internal USB port, which enables a PC connection.
What's in the Box iWay 250C unit, stylus for touch-screen operations (with built-in holder), suction-cup mounting bracket, adhesive-backed, European-styled dash mounting plate, USB to PC interface cable, software CD-ROM, and user's manual.
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