Model # W3G-01

I love nifty little gadgets and I was really excited when my hubby and I received this GPS system for X'mas last year. This GPS system can do more than just navigate your way from place to place. It allows you to program in your destinations and save them as "Favourites", so you can find them easily next time. It also announces the navigation instructions so you won't need to look at the GPS map to know where you are going next. You can customize the settings such as using miles or km, finding the quickest or major routes, etc. You can also play your favourite music on the GPS while you cruise.

We immediately charged it up and gave it a try on our way to a new restaurant. We know our city pretty well, so we already knew how to get to the place without the aid of a map. So we were a little disappointed with the overall usability of the GPS. First of all, it took about 10 min for the system to detect our location. Considering our drive to the restaurant only took 20 min, we were half way there by the time the GPS figured out where we were. We also chose not to take the recommended route because we wanted to avoid traffic. So we went another way we know and the GPS was able to readjust its navigational course as we diverted from the recommended route. However, it was unable to detect some of the roads we were on and kept telling us that we were "off road" and we had to "proceed to the nearest road". We were frustrated because the GPS did a lot of "yelling" in its annoying nasal-y voice and beeped a lot because we were Off-Road. Our first impression - Not good at all.

We've tried the GPS a few more times after that and for the most part, it worked well as long as we stick to its recommended route. We thought maybe we were frustrated with it because we tried using the GPS to navigate destinations we already know and we often chose to ignore it. So we took the GPS to Quebec City and it got us into such a mess!! We've been to Old Quebec before using a good ol' paper map, so we kind of knew where we needed to be. But we wanted to give the GPS one more chance so we followed its instructions. The GPS took us through some weird route and onto a very busy street with high traffic volume. We kept missing our turn offs and we were so frustrated. We eventually found our hotel and the hotel staff showed us a much easier way to get into Old Quebec. We were not happy with our GPS at all.

The biggest problem with the GPS is that it figures out the shortest route which it assumes to be the fastest, without taking into account the speed limit, or traffic volume or the complexity of the route. Sometimes the shortest route may not necessarily be the fbest route. Also, while the screen is a decent size screen, it is just no substitute for having a nice paper map in front of you so that you can see the big picture of where you are going. The GPS display allows you to zoom in and out on the map. However, I found if I zoom in enough to see the street names, I lose sight of where I am on the map/route; but if I zoom out to see where I am on the map, I lose the details on street names.

Overall, the GPS navigation system just wasn't very convenient to use and I prefer a good old fashion map over it any day. It is expensive and it's not worth the money at all. My recommendation is take that extra 10-15 min in front of the computer with MapQuest or GoogleMap, figure out where you are going and find it on your paper map before heading out. Old school style navigation is much more reliable and effective than this fancy piece of technology.