Navman ICN 650 satnav system

For those seeking irreligious guidance

When you're flying round Hyde Park Corner, trying to work out which lane to get in, what you really need is someone omniscient in the car to tell you exactly where to go. Without the luxury of a bearded godlike fellow blithely informing you that a taxi is about to cut you to ribbons, the best option is satnav, that GPS-guided angel from above.

This top-of-the-range Navman model is ideal for people who regularly drive over to the continent, with maps for 16 countries around Europe. It runs version three of the SmartST software, with tasty 3D mapping and useful points of interest, plus the ability to upload custom points of interest via the USB port.

The 3.8-inch LCD is huge, bright and sharp, displaying the clear maps to great effect. Unfortunately, it's not a touchscreen like those on most of the 650's competitors - you have to rely solely on some spongy buttons to navigate the menus and enter addresses - and although the maps look great, they're occasionally misleading and are missing some smaller roads. Not the sort of thing to induce confidence.

Still, the voice commands are loud and the re-routing is reasonably fast, while the unit's held in place by a cradle with a suction cup that sticks to your windscreen. The cradle is a nice idea and makes it easy to position the device somewhere you'll see it, but it stuck to our windscreen so tightly that we thought the glass would pop out when we removed it.

In all, the balance of nice touches against design flaws results in a distinctly average satnav system - at times, you'd be better off praying for direction, but it's not beyond forgiveness.

FEATURES
3.8-inch LCD. 2GB hard disk. Voice guidance. Remote control. SmartST V3 software with 3D mapping and points of interest. Maps for 16 European countries.

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