Friday, January 18, 2008

MapMyIndia Navigator Review!

Ok, before I set off doing the length and breadth of our great nation in my great beast one piece of technology is indispensable. The GPS Navigator. Currently we have only two real choices. One is the SatNav Navigator and the other one by MapmyIndia. I went with the later as it comes pre-loaded with the following:

Anywhere to anywhere travel in India:

Drive from anywhere to anywhere across India using national and state highways.

Connects 55,000 villages and towns

Contains important landmarks of 150 cities

Navigation within 18 major cities:
Highly detailed, street and locality level navigable maps for 18 cities:

Delhi NCR (New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad)
Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula
Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane
Pune (including Pimpri Chinchwad)
Bangalore
Hyderabad, Secundarabad
Kolkata (including Bidhan Nagar)
Chennai

Tourist and business landmarks:

Directly navigate to the desired point of interest, using name or category.
2,00,000 points of interest across 52 categories.

Continuously expanding coverage:

Roadmap for expanded coverage with updates on new territories and cities, and more POIs.

Continuous up-gradation of existing maps keeping them current.


I bought the New AMAX 06GP5A Model. The other model they have is a Delphi NAV200, I chose the Amax as I preferred not having any hard buttons. The touch screen is easier to deal with when on the road I feel. The unit works as mentioned. All the roads in Pune seem to be in there proper place. Some place names have their spellings all wrong but nothing too dramatic. At this point I am just grateful for having this system in the first place. For a country as unplanned as ours, in-car navigation is not a luxury but a necessity. I have used GPS systems extensively in Southern Europe so as systems go learning my way around the MapmyIndia Navigator was a breeze.

The one thing that surprised me was that the unit itself is quite small. The picture on the box and in the Newspaper ads make it look bigger than it is. The screen is 3.5 inch in size which is common for GPS systems no doubt but the complete unit is only about 4 inches square and about and inch thick. It is tiny and truly portable.

The bits that come with it include:

  • 1 GB SD card containing complete all India maps and software.
  • A-MAX 06GP5A hardware.
  • Wall and car charger.
  • Windshield/Dashboard mount.
  • USB Cable.
  • Owner's Kit- Includes Quick Start Guide, User's Manual on CD, Customer warranty card, Easy tips guide and Terms of Use.


The one thing I miss not having is a carrying case for the navigator. When Parked in most places I do take the unit off its perch and carry it with me and not having a soft carry case included in the list above is the one gripe I have in otherwise quite a wholesome package. The re-route function works quite fast. That is when you take a turn off the route it sets for you it re-routes automatically from wherever you are in relation to your destination.

The other good function is the Trip Computer. It gives you a real time speed reading the digital meter. It also shows you your average speed and other interesting data. Also the unit doubles up as a music/video player if needed. Of course those functions do not work when it is navigating so I don't really will need that capability.

The one other interesting point about the package is the fact that the Navigator is Made in China and the windshield/dashboard mount that comes with it (which is superb) is Made in Germany!

I have the unit for less than a week and have yet to test it in an intercity run. But a trip to Goa might come through in a few weeks to the Little GPS will have to work hard for its money. Which by the way was Rs.20500/- at Poona Motors.

In the end I would say that if you must get one accessory for your car make it a MapMyIndia Navigator as you will soon realize - how did you ever manage without one!

MNTS Rating: *****/*****

8 comments:

Unknown said...

hi!,

being a safari 2.2 owner myself i have been following your blogs pretty consistently, i am from mumbai, and have been contemplating purchasing a GPS navigation for a while. the only problem is that i cant find a store that will sell it off the shelf. If you could please send me some details from where you purchased the device, and whether you would happen to know where it would be available in mumbai. thanx, hoping to here from you soon.

bm-log said...

Hi Obaid,

You can check out the Croma outlets near you. They supposedly stock the MapmyIndia Navigator.

I found the list of resellers in Pune via their Newspaper ads. So look out for those too.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

The price is still too steep for a commoner.

I believe satguide.in has cheaper options.

Unless it becomes sub 10k gadget, it wont be a common man's device.

bm-log said...

Hi,

Yes, I agree the +20K price does not make the MapMyIndia Navigator a "Mass Market" product but this technology will only get cheaper. The reason the SatGuide solution is cheaper is because they offer their India Maps in bits and pieces. That means you buy for the region you want. The problem with that is if you travel Inter-State you have to manually change the map during your journey. This is not needed with the MMI Navigator. As all of India come pre-loaded in the device.

Anonymous said...

I am a user of Satnav systems for the last 15 years. We should really give a credit to all those who have been promoting GPS in India especially Satnav Technologies, MMI and Nokia. SatNav has done incredibly well during the last 6 months, I am a user of SatGuide since last one year and the gadget what they are offering from Mio is one of the best in the world. SatGuide has also upgraded my maps for free with 200 cities with seamless One map. I would definitely recommend SatGuide because of their customer support and also to meet the expectations of their customers. It is available at all the leading retail stores all over India......
Cheers SatNav team!

Ragi said...

Try out the Blaupunkt Range of products. The range consists of TravelPilot 100, 300 and 3.5 devices.
The maps are provided by MapMyIndia and cover 174 cities.
The navigation is accurate and precise.
They are available at Blaupunkt Authorised Dealers, and Maruti and other Car Dealers.

Anonymous said...

There is new player in GPS india...
GOGOindia...i called their customer service ...they said in few weeks with would be selling G35...with all india maps... www.gogoindia.in
The product looks good...it has hands-free and FM transmitter...for MRP 13,999...which is way cheaper than others...but has any one heard of GOGOindia before????

V said...

you wrote a whole page but where is the actual review of the damn thing? what a weird post!!