I have lost count the amount of times a row has erupted in my car between driver and the person in charge of navigation. Your destination promises to be an idyllic retreat in the countryside but before you know it one wrong turn and you are inexplicably in an industrial estate in slough. I am not a rare one off case, I know that there is a plethora of rows breaking out as we speak on roads across the country as people battle with each other on the way to go. I was even made aware of this in-car conflict from an early age; every family holiday abroad it was guaranteed the first row of the holiday between my parents would be getting from the airport to our accommodation in the rental car. Ah such memories as my father would shout ‘You have read it wrong, casa del what’. With my mother retorting ‘I can read you didn’t take the turn I told you’, and so on and so on.
However there may be a light at the end of the tunnel, with Sat Nav’s claiming that they can lead the way with no trouble, and more importantly with no rows. My trip was Kent to Suffolk for a family party, the trip promised isolated country roads coupled with motorways. In stepped the Binatone F350 with UK and ROI GPS Sat Nav to guide me safely to my destination. The Binatone promised a stress free journey and as I strapped it to my dashboard, I used the simple Postcode search to map my journey. When the route was mapped I set off with a calm and happy mood and I immediately felt confident by the clear routing on the 3.5in touch screen. I was guided onto the motorway with ease through turn by turn directions which were provided by the pre-loaded maps for the UK and republic of Ireland. An hour into my journey everything was going smoothly, I had uttered no expletives and no arguments had erupted. The voice emanating from the sat nav helping me on my journey was not as annoying as other sat nav voices I had been lucky to hear. Her voice was quite soothing actually helping to maintain my stress free journey. The Binatone even proved to be a conversation starter as the sat nav offers points of interest on your journey route, and due to this I decided a trip to Hampton Court was long overdue. As we left the motorway and journeyed through the countryside the route proved good to its word and we sped towards our destination. Then disaster struck. The Binatone only has up to 2 hours of battery life, and one hour 50 minutes into our journey it turned off. Great. Had we remembered the car charger for the Binatone? We had not. Then our lovely car journey saw its first utterances of expletives. We had to pull over, get out a good old fashioned paper map and work out firstly where we were, secondly where we wanted to go, and lastly how we could get there. Then proceeded the usual car conflict, getting lost and upon arriving at our destination the slamming of car doors and silence between husband and wife. The worst thing is, being the driver, I could not even have a drink at the party to either get over the journey or steady myself for the return leg. Great. The Binatone is simple and functional for short car journeys; I would not recommend using it for long car journeys unless you remember the car charger. At £60, the sat nav is a no-frills easy to use navigation system that does what it says. At £60 it is a great entry-level system and simple to use.
After I had regained composure and made up with my wife, we were prepared for the return journey using the TomTom via LIVE 120 – Europe. The TomTom promised that I could ‘sit back and enjoy the ride’, and coming from the renowned brand TomTom it was a possibility that it could be a swear free journey. Hopefully. The TomTom is more expensive than the Binatone at just under £200, but immediately you could see where the extra money was going. The TomTom included HD traffic technology, eco routing, speed camera alerts, Google local search and hands free calling over Bluetooth. So it had all the bells and whistles, but could it get me home? After inputting the postcode and after the TomTom and mapped our route we were on our way. The TomTom screen was a little bigger than the Binatone with a 4.3 inch screen, and the 3D map and rich graphics allowed us to identify roads and directions with considerably more ease than with the Binatone. Whilst the Binatone had points of interest the TomTom, in my opinion, had more useful add ons. These included a Help Me! Emergency menu which allows you to find emergency services such as hospitals and roadside assistance, as well as this there was LIVE snapshot which gives you all relevant information of your area, from traffic jams to road works. The innovative eco route was also exceptional which allows you to map a fuel-efficient route which can ultimately save you money. As we glided towards home the route continued to be clear and informed; the real time support was a god send as we missed a pile up on the motorway. The voice directions were exceptionally clear, however unlike the Binatone I found I got annoyed as the journey went on with the woman’s voice. Towards the end of the journey I actually found her a tad arrogant, indeed if a sat nav voice can be arrogant. We reached home with no rows, no swearing and returned with a calm and happy outlook. This was an exceptional sat nav which I would highly recommend and well worth the money.
The binatone is an excellent entry level sat nav, ideally suited for short journeys, and at £60 it truly is value for money. The TomTom is excellent, the add-ons can promise to save you money on fuel with eco-drive, let you avoid jams and road works and even allow you to make calls hands free on your mobile. Yes it is more expensive, but that money is spent on giving this sat nav the bells and whistles. If you are looking for cheap and cheerful the Bintone is for you, if you have that extra bit of money and go on a lot of trips then the TomTom is the only option. Hopefully the use of these sat navs can eradicated car conflict and allow a happy, calm journey...it has been a long time coming!
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