CB-LELEC 7″ GPS
I received the GPS only, no camera so I can only review the [amazon text=GPS&asin=B013060HNK] but let me start out by saying this is way more than a navigation system. I have a GPS for my vehicle and we had one built in with our previous vehicle but our new car doesn’t and I was getting sick of using up data on my phone when we drove somewhere we weren’t familiar with so we decided on this unit not anticipating how much more than a [amazon text=GPS&asin=B013060HNK] unit it is.
Everything works that I tested, and even though it is neat that you can add video, music and even flash files. It is not easy to add them, especially if you are a Mac user; This is mainly because it can only support specific file formats. For example, you can add audio files but they have to be in WAV format, really who uses that? Most music files are MP3. Video files have to be WMV or AVI files, so it is kind of a hassle to convert your files to work on the device and then you are also limited to the SD card size and you have to load them on the card and then when you go into each “app” to play a file it is odd to have to double tap folders to get to them. I was impressed that it could play flash files, but I have to ask why this is even needed for anything at all? Flash is a dying file format anyway so not sure about that one. But that is pretty much all I have for negatives with this navigation unit.
I do like that you can change the wallpaper and even change the theme of the icons. I also tested the auxiliary line out and that worked well and I do like the built in FM receiver so you can configure the audio from the device to play over an FM frequency of your choice. The directions in the user’s manual are pretty small and can get you up to speed but they are still not the best or detailed instructions so some things you have to kind of tap to figure out what they are and what they do, but that to me is the best way to learn how to use something like this anyway.
I really like the large 7.5” screen and that it comes with a suction cup mount that you can detach the device from it. The battery life could be better, I took a 40 minute route, roundtrip with a couple of hours in between where I placed it into “standby” power mode and the battery died right before I arrived at my destination, so be prepared to keep it plugged into a power source while on long trips. It does however warn you several times that it is low on power before it quits on you.
As for what we got it for, the navigation, I like it and think it did very well in my tests. It has a good deal of information and connected to the satellite easily. However on occasion it will announce that the connection has been lost but zaps right back on a second or two later. Searching for destinations is pretty easy and you can save favorites. It has a 2d and 3d map view mode and you can make other small adjustments, too many to list here. You can also set it up to navigate based on what you are traveling in like a car, on foot, on bike and so on. I was surprised when it warned me that I was over the speed limit and liked it at first but the fact that I have a lead foot, this warning became an annoyance quickly, thankfully you can adjust the tolerance on this feature. It also has daytime and nighttime settings so it is not so bright while traveling at night. The one thing I did not like is that if you go off route it will not automatically recalculate your trip for you and you have to tap a button to do so. I do like that it is very detailed in what your next step is and even what you step after that is. The volume of the instructions could be a bit louder as well. the only thing I am not sure on are map updates, it doesn’t really say any where how to get updates or if I even need to.
Overall for the price of this unit it worked great for us and if we’re not using it for [amazon text=navigation&asin=B013060HNK] the kids can use it to play some old school games on it. 🙂
Update: The company contacted me and was nice enough to explain some of the things I didn’t know about so kudos to their customer service. Here is what they told me:
The Gobang game before the Snake Bite is a two-people strategy chess game. Two persons will go step by step. The one who makes his 5 pieces in a straight line horizontally, vertically or across first wins.
As for the double-tap you mentioned, you can see that for some folders like the calculator, Snake Bite, Photo, GPS Info, etc., you can enter them just by one tap, which means you do not have to double tap the folders get to them. If you think the screen is not sensitive enough, you can go to the “Calibrate” icon to calibrate the sensitivity.
As for the “Navico” (which shows “Select Navigation Exe”)next to Snake Bite, it’s where you can choose the navigation path. As you can see, this GPS you received is with built in map. If you do not want to use this map and want to use your own map on another TF card, you can insert it to the unit, then there will be two maps in the unit. If you want to use your own map, you need to go to this icon to select your own map as the navigation path because the default map of the system is the built in one.
This was super helpful so I wanted to share it.
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