Cobra GPSM 4000 Best Prices, Sales, Reviews, Compare
 |
Cobra GPSM 4000 Best Prices, Sales, Reviews, Compare.
Product: Cobra GPSM 4000 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
Compare Prices on Cobra GPSM 4000
I purchased the 4000 NAV One after extensive research and pondering which route to recall. My prerequisites were about the same as all are looking for; Profitable size cloak, preloaded maps, explain prompts that recount you street name, re-route calculations, like a flash acquisition time, easy software upgrades and numerous POI's. I must say I was skeptical at first with the only brands being on my mind were Garmin and Magellan. I even considered the Pioneer AVIC-N2 in go navigation unit but posthaste shot it down when I found out you have to load the navigation DVD to location routes, originate out on your route and have to pop the DVD aid in if you want to bring up another destination or even a simple POI! This is unacceptable for a stop to $2000 system (Pioneer is offering a $300 rebate at this time) when most of us will be listening to a CD, or MP3's on it. Oh by the map, the passenger can't even ogle DVD's while the car is attractive. I narrowed my choices down to the Garmin Street Pilot 2720 and the Cobra 4000 NAV One and weighed the two side by side. I chose the Cobra due to its conceal being twice the size and it being a sturdier unit. It has very snappy response time, a mountainous color touch cover, customizable in every draw. The unit has all that I expected and more, not to mention $100 less than the Street Pilot 2720 but I have to be handsome that the 2720 does give you a remote to operate the system.
After a disasterous experience with a Sony NavU70 unit and after considering the Garmin system owned by a friend, and after doing extensive research and demoing some products at the local Circuit City, I finally selected the Cobra GPSM4000 inspect unseen and bought it through Amazon. Frankly I wasn't expecting too powerful, and the appearance of the unit struck me as a microscopic retro (too great chrome for my taste, as though this unit had been designed as an add-on for outmoded GM vehicles) . But when I keep it in my 4x4 I was impressed. Although the manual warns you that it can grasp up to 20 minutes for a brand-new unit to orient itself based on the signals received from the orbiting satellites, the Cobra 4000 oriented itself within 60 seconds of being turned on. It was so snappily that I found myself wondering if the people at the factory had somehow pre-programmed my residence.
The cover is nice and intellectual, the touch-screen functionality is fair the honest degree of sensitivity, and all the key parameters are tunable through the menu options so you can customize the unit to accomplish according to your maintain preferences. Current locations are simple to store (which makes waypointing easy) and the system provides breadcrumbs which is important for off-roading. The Sony unit referred to earlier in this review was an ergonomic grief and didn't assist breadcrumbs nor simple state storage. It was radiant, though.
As real-time traffic data comes on-stream in the USA the real-time traffic option will become more worthwhile. I didn't take this option with my unit because it's not really available yet in my station and besides, there's no alternative when the local freeway is jammed. There is no route work-around possible, so it wouldn't abet me remarkable on a day-to-day basis. But one day, when the service is cheap and there are alternative routes to be found, it will be a worthwhile addition to the repertoire of all in-car navigation systems.
I really like the larger mask size, though while it is technically 5 inches in diameter the sincere device size is about 4.5 inches because the borders are occupied with soft keys. Calm, that beats the 3 stride and 3.5 trudge screens found on other units like Garmin and Magellan and TomTomGo.
Voice prompting is nice & crisp, but the on-screen direction arrow with distance indicator is a diminutive petite, for those situations when you want to check whether it's the next turn or the one 50 feet after that.
Some GPS units scroll smoothly as you proceed, keeping the cursor in the center of the contrivance. The system in my Acura does that and I've become outmoded to it. The Cobra unit works the other way: the cursor representing your vehicle travels across the cover and then, fair as it reaches the edge of the veil, the entire device "jumps" to a original page and the process starts all over again. While my preference is for the Honda/Acura near, the "jumping page" is something I can live with and isn't too distracting in practice. I care more about the accuracy of the unit and the Cobra is very moral and snappily to adjust.
The unit comes with a windscreen mount, but there's also a execrable plate in case you want to mount it to a horizontal surface. I was somewhat concerned about placing the unit in the windscreen site because off-road in the desert in the middle of the day it can gain awfully hot factual there, even with the A/C blowing hard. So I chose to bewitch the optional external GPS receiver, which I mounted in the windshield location, and I placed the Cobra unit in the center binnacle where it is easy to view yet out of the whisper sunlight (which also improves general visibility, as the cover never washes out because of being hit by bellow light) .
UPDATE: February 26th 2007. After taking the unit on its first extended creep (3 hours) it exhibited a major defect. After 25 minutes of continuous operation the unit began emitting a hot metal smell and the upper left allotment of the camouflage became hot to touch; simultaneously the upper left section of the camouflage turned dusky and no longer displayed anything. After another 5 minutes the camouflage began to blink on and off swiftly, rendering it useless. Turning on the A/C and directing a stream of cool air at the unit did nothing to ameliorate the quandary.
Beach Audio common the return of the unit and shipped me a replacement; I have not yet taken the replacement on a long (3+ hours) streak to glance whether the recent unit overheats like the feeble one did. Hopefully it was a one-off manufacturing defect as apart from the malfunction I was cheerful with the previous unit.
Second Update: as of August 2008 the replacement is level-headed functioning as intended. I'm irritated by the fact that it can catch up to 15 minutes to bag satellites upon launch of the lumber (afterwards it acquires almost instantly), and I've discovered that the database of street addresses is quirky - a position in Tahoe Vista was listed as being in Sacramento, even though the on-map icon was correctly placed in Tahoe Vista. Subsequent experience has shown that the unit is suitable for some parts of the USA but hopeless with other areas - for example I've never been able to accept any address around the Lake Tahoe place. It's really useless in that regard. But it did acquire me from San Francisco to an address in Jackson Hole accurately, though it then gave up when asked to pick up the rental property objective a few miles further down the road. Now that the unit has arrive down to around $200 I believe it's OK for the money, but as I originally paid about $500 I judge it was overpriced support then. Realistically there are powerful better units on the market now, and I'd definitely recount people to go with an integrated Bluetooth and MP3 functionality in any recent standalone unit these days.
I actually like the Cobra GPSM 4000 Nav One. However, there is a pickle it has that is not fair some dinky scrape to me. On several occasions, it gives the mistaken names for exits. The saving grace is that the distance until you arrive the exit is right. For example, I needed to pick interstate 64W. Exit 64W was 1 mile away, and exit 64E was 0.5 mile away. The Cobra told me to rob exit 64E in 1 mile. Therefore, I have been able to remove the fair exit because it gives the legal distance, but it shouldn't be that procedure.
Other than that assert, I treasure the Cobra 4000. It is ample to have it in the car and have access to Points of Interests immediately. I also like that I can space the point of someplace I want to return again, and achieve that dwelling to my address book. It is also posthaste to acquire where you are.
