I know it has been since Dayton that I’ve added to this blog, but now I have something worthwhile to say.
While at Dayton this year, two fellow ham friends of mine purchased the all new Avmap Geosat 6. Since one of them already had a Geosat 5, I decided I would purchase his year old unit he purchased at Dayton the year before. I knew he took very good care of his and was very confident in my purchase, until I used it….
My review of the Geosat 5 in one word. FAIL!
My review based on 1st and 2nd hand knowledge of the Geosat 6, nice try but also FAIL!
Why my harsh criticism?
What’s the purpose of a GPS navigation unit???? (reader of article inserts form of intelligence here).
A function both models of these unit’s are horrible at, let alone their various quirks that make them nowhere near ready for prime time.
The best way to approach my review will be in numeric, order of importance starting with the PROS (in order to be fair, it does some cool stuff).
PROS
| 1 | APRS function and feature set. | APRS integration is a snap. Tap on a station and pull up station details (D710 and D72 for advertised features). Navigate to a station merely by tapping on the icon | Geosat 5/6 | 2 | Boot up time | The geosat boots fast from cold start. Very surprising as my Garmin Nuvi sometimes doesn’t acquire it location until I’ve actually arrived at my destination | Geosat 5/6 | 3 | Boot up Image | Really? I added this as a PRO? Seriously the CONS outway the PROs and the fact that my N3QO logo comes up when I turn it on is pretty awesome. Sorry I have shiny object syndrome | Geosat 5, untest on 6 | 4 | Customer Service | Status Pending, continue reading and you’ll know why. Honestly, the Ham I bought this unit from is having issues with his Geosat 6 and he already has an RMA for the brand new unit, so I have to give them some credit | N/A |
CONS – Aka, bring on the hate.
| 1 | Navigation | The primary function of this device is for vehicle navigation which it is terrible at. The TeleAtlas maps are HORRIFIC! If you enjoy taking the long route EVERWHERE, you’re in luck. Also the navigation preferences don’t appear to make any changes to the navigation intelligence. If I blindly followed the directions this thing actually gave me I would be lost. Actually, this thing has gotten me lost a few times. Only having the unit 2 days, I punched in Max & Irma’s restaurant near Xenia, OH while out at Dayton. It actually lead me to a farm house, some 5 miles away from the actual destination. I’m not sure if a Max or an Irma live there, but I wasn’t going to knock on the door to find out. | Geosat5, Other hams that own the Geosat6 say it’s equally as bad. This unit excels at getting you lost or possibly for good | 2 | User Interface | The user interface is completely non-intuitive. I’ve a very technically savvy person, but for the life of me I can’t remember where the hell the APRS settings are. Which button do I push? I think I remember it being here. Nope! Wrong. Just push another button. Eventually you’ll find it if you haven’t yet died by plowing into a telephone pole. | Geosat5/6 | 3 | Voice Prompts | This GPS is just straight-up angry. For us Americans it’s either a bitchy woman’s voice or being talked down to by the British Male voice. The default American woman voice literally yells at you for missing a turn. My girlfriend actually snapped her head to look at me with a look of “are you serious??” the first time she heard the GPS outburst. And forget having an American Male voice. Instead you option is British Male, who is a condescending bastard, but at least better than his American PMS’ing counterpart. Also to mention the volume changes as the noise level changes in the car. All of a sudden you find yourself looking to turn the volume down, but what button is that under? Oh forget it, I’d just rather be yelled at.. | Geosat5. I didn’t even bother asking about the 6 | 4 | Screen Dimmer | This is one of the more annoying quirks. The light sensor for dimming the screen faces out the windshield. Fine, but early in the day or later in the afternoon, the screen appears to flicker as you pass trees, etc. A time delay would be a smart code change in the software. I have had passengers ask me what was wrong with the GPS. Also by the way, headlights tend to make it flicker at night. Seriously how does this stuff not pass through QA? | Geosat5. Again, I was so frustrated, I didn’t even bother asking about the 6 | 5 | Touch Screen Quality | This is directed towards the Geosat6. Both friends who have the same model have dead spots on the screen. One of them became so frustrated he turned the GPS vertically so the deadspot wouldn’t appear on a button he often needed. Nice work around for a lack of Quality Assurance | Geosat6. Surprisingly the 5 works?? |
If I would’ve read an honest review on this unit before I bought it, I would’ve gone a different route. The ham I had purchased it from actually asked me a couple weeks later if I would be willing to sell the Geosat5 back to him because his Geosat6 sucks so bad.
I know Don, W6GPS has been pushing the platform for the last couple years, and I met the guy out at Dayton this year. He seems nice and very knowledgeable about the product, but I have to think he has brought these issues up to AvMap. How could you not!? How do not notice something is wrong here? Even at the factory? If I was developing a product that turned out this poorly I’d be afraid to ask money for it, let alone put my company name on it.
What else do I hate about this thing?
The other day I powered the unit up and this came up on the screen. It was working perfectly only 15 minutes previously. I tried a software upgrade, a master reset, nothing I comes on, beeps and displays, “Device not Present, please verify”. Seriously? How the hell does this happen? It’s on my dash, attached to the windshield, I know it’s there, but apparently it thinks it’s elsewhere. So my rating on their customer service will be reviewed once I find out why it’s doing this and how much it’s going to cost me to fix it.
Stay tuned as the drama unfolds.
de N3QO
