Panasonic Strada - remains a promise

The navi, weighing 275 grams, has a 400 MHz (possibly Samsung) CPU, which is supported by 128 MB ROM and the same amount of RAM. This means that there can be no speed issues. At least that’s what I’ve thought. Unfortunately this is where the second amateur mistake is committed: Strada is damn slow. And even more, the display, which is clearly visible in sunshine too, doesn’t like high speeds, it was unwilling to function if I was touching it too fast, it only worked if I “pressed” the appearing icons slowly. The menu is also inexplicably slow, although there would be no reason to be so. I wanted to make sure that the error was not with me and I had a look at my next test subject and there were no problems with the speed of that. What was it? I will tell you in a few days. I expect all solutions to be sent to the publisher, the prize is a speaker form the ‘60s if someone doesn’t take it until then. :-)

The second amateur mistake (at least from the point of view of Central and Eastern Europe) is the application running on the PNA: Navigon (NAVTEQ) is the one used, which unfortunately cannot compete with iGO either in graphics, or in features, but I have to say that Garmin too humiliates the poor thing. On one hand the regional map is, so to say, superficial; it only concentrates on the essence. The fact that the M9 highway, for example, has been for almost two years now, is something unimportant. We are very happy however, of the POI database with 1.7 million elements, in case we can access them through the maze-like menu. The graphics are even plainer than in Garmin, although we have 3D display. Although the program says that there are no buildings in Hungary, but we shouldn’t care about that. There are large pictures of the Colosseum and the Arch of Triumph from Paris on the box, those are already included. They have a colossal building database of 200 items.

I had no specific problems with the planning algorithm, although there are two funny parts of voice navigation. The female voice says things like “You will reach your goal in 200 meters”; (how does she know?), or “Attention!”, when we exceed the speed limit – well this one scared the hell out of me. The frightening speaker is far from being as powerful as I would have expected. It’s cool, however, that POIs are not simply displayed on the map, but for example in case of gas stations, the company’s name is also shown, thus making things easier. Navigation is said to be enhanced by lane-assistance, which helps us in choosing the lane we need. Here I have again come across the error of generosity: driving on a 2X3 lane road, the software considered it not wide enough to offer its assistance. In exchange we can control it with voice navigation, if we learn how to do so by reading the 500 page manual (although it says everywhere that it’s very easy to handle).