Slick design. Reality View Pro and Lane Assistant Pro. 3D Landmarks. On-route exit POI guide. Included lifetime traffic subscription.
Relatively expensive. Small POI database. Voice-entry feature is underwhelming.
The good-looking Navigon 7200T is loaded with features, but at almost twice the price of the impressive 2200T, it's hardly a bargain.
Comparing the 2200T and the 7200T side by side, the difference in the main menu screen is apparent immediately: Though both main menus share three icons (New Destination, My Destinations, Take Me Home), the 7200T replaces the fourth "Show Map" icon with one for "Voice Entry." Since the main menu has been changed to reflect the new Voice Entry feature, it now takes an additional screen tap to quickly jump back to the map view.
The new Voice Entry feature is handy, but disappointingly, it does not offer 100 percent voice control over the device. You can use Voice Entry only to enter a destination; you can't control the device, search for POIs, or perform any other functions by voice. (So far, the only portable navigation devices to offer near-complete voice control are Garmin's nüvi 800 series, which includes the Editors' Choicewinning 880.) On the 7200T, Voice Entry does not require any training, save for saying a sentence or two to adjust the microphone sensitivity.
Tapping the screen launches Voice Entry; you then have to tap the State icon on the screen if you wish to reset it. From there, the device uses icons to prompt you for the city, street, and address, but the 7200T won't confirm anything until you've entered the complete address. Thereafter, you can enter changes and get line-by-line confirmation of the city, street, and address. During testing, Voice Entry worked fairly well and recognized over 80 percent of the addresses I tried. There were a couple of streets, however, that I never got it to recognize. For example, it had a lot of trouble with "Passaic Street," but I could also opt to spell the street by pronouncing individual lettersonce you enter Voice Entry, there's no option to type on a keyboard. I also discovered that street numbers work best when you pronounce individual numberssaying "one-three-five" instead of "one hundred thirty-five," for example.
Bluetooth, hands-free phone interfaces are often the Achilles' heel of premium GPS devices. A solid interface should have three things: voice quality, automatic reconnection, and the ability to read a phone's contacts. On the 7200T, voice quality was good, and after the initial pairing, my LG VX9900 did automatically reconnect. On the last point, however, although it did indeed read data from my phone, it imported only the phone numbers in my contact list, not the namesto me, that's fairly useless. Of the GPS devices I've reviewed to date, only those from Garmin have had phone interfaces that could properly read my contact list and call history. To be fair, though, my test is only on a single cell phone; others may work better.
To road-test the 7200T, I mounted it on my car windshield next to a Garmin 880. Both units use Navteq maps, so the generated routes were the same. Voice prompts on the 7200T were given at appropriate intervals, and missed turns forced a recalculation quickly. What struck me most in the side-by-side comparison was the difference in screen readability; the 7200T map view displays roads as white against a gray field, which makes them more difficult to see than on the Garmin, which has stronger contrast. The Garmin also uses significantly larger fonts, so your direction and speed are much easier to read with a quick glance than on the 7200T.
While the Navigon 7200T is a solid product, at almost twice the price of the inexpensive and impressive 2200T it isn't a great bargain. Even with its 4.3-inch screen, sleek, frameless design, and integrated Zagat Guide, it's let down by the same small POI database found on the 2200T and by a so-so hands-free Bluetooth interface. Yes, the Exit Guide is a helpful feature, and the 3D landmarks are nice eye candy. Its Voice Entry, though, can't hold a candle to the full-featured voice interface of the Garmin 880. If Navigon were to come out with a more-affordable, widescreen version of the 2200T, that would certainly pique my interest.