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Sony U73T nav-u: Swings and Misses
There is no disputing that Sony manufactures a large number of top quality products. From the innovation of the first Sony Walkman through the dominant years of Trinitron televisions, to Playstation 3s, digital SLRs and Nav units, Sony is ever expanding into new territory. Trying something new is not always a good thing, however, as we found out with Sony’s U73T nav-u.
Sure the U73T has a beautifully bright and clear 4.3” touch-panel widescreen, and aesthetically the unit is attractive and sleek but these are qualities one would expect from Sony. And therein lies the problem. Sony is so well known for its quality products that falling a tad short on one can turn a previously loyal customer into a bad review toting serpent! So if I can type around my reptilian tail I will share my disappointment when I first turned on the nav-u and put in my work address. From home on a peaceful holiday morning it would take about 20 minutes. This busy workday and every morning I tried thereafter the nav-u said it would get me there in 7 minutes. The arrival time just kept increasing until I arrived about 30 minutes later. Strike one.
Another fault was when I was heading down a familiar route from Baltimore to D.C. I gestured the nav-u to take me home by using my finger to draw an inverted V on the screen. The unit cleverly can read specified gestures across its screen which dictate commonly used commands. With home specified, the nav-u led the way. All was going well until the unit kept telling me verbally to keep left as I passed every exit on 95 south as if I needed to turn to stay on 95 when passing each off-ramp. I quickly muted the unit and got home with limited nav-rage. Strike two.
The final straw for me may or may not be considered fair, but served as strike three. On a recent trip to Winnipeg, I took the nav-u as it is programmed with U.S., Canadian and Puerto Rican maps and I was hoping it would help me find my way. Around Winnipeg it did help and kept me on course but when I tried to input the small town of Carmen which lies about an hour outside of Winnipeg it was back to relying on MapQuest as the nav-u didn’t include the town of Carmen in its database. With three strikes, I was now officially &dquo;out.”
Of the features I did like, the super suction cup was great and solidly positioned the unit. Also, disconnecting the unit from the mount to store when leaving the car for a while can be done effortlessly with one hand. Replacing the unit to the mount was just as easy. Also notable is that the unit has an impressive 3D dual-view design that very clearly shows situations like exiting, merging and which junctions to take. To be fair, each of these features help tremendously with the ease of operation of the unit.
Overall, the nav-u has some great qualities, but ultimately, the purpose of a navigation unit is to get you to your destination safely, easily and quickly while providing accurate information along the way. Hopefully Sony’s next generation of nav units will make up for this unit’s shortcomings.
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