Navicore - Navicore Personal review

GPS navigation used to be the preserve of anoraked cross-country obsessed ramblers brandishing mono-screened devices with bizarre interfaces. Nowadays though, GPS is mainstream. It’s built into many cars as standard while GPS enabled PDAs attached to screen mounted holders are now a common sight while out and about. Now GPS is moving to the next level with software and hardware available for phones. The concept is quite appealing as a phone is a device that you’ll always have with you and you never quite know when you’ll have the urge not to know where you’re going.

The Navicore box consists of a GPS receiver that connects to your phone over Bluetooth, an in-car charger and a set of Tele-Atlas based maps provided on a MMC card. This is 256MB in size. The maps only take up around 143MB on the card leaving over 100MB of free space, and as most phones will come with a smaller capacity card, you’re gaining in this regard. The maps are compatible with phones running the Symbian Series 60 operating system, which in the main consist of Nokias. This package will retail for £200 and will be available from 02 and The Link stores, though they aren’t on the respective websites at time of writing.

There are also versions available for Series 80 devices and those running Symbian’s UIQ OS, such as the Sony Ericsson P910. These will cost £250. As most navigation companies tend to focus on one preferred platform those running PalmOS on Treos or Windows Smartphone will have to look at alternatives. Future map updates will cost £100, which is on the steep side.

One thing that’s not provided is a handset – you have to bring your own though most people will already have a phone and it does at least give you a choice of device.

The GPS receiver features the latest SiRF Star III low power chipset, which I first came across at CeBIT this year in a Leadtek unit. Before this chipset, GPS units always required line of sight to the orbiting satellites in order to work. The new SiRF III chipset however, claims to work even without line of sight enabling you to keep your Bluetooth in your glove compartment while driving, rather than on the dashboard. If it works it also would make navigating via GPS while on foot a lot more practical. As phones don’t have integrated GPS aerials it means that you can have the GPS module in your pocket or bag and still be able to navigate. It’s a shame then that the maps provided with the Navicore are only for roads as it seems like a real missed opportunity. Navicore recognises this though and a pedestrianised personal navigation version is promised later in the year.