Cobra GPSM 4000 Review
Most of us are familiar with Cobra Electronics for their radar/laser detection and two-way radio products. Cobra moves into consumer GPS navigation market with their NAV ONE mobile navigation product line up. The GPS navigation manufacturers try to distinguish their product with some unique features on their GPS navigation units. To that end, Cobra includes bigger screen size and proprietary technology called iA.S.A.P., intelligent accelerated satellite acquisition protocol. iA.S.A.P allows for faster satellite acquisition and better chance for your GPS unit to stay connected with satellite.
Screen
The 5 inch touchscreen is larger than your average 3 to 4 inch screens offered by other companies. Cobra also made the display touchscreen compatible. Their first generation units lacked the touchscreen function which hobbled it with unintuitive interaction via buttons and sub-menus. The screen is legible in any condition including day time usage. The automatic light sensor that brightens and dims according to brightness is really useful.
Ease of Use
The menus and sub-menus were very intuitive and easy to use. Combine that with attractive touchscreen function and you have very easy to use GPS navigation unit. The automatic navigation sometimes give out route that may not be shortest or fastest. You can manually enter the points you wish to travel through and the unit will automatically recalculate the route. This is pretty nice feature if you know the traveling points that's better than the suggested route. The missing text-to-speech does not hinder the turn by turn direction as it gives plenty of warning before the turn.
Reliability
The one thing you immediately notice upon unpacking is that GPSM 4000 is very sturdy unit. Weighing close to 3 pounds, the unit feels like it can take some dings. The initial acquisition time was close to 10 minutes in my case. The stated cold start tie of 45 seconds seem to be on the faster side. However, once the unit acquires the satellite, it stays connected without interruption as advertised by Cobra's iA.S.A.P. I will have to note that I do not live in urban areas or dense foliage area which might cause some interruption between the unit and satellite. Once the unit orient itself with satellite, the future acquisition time was very short. The time ranged between 10 to 50 seconds on most cases. The routes and directions are generally spot on. The unit is prone to some weird routing at times but nothing egregious.
Battery Life
No internal battery
Features
The GPSM 4000 includes many standard features like Points-of-Interest database, live traffic, pre-loaded maps, trail capture, auto brightness adjustment, and trip computer. Like most GPS navigation units, Cobra includes 7 million + POI database that includes hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and many other locations in 200 sub-categories. The live traffic updates requires optional traffic receiver to receive the live traffic feeds. Like many other GPS navigation units with traffic feed, the Cobra GPSM 4000 uses the Traffic Message Channels over FM Radio Data System. This means that only major cities and metro areas will be covered by this feature. Consult the website and manual to see if you are in the area covered by this feature. The GPS unit comes pre-loaded with all 50 states and major Canada metro areas. The GPSM 4000 is ready to use out of the box with its pre-loaded map, mounting kit, and the 12v vehicle power supply adapter.
Expandability
The Cobra has yet to offer any map updates or firmware updates.
Pros
- 5 inch touchscreen
- iA.S.A.P.
- Good POI
- Live traffic capable
- Good interface
Cons
- No battery
- Inconsistent routing
- No Bluetooth
Want to compare this model to other Cobra models? Click here to download Excel spreadsheet.
