Review of Sony NVU94T GPS
Sony's venture into GPS navigation unit include the NVU94T, the high end model. NVU94T represents the high end model with features like text-to-speech, Bluetooth, and music playback. Known for their consumer electronics, Sony is relative new player in GPS navigation unit market compared to TomTom and Garmin. The solid reputation alone should give consumers a pause when they are searching for a portable GPS navigation unit.
Screen
NVU94T comes with 4.8 inch touchscreen. The touchscreen is very responsive and the display is crisp and vibrant colors. The screen doubles as photo viewer and works quite nicely. The gesture command is pretty useful in navigating the device.
Ease of Use (User friendly)
The user interface is really easy to use. You only need few taps to get to where you want to go. Some units require too many sub-menu navigation to get to the feature you want. The menu button is useful for quickly going back to the main menu. The gesture command is a big time saver. There are various gestures that override any function on the screen. For example, making an inverted "V" on the screen takes directs you to home. It may not sound very exciting but habitual use can save you lots of time. Plus, it simplifies many commands that might take few taps to navigate.
Reliability
It took close to 15 minutes for the unit to acquire satellite. This was longer than most other units. In fact, the device took close to 20 minutes on next restart. After several resets, the unit seems to have worked itself out. The acquisition time is 3-5 minutes at most. The routes and directions seem to accurate. I've tested few familiar routes and the unit did not deviate from the fastest route. The reroute calculation had few problems with weird routes. The rerouting direction was illogical few times I missed the turn on purpose. This was few rare occasion and should not be a big problem for most users. The POI was up to date and contained most of the categories.
Battery Life
About 2 hours of battery life. Most users will use with car adapter. As such, the battery life should not be a big concern.
Features
The NVU94T comes with 4.8 inch widescreen. The unit is capable of text-to-speech, live traffic via TMC, Bluetooth, photo and mp3 playback, and Sony's own Dual view. Dual View splits the screen displaying the overall route and closer look at the current position. Sony's proprietary Position Plus has internal sensors to predict the position if you happen to lose satellite signal. As I did lose satellite signal during the test, I did not have chance to evaluate this feature. Also, the gesture command is fairly useful in quick navigation. I had no problem connecting my Treo 800W with the GPS unit for hands-free calling. The POI is linked to dialing function. This is very useful when you need to make calls to any of the POI in the database. The live traffic is free for the first three months. Make sure you are in the covered area before subscribing to the traffic service.
Expandability
As of this review, I have not found need to update the map. The maps and POI and fairly current edition of the NAVTECQ maps. The Memory stick Duo slot is pretty useful if you want to view photos or listen to music on your NVU94T
Pros
- Nice 4.8 inch widescreen
- Position Plus feature
- Gesture Command
- Accurate routing
- Very simple user interface
- Live traffic
- POI with dialing options
- Dual View feature
Cons
- Some odd rerouting calculation
- Short battery life
- Odd satellite acquisition time
- Live traffic free for first three month
Want to compare this model to NV models? Click here to download the spreadsheet.
 |
Sony NVU94T 4.8-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic and Text-to-Speech List Price: $399.99 Used From: $90.00  |
|
Sony NVU94T 4.8-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic and Text-to-Speech List Price: $399.99 Used From: $90.00 |
| Overall Rating |   |
| Ease of Use | |
| Reliability | |
| Battery Life | |
| Features | |
| Expandability | |
This site contains the personal opinions of various authors and contributors to this website. The opinions in these articles and reviews are offered in good faith, but also come with no guarantees or warranties.
I bought this GPS a few months ago and I just had to have a Sony because every other electronic within my household is a Sony. It worked perfect for the first couple of months then kaboom. I live in Tampa, this piece of crap will tell you to go to Miami, make a u-turn to get to where you need to get in Tampa. I live right down the street from the highway, why was this thing telling me to go past the highway to make a u turn to get on that very same highway from another direction? I just tried to plug in an address in Tampa, as I was typing in the address, it pulled up the very street I needed to go to, then when I put in Tampa, it made this irritating noise and then it said, “Not Found.” My husband put in the same address in his Garmin and whaddaya know? It pulled up the location. Sony, I so hate you right now for this piece of crap. I want all my money back plus money for the aggravation!