I have never used a GPS before, and this unit is probably lacking some features that higher priced GPS units might have. Nevertheless, I found a lot of useful features in the Nextar X3–11, and enjoyed using it yesterday.
I do a lot of photography ... lately, my interest has been to visit the small towns of Western NY, and photograph the beautiful old buildings, and other scenes as well. In the past, I would print out about a dozen pages of maps from Google Maps, and try to follow those while I was driving or walking. But that limited me to only driving places where I had maps.
With the GPS unit, I didn’t have to print maps, and I was no longer limited to driving where I had maps. I could go anywhere, and the GPS would let me know where I was and where to go. I picked a very tiny town to start at — Ossian, NY. The GPS directed me there flawlessly. Once I was done there, I had a hankering for Dunkin Donuts, and I knew there was one in Dansville. How to get there without a map? I just told the GPS to take me to Dansville. Simple! Then, it took me to Naples, NY, and after that, it directed me home. And as a plus, it took me along roads I wouldn’t have picked myself, and so I got some interesting pictures along the way. And if I wanted to record where I was when I took that great picture of a barn, I just tapped the GPS unit menus a few times, and the location was recorded (town name, road address, latitude and longitude).
This unit has a lot of features, and is relatively easy for me to use. I particularly enjoyed the voice mode, which tells me, for example, to “turn right in 1000 feet onto Main Street”. You can set the unit to direct you to a destination, or to follow an itinerary to a series of destinations. This device also tells you your speed, amount of time or miles to your destination, and estimated time of arrival. I learned that when my car’s speedometer says I am travelling 65mph, I was really going 62mph. I could go faster! Further, this unit also plays MP3s and photographs.
The unit comes with a DC (car) charger, but not an AC (home) charger. Since I didn’t want to leave the unit it the car for a few hours with the keys in the ignition, I couldn’t charge it up. So I called Nextar to see if there was some way I could charge the unit at home, and they offered to send me an AC charger for free!
I have a few minor complaints. The map never identifies bodies of water. It would be nice to know what that lake is. The unit comes with a stylus which you can use to select menu items (so you don't have to use your fat fingers) but there is no place to store the stylus and given its size, there's a good chance it will be lost soon. The unit attaches to the windshield or dashboard, but the adhesive on the dashboard holder wasn’t strong enough to hold the unit, and it kept toppling over (the suction cup attachment to the windshield works fine).
