Jensen NVXM1000 (Rock N Road) Review

It is truly a pleasant surprise to see Jensen make it in the GPS navigation competition, but are their products worth the buzz? Debuting this quarter, the NVXM1000, AKA “Rock-N-Road” is a portable GPS navigation device with lots of rare features.
You’ll notice its screen is the standard portable GPS size, measuring at 4”. It is an LCD touchscreen display and it is capable of displaying both maps and digital media information. The colors and contrast depth is pretty average, and not enough to impress. There’s just something about the color. It’s not bad, but it has rather that dull look. From our experience, un-contrasting colors and less sharp images on portable navigation devices tend to be hard to see in direct sunlight. This may be quite problematic for those who travel often during rush hour when the sun is right in the line of sight of the navigation device.

However, with that put aside, the NVXM1000 does present itself well with several interesting and useful features. You’ll notice that on its left side it has two slots: one for an SD Card undoubtedly, but one for another similarly-shaped port that’s slightly bigger. This larger port is for an XM Radio mini tuner, which acts much like an SD Card. The mini-tuner is sold separately, but to have this feature means that you instantly have the option to having an XM radio in your vehicle, or wherever you go, thanks to this XM Satellite radio ingenuity. This means that users will have 170 XM channels as well as XM NavTraffic—a feature that allow drivers to check local real-time traffic reports.

The navigation unit is a NavTeq based system with over 11 million points of interest. It has maps of the United States as well as Canada. However, we are a little bit concerned of its processor. The Rock-N-Hard navigation unit only features a 300MHz Atlas II processor. In our experience anything slower than 400MHz tends to perform sluggishly and would frustrate drivers in busy locations such as metropolitan areas. In addition, for a unit that boasts 11 million POIs in 8GB of internal hard drive space, it only features a 64MB RAM. So now you have a slow processor, with a ton of things to do and display.

Another bad aspect of the NVXM1000 is its awkward shape. It’s not a great symmetrical design, and makes mounting a harder task, especially for those of us who wish to have a more integrated look in our vehicles.
The NVXM1000 Rock-N-Road has great concept ideas, but needs to implement these ideas with better components and features. It’s also a bit expensive for its bulkiness. Its design appear to have come from the 1990s and doesn’t present itself to be impressive.

Power Acoustik PAVN-4210 Review

Now here's an excellent example of an affordable, yet high performing in-dash navigation. The Power Acoustik PAVN-4210 is a single DIN head unit that has built-in navigation. The PAVN-4210 is Power Acoustik's answer to the increasing demand for vehicle navigation devices.

Display
First off, the front panel is slightly larger than a standard single DIN size mounting. This may be a problem for those with limited mounting space on their dashboard console. However, it does feature a large 4.3" LCD touchscreen monitor that is both bright and attractive to the eyes. A typical single DIN receiver features a maximum 3" LCD display, unless it is a retractable, flip-out type which could typically house a 7" LCD screen. The 4.3" LCD display is a nice feature to have, since it makes the unit unique as well as versatile. It could even drop to three different positions to accommodate for better viewing angle.

Compatibility Features
The PAVN-4210 is capable of playing common media formats such as MP3, MP4, and standard DVD/DVD-R/RW. But it could also play DivX file formats; all of which could be displayed as NTSC or PAL color system for greater compatibility. This means that the unit could play display video from virtually any country of origin where NTSC or PAL is the standard color system.

Expandability Options
This versatile unit is also capable of receiving (with additional accessories) Satellite Radio (both XM and Sirius). Satellite Radio information will be displayed on the screen which would display station information and current program. In addition, this in-dash navigation multimedia receiver features a mini USB port as well as an SD Card input, allowing users to play their favorite MP3 or MP4 files or even update their navigation maps.

Navigation Features
The unit comes with a 2GB SD Card with map information as well as 7 million points of interest. The internal processor is a 400 MHz Sirf Star III chip running a Linux-based software. This means that users will not experience much lag or sluggish performance while navigating and calculating routes while driving. The GPS receiver is even capable of receiving 20 parallel channels, allowing connection of up to 20 orbital GPS satellites which greatly reduces the likelihood of signal loss while traveling long distances. The GPS receiver will also receive signals from traffic alerts, notifying you of accidents as well as traffic status in major US metropolitan cities.

As you can probably gather from what is covered in this review, this affordable single DIN in-dash navigation is packed with features that are usually reserved for more expensive units. However, for the price that is offered ($429.99), you can't get a better deal than the Power Acoustik PAVN-4210.