They’ve been out on the market for a few weeks now, but Pioneer‘s been keeping very quiet about its latest range of NavGate satnavs cum-in-car-entertainment centres. If they’re not going to, we thought we ought to kick up a fuss on their behalf, so we took them out for a spin this week – a car boot full of pics are primed for your peepers after the jump.
If you want a device that’ll get you from A to B without too much difficulty, buy a TomTom. But if you want a system that’ll keep keep the kids quiet in the back, not get stolen when you leave it in the car and tell you where your favourite shops are enroute as well, you need a NavGate installed.
There are three models in the range, the AVIC-F500BT, 700BT and 900BT. All pack European maps on the flash memory inside, grab tunes from an iPod and adjust sound levels on their 5.8 inch touch screens, while the high end models pack DVD playback support and the entry-level, the 500BT, can be taken out of the car and carried around.
All boast Bluetooth to automatically sync your car stereo with your phone for the ultimate hands-free kit. Add a USB and SD card slot for extra memory and you’ve got an impressive entertainment unit with satnav thrown in. But that’s not all, you can use it to download information from Pioneer’s mapping service, like points of interest or the location of every Starbucks in the country for those needing a caffeine fix.
We took a tootle around the Buckinghamshire countryside with one, and we have to say, even without the always-on net connectivity of the TomTom GO Live range, we have to be seeing the future direction of in-car GPS in action. The ease and convenience of having all of your tech controlled through one screen – iPod, satnav, music, phone, TV – is astounding. Enough talk: see the AVIC-F500BT and 900BT models in action below.
Out now | from £500 | Pioneer
