New Navman S-Series makes GPS worth talking about

I know that satellite navigation systems don't hit the top of the list when talking about cool, sexy gadgets. But for someone with a sense of direction akin to an inebriated weasel far from home, they can potentially be really helpful. I've had some bad experienced with old, limited sat navs, but last night's introduction to and first hands on with the Navman S Series restored my faith in GPS. Seriously.

Navman has introduced four new models, from the entry level, basic S30 at 149.99 to the bells and whistles S90i for £299.99, and although there are differences between them the S30 still has a surprising wealth of the extra features. In between are the S50 (£179.99) and S70 (£199.99) mid-range models, the price difference reflecting that one is only regional. The European maps that feature on the S70 and S90i cover 21 countries in Western and Central Europe, including major roads leading into Eastern Europe. But the best news is that Navman is responding to the average user, packing in 500 major and minor tweaks for idiot-proof, helpful navigation.

Here's a list of some of the new and improved features that I was impressed with:

1) Navman has joined forces with Flickr to make Navpix even better. Access to the Navpix gallery is now swelled by 23 million geo-positioned pics that can help you to find places of interest by just searching and downloading photos.

2) An SOS button providing a list of nearby emergency services including hospitals, garages, dentists and police stations among others.

3) Keyboard input has been massively improved with a responsive on screen keyboard on a minimum 3.5" screen - the top three models have 4.3" screens. Choose between QWERTY, ABC and alphanumeric, and also decide whether or not you want the keys read out to you as you type to confirm you're pressing the right one.

4) Navman have removed clutter from the interface by hiding extra information under click and drop menus on either side of the screen. Sure you can see your average speed etc if you want, but you don't have to.

5) Speed camera tracking now has two refinements; one, it won't warn you about cameras on the other side of the road anymore, and two, it will only tell you if you're withing 90% of the speed limit - if you're stuck in traffic and crawling along you hardly need to know if there's a speed camera, do you?

Small physical improvements - making the device lighter and slimmer and rounding the corners so that it's easier to slide into a pocket - have also been thoughtfully added, with no buttons on the device itself other than the on / off and, on the S90i, a camera button for the 2.0 megapixel Navpix camera. Even the bracket for attaching to a car window has been tweaked, making it foldable for easy glove compartment storage.

In comparison, these are the features you get for each model, with every device having an SD / MMC expandable memory:

S30: 256MB card internal Flash memory, 32MB SDRAM, 3.5" screen, Places of Interest, free trial of Safety Camera Data feature.

S50 (UK / regional) & S70 (Europe):

S50 – 256MB internal, 64MB SDRAM
S70 – 2GB internal Flash, 64MB SDRAM

Both: 4.3" screen, free trial of Safety Camera Data, Integrated Bluetooth (hands free calls), Navpix navigation (no camera), Mileage Reporter, Places of Interest, Real-time Traffic Updates

S90i: 2GB internal Flash memory, 96 MB SDRAM, 4.3" screen, all above features plus Navpix Camera.

Check out Susi's video for a quick preview.