I'm a Navman: The hot new S100 : Shiny Shiny

Sat Navs don't really generate the most enthusiasm and excitement, but it's not their fault, they do try. That may all be about to change with Navman's rather stylish S100 - the latest addition to the S-series. First of all, let's talk style. The S100 is rather nice on the eye with its slim (the thinnest in the market apparently) brushed aluminium shell with as much robustness as you'd need (we should know we watched one drop on a wooden floor) for something you're going to be using on a regular basis whether you're driving or walking to your destination. Its flat screen gives it a bit of a TV feel and at 4.3-inches it's a decent size to navigate on.

To add to its appeal, Navman has added a few new features to the device. Clear view mapping is one of them. The idea behind this is to avoid bewilderment by emphasizing your journey on screen, so the focus remains on your journey rather than the surrounding roads. The inclusion of glide touch, an iPhone-esque way of navigating through the S100 definitely gives it added appeal - and it responds well to finger tips or fingernails too. Navman seems to have taken criticism about their 3D city landmarks on board and have added more of these, which should hopefully make your journey a lot more pleasant. They've also added a stack load of information on points of interest (POI) too.

There really are a fantastic range of features packed into the S100. Your can opt to divert from the original route, let's say to Pizza Express or the petrol station, and the S100 will calculate another route with the detour included. Navman has also incorporated junction view, which has to be my favourite feature. This only applies to major motorway junctions for now, so when you're ploughing down the M25 and are told to "take the next exit", it will display the actual junction as well as the road signs, indicating exactly where you need to go, hopefully avoiding all cock-ups (it's very realistic).

If you discover a POI you don't have time to check out, just capture it and make your return later. Its one touch button access makes everything about the S100 easy to use. Other features include a Micro SD slot, night and day mode, MP3 player functionality, geo-tagged photo navigation and pedestrian mode, which is supplied on the device but without 2D mapping.

It's fully customisable thanks to its features and glide touch navigation and is due out around the beginning of November for £199.