October 4, 2007
Pioneer Avic-S1 Pocket Sized Portable Sat Nav System
The Avic-S1 from Pioneer is a more updated and advanced in-car navigation system than its predecessors. On the design front, it fits in your pocket, measuring 4.1 by 3.5 by 0.7 inches. It weighs 6.4 ounces but it's considerably slimmer than Nuvi 300 and it has a completely internal antennae.
The Avic S1 uses the SiRF Star III GPS and NavTeq maps for navigation. The display screen is a 3.5 inch TFT antiglare screen which gives you clear pictures in any ambient lighting conditions. The interface is not completely touch screen, with three backlit buttons providing the essential functions. The one on the left toggles between 2D and 3D and the right button brings out the configuration and destination menus which are touch screen activated. The scroll button in the middle lets you scroll through options in the menus. An elongated press on the button on the right side brings out the Bluetooth interface which is a special feature of this device. The maps are displayed in both 2D and 3D. In the 2D mode, there are two "+" and "-"icons which can be used to zoom in/out. In 3D mode there is an "auto zoom" feature which will automatically zoom in and out depending on the speed of your vehicle. The turn-by-turn voice instructions are clear and timely with visual indications. As you near the turn, the distance and the location of the turn is highlighted. In addition to this there is a display of seven bars whose number varies with your distance to the next turn.
Entering address into the Avic S1 is very easy with an intelligent input system, which narrows down the choices with each letter you type of the destination. You have numerous features like address search , POI search , address(from address book) search etc. In addition to this, the Avic S1 lets you navigate to any point in the map. Once you have keyed in your destination, the route is calculated in a very short time. The Avic S1 has a convenient re-calculate button which will reconfigure your route after you have "blocked" the obstacles like toll ways, ferries, interstates etc.. The Avic S1 holds about 1.5 million POIs and it has 21 categories of POIs including parking spots, restaurants, hotels/motels, and bank. You can choose which categories to display on the map using the configuration menu. The one notable drawback is that the POI database does not hold phone numbers in spite of the Bluetooth hands-free connection feature. The other one is a faulty POI search which does not perform that accurately. The Avic S1 has 14 languages, 11 backgrounds and a 3 level auto zoom feature. With Bluetooth you can even use the Avic S1 as a hands-free phone.
Our Verdict
The Pioneer S1 is a commendable effort from Pioneer. The elegant and stylish model is packed with lot of useful features. But functionality is where this offering falls short with no turn-by-turn list, faulty POI search etc. Besides these few negatives, this model is one of the best GPS systems available and offers great value for the customer.
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