The Strada CN-GP50U is Panasonic’s first Personal GPS Navigation Device to be released on the US market and is obviously impressive having won a CES 2008 award shortly after release. It follows the release of the Strada CN-NVD905U in-dashboard (double-din) car GPS navigation device earlier this year.

The Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U award mentioned was being judged a 2008 International CES Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award honoree in the In-Vehicle Navigation/Telematics/ITS category. Competing consumer electronics products are judged by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, independent engineers and members of the trade press.
Products chosen as the most impressive in each category are selected as honorees.

The first feature noticed on examining the Strada CN-GP50U portable navigation system is the large 5 inch widescreen, LCD, touchscreen display. Yet, the device has a reasonably compact form factor with a width of 3.42 inches and a depth of 1.22 inches. All the Strada’s functions are accessed through the user interface on the touchscreen. It’s possible to use the screen for sharing photos with the Picture Viewer function and viewing slide shows. Conveniently, the display automatically adjusts it’s brightness for day or night viewing.

A useful capability, especially when the Strada CN-GP50U is used in a car, it the Strada’s Voice Command function which improves its accuracy with time as it learns to recognize your vocal characteristics.

The Strada CN-GP50U has a accurate and sensitive SiRF Star III GPS receiver. Even though the Star III is excellent at maintaining satellite signal locks in weak reception areas, Panasonic have also provided their unit with a dead reckoning capability for when a signal is lost for example, in a tunnel. SiRF call this dead reckoning technology SiRFDiRect. It works through the utilization of miniature heading and acceleration sensors to provide dead reckoning data for greater navigational accuracy.

The Strada unit comes pre-loaded with an excellent NAVTEQ map coverage of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico including 86 detailed city maps. There is also an extensive 1.8 million searchable Points of Interest database covering some 51 categories. Either and SD card or USB cable connection can be used for map updates.

While it is advertised as a personal navigator, the Strada CN-GP50U comes with a mounting bracket featuring “quick click” fixing buttons for fast and easy mounting and removal in a vehicle.

A couple of features which some may find handy are the;

• Lane Assist which helps avoid last-minute lane changes using voice guidance and by highlighting the correct lane in orange and
• an icon and warning tone to alert the driver when the speed limit is exceeded.

User Reviews and Price Comparisons

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Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U Portable Navigation Device Specification

Technorati Tags: Personal GPS Navigation, Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U, 5 inch widescreen, Voice Command, SiRF Star III GPS receiver, dead reckoning technology

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