With a budget product such as this Navman S30 GPS unit, your reviewer starts by looking for the areas where costs have been cut and in this case the search doesn't take especially long.

It's the styling that stands out like a sore thumb, as the S30 gives every impression that it was cobbled together from some odds and ends of plastic extrusion on a budget of about thruppence ha'penny. The dashboard mount is also rather basic, but once you get past those mental roadblocks the outlook improves significantly.

The hardware is entirely typical for a Sat Nav unit at this price point and consists of a 400MHz Samsung CPU and SiRF Star III GPS chip. There's no surprise that the screen measures 3.5 inches on the diagonal and has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, as you could hardly expect anything more for just over £100, but the screen is also the weakest part of the deal. Navman has used a combination of SmartST 2008 software and Tele Atlas 2007 maps that proves to be very effective, but the software needs more screen real-estate to give it room to strut its stuff.

The map uses graphics that are colourful and chunky, with your route laid out in green and turn arrows clearly marked in yellow. At the top left of the screen is an icon that indicates the type of junction you're approaching so you should never have to wonder whether you are bearing left, taking the second of four exits or going around a hairpin.

On the right side of the screen there's your ‘distance to go' figure and three large buttons that you use to change the view of the map, to zoom in and out, and to change the mode. Press one of these buttons and you'll be presented with a sub-menu and more options. It all works very well in that fleeting second as you glance at the screen but the software is crying out for a bigger display. Exactly the sort of display, indeed, which you get with the Navman S50 that costs £50 more than the S30, however we can only review the gadget that is to hand.

Despite the small screen size, address entry is quick and easy as the virtual keyboard includes both letters and digits on the one screen, but Points Of Interest suffer as the list that is visible on the screen is absolutely tiny so you are forced to scroll up and down.

On the road we found that the S30 was something of a mixed bag. It doesn't spell out street names at junctions but does call out the junction numbers on major routes. Unfortunately the speaker is a bit weedy so you may have trouble hearing the Navman if you have background noise.

You'll find it worthwhile to dig around in the route planning options to find the setting for ‘route type' that best suits you. With the slider on ‘fastest time' the S30 will take you to the nearest motorway regardless of whether it involves a detour but adding a touch of ‘shortest distance' redresses the balance.

We cannot complain about the initial asking price of the S30 but it's worth bearing in mind that you have to pay an extra £99 for a set of European maps and once the initial one year free trial has expired you'll have to pay £50 for speed camera updates.

Verdict
There's plenty to like about the Navman S30 as the software is very good indeed. The hardware is generic and a bit dull but it's only there to act as a platform for the superb software, which unfortunately needs a wide screen to do it justice, so we regard the S30 as a budget model that has limited appeal.

Company: Navman

Contact: 01293 780500

Tags: navman global positioning system tele atlas global navigation satellite system point of interest recreation roads and highways shareware