Decent but Not Exceptional

SPECIFICATIONS
Unit Dimensions 4.17" x 6.45" x 2.28"
Unit Weight 1.278 lbs.
Display Resolution TFT 320 x 240 pixels Color Display
Keypad Back-lit
Power 12-volt DC Vehicle Power Adapter Included



Large screen. This was the very first thought I had when looking at this unit. It's huge.

My first impression of the Cobra 4500 was that of a little intimidation. It's size, weight, menu were all a lot to take in after having used several older generations of GPS.

Playing with the menu gets easier and offers quite a bit between setting itineraries, home spots, favorites, and POI.

It gets a little confusing though because the main buttons on the front of the unit access the initial menu, and it becomes touch screen from there.

It has the basics of a good navigation unit to be sure, including the drag and drop map function that allows you to drag the displayed map and go in any direction.

The hard drive based system...tell me Cobra engineers...WHAT was going through your head when you designed this? When everyone else was designing with SD memory chips, you use a hard drive.

This not only causes glitches Unnecessarily, it adds twice the weight of other units to it. I had to modify another windshield mount in order to keep it stuck to the glass. Otherwise it WILL fall on you.

Unreliable, sticky, and volatile is what. No one in their right mind would design a piece of technology like this using a hard drive. But they did.

And it cannot just be any laptop drive, it has to be formatted to Cobras specs to be able to run the software.

It will stick on you and need rebooting from time to time. It will get goofy in colder temps, and it will eventually crash.

Unlike the Tomtom or Garmin units that run off of a SD memory chip and can be easily restored using USB and a new cheap card.

But for the money at the time the Cobra was about $400 dollars less than it's competition for similar units and about 98% of the time this unit does well. The display is bright and adjustable, and can be set to the drivers satisfaction.

I used it in Canada and was surprised at the reliable data in Montreal that appeared on the map.

Street level maps and direction in the USA and Canada were acceptable. With some small exceptions it performed as good as any I have used.

With the exception of rerouting. This unit is horrible at rerouting and will drive you nuts by continually trying to get you to pull a U-Turn and go back, even if you know the shortcut, or want to take a different route.


The voice and volume functions are easy, the audible levels are fine for the average driver, and it is easy to see.

Using the menu can be a bit of a hassle while driving, and may be better to pull over and play with it if driving solo.

It seems the unit was in competition to the Garmin and Magellan big boys, but Cobra came a little under the winning line with this one.

I say for the money it is aptly priced because though it has the functionality of the others, the platform and technology by which it operates comes short.

Hopefully Cobra will learn their lesson and use better technology in the future for new designs.

If you can pick one up for under 300 bucks, go for it. Just make sure it's new, and understand eventually the hard drive WILL let you down and die. Anyone with a computer can tell you this.

Otherwise, at the time it arrived to market, it was reasonably priced for what you got and definitely not a rip off. It was just nothing amazing for the price is all.