Garmin 7200 Navigation unit

I picked up my Garmin 7200. Here are my first impressions. Point of comparison is clarion n.i.c.e. and street pilot III.

This unit is extremely expensive. I cannot stress this enough. The 7200 requires add-ons for XM traffic and satellite radio, optional SD cards etc that could easily end up costing a grand or so. That's in addition to the grand plus that you will pay for the unit. It's very sad.

Today, there were no clouds in the sky. I had some problems seeing the screen - even with my polarized sunglasses. Bumping up the screen brightness to 100% improved it very little. The clarion unit does better here.

The remote is less than functional. You can, page thru screens with the remote. Paging thru submenus requires pressing a numerical button corresponding to the submenu number. The clarion unit is equally hopeless there as well.

The unit is huge but it hides the size very well. It is not bulky. It will fit on the dashboard of most cars. It will probably be difficult to fit on sport cars or very small cars. Cars with deep seats could be a problem because the nav screen may obscure the field of vision. For average cars, it will work just fine.

Satellite lock-on is swift. Navigation is stellar. Routing is brutal. Recalculation is rip The street name Pronunciation borders on magnificent. It did mis-pronounce some street names but when I think about it, I also mispronounced these same names until someone taught me the true Pronunciation.

The level of detail is also excellent but you have to zoom in to see ATM's dining places etc. That's acceptable. The map image itself is very clean, intuitive, and well-thought out implementation that's easy to gather information from. It looks and feels more sophisticated than the clarion n.i.c.e. The map interface is also very customizable as well - something the clarion lacks.

The 7200 does not provide an estimate of the street number as you drive the street like the street pilot III. For historic reasons, I think it should have been continued.

The mp3 player plays only mp3. Sad. For the price, this thing should be supporting all major file formats. The FM transmitter is lousy for listening to music. I bought a cheap cassette adapter but the sound was less than stellar. The FM transmitter does an excellent job for transmitting navigation and audio books. Clarion supports more formats and does a lot more (display pictures etc).

Screen navigation is much more friendly and consistent than on the clarion IMO. The touch screen is more sensitive to the fingernail than the finger itself. Clarion's sensitivity is better. It didn't bug me enough to force me to re-adjust the screen sensitivity. That is an option also. The 7200 does not have a lot of other features built in besides the navigation engine. Is that good? Dunno. It's different. For example, on my clarion, I can view a slide show of pictures (works well to distract the kid in the back and keep him from tearing up the seats). It's nifty, but I don't know if its needed if you are buying a gps. However, at the MSRP, garmin ought to re-think their convergence approach (single gadgets that can do more and more).

This thing is a thief magnet. Forget it on your dash and I can guarantee that it won't be there when you get back - except if you live in rural texas. It's a head turner and babe magnet. But it is also very functional.

For the price and what's in the box, I'm not rolling over doing cartwheels. Do I like the product? Yes. I love it. It's better than the clarion all things considered. It's probably the SatNav to beat out there. It's also a genuine upgrade. Most things are done better and more efficiently than previous garmin products. It's also a garmin, so you get quality and level of detail that comes with the brand name.

Would I recommend it? Depends. If you've got 2 grand (which is what the true price is if you care to add decent upgrades like subscriptions for services and antennae hardware) then go buy it. You won't be disappointed. And you will have bragging rights for a while. If you are on a budget you'd probably be just as happy with something cheaper.

If the choice is between the 2720/30 and 7200, bigger is better. And the price of these high end products starts to look the same if you have one eye shut.

I got mine at tvnav.com for $1109 landed. There's a 10 bucks shipping charge that took two business days to be delivered. There's also a 10% restocking fee. http://www.resellerratings.com/ offered to match the price with free shipping, however I chose tvnav because it was recommended in here and it is an authorized garmin dealer.