The choice in PND land has become a bit wider again: inVion, a new brand in consumer electronics, makes its entry with five new devices. The most important newcomer: the inVion GPS-7v101 which features an enormous 7 inch screen!Bigger is better?
Looking at our most recent poll on yourNAV concerning the wanted size of PND screens, we see that a lot of users really dig those new, big screens. Almost 20% of the voters want or have a 5 inch screen, and more than 33% even look longingly beyond that size. For those users, inVion is a new option.The inVion PND's are developed in collaboration with CosmicNavigation, a Dutch company. We visited this company a while ago, and got the chance to play with their new GPS-7v101 a bit. And we can assure you: a 7 inch screen is really huge! The screen diagonal is almost 18 centimetres, so keeping this PND inside your pocket will be wishful thinking. On the other hand: the display of the maps on this screen is absolutely gorgeous!
Complete series
The new inVion series consists out of five PND's, which all feature a 400Mhz CPU, a SiRF Star III chipset, and are all capable of playing both MP3 as well as MP4 files. They ship with a car and home charger standard in the box, together with a car mount, a carrying bag and a USB cable. The five models differ from each other mainly in screen size and shipped maps.The entry level model, the GPS-3v101, features a 3.5 inch screen, regional maps and the major roads of Europe by NAVTEQ. The high-end models are the GPS-5v101(5 inch screen) and the already mentioned GPS-7v101. These two models are shipped with the maps of both Western and Eastern Europe, handsfree phoning via Bluetooth and traffic info through TMC/RDS.
SupportPlus
The new brand is a part of SupportPlus, which has been active on the consumer market since 1999, and relatively succesful at selling MP3 players. Stanislas Briaud, Managing Director of SupportPlus France claims: "Especially the very interesting pricing of the new inVion series should give us a lead compared to competing brands' products with equal functionality. As with our MP3 players, we would like to make on-board navigation accessible to all consumers, without having to make compromises on technical specifications".Here's an overview of the different versions and their recommended retail prices:
- GPS-3v101 (3.5 inch, regional maps and major roads of Europe): ¤ 249 / £ 169
- GPS-4v101 (4 inch, with buttons, regional maps and major roads of Europe): ¤ 279 / £ 189
- GPS-4v201 (4 inch, with buttons, regional maps and major roads of Europe): ¤ 279 / £ 189
- GPS-5v101 (5 inch, detailed maps of Western and Eastern Europe): ¤ 449 / £ 299
- GPS-7v101 (7 inch, detailed maps of Western and Eastern Europe): ¤ 499 / £ 339
