Honesty first: when we heard last September that the Dutch company Route 66 would soon be entering the Portable Navigational Market, we were very excited. Route 66 has been active in the navigational world since 1992, and has since then sold excellent navigational software. Hardware created by this company could turn out to be a very valuable addition, we reckon. When the first photos of the range were released, our expectations seemed to be confirmed, and our general thought was: "Let's test them!".Four versions
By the end of November, two months after the announcement, the first Chicago models started to appear in the shops. Four models are available, and they only differ from each other with regards to the size of the map, and the inclusion (or not) of traffic info via RDS/RMC. The Chicago 6000 (¤ 299 / £ 199) and 7000 (¤ 349 / £ 235) are shipped with a detailed country or regional map, plus the major roads of Europe. The Chicago 8000 (¤ 399 / £ 269) and 9000 (¤ 449 / £ 299)on the other hand, are shipped with a 2 GB SD card with a detailed map of Europe. (including Ireland and large parts of Eastern Europe). Only the 7000 and 9000 are shipped with an RDS/TMC receiver. For the 6000 and 8000, this feature is an option, and can be purchased separately.
Review sample
Since we were very curious about Chicago, we requested one for review quite some time ago. We were pretty disappointed when they told us that review samples would not be available until the New Year. So we had to think of an alternative solution. and we knew one of the forum members of jouwnav.nl, our Dutch affiliate site, had already purchased a Chicago 9000. You've probably guessed it by now: we asked this user, called Peter Heymans, if he would be willing to write a review for us. Fortunately this was no problem for him. The report below is written by him. Well, we translated it. In the text you'll also see a few paragraphs in orange. These are comments written by us.OK, enough with the intro. Here's Peter:
Choice
After having used TomTom Navigator 2, 3 and 5 for years, my trusty PDA suddenly gave up the ghost a while ago. So I needed to look out for an alternative. But what? Another PDA with TomTom software, of go the extra mile and buy a dedicated Navigational solution? Since I use my PDA for little else than navigating, this was an easy choice. Let's get a personal Navigational Device!In this very crowded PND market, it's become hard to make a choice though. Should I go for the obvious choice and pick a product by market leader TomTom? I got to test a GO 710, but I quickly found out that this wasn't the device for me: a fix sometimes took more that 20 minutes! OK, so this was fixed after the device was sent back for service to TomTom, and the new 6.52 firmware was a whole lot better, but I still had a problem with the sheer size of the device. Also, there are no alternative mounts available for this unit - the GO mount is the only one available. A true shame, because I absolutely loved my Brodit mount with HR Richter. So, "No TomTom for me, thank you very much!"
Click to enlarge...
Contents of Chicago box
Via the newsposts on JouwNAV.nl, I was pointed towards the Route 66 Chicago, and I immediately liked this device and it's features. I liked them so much, that I bought one! So here before me on my desk, there's a brand new box containing a Chicago 9000. Let the unpacking begin!
In the box
In the big, nicely shaped box, besides the 9000 itself, there is the car mount (more on that later on) and a round plastic disc for attaching to the dashboard. Also present is a car charger, which, it's important to note, has a rather big (11 cm long) plug. In my case, this plug might end up getting in the way of the gear lever! I also see a (mini) USB cable, the standard TMC antenna, a set of earphones and a fabric carrying bag. The program and the maps are shipped on a 2GB SD card, of which 1.82 GB are used.Finally, there are two CD's: one with the manual for the built-in MP3 player, one with the manual for the device itself, and a full backup of the installed software and maps. One big problem is that the manual seems to be written for Navigator 7, the PDA version of Route 66's software. Because of this, now and then certain icons are mentioned which don't exist on the Chicago! Although the 9000 is very user friendly and simple to use, I still think this is annoying and above all very sloppy. Luckily there are correct manuals to be found on Route 66's website.
Charging the Chicago at home is done via the USB port, by connecting the device to the computer. It's a real shame that Route 66 didn't include a home charger, because this isn't a very fast way of charging. Other brands do include one, even with their models that are cheaper than Chicago.
Fix
After a few hours of charging Chicago from my PC, I thought the time had come to turn the unit on for the first time. Wow! I was very surprised to see that in a fraction of a second, I already had a satellite fix! So it IS possible! I do have to admit that, while using the device later on, I have had to wait for a fix a couple of times,
but this was nothing like as bad as I had experienced with other devices. I found the most amazing thing was that even indoors, with the blinds shut, the device still kept it's fix! A big plus for Chicago!The device
Now, let's have a closer look at the device itself. To each his own of course, but I think Chicago looks very neat and solid. The dimensions are reasonably compact ( 132 x 91 x 24 mm), with an acceptable total weight of 210 grams. Don't forget this unit features a 4.3 inch touch screen with an effective screen size of 95 x 55 mm!yourNAV: When we visited Route 66's main offices some time ago, we also got the chance to play with Chicago. We believe the screen is identical to the screen used with the Garmin nüvi 660. Our first impressions were also very positive!
When looking at my 9000 from all angles, I see on the right-hand side the on/off switch (1), the menu switch (2) and the integrated stylus (3) for use with the touch screen. On top, there's the SD card slot (4). On the back, there's a connection for the optional external antenna (5) and the speaker (6). And finally, on the bottom, there's a reset switch (7), the combined TMC antenna/headphones connector (8) and a mini-USB connector (9) for charging and connecting the unit to a PC.
Software
Once switched on, the screen displays the full name of the next street, and + and - signs for zooming at the top. On the bottom there's an extensive information bar with, to the left, the next manoeuvre and the distance to it. In the middle there is the estimated time of arrival and the remaining time and distance to the destination at the current speed. It also displays the street you're currently driving in, the battery level and the strength of the GPS signal.This information bar can also be displayed to the right of the map, but I found that less appealing.
yourNAV: to each his own of course, but we found the ability to move the information bar to the right of the map one of the major plusses of the Route 66 software. In most cases, navigating benefits more from vertical information. And on a PND with a screen this wide, you'll hardly miss the horizontal image that gets lost by putting the bar to the right. See the ( 4.3) examples to the left?People who are used to TomTom, Garmin or Mio have a tendency to stay loyal to these brands and, because of this, newcomers to the market need to have one hell of a product. Are you the type of person who is completely tied to a certain brand? Then Chicago will take some getting used to. My first impression was neither negative nor positive: I didn't know what to think. It operates a bit differently, the screen colours are different but, on the other hand, the way the POI's are displayed is really cool.
The thing which certainly won't help the Chicago to get accepted, is the quality of the voices. I found those rather irritating at first. But after some getting used to, I have to admit that things aren't that bad, just different. The voice problem is a known issue for Route 66 and they are currently busy creating new ones. The voices are also not very loud and they don't adapt to your speed.
yourNAV: We'd like to take this opportunity to claim that we have noticed that TomTom users in particular are really spoiled when it comes to the quality of voices. The European market leader is well ahead of the field here. So far, we haven't heard any other PND with voices that are as good as the TomTom ones. And this goes for the "real" voices as well as the text-to-speech ones. To be honest: we too weren't very impressed with the female voice on Chicago when the unit was demonstrated to us.
The screen display is a bit jerky, but not too bad. One thing that has to be considered though , is the size of the street names on screen. I found these to be rather small. The zoom function is also surprising. When driving off, the roads on the screen become smaller, but they zoom back to their original size as the vehicle slows down. This works pretty well, but takes some getting used to.
Interface
And now? let's enter a route! I expected to see the unit ask for the town/village name, followed by the street name and house number, all with auto-completion. None of this! Route 66 uses it's own system, and asks for all the destination all in one line! Also you don't need to completely fill in the town or street name; Route 66 interprets what has been typed, and shows multiple possibilities, which 'should be' correct.
I must say, I don't think this solution is ideal and I prefer the normal interface. When a 'gambling system' like this is built-in, a phonetic system also should be. The keyboard is in alphabetical layout, and the device clicks annoyingly each time a letter is tapped. What's even worse is that when the letter is tapped at a certain angle, you will hear the confirmation sound, but no letter appears. I really hope Route 66 fix this in a future update.
yourNAV: This new way of inputting data is something that takes getting used to. We found this fuzzy-logic method very impressive, and a great help when you don't know the exact spelling of the destination address. And, just to highlight how personal some impressions can be: we found that confirming audio click very nice! What we didn't like was that there was no way of changing the keyboard layout to QWERTY or AZERTY! How big an effort can this be to implement? We really think it's incredible that there are still manufacturers out there who don't let the customers decide for themselves which interface they would like to use.
My Chicago 9000 runs Route 66 Navigate 7 software (version 7.0.2827) and is shipped with the NAVTEQ map of Europe dated Q2/2006. This map includes Ireland and large parts of Eastern Europe. The route calculation is very fast. A short route is calculated instantly. A larger route, for example our standard benchmark route to San Marco Square in Rome, is calculated in 45 seconds. Very good! And yes, it is possible to set waypoints!
On the road
My first experiences with Chicago are positive: the device does an excellent job on the road. Also when, just to pester the device, I entered a house number which I had just passed. The 9000 took me nicely around the block, and didn't nag me with any 'turn around' comments, like some other PND's do. All the instructions are very good, and the position of the vehicle on the screen is always accurate.
What I found extremely helpful are the arrows which appear on the screen while driving on a road with multiple lanes, and where two are used for an exit. In this case, a sign is shown which displays the lanes, and the one to follow is coloured green. At each exit, the exit number and road sign are shown on the screen. Very nice!
Mount
Now, about the windshield mount. It seems a bit outdated, with an all sprocket system. But on the other hand, when it's attached, the unit doesn't budge, not even when driving on bad roads. The mount can also be moved horizontally, so it's very easy to align and maintain a stable viewing position. The unit is simply clicked onto the mount. Should you want to attach the mount to your dashboard instead of to your windshield: the small adhesive plastic disc is provided by Route 66 for that purpose.TMC
The Chicago 9000 (same as the 7000), is shipped with a TMC antenna for traffic information. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to test this feature extensively, so I'll limit myself to making a few remarks. It's not possible to 'lock' the PND to a pre-determined RDS/TMC station, which means that the unit frequently hops between available frequencies. Also, sometimes, a station is found, but no TMC data is broadcast. Another strange thing: from time to time, my 9000 tells me that my route has been updated, but the plotted route is identical to the one before.It also looks like the received info is saved, but sometimes for too long. One evening I got notified of the TMC data for 10:30 am that day! (even though a more recent TMC signal had already been found). I managed to solve this by disabling and re-enabling TMC again, but I don't think this is really the way it should be.
Flash!
Route 66 ships a whole lot of safety camera positions with Chicago. These positions need to be activated in the POI listing first though. The distance to a camera before the warning sound is played can be manually set, with a minimum distance of 500 metres.The POI list mentioned previously contains a lot of categories, but not all categories are comprehensive. When I search for 'Court Houses', between Antwerp and my position in Holland, the first one that is found is in the UK! Very strange!
MP3 player
For the MP3 enthusiasts: it is possible to play MP3's in Chicago, but so far I haven't found been able to find out how to play them whilst navigating. By this I mean that, as far as I can see, you have to choose: spoken instructions or music. It goes without saying that I would have liked to see a mix of the two: music by default, which is then interrupted when a spoken instruction needs to be given.The sound quality of the player is not bad, as long as the volume doesn't go above 50%.
