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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
 Posted - 30 nov. 2007 : 20:14:26
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REVIEWED - VIAMICHELIN X-970
SiRFstarIII - Michelin POIs - Motorway Mode
X970T Product Page on the ViaMichelin Website
1. INTRODUCTION - PROS AND CONS
It is always nice to see a new entrant into the market. While ViaMichelin has been in Europe for a while, they are now trying to make an entry into the US. It's a pleasure to see something new and different, instead of just feature creep on the old standards. This review has been long delayed, for which I apologize, due to personal reasons, but here we go. I'll start with the pros and cons:
Pros:
- excellent mount
- excellent routing
- extremely easy to follow routing display
- lane change feature works wonderfully
- very good text to speech (but see below)
- attractive industrial design
- Michelin points of interest
Cons:
- text to speech needs localization for the US
- counter-intuitive menu structure that is very hard to learn
- slightly less sensitive than competing units
- website not customized for the US and so is confusing
- microphone for hands free calling doesn't work too well
Overall: The ViaMichelin has become my favorite unit despite the cons mentioned above. I'll go into the reasons for this below.
2. THE UNIT
The unit has a 3.5" screen set into a black body, which is higlighted by a silver stripe. It mounts easily to an unusual mount, which is, to my mind, an attractive piece of industrial design. The unit slips into the mount and any external connections, such as power or a traffic receiver, are made to the mount, not the unit. This makes it very easy to remove the unit and take it with you, as you don't have to fool with wires and plugs.
Here's a side view.
The mount is extremely sturdy and in our recent cold snap it was the only one that did not fall off the windshield of my car.
The ViaMichelin comes with maps of the US and Canada, on a 2GB SD card, has hands free calling with Bluetooth, text to speech to announce street names, real time traffic and 3.6 million points of interest including a selection from the Michelin Green and Red Guides. Of course the usual DVD is included, along with a car charger. What's nice is that they include a wall charger as well. More and more companies are leaving this out. It uses SiRF III and Navteq maps.
The unit is extremely bright and I had no problems viewing it in direct sunlight or with polarized sunglasses. In my testing the unit paired easily with my iPhone and the loud speaker handled incoming calls well. However, the micropone, for outgoing calls, did not pick up my voice very well and people had trouble hearing me.
Traffic is not enabled yet, but a receiver should be available next year. Michelin PR, here in the States, tells me that the receiver will be a one-time purchase, with no subscription fee. The unit can be updated from the ViaMichelin site, but the site is mainly aimed at Europe, and I find it quite confusing. Again, Michelin PR tells me that a US oriented site is being designed and will be up and running next year. Updates to the included points of interest can be downloaded from the site. There are new Green and Red Guide points of interest for New York and San Francisco now available on the Michelin site.
3. THE SOFTWARE
The ViaMichelin software contains some interesting features that set it apart from most of the units out there. First, the display is different.
The guidance display is broken into two screens:
The left side of the screen gives you a graphic view of your next turn. As you approach the turn the yellow balls turn grey to show you where you are in relation to the turn. The right side of the screen gives you a 3D view of the road and the turn itself. This is one of the reasons that the ViaMichelin has become such a favorite of mine. When I first saw this veiw I found it rather annoying, but the more I used it the more I found how easy it was to follow. For me, in a complicated intersection this display is the easiest to follow I've ever used.
If you tap the display this alternate display will come up:
This gives you just a graphic of the next turn plus details of your trip on the right.
Now here comes a very clever bit, which is one of the things that makes me like the unit so much: when there is a long distance between turns, 15 miles or so, the unit drops out of the 3D mode and goes into a motorway mode. This displays a 2D map, with the route marked, but you can zoom it in or out to see the surrounding countryside, towns, etc. This is much more useful than just seeing a 3D route line extend into the far distance, as all the other units display.
Here's a picture of the 2D view:
Now, that's just got to be Mapopolis! The street names even slide around, just the way that Mapopolis used to do. It makes sense that ViaMichelin is using a US software provider, because the way European and US maps are designed is different, and a European map rendering engine will not work well in the States, and vice versa . When Mapopolis exited the consumer market they said that they had an OEM deal, and I bet this was it. I haven't been able to confirm that this is Mapopolis, however, so it's just my speculation.(ED - It isn't, the software was originally developed by SWI a small French firm that ViaMichelin bought in July 2003)
Maybe that is why the routing is so good on the ViaMichelin. I get the best routing of any unit I've used so far. In areas that I know well I find that the ViaMichelin consistently gives me the routing that I would take myself. The unit has shortest, quickest ViaMichelin recommended, pedestrian, bicycle and toll avoidance routing. The ViaMichelin routing is supposed to be some sort of routing that is designed, as the manual says "to favour comfort and safety while offering a good compromise between time and distance". To be honest I have no idea that this means and it produces some very odd routes. I can't figure out what it is supposed to do.
Text to Speech - the good and the bad
The unit has an excellent text to speech engine that is marred by problems with localization. On the good side it pronounces even difficult road names very well. On the bad side, it clearly wasn't programmed in the US and it says the following: the letters n s e and w instead of east, north, etc.; it says the word "us" instead of U S in road names; the funniest one is that it says "ave" as in "ave Maria" instead of avenue! There are all sorts of other oddball pronunciations like this. Localization is a very difficult thing to do. Michelin PR says that this is a recognized problem and will be corrected in later versions, with a patch available for download sometime soon for current users.
Here are some shots of the unit in the night view:
Lane changes
The roads here in the New York, New Jersey area are very complex, so this is an excellent place for testing this. The ViaMichelin is the first unit I've seen that will tell you what lane you should be in before a turn. It will give you plenty of warning and tell you to be in the left, middle or right lanes. In the testing I've done it works perfectly - always placing me in the correct lane so I can be ready for a merge or a turn. It is a great convenience, and I hope that more and more units will adopt this in the future.
Points of Interest
This, is course, is what the ViaMichelin specializes in and it uses the Michelin Green Guide tourist points. The unit includes 3.6 million points of interest, including the Michelin ones just mentioned. Unfortunately they are arranged in a confusing manner as the categories seem to overlap. For example, we have Food Businesses, Food Service Industry, Megabusinesses, Neghborhood Businesses and Services, Specialty Businesses. It is not apparent what businesses belong in each category.
However the Michelin Green Guide selections are clearly marked, as you can see here:
If you look at these entries you will see that they contain far more information that is available in other PNDs. They could be a real asset if you are using your unit while on vacation. For example, here are two of the four pages of information on Trinity Church in New York City:
By the way, in entering points of interest or destinations the ViaMichelin has a really fast type ahead scheme which makes entering addresses or names really easy:
Miscellaneous
The unit keeps an history of the last 15 places you have used as destinations and allows you to use GPS coordinates as a destination - which not every PND will do:
Also, under the My ViaMichelin category it will allow you to make a listing of your favorite locations and points of interest:
Overall conclusion
The ViaMichelin is a frustrating unit in that it does some things so well and others so poorly. Despite this it has become my current favorite unit because of two things. First, its excellent navigation. I have no doubt that it has plotted some of the "best" routes that I've seen on any PND. Second, I find that the navigation display is, for me, the easiest to follow of any other unit I've seen. The combination of a map and a schematic on the same page works extremely well. As to the poorly side, I think it could be much improved by a proper US localization and a re-do of the arcane menu structure and points of interest descriptions. The Green Guide inclusions could be a real advantage to someone who wants real "tour book" information with them on a regular basis.
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Don't forget the GPSPassion Club! |
Edited by - paulkbiba on 12 déc. 2007 21:39:44
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talez
209 Posts |
Posted - 01 déc. 2007 : 08:10:25
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| Thank you very much for a nice review! I find the last picture very confusing. The left side shows I need to make a right turn, while the right side shows a left turn. |
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ubiquityman
USA
101 Posts |
Posted - 02 déc. 2007 : 20:49:03
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| Perhaps the left side shows a left turn. If the vehicle is currently at the yellow dot in the picture and moving up and to the left a bit, then it matches the picture on the right. |
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corgi1
USA
67 Posts |
Posted - 03 déc. 2007 : 16:52:53
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| How does the lane position information for a turn work? Is there anything displayed on screen to indicate which lane you should be in? Or is it just announced by voice? Does the unit allow you to input multiple via points? |
Magellan RoadMate 1470, previous: nuvi 680, Streetpilot C330 |
Edited by - corgi1 on 03 déc. 2007 16:54:54 |
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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
Posted - 04 déc. 2007 : 07:05:41
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| It's just announced by voice, which is good because there is no good way of showing this info on a screen this size. Yes, you can set via points, but I don't know how many. |
Don't forget the GPSPassion Club! |
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TQuila
USA
18 Posts |
Posted - 25 déc. 2007 : 20:31:43
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Thanks for the great review. Now all I want to know is "When will this unit be Trans-Atlantic?" as promised. Last spring during a PC to ViaMichelin, Customer Service confided that Trans-Atlantic functionality would come with a new device (now known as the X970) to be released in late October.
Did they share any related info with you? |
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paulkbiba
USA
5064 Posts |
Posted - 26 déc. 2007 : 06:17:23
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| Sorry, they didn't, and I have no information on this. Thanks for the nice words. |
Don't forget the GPSPassion Club! |
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manishjain13
2 Posts |
Posted - 14 août 2008 : 16:44:40
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| It was a very useful review and I went and bought the X970 in Canada. The problem is the company has stopped making the units and I am wondering if you have any idea where I can get the updates for my GPS. |
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manishjain13
2 Posts |
Posted - 15 août 2008 : 16:03:02
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I read your review on gpspassion for viamichelin X970 and it was a very comprehensive review. I went and bought the unit in Canada. Later I came to know that the company is not producing any new units and will not be providing updates. I was just wondering if you have any idea where we can get the updates for this unit for North America.
I would appreciate any help. |
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[Review] ViaMichelin X-970 for the US
