Routeplanners: SatNav & GPS News

The X-930 is Via Michelin’s first step into the US market, and they entered over the holidays with a pretty good price online. The value end of the market is getting pretty full of brands you know and a whole bunch of brands you don’t. This unit comes from Via Michelin, yes the tyre company, that is also very much into travel help and travel guides. This philosophy of helping travelers is what’s behind the launch of GPS systems for Via Michelin.

The X-930 is small, and light: flat form factor and only 4.7 ounces, measuring only 4.8″L x 2.8″W x 0.7″D. The unit may be low priced, but it still comes equipped with the SiRF star III chipset, and a 3.5 inch touchscreen. This screen is a widescreen format, so its actual real estate is slightly different that other 3.5″ touchscreens that are in the regular format ratio. The unit has spoken turn cues (not text to speech found in higher end models), and an on board li-ion battery that is not user replaceable. It comes with maps of the continental US pre-loaded on a 1GB SD card that needs to stay in the unit. Via Michelin chose NAVTEQ maps which will make for a better experience as you can avoid the TeleAtlas upgrading that is going on for other units using TeleAtlas (Aside: The TeleAtlas map situation is in the middle of being resolved as they are rolling out much improved maps as we speak, and I believe that their map quality will be comparable to NAVTEQ in the near future.) The unit doesn’t have an MP3 player, but that is not a big concern of mine, as these players are often a nice addition but not always a great listening experience.

The Via Michelin X-930 comes with:

• The Via Michelin X-930 GPS
  Car mounting suction cup and adhesive disk to mount on dash
  Stylus
  Via Michelin DVD ROM - Includes Canadian Maps according to Via Michelin
  website.
  12V power adapter
  Mini-USB cable
  Wall charger
  Quick Start Guide