Road Angel Navigator 9000 Review

Intranetics Ltd, the parent company for the Road Angel collection, have really come up with something different on their Navigator 9000. As with many of the range, the speed/safety camera alerts have been given high priority on this system, but what makes it different is the update facilities.

Just like your mobile phone, the Road Angel Navigator 9000 comes with a built in SIM card so you are always connected via GSM/GPRS technology. Movements in speed/safety cameras on mobile vans, up to the minute weather and traffic information are all updated automatically every 2 minutes. In addition you can subscribe to the tracking facility so that family and friends will always know where you are (Big Brother?) and emergency services can find you if needs be.

This is not the smallest GPS on the market at 115 mm high, 75 mm wide and 30 mm thick, and it is rather clunky. The 4 inch high resolution touchscreen is fairly easy to use and clear to read and the processor is fast at 416 MHz.
The chipset is the state of the art SiRF star III GPS receiver.

Road Angel Navigator 9000 provides a much needed upgraded display with a revised intuitive menu layout. The Navigator 7000 was hard to operate unless you really knew what you were doing, but Road Angel have obviously taken heed of customer feedback on this issue.

The internal batteries have a 4 hour life on a full charge and the system includes both a 12V in-car charger and 24V mains charger in the box.

Additional features include Bluetooth connectivity, an MP3 player, picture viewer, plus an MP4 video player as standard. TMC for traffic and weather updates on congestion and accidents are also standard. The unit can also receive SMS text messages from a mobile phone, but beware of losing your concentration on the job in hand, namely driving, just because you can chat - this is still a driving offence in the UK.

The voice output provides turn-by-turn instructions and audible warnings are given when approaching speed cameras as well as accident hotspots and other congestion zones. As with the 7000 model, the speed camera location database is afforded great importance, but the warning signals are a bit irksome with the whistle or buzzing going on for 20 seconds at each camera (and there are lots of them) and there did not seem to be any way to adjust this. It is important to remember, however, that speed limits have been set for the safety of all road users, and having fair warning before you commit an offence can only enhance this safety feature.

As a GPS navigation system this is not one of the cheapest around. Not only is the initial price a bit steep but the monthly fees for camera and weather updates and the subscription for the tracking feature make this an expensive option. The SIM automatic update function, however, is a real bonus, but the MP4 player is just another add on for which a dedicated video player would probably do a better job.