Clarion N.I.C.E-- Navigation in-car Entertainment System
Clarion N.I.C.E. not so much...
I did extensive research on GPS units that offered various abilities... it seems the market is driven by unique needs... <br /> <br />I chose this unit for its robust MPS storage and GPS data storage...It does suit the requirements... <br /> <br />what makes this suffer is what it lacks, that even botton bollar units include.  <br />These shortcomings start with the most important, Readability.  Even cheap Garmin units have good screen dimming functions.  In short, the 3 brightness settings offered on this allow you to go from still too bright to see at night, to still too dim to see during the day... never gets there. <br /> <br />The next big shortcoming is the lack of features on GPS side.  Does not have a speedometer, or altimeter... although these formulas should be in the software somewhere, Clarion chose not to accent the unit with these.  Then you have a very big glitch in programming where everytime you switch functions from GPS to any other... it wont just switch back...Instead it restarts the GPS navigation again (takes awhile, and restarts any routing).  This makes it extremely difficult to play with the music screen and switch back and forth between choosing songs and using navigation.  It does contain a narrow bar that controls the music on the GPS screen, but that bar only allows skip forward and skip backward... when you have over 500 songs on the unit, it becomes laborously difficult. <br />Now for the strong points... <br />Onboard FM modulator is pretty good and conveniant... didn't get much static at all. <br />Optional backup cam is cool but requires additional wiring. <br />GPS layout and view angle choices are cool <br />Seems to have endless POI's <br />Route guidance is great. <br />Holds lots of music with nice GUI. <br />Allows external video to be played on it (DVD,Videocamera, ect) <br />it is fairly well priced if you dont want an inclusive DVD player. <br />In retrospect, I chose this unit against a comparable priced Sanyo GPS DVD mp3player that had a terrible mount system, and against a premium Eclipse in dash unit that was a little more money. <br />I wish I would have gone for the Eclipse... at least i could have used it at night. <br />For GPS alone... Garmin units work great, and include many features, but not many onboard POI's  <br />In closing... this unit would be near perfect if it could dim more, and brighten more. I wouldn't suggest buying it until they improve the display.  On an average 24hr roadtrip, you could only see the screen about 8-12hrs... voice only commands from then on.