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ViaMichelin’s X-930 runs the Navigation 3 software and the installed map data includes tourist information from Michelin’s Green Guide, which is likely to be more useful to families than to professional drivers. The X-930 is Via Michelin’s first step into the US market. The Navigator has plenty going for it.

The ViaMichelin Navigation X-930 is very small and handy. Measuring just 12.cm wide by 7.1cm deep by 1.9cm high and weighing 134g, it’s easy to pocket or secrete within your vehicle when it’s not being used. The antenna for the SiRFStar III GPS receiver is integrated into the device, so there’s no flip-out section. This screen is a widescreen format, so its actual real estate is slightly different that other 3.5″ touch screens 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 lithium-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.

The Navigator X-930 comes with a rather chunky sucker-style windscreen mount, and you can easily use this device in three planes to find the optimum viewing angle. You can configure three information areas at the very top of the screen to show any mix of distance remaining, time remaining, arrival time, current time, speed and direction.

Mapping data is supplied on an SD card, and if you have several sets of maps for different areas you can swap these as required. A hold button disables screen taps, and there’s a headphone socket, so you could use the ViaMichelin GPS System while on foot. It is designed to be used with its 3.5in. 320-by-240 pixel touch-screen in landscape format. The display occupies most of the front of the device, but there’s room on either side for some control buttons.

One of the best features of the ViaMichelin Navigation X-930 is its ability to quickly re-route you around problems that you can see on the road ahead. During a trip, you tap the screen once to get to a set of menu options, and then hit an icon labelled ‘Bypass’. Tapping again allows you to specify the distance of the route ahead to bypass: this can vary between 100 yards and 30 miles.

Overall, this is a reasonable package, with extensive POI information that may appeal to leisure travellers, the large trappable icons and hardware buttons for accessing route planning and system settings were well implemented, but the postcode entry problem is a basic error.

Read More ViaMichelin, Navman, Tom Tom Sat Nav Reviews at SatelliteNavigation.org.uk website.

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