An in-dash (Global Positioning System) GPS-based navigation system is one of the most popular options available on new cars today. If you're not in the market for a new car though (or don't want to rip holes in your old one), you may have considered purchasing one of the various GPS devices that can sit on—rather than in—your car's dashboard. With the Navman PiN, a PDA with GPS capability, there is now yet another option available.

From all outward appearances, the $499 PiN (Personal Interactive Navigator) looks very similar to many other handhelds. However, with its built-in patch antenna and included navigation software, this particular PDA can act as a fully functional GPS navigation system that can be used in a vehicle or on foot.

The NavMan PiN looks identical to another GPS-capable Pocket PC, the Mitac Mio Digiwalker. And though Navman does OEM the hardware, the two devices use different GPS applications.

As a PDA, the PiN's features and capabilities are fairly standard for a Pocket PC. The device uses a 300MHz Intel PXA255 XScale CPU with 64MB of RAM and 32MB of ROM. The display is the usual 3.5-inch TFT type capable of 240 x 320 resolution and 65,536 colors.

Aside from the familiar application buttons and D-pad the only other exterior buttons are for power and voice memo, located on the upper left side of the unit. The PiN's metal stylus can collapse down to about the size of a bowling pencil, which may be more comfortable to hold for some.


Front & Side View

Expansion for the PiN comes in the form of an Secure Digital slot that is SDIO capable for peripheral and memory. The PiN's 1350mAh battery is rated for 12 hours of usage (without using the GPS function) or 21 days on standby, but alas is not removable. There's no cradle included, so charging and syncing is done via cable.

The PiN comes with Windows Mobile 2003 and its associated suite of productivity applications like Microsoft Pocket Word, Excel, and Outlook. What really sets the PiN apart is the Navman SmartST navigation software.

GPS Features
The SmartST application is included both on a CD and a on a 32MB SD card that ships with the Navman (the latter of which can come in handy in the event the application needs to be re-installed on the road). As for the actual maps, they come on three additional CDs that you can load into the PiN from a PC via ActiveSync.

Given that the maps for single states can range from several megabytes to dozens or scores of megabytes (the southern half of Florida alone, for example, is 33 MB), you can't fit much of a geographic area into the PiN's internal memory or included SD card. (You can divert some system memory to storage, but that won't get you very far). As a result, one or more additional high-capacity SD cards are highly recommended to hold mapping data. PiN supports up to 512MB SD cards.

To facilitate use in an automobile, the Navman ships with a cigarette lighter power adapter and a suction-mounted windshield bracket. We commend Navman for not requiring purchasers to shell out separately for these critical accessories, but given that the utility of the PiN is severely hamstrung without copious storage, the company should have included a larger SD card as well. Navman says it's working on future retail bundles that will include a larger storage card.

The basic operation of the PiN navigation system will be familiar to anyone who has used a car-based system. When plotting a destination SmartST can select routes designed to minimize either time or distance and avoid congested urban errors or toll roads.

The PiN display switches from 2D to 3D when being guided to a destination and it provides supplementary information like vehicle speed and distance to next turn. In the event of a missed turn, the system will quickly re-calculate the route within several seconds.


3D Colour Map View

Also, clear voice prompts provide turn-by-turn direction. Though the computer's utterance of the phrase "Make a legal U-turn" sounds like an admonition to "Make ILLEGAL U-turn."

The PiN did steer me wrong on a couple of local trips around town—for example, recommending turns on local access or dead-end streets—and on at least one occasion plotted a needlessly circuitous route. I've never used a GPS system (or indeed, any piece of technology) that was infallible, and the GPS system worked reasonably well overall.


Set to Avoid Areas

The SmartST software conveniently leverages one common function of the PDA, its address book. So it can automatically plot the route to addresses you select from your Pocket Outlook Contacts list.


Navigate Using Pocket Outlook Contacts

It could go a little further though, as it would be nice if you could also use the PC software to type destinations and then download them into the device. This would be enormously convenient to those who make multiple pre-known stops over the course of a day.

As it stands, you can currently only enter addresses by pecking away at the on-screen keyboard, and entering a half-dozen devices this way each morning would not be fun to do. A future revision of the SmartST software is supposed to address this limitation.

There's no question that the PiN provides functionality equivalent to any built-in or add-on automotive GPS system. Because the PiN isn't a dedicated GPS device, there are some other issues—other than the aforementioned storage needs—that need to be taken into account when using it.


Display Route Summary Details

Primary among them is that the SmartST application can't launch (for lack of available memory) if more than a couple of other applications are also running on the PiN. Therefore, it's recommended that other applications be closed before launching SmartST. Also, even if SmartST is the only application running, it's still running atop the Windows Mobile OS, and so may not respond with the same alacrity as a dedicated GPS device.

Also, since SmartST requires working memory to equal about 10 percent the size of the maps (i.e. 100 MB of Maps means SmartST needs 10 MB of system memory to run), you could conceivably run into a situation—at around 400 MB of maps—where the program may not have enough available memory to run. Of course, 400 MB of maps covers a considerable portion of the US, but if you travel extensively to different parts of the country, you may have to sometimes unload unnecessary maps to keep the memory footprint low.

So is the Navman PiN a viable alternative to a dedicated in-car GPS navigation system? In many cases the answer will likely be yes—especially if you're also in the market for a PDA, and perhaps even if you're not.

The Navman's price tag is comparable and often less than many car-based navigation devices, and its usefulness as a fully-functional PDA is a powerful selling point. Finally, although the GPS system isn't without some potential pitfalls, it does the important stuff well enough to justify them.