Review: Navman iCN 330 Refurbished

Verdict: Basic unit for the budget conscious — it does what it’s supposed to with no frills. Decent build quality; feels sturdy.

My predecessor Jill mentioned the iCN 330 on its release, but it doesn’t seem as though she got her mitts on one to review. I, on the other hand, have managed to score a refurbished unit from our warehouse.

As your typical average user, I reckon I’m perfectly-suited to review this unit.

My first impression? Good build quality. It feels fairly sturdy, and its non-slip casing means even a total klutz like me is highly unlikely to drop it (much to the relief of the warehouse department, I’m sure). The antenna flips up, which could be a weak point, but once the windshield mount is clipped to the unit, it’s protected pretty well. The screen’s fairly small, but I’m not planning on spending all my time staring at the screen, so I would say it’s big enough for anyone.

It’s a plug and play unit, so all you have to do is insert the supplied SD card and hit the power button. If it’s for the first time, it runs through a setup, and asks you to promise to use the unit safely. That’s a fairly standard software feature.

You can navigate by address (street, town or postcode) or Point Of Interest. This is firmly a budget unit, so unless your definition of Point Of Interest is confined to transportation-related destinations (petrol stations, ferries, airports), you’ll need to know your destination’s proper address for decent navigation.

I’ve spent most of my driving existence not using sat-nav, so the fact that the iCN 330 uses slightly older maps doesn’t bother me. In my opinion, if you depend utterly on your sat-nav and do not pay attention to what is actually in front of you, you shouldn’t be driving, anyway.

Once on, it’s useful to note that the integrated speaker’s maximum volume is incredibly loud, so those whose vehicles throw up a lot of road noise would definitely be able to hear the audio instructions. When the route I took contradicted the iCN 330’s recommendation, it re-calculated quickly. The buttons were responsive and I thought the graphics were clear. The audio instructions were also delivered in plenty of time (but not excessively so). It did lose the signal when I went into a tunnel and got a bit confused when I emerged, but it recovered and carried on like the workhorse it appears to be.

(The geek in me appreciated the adjustable viewing angles, heading and estimated time of arrival information.)

On the whole, I would say that the iCN 330 does what it says on the box. It’s no frills — it doesn’t sing and dance, make you tea, play MP3s or have a touchscreen that’s so popular with sat-navs these days. It takes the address you give and delivers a route to get you there.

The refurbished Navman iCN 330 is available now.