GeoSat2 Review
GeoSat2 is a relatively new product from AvMap in Italy. They have designed a large LCD screen of 5.6" into a thin case which can be suctioned to the windscreen of any vehicle.

There are other removable in-car satellite navigation systems available, but none that have a bright vibrant screen of this size.

As soon as you take it out of the box and compare it to other satellite navigation products you'll find that the other product screens are much smaller compared to the GeoSat2 and this is what makes the GeoSat2 a great product.

In The Box

  • GeoSat2 5.6" LCD screen
  • Car Charger Lead
  • GPS Mouse to connect to LCD Screen
  • Suction Cup
  • 256mb Pre-Loaded Compact Flash Card with UK Maps

Hardware Specification

  • The 5.6" LCD screen has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels.
  • Processor (ARM9 200 MHz processor)
  • Storage (Pre-Authorised Compact Flash Card)
  • Dimensions (156 x 110 x 25 mm)

Maps and Points Of Interest
Simply clip the suction mount to the screen, stick the suction cup to the windscreen of your car, and then plug in the supplied GPS Antenna into the GeoSat2 and either place this on the dashboard for optimal view of the sky, or on the roof of your car if you have an Athermic/UV Coated Windscreen. Then plug the cigarette lighter plug in, power on and away you go!

Maps and Points Of Interest
The Supplied Compact Flash card comes pre-installed with the latest TeleAtlas maps of the UK, and CD's supplied in the box allow you to download other areas of Western Europe to the GeoSat2. GeoSat2 supports over 1.5 million Points Of Interest across Europe containing locations like petrol stations, railway stations, post offices, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, parking areas and many others. Countries covered:- Austria, Benelux (Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands) Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

UK Maps take up 107mb of storage card size on the supplied 256mb Compact Flash card, so you should also be able to fit other countries onto the storage card.

  • Great Britain & Northern Ireland 107mb
  • France - 212mb
  • Germany - 192mb
  • Benelux - 65mb
  • Italy - 168mb
  • Portugal and Spain - 81mb
  • Norway and Sweden - 129mb
  • Switzerland and Austria - 51mb

Using GeoSat2
Entering an address for GeoSat2 is very easy, all you have to do is enter the town and road name (no postcode) and then navigate to the destination. GeoSat2 has an on-screen virtual keyboard that you can type the letters of an address by using the cursor pad and select button on the right hand side of the screen.

  

Once you have a satellite fix you can be on your way and you will receive turn-by-turn voice instructions in driver mode and you will see a visual representation of where you are on the map and a highlighted route. If you drive off course, GeoSat2 will re-plot a new course for you.

  

Screens
GeoSat2 has several screens from the main mapping screen where you can pan across the map with, it also has the drive screen which shows you on-screen and the route that is planned, and also an instruction screen which gives you turn-by-turn instructions.

  

  

Transferring Data
A USB data cable is supplied enabling you to transfer map data to the GeoSat2 or you can use a Compact Flash Card Reader.

Experiencing Problems ?
If you are experiencing problems or lock-ups with the GeoSat2 please download the latest firmware version, earlier models with an early firmware version did experience a problem and this has been rectified in later models with a firmware upgrade.

The firmware upgrade is available from www.geosat2.com.