Navigon 8100T December 15th, 2008 | by Nick Mokey
Full Review - Testing and Conclusion
No Media Machine We should note that the 8100T, though it has an SD slot, does not actually play media files as you might expect. For a lot of people, this won’t be an issue, but many competing players offer this (and sometimes even an FM transmitter to broadcast the music to your car radio) built right in. Speaker We harshly criticized the 7200T for its dismal speaker quality that actually got be very abrasive at high volume, but Navigon has gotten its act together on the 8100T, outfitting it with a speaker that actually pushes out some volume without grating eardrums. Even with car noise, it’s very functional. Bluetooth After trying to use no less than three phones with the 7200T and declaring its Bluetooth ability worthless when not a single one, worked, we’re happy to report that the firmware on the 8100T seems to have fixed the issue. The very first phone paired easily and made calls without any of the same issues we experienced the first time around. Unfortunately, call quality was very poor, with parties on the other end reporting severe echoes and sporadic cut-outs during calls, making us think that Navigon still hasn’t invested quite enough time in fine-tuning this capability. Conclusion With the 8100T, Navigon has fixed many of the issues that plagued its’ frustrating old 7200T, making it a quantum leap ahead. We’re still not in love with some aspects of the interface, and routing could be better, but on the whole we think the 8100T more than justified the $150 premium it carries over the lower model. Yes, $599 is a lot for a nav system, but if you’ve decided to go premium, the 8100T should definitely be on your radar for its superior 3D rendering capabilities, free real-time traffic, and exceptionally swank design. Pros: 
Image Courtesy of Navigon
• Beautiful 3D maps
• Solid mount
• Premium-feeling case
• Free real-time traffic
• Attractive interface
Cons:
• Expensive
• Poor Bluetooth speakerphone quality
• Unintuitive POI entry
• Occasionally nonsensical routing
by Mary Weston on November 8, 2009:
“Last week we purchased the 8100T and will be returning it today. I would not want to recommend this product to anyone. It is absolutely brutal trying to input destination addresses by speaking, very frustrating when the address information I input comes back...” More...