Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo
Via Michelin X-930 GPSNavigation Unit Small and compact, but disappointinglyunderfeatured | |
The Via Michelin X-930is small and compact, but note the wasteful use of screenspace, leaving very little room for the actual map itself. Partof our series on GPS - additional articles to bepublished in coming weeks. | |
- Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Price
- Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Tracking
- Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Route
- Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Mobile
Samsung USB Driver for Mobile Phones is a freeware software app filed under drivers and made available by Samsung for Windows. My Samsung Smart TV has stopped being able to connect to our WiFi. I haven't gotten any firmware notifications/ updates either. Don't use the same character 3 times in a row. Your gateway to the wireless networks.
- GPS ViaMichelin X9x0. Effectivement, le support ViaMichelin propose l’installation du driver XP. Version 6.5: oui, ok sur X-950. Jan 20, 2013 - Question about Viamichelin X-950T 4.3' Sat Nav With Europe Maps, Traffic Updates. Install USB drivers for android tablet on PC (Updates drivers using this folder. Feb 08, 2010 SNK ViaMichelin.
- Where do i start cannot load my sat nav on my pc for some reason it doesne reconise the hard ware, even thou loaded the cd rom, got vesrion 1.1616.0409.
The Via Michelin X-930 GPS receiverpromises to be an appealing unit at a great price. But,this promise is massively broken. The unit suffers fromirrational and inexplicable limitations and problems. Itis difficult to understand and use, and not nearly as flexibleas other units.
Accordingly, this unit is aposter child example of how a unit can look great on paper (andget good generic reviews from reviewers who apparently have donenothing other than read the press release) but which iscompletely unsuitable for normal people and normal uses.
Not recommended. Ifyou're looking for a small size low price unit, choose thevastly superior GlobalSat GV-370instead.
Via Michelin X-930 Overview
Michelin are best known fortheir travel guides, books that enjoy a very high qualityreputation. They moved into offering GPS receivers inEurope a couple of years ago and are now expanding into theNorth American market.
Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Price
The X-930 went on sale inthe US in December 2006. It has already been superseded inEurope by first the X-950 and subsequently the big screen X-980, but these newer unitsare not yet (March 2007)available in the US.
At first blush, the X-930has a lot going for it. It comes from a respectedsupplier; it is small and lightweight, and has an acceptablylarge 3.5' screen. Best of all, its list price of $299 hasbeen discounted to $199 by Amazon, making it - in terms of price- one of the very best value units currently being sold.
But this unit is a classicexample of how a unit that looks good on paper massivelydisappoints in real world testing. Its user interface isobtuse and difficult to follow, and much of the screen is wastedwith unnecessary and overly large data.
Programming is difficult,and unlike many competing units, simply using it to show you where you are is not a defaultaction, but instead requires you to work through five layers ofnon-intuitive menus.
Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Tracking
The design of the maps isalso poor, with roads at certain scales being shown as thinorange lines against a lighter orange background. Thismakes them almost completely invisible!
And, talking about scale,you have no way of knowing what scale the map is being displayedat. Does an inch on the screen represent 100 feet or 100miles? Regrettably, we're not told that importantinformation.
There are plenty of otherquirks and failings, too. For example, we can't get theunit to show our direction, in a straight line along a road, asa straight vertical line on the screen (as is uniformly the casewith every other unit we've ever seen). Instead, it isdisplayed as a slanting line from the bottom left part of thescreen to the top right part of the screen. When we calledand asked Via Michelin's help desk about this, they variouslydidn't know what we meant, couldn't explain why the path wasoriented that way, and were unable to fix the problem.
Using the Unit
The unit turns on and offinstantly which is nice, and doesn't treat you to any warningscreens about using the unit carefully when driving, which iseven nicer still.
The unit had goodsensitivity to satellite signals, even inside the vehicle withno external antenna, with at times as many as ten satellitesbeing locked on. But it sometimes took five minutes ormore to get a 'lock' on sufficient satellites as to know whereit was and be able to start helping you with directions - thisis way too long; imagine having to wait five minutes or longerbefore being able to start your journey. This is longerthan other units, but might be reducedif you added an external antenna.
The screen is crisp andclear, but as soon as we confronted the main screen we foundourselves reaching for the manual. The three optionsoffered - 'Navigate to', 'Plan your journey' and 'Settings' wereconfusing when all we wanted to do was display the map and seewhere we currently were.
To get the unit to do thisbasic function, we had to follow this complicated sequence :
1. Choose 'Planyour journey'
2. Choose 'Display a Map'
3. Choose 'Map Options'
4. Choose 'Center Map'
5. Choose 'on GPS position'
This is completelycounter-intuitive. The difficulty in mastering the unit iscompounded by having sometimes strange symbols rather than nameson the buttons on the front of it. All in all, we couldnever adequately understand how to get the best use out of theunit. Sure, we could have committed ourselves to anintensive course of study and practice, but that would not helpus if we then didn't touch the unit for three months, becausewe'd for sure forget everything about the unit in the meantimeand have to relearn everything once more.
This poorly designedinterface is aggravated further by Via Michelin's penny pinchingdecision not to include a manual with the unit. You haveto go online and download a copy from their website instead.
In terms of actually usingthe unit, it suffers from significant drawbacks in that area,too. As the picture at the top of this page shows, abouthalf the screen is used for various informational displays,leaving only a slim narrow band in the middle for the map. This is regrettable for two reasons - firstly it is a shame towaste so much valuable screen on this information, and secondly,when you're using the unit, most of the time you're interestedin what is ahead of you, rather than what is on either side ofyou. If Via Michelin really did need to use parts of thescreen for the other information, it should do this on thesides, not on the top and bottom.
And for a really illogicalarrangement, if you have the unit simply showing where you areon a map, the map is fixed in a north up direction - most of thetime you'd want it to be in a 'direction of travel up' directioninstead, but when you have the unit set to direct you somewhere,it switches into the direction of travel up mode. Unlikemost other units, it is impossible for you to change directionalmodes yourself.
Most people use their GPS inwhat I'd call 'active' or 'passive' modes. In active mode,they have programmed in a destination and are using the GPS toguide them to that destination. In passive mode, they arejust using it as a moving map to see where they are. Thisunit works acceptably (but not excellently) in active mode, butin passive mode it is very disappointing, showing littleinformation on the screen.
In active mode, the unit wassometimes struggling to give us turn information ahead of whenthe turn appeared on the map, and unlike many units, it didn'tclearly highlight exactly where and how to make turns.
There are problems andpoorly thought out issues with many different parts of thisunit's operation. One other thing we really disliked wasthe lack of a scale on the map. We had no way of knowingif the scale as zoomed in or out, and by how much.
Recalculating directions wasautomatic, and moderately fast, but not as quick as some unitswe've used.
For some strange reason, theunit decides that you've reached your destination way before youhave. Sometimes I could be five miles away from thedestination and the unit switches from turn by turn guidance totriumphantly telling me I've arrived. Wrong.
Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Route
The Bottom Line
Driver Viamichelin X 950 Xpo Mobile
Much as we wanted to likethis unit, we feel it to be a frustrating waste of money with noredeeming features.
You're much better advised to buy a unit with a moreuser-friendly interface and better laid out map and screengraphics.
Feature Analysis
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Originally published30 March 2007, last update21 Jul 2020
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.