Over Xmas week, I took a road trip from SF to Salt Lake City and back. I ran the Z1 alongside my M5 garmin PDA just for fun and to learn more about the Z1. I've been using the M5 for about a year and a half and basically find it works very well as a nav tool. This is a ONE ROAD route - highway 80 all the way so I figured all things being equal, I'd get a good sense of the strengths and weaknesses. So, fwiw, here's some basic observations. I know this is kind of like apples and oranges, but what the heck.
The Z1's estimated trip times were off by over 7 hours from the getgo. That's about a 50-60% error - pretty poor for a one road route. The M5 has always been incredibly accurate in its time estimation algorythm. As the trip progresses, the estimated arrival time in the Z1 got closer but was never reliable. Also, the M5 has numerous choices for displaying time to next turn, dist. to next, and many other options I've come to love. I didn't find 'em in the Z1 (I'm still very low on the learning curve - they may be there but ....) so, I'll likely continue running 'em in tandem.
The Z1's larger screen and typeface make it much easier to read than the M5's small pda screen. Also, the split screen feature gave me a much better intuitive feel for "where in the heck am i". The Z1 also seems to show more local streets in a more clear manner than the M5. I've never been able to figure out how the M5 decides which street names to display and often it makes no sense - arterials left out, obscure streets displayed. The Z1 display rocks! Finally, the touch screen user interface on the Z1 is much safer and easier to use than the stylus of the M5
Once I arrived in SLC, the Z1's routing to POIs seemed clumsy and its find features didn't work too well with the city's grid address system. I never did find addresses like 900 South 172 East. Granted this is an easy town to navigate without a GPS because of its grid setup, but at times, I was a little frustrated.
Adding via points in both units is a multi click operation that's way too difficult to do in motion. Vias come in handy for planning pit stops on a long freeway drive when you display time/distance to next Via info. Neither nav system seems to have the location of highway dept rest stops in their database - a gaping oversight IMHO.
The Garmin database of POIs (even my 2 year old set) seemed to be much more comprehnensive than the Z1s. I stayed at Snowbird's "Iron Blossam Lodge" which I couldn't fine in the Z1 - it was in the M5. Also, I wasn't able to find "Alta, Utah" in the Z1 but that may have been operator error. Also, I wasn't able to find ski shops in this Olympic ski town in the Z1 either. Duhhhh.
I know its silly , but, I sure wish there was a way to synch the M5's phone book with the Z1's address book . Both do Bluetooth but in very limited ways. My Samsung A990 worked flawlessly with the Z1 but wasn't able to synch its fonebook via BT.
The Z1 sound was great in the 4 door cab of my F-350. I've upgraded the speakers w/Infinity References (I like the sound better than the Kapas) and installed the tweets in the front doors. I've got 2 @ 200 amp powered 6" Bazooka tubes on a big cap that do the bass very well and a 4 channel DaVinci amp that runs pretty clean. The Z1 had adequate but somewhat clumsy EQ controlls that I tuned with a studio musician friend who's ear is a couple light years beyond mine. That said, once set up the sound was really fine.
XM was killer. The iPod interface was slow, but tolerable using smart play lists. I have yet to insert a CD into the unit. Radio reception was passable when I used it (hardly ever). The unit's backup camera display seems weak (sadly, I bought one thats not reversing so right is left and v.v.) and dark. Often hard to see even in bright daylight. Might be a function of the camera, but hard to know. It wasn't cheap.
And, after looking at my NO BOZOS background after 12 hours on the road I still chuckle. Thanks again for the instructions.
Peace out.
Joe
