Cobra NavOne 3000

In-dash car navigation systems all suffer from a common problem: They are permanently affixed to a particular car. PDAs with integrated GPS make it possible to get navigation help even if you change vehicles frequently, but their small screens and lack of hard drives are limitations. Cobra's NavOne 3000 is the best of both worlds; it combines the huge database and large screen of an in-dash system with the portability of a PDA.

The NavOne is about the size of a small hardcover book. It measures 4.7 x 7.9 x 2.3 inches and comes with a large, powerful suction cup for mounting it on a window or dash. Cobra makes good use of the space. The NavOne has a big, bright, and sharp color screen that's easy to read in any lighting conditions. It also features a massive 20GB hard disk, large even compared to many DVD-based in-dash systems. Cobra's new GPS system has all the makings of a winner, right up until you try to operate it.

This is a GPS unit you'll want to spend some time with before taking it on the road. We had a hard time quickly and efficiently navigating around the system's many modes, displays, and views. The Cobra uses a somewhat perplexing interface controlled by five buttons and a five-way navigation wheel (plus a few more buttons on the side for power, brightness, and contrast). Even entering data is more trouble than it should be. The simple addition of a touchscreen would have eliminated virtually all of our complaints.

That said, the NavOne includes a clever feature we haven't seen before, but which should become standard equipment on all GPS systems: wireless input from your PDA. If your Palm OS or Pocket PC already has an address to which you'd like to navigate, just point your handheld at the Cobra's infrared port and beam the data. It's that easy.

The NavOne is forward-looking in other ways. We were particularly impressed by the USB 2.0 port. As new map updates are made available on the Cobra Web site, you can download them to your PC and then transfer the data to your NavOne over a USB cable. Out of the box, the NavOne includes a detailed navigation database. It has street-level maps of the 48 states and several Canadian cities, along with about 2 million points of interest like hotels, airports, and restaurants.

While most in-dash GPS systems give you limited trip-planning capabilities, the NavOne is particularly flexible. You can set up to ten waypoints for any given trip and even store several trips at once.

The system has voice guidance that speaks your turns aloud in addition to displaying the route as an overhead, top-down view of the map. The hardware is tough enough for mission-essential driving; it is rated to operate below 32 degrees F, for instance. If you need to take the system off-road, you'll appreciate the ability to mark waypoints even where there isn't an existing road.

We found that the GPS system locked on quickly, usually within 30 seconds, and stubbornly kept a signal lock even when driving through urban areas. When coverage did go dark, as it did inside of a parking garage where there was no way to find any satellites, the NavOne did an admirable job of guessing our whereabouts, thanks to an on-board gyroscope.

Cobra includes a 12-volt automotive power adapter; an AC adapter costs extra.

While we wish the control scheme were more streamlined, the Cobra NavOne 3000 is a very capable in-car GPS system that rewards you with lots of storage and a touchscreen you can read easily.