Best Buy GPS

Hands-free Bluetooth kit for Panasonic car CD/Video units (CQ-VW100u, CQ-VX100u, CQ-RX400u, CQ-RX200u). Drive safely by talking hands-free and keeping your phone in your pocket or purse. Wirelessly transfer you phonebook from your cell phone to your Panasonic video player for easy dialing. When incoming calls are received, your stereo is automatically muted and the caller's number appears on your stereo. Use the push-to-talk button to begin and end your conversations with ease. For compatible phones, this interface will allow A2DP audio streaming which wirelessly plays music store on your phone through your Panasonic stereo and gives you displayed control.

User Reviews about Panasonic CY-BT200U Bluetooth Hands Free Kit

Like some others who bought this, I grew dissatisfied with my Garmin Nuvi which started to fall apart (through no fault of my own at all) after just one year. I bought this Panasonic a month ago and have used it in and around Boston as well as all over New York. Overall I'm happy with it, but there're some issues I want to point out.

First, the positives. The 5" screen is the biggest on a portable GPS system. (Other manufacturers seem to top out at 4'3"; Sony's biggest is 4.8".) It's very bright at the highest setting, brigher than all the Garmin units I've seen, but on a really sunny day I still wish it would get brighter. The screen is high resolution (esp. compared to Garmin and Magellan models I've used), and the thin frame makes the unit look very stylish. The fit-and-finish of this Chinese-assembled product is quite high quality, whereas Garmin's $800 models feel really flimsy and cheap.

The GPS antenna sensitivity is the best part about this unit. It uses the venerable, Indian-made SiRF III sensor, and picks up the 3 satellites needed very quickly, even when I'm driving. (A serious problem with my Garmin Nuvi 350 was it couldn't position at all when I was driving.) In most cases I'm able to fix my position with the Panasonic in less than 10 seconds. The Panasonic also has internal sensors that keep tracking your position even when satellite signal is lost -- e.g. when inside a tunnel.

The built-in battery seems to last quite a few hours. The kit doesn't come with an AC adapter, but does come with a car DC adapter. The power button on the side is actually a stand-by button and does not turn off the unit completely. The main power switch is located at the bottom and is hard to get to when the unit is mounted.

Speaking of mounting, the Panasonic's mount is very sturdy and works very well. (One of my many gripes with my Garmin, and a previous Magellan, is the mount really sucked and my GPS kept falling off the windshield.) The suction cup Panasonic provides is big and the locking mechanism makes it stick to the windshield (or any suitable surface) tightly. One design problem, though, is the bracket holes on the Panasonic are small and make it a little difficult to align them with the brackets on the mount; this definitely takes some practice, and mounting the Panasonic at night without lighting is quite a chore.

The speaker is mono but clear, and there's a microphone on the side for you to bark commands into. That's right, the Panasonic has voice recognition. As long as you don't store too many voice commands -- I say no more than five -- the system is quite accurate. The Panasonic's spoken directions also speak street names, which is becoming a standard feature on most GPS systems costing more than $250.

With a fast sensor, the GPS does a decent job at its core function: navigation. But the software, provided by Germany-based Navigon and running on Windows CE, needs work. Compared to Garmin (and TomTom), the interface is convoluted, and the essential information you need while driving -- distance to the next turn, how to turn, street names, etc. -- is presented in tiny fonts, making it difficult to see, especially on a bright sunny day. In a previous life I was a management consultant and we used to make fun of what we called "German charts" -- one-page charts filled with unreadable tiny symbols and text -- and Navigon's interface typifies this German way of doing things: packing as much information as possible. So even though the screen is big and beautiful, it's far less user-friendly than Garmin's cleaner interface. BTW, it doesn't matter if you turn off certain information icons; the other icons don't get any bigger.

While the system lets you pick between an ABCD keyboard and a QWERTY one, the software's half-brained attempt at autocompleting everything makes entering information a hassle, because it confuses the user with unhelpful hints and makes text entry sloooooow and error-prone. Again, the software does not take advantage of the large screen. Scroll arrows, for instance, are tiny and almost impossible to hit correctly when you're driving.

Luckily, the voice directions are clear thanks to the high-quality speaker and you can press the "next turn" icon to repeat the spoken next-turn direction, which is a big plus.

Overall, this is a good unit, and if you've never used a Garmin or TomTom (two brands known for clean interfaces), this will make you happy. I just wish Panasonic had engineered their own interface or picked a different company. Navigon's German-style navigation screen is just not friendly to my American eyes (esp. as I'm aging and my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be). -- Solid premium GPS system, but software can be better

Wow, the GPS market is surely getting crowded...

I owned a Garmin Nuvi 350 which was a total piece of cr*p, as it randomly crashed all the time, plus it kept falling off the mount. I finally gave up and ended up getting this Strada in its stead. I've been very happy.

The big 5" screen is just gorgeous, and the unit is very responsive. I like the fact it gives you different styles of keyboards to suit your own preferences. (The Nuvi's stupid ABCD keyboard was maddening to use, esp. when you're driving!) The directions are clear and the assist features are great. The voice command works well when it's quiet in the car, so it works well in my Camry but less than perfect in my Outlander SUV.

The Nuvi had MP3 playback but its speaker was totally cr*ppy so I never used that feature, or the difficult-to-use and low-quality picture-viewing mode (I wasted money on a 2GB SD card). The Panasonic does what a GPS should do the best -- which is guiding you in your driving.

Two thumbs up! -- Excellent newcomer to GPS market

Pros: 5" screen, Lane assist, Clear instructions, Easy to enter address, Fast route calculation, 360 degree compass, Scenic route planning, in 3D mode can see from 0.5 mile to 2 mile ahead depending on upcoming turns on road.
Cons: If select simulation mode - no shortcut to cancel simulation, poor voice recognition, poor POI database.

I used it in chicago downtown and surrounding states. Overall experience is 100 times better than Megallen & Garmin Nuvi. I love Lane assist which guided me to the right lane all the times otherwise you can go onto a different exit in dowtown areas. Entering address is easy and route calculation & recalculation is fast. It displays signs for bigchains like M for McDonald 7-eleven etc which is easy to identify on map. Overall navigation experience is a lot lot better then other overpriced Megallen & Garmin Nuvi.

POI database is not big even though there are too many classification. This one particular item is better in Nuvi & Megallen. Harman Kardon 810 has 12 million POI - in next model if Panasonic increases POI to somewhat like Harman Kardon - it will not lack in anything. Catching satellites in cold start take a little longer but once fixed there is no problem for rest of the day. Voice recognition is poor - needs improvement in future models.

-- Better then Most overpriced Megallen & Garmin

All I can say is, it works as a GPS supposed to and more. I entered my destination and made some purposely wrong turns, it would tell me to make u-turn or take other route to go back to the correct direction within 1-2 seconds. It seems to use 2 of the most popular navigation softwares: Navteq and Navigon, so maps and POIs should be very accurate.

This unit have some of the good features worth mentioning:

Bigger screen is nice for people like me who have trouble seeing small print. Strada works like a in-dash GPS and look like one too. if you put it side-by-side to a 3.5 incher, you'll see the difference.

The e-compass is a nice feature if you're in a tunnel and loss the satellite signal, it will still guide you just in case your exit is right after the tunnel.

Voice command - so you can save your home, work, often-visted places as voice command, and just say the word and it will guide you to the right place, so far, the voice recognition software is very accruate, always brought up the right destination.

Bluetooth hands-free: Sure a lot of the higher-end GPS systems have this feature, but I read some of them must use compatible phones. Strada works with 3 phones I had tried, including iphone, Sony, and Nokia.

The voice nice and clear like spoken English, not like some (even Garmin) sounded like robot. You can control the volume amplification automatically based on the speed you're traveling too.

Panasonic makes top-rated plasma and LCD displays, it applys to the screen for Strada. The screen is nice and clear and can be adjusted manually to fit your preference. The touch screen is rough-feeling, but very sensitive to the finger. I can tell that it is designed to be scratch resistent and smuge free.

It didn't mention in the manual, the included USB cable also act as a charger if the Strada is plugged into the PC using it.

Some feature I wish it should have is that contact can not be input, needs to be imported from bluetooth cellphone, and if the voice command can dial the contact name directly instead of going thru the list and select by hand.

All in all, I like it and If MP3 or Picture/Video viewing is not important to you, this unit is just right for you too.
-- Good GPS does what it supposed to - take you to places correctly

The only thing in my opinion the Strada beats the others in is screen size. And to me, that little extra size is not worth it to pass on these other units. The important thing the Strada is missing is the FM transmitter and utilities like mp3 player. The Strada does have a picture viewer, but its useless. The pictures look like crap on the screen and distorts them. I also dont like that the maps on the Strada are on SD card unlike the 920 and 760 where they are saved on internal memory. What this does is if you do have a bunch of pictures on a sd card and want to view them on the Strada, you have to take out the factory sd card where the map is. With the 920 and 760, you can always keep a sd card in and when you want to listen to mp3s or look at pictures, its ready to go. Adding an address is very cumbersome and not fast. The menu seems to lag and you find yourself pushing the touch screen a few times and also hard because it doesnt want to respond a lot. Also the POI compared to the TOMTOM and Garmin doesnt come close. The Strada offers 1.8 million while the others offer 6 million. A big difference. The 920 and 760 in my opinion are far superior to the Strada. I understand this is the first Panasonic portable navigation in the US. Hopefully new units in the future will fix these problems. -- Panasonic Strada versus TomTom GO920 and Garmin Nuvi 760