Kapten (voice-only) Satnav

[Lulu]

Went to Expo at the NEC yesterday, and had a look at the Kapten voice-only sat nav. £199 full price, £135 trade price. Looks like an interesting (cheaper!) alternative to the TomTom or Garmin solutions. Just wondered whether anyone had experience with this system, and if so what its like? The good, the bad and the ugly?

Your views would be much appreciated, ta.

[Dee Duble Yuh]

I think some members here have said they don't ever look at the sat-nav screen so it might suit them. I wonder if an £80 car sat-nav would do a similar job in an inside pocket or tank bag. OTOH (assuming it's water-proof) the Kapten could be mounted on the handle-bars so you could use the music and dial buttons easily.

Two potential problems:

• It's not at all clear how you'd programme the destination.
• In cities junctions can be close together, so an instruction to "Turn left" might send you unintentionally into a dead-end, a side street, or worse, to a Motorway on-ramp with no opportunity to turn back for miles. A sat-nav screen is useful for double-checking the precise route.

[StumpyFingers]

Two potential problems:

• It's not at all clear how you'd programme the destination.
• In cities junctions can be close together, so an instruction to "Turn left" might send you unintentionally into a dead-end, a side street, or worse, to a Motorway on-ramp with no opportunity to turn back for miles. A sat-nav screen is useful for double-checking the precise route.

I concur.
At least with the screen mine shows the name of the road I am turning onto so in the area of multiple streets I can stand a chance of turning onto the right one.

[winxp-master]

I'm the opposite, i dont use sound at all on the bike satnav (zumo550) and just look at the screen when needed. I then don't have to bother with earphones and wind noise etc.

I don't much like the sound of a voice only satnav but ive never tried it and it might be good but doesnt sound like its for me (no pun intended)

[Boris]

Info here



Not for me though. Like the others I like to see the screen for confirmation.

[StumpyFingers]

To be honest, how many people listen to instructions and then follow them?
Every night I get people asking for a specific direction , when I give directions they take no notice and go in the opposite direction.

[Lulu]

Well, thanks guys for your thoughts and advice. It's convinced me that it's not the solution for the bike, but the vid makes me think it might stop me from getting lost on foot . Not sure that I'd part with my hard-earned cash for the privilege though. After all, getting lost can be quite fun.