Hand held GPS that DOESN'T perform.

I purchased this unit as an alternative to purchasing the (very expensive) Alpine NVE-N872A. I loved the fact that it is so small and portable and that I could take it anywhere with me, but I soon began to loathe this little gadget.

As I'm sure you've read from other reviews, this unit is about a block off (depending on how fast you are going, the faster you go the further it is off). This can be frustrating when using it to direct you to places. Most of the time when it tells you to turn, you are either AT the street you need to be turning on or have just passed it.

Another issue that I had with this unit is that when it was humid, the touchscreen controls were way off. I would touch one place on the screen, and it would click the wrong icon or letter (if I was entering an address. VERY ANNOYING.

The MP3 feature was really cool, but I felt that when using the MP3 function when having the unit direct me, it got annoying because the unit will mute your music to tell you the next turn is in 1.5 miles... coming up... turn left... the music also slowed the unit down in calculating things or when rerouting you.

Another issue that I had was that it was difficult to read the street names unless you are completely zoomed in. It would have been nice if you could be zoomed out further and still be able to read street names. Oh, and as far as the routes- um... I live in Michigan where the streets aren't all straight, and I need to be routed around small lakes and curvy roads. It felt as if this unit always took me the long way and didn't know of any short cuts.

I hear that the docking station for your Alpine video monitor or head unit will become available soon. How soon? I called Alpine and their customer support representative couldn't even tell me. One cool feature that I really liked (that isn't currently available right now) is the Navteq traffic alert system that you will be able to subscribe to for $5 a month. As far as I am told, if you have this feature, it will tell you how fast traffic is moving, and if there are any accidents on your route, it will reroute you around them. That sounds awesome. When it comes out I would be interested to see it up and running.

My advice to you (if you own an Alpine head unit (like me) and want to get a GPS system, stay clear of this unit. I would like to purchase the NVE-N872A but am considering waiting a couple of years for the technology to adapt to my liking. If anyone that is reading this owns the NVE-N872A, please shoot me an email to let me know if yours was worth the money.

I really hate to be writing all these negative comments but I truely was disappointed with this unit. I have always loved Alpine and know that when you purchase Alpine, you are buying a quality product. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the Blackbird.

I returned mine in 7 days.

UPDATE:  It has been quite some time since I wrote this review.  I bought this unit when it first came out, and it had many quirks.  Since then, there have been several updates, as well as a HUGE price drop.  After I returned this unit I bought the Alpine NVE-N872A and have loved it for the past 3 years.  You can read my review on that one if you like.  It has some of it's own quirks as well.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that at today's prices, this blackbird may just be worth the price.