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Hi, i just bought a VMS 700 HDX portable GPS and used it on a 4 day Vic High Country trip last week.
I bought it because my Hilux had the older HS2 version when i purchased it and it was my reversing camera as well, i got it for $345 vs typical $700 for this class of GPS, and reviews weren't strongly for or againt it. I also really liked the vector street navigator which also had every 4wd track under the sun with names in 3D, i never even needed to use the offroad raster maps.
Overall i am disappointed for the following reasons.
- Street navigator no longer has all the 4wd tracks and has lost all the track names.
- Offroad maps have no track up option, only north up.
- Offroad gps lets you drive off the edge of the screen, have to constantly fiddle with an icon to centre.
- Offroad gps does not detect when you have driven off the useable part of a map and just shows grey. Again you have to fiddle to force it to load next map.
- Navextras toolbox used to update maps is flakey, have to fiddle between properly closing unit, connecting to pc, and starting toolbox to get it to work, takes multiple attempts. Unit can't even connect directly have to take sd card out and plug it straight into pc.
- Documentation is abysmal.
Overall conclusion is VMS is a company which is not investing in its software or hardware and can't even be bothered writing documentation. The gps software is feature poor and flakey, the pc software is flakey, the hardware can't connect to new versions of windows. I give VMS that there are a large number of maps preloaded, perhaps the company has too many mapping gurus and no user experience developers with 4wd experience?
In hindsight i should have bought a cheapo reversing camera and an android tablet with a 4wd GPS app.
Welcome anyone elses point of view, i am not familiar with Hema or other competitors, maybe they are all like this.
I bought it because my Hilux had the older HS2 version when i purchased it and it was my reversing camera as well, i got it for $345 vs typical $700 for this class of GPS, and reviews weren't strongly for or againt it. I also really liked the vector street navigator which also had every 4wd track under the sun with names in 3D, i never even needed to use the offroad raster maps.
Overall i am disappointed for the following reasons.
- Street navigator no longer has all the 4wd tracks and has lost all the track names.
- Offroad maps have no track up option, only north up.
- Offroad gps lets you drive off the edge of the screen, have to constantly fiddle with an icon to centre.
- Offroad gps does not detect when you have driven off the useable part of a map and just shows grey. Again you have to fiddle to force it to load next map.
- Navextras toolbox used to update maps is flakey, have to fiddle between properly closing unit, connecting to pc, and starting toolbox to get it to work, takes multiple attempts. Unit can't even connect directly have to take sd card out and plug it straight into pc.
- Documentation is abysmal.
Overall conclusion is VMS is a company which is not investing in its software or hardware and can't even be bothered writing documentation. The gps software is feature poor and flakey, the pc software is flakey, the hardware can't connect to new versions of windows. I give VMS that there are a large number of maps preloaded, perhaps the company has too many mapping gurus and no user experience developers with 4wd experience?
In hindsight i should have bought a cheapo reversing camera and an android tablet with a 4wd GPS app.
Welcome anyone elses point of view, i am not familiar with Hema or other competitors, maybe they are all like this.
after reading on product review the feedback on the hx1.Couldnt find any reviews on vms units,i took that as a good sign.Will update later.