Box Content

Inside the box you get an Active car cradle (incorporates FM/TMC receiver), 12v Car adaptor, 2GB Memory Card, USB Cable, Manual + DVD/CD’s.

Specification

• Dimensions (H x W x D): 81 x 124 x 17mm
• Map Provider:NAVTEQ (UK & Ireland + Maps of Western and Eastern Europe)
  
• Weight:186g
• Colour: Black
• Mfr estimated battery life: N/A
• Memory: 512MB Internal memory, 2GB SD Card
• Display size: 4.3” widescreen display, 320 x 240 pixels, antiglare TFT touch screen
• Audio: Internal speaker, FM car speakers, 3.5 mm headphones
• Safety Camera Updates: £10 per year

Design

From a cosmetic point of view the GoPal P4425 has remained relatively stylish despite of its array of ports and switches plastered to the bottom and sides of the device (however its still a fingerprint magnet).

Its screen is also clear, even with its lower 320 x 240 resolution and Medion have simplified the interface as much as humanly possible.

The TMC/FM active cradle could have been designed better. All the ports are positioned at the back of the unit, which meant that if you don't fit the car charger before you mount the device on the windscreen, it makes it a real pain to insert the lead afterwards.

Software/Performance

Unlike other manufactures which hold their software on internal flash storage, the GoPal stores everything on an SD card and as a result there was a bit of lag when using the software for the first few minutes, but you will find the device works faster once everything has been cached into its internal memory.

More interestingly is the function button to the side of the GoPal. With a quick press you can then speak voice commands to input destinations, control your maps and various menu options.

Whilst this is great it does require practice before you can master the sheer amount of commands open to you, there are 5 pages of the manual dedicated to this function alone.

There were times when the unit failed to pick up our voice commands - which was frustrating - and the device does suffer from Americanisms, so if you want to enter a postcode it won’t work unless you say the word ‘Zip code’.

Fingerprint Reader

The fingerprint reader can be set to kick in after coming out of standby mode, when you first turn on the device or when a reset occurs.

Again this takes a while to setup, with another 9 pages of the manual being dedicated to this option and whilst useful it failed to recognise our fingerprint on a couple of occasions (after coming out of standby mode), but this should easily be fixed with a software update we thinks.

We nearly forgot to mention you also get a Bluetooth hands free option, the ability to navigate to destinations via your Outlook Contacts (supports Outlook 2007) and then you have some multimedia functions thrown in for afterhours entertainment.

Driving Tests

The GPS receiver was not based on a SiRF-Star chip and as a result it suffered to a certain degree, as it took longer than normal to acquire a signal in closed environments and its signal strength - when it did pick up some satellites - was still on the weak side.

However this did not affect its performance which was good overall, we particularly liked the split screen display view, which essentially adds a large countdown arrow on the left side (alongside short cut buttons) and the map view on the right.

Plus Medion have also borrowed a feature from Navigons stable, by providing a lane assistant option, which gives you a visual warning on the map, showing you the best lane to be in when approaching major junctions or roundabouts. Whilst not in the same league as Navigons offering it was useful none the less.

As mentioned earlier the active cradle could be better designed but at least the TMC receiver does not require an additional antenna to make it work.

Traffic was reported quickly and it gives you a verbal warning of any problems its detects on-route, with additional information and routing options being available via a touch of a button.

The FM receiver (which was also incorporated inside the cradle) was useful for piping the text-to-speech directions to our cars internal speakers.

We thought the text-to-speech directions were helpful in places but its pronunciations of certain road names were not that clear and it does not pronounce every road name, especially those off roundabouts.

Safety camera detection was also thrown in and it does the job (though in a basic manner). Updates will cost you around £10 a year and Medion have supplied a PC software solution for keeping track of your devices content.