Product Reviews

A satnav system can save you time when travelling by plotting the best course to your destination and stopping you getting lost. Finding the right road is no good if it's snarled up with traffic, though, so it's useful to have a satnav with integrated traffic alerts. Most satnavs download traffic data over a mobile phone's data connection using Bluetooth, which can be fiddly to set up and racks up data costs. Becker's Traffic Assist 7927 has a built-in TMC receiver that picks up traffic information for free from RDS EON radio broadcasts.

The red mood lights on either side of the display may not be to everyone's taste, but the 7927's black and silver finish makes it look more stylish than most. The screen has the same 320x240 resolution as most satnavs, and text is clear, but the interface runs far more slowly than TomTom's and feels clunky at first. You control the satnav with onscreen buttons, but some are often greyed out for no apparent reason and make an

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annoying error sound when you press them.

Once you get used to the interface's quirks, entering an address is fairly easy. You can enter a country, city and street, and the software narrows down the possible destinations and displays a list to choose from. You can also search by postcode, but unlike most current satnavs the 7927 supports only the first five digits of a postcode instead of seven, so you still have a long list of streets from which to choose. The 7927 comes with full maps of Western Europe, which is impressive for the price.

Routes are calculated quickly, and it took just 22 seconds to plan a journey from central London to Edinburgh. The 7927 is also a competent navigator. The map display and voice prompts are clear, and the software stacks prompts so that you know what the next two turns are. Unfortunately, the second turn is sometimes a long way down the road, which can be confusing if you think you need to turn before you do.

The TMC works well. You can view a list of traffic problems along your route with descriptions of each incident, and when you're getting close to a traffic incident the satnav will pop up a window describing the incident and asking if you want to reroute to avoid it.

Becker's Traffic Assist 7927 is good value for a satnav with full European maps and is a fine navigator. It's fairly clunky to use, though, and faces some stiff competition. TomTom's One Traffic costs only £200, is easier to use and has Western European maps and TMC traffic information. It's the better choice.