Review: Medion E3215 Glamour Edition

The Medion E3215 will be a refreshing change for ladies looking for a more feminine touch in their satnav devices. Coated in a strip of pink with a carrying case to match this 3.5” model should fit snugly in a handbag.

Whether the GPS world needs female-oriented products when the best of TomTom and Navigon are neutral enough to suit either gender is questionable. But whatever your outtake is on the Medion we have to admit it does possess an heir of quality. It seems that even the carrying case and car cradle have not escaped the glamour treatment, so you’ll get a pink embroidered bag and a white transparent cradle mount (both of which are well made). Thankfully underneath the gloss treatment lies a substantial product with just enough features to make it a worthwhile purchase.

The Medion uses the latest Navigator 4 software which also includes a series of extra utilities, for example a security PIN feature, picture viewer, alarm clock (which can also be used to play mp3’s) and a travel guide.

Launching the main software reveals a tidy menu system that utilises the screen space efficiently and it’s fairly easy to grasp the core concepts quickly. As well as the handy route planner/simulator there are multiple ways of entering destinations, from the standard address/postcode entry screens, choosing from the map, POI, to keying in GPS-coordinates directly. Your last plotted routes are also displayed on the front screen for easier access.

Unfortunately browsing the available POI (whilst plentiful) are a little out of date, digging deeper reveals that the maps are using Q2 07. During our tests this was never really an issue but a map upgrade may be needed at some stage.

Upgrading should be made a lot easier thanks to the supplied PC software which handles everything from software upgrades to installing extra maps or your safety camera database, but unfortunately the main store is currently only available in German and we couldn’t find an option to display the English language version.

During our tests both the supplied TMC and internal GPS receiver took a little while to lock onto our position or gain traffic reports, but it was nothing drastic. The only thing we did notice about the receiver was its low signal strength as most of the time it could only muster 2 to 3 bars, however this was in overcast conditions and it did not seem to have any negative affects on the performance. Initial route calculations were quick and our position was tracked accurately.

We also found the TMC to be accurate compared to a live traffic website and in real-time it alerted us to problems verbally before atomically adjusting our route accordingly. More detailed traffic information can be found inside one of the sub menus, accessible from the map screen.

As per the main interface the map view is optimised pretty well on the 3.5” screen, we particularly liked the large bar at the top which shows clearly the next turn and also how easy it was to switch between 2D or 3D views by simply touching an icon on the screen. A quick press of the sub menu will even reveal a few more useful views, including a compass and guided arrow system, additionally you can quickly access nearby POI or gain info about your trip (such as mileage, average speed) and the device atomically shifts into night mode when it gets dark.

Whilst voice directions were basic they were pronounced clearly and the physical volume buttons to the side of the phone are a real boon. Speed cameras were sort of accurate (plus a little basic), it gave off an audio beep when approaching all the cameras on our test route which was good, but it just couldn’t display the speed warning sign on the correct side of the road – so it will need an update.

Overall the Medion Glamour may be a bit gimmicky and its price now matches the Medion GoPal E3410 (which has more features/though older software), but its designed well and with a life time TMC subscription onboard it does have its appeal.

Map coverage: Western Europe
Price: £116.99
Web: www.medion.co.uk

Performance: 7
Design: 8
Features: 7
Value: 6

Overall verdict: 7

Review originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine. Words by Brett James.

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