In fact on opening the box we went straight past the unit itself looking for something bigger, after the initial embarrassment LP located the sleek silver Navman icn510 and proceeded to hook up the supplied main adaptor to start to figure out the controls. In time honoured male tradition we abandoned the manual with the thought that if its easy enough to use we won't need the manual and to be fair we didn't. The iCN510 has a built-in flip-up antenna, and also has an external antenna socket for those who want to use an optional GPS antenna to avoid things like heated front windscreens, the main unit houses a 3.5" TFT with a 320 x 240 resolution and the whole system hangs around a Intel® PXA-255 300Mhz processor.

The main menu is a touch screen affair which can also be operated by means of a nav pad to the right of the screen, on here are the routing options alongside various levels of configuration, after setting volume, brightness and changing kilometres to miles we were all set to go.

The supplied sucker mount is a secure little device with a good action for getting the correct viewing angle, however we did find the arm a bit short meaning depending where you fix it to the windscreen it can be tricky to reach while driving, in the end the central position favoured by most drivers had to be abandoned and instead the unit placed in the bottom right of the screen.

The first time to fix (TTF) took about five minutes which is pretty speedy, there is a configuration screen where you can check the satellite lock but this is buried down a few too many levels in the menu. Operating the Navman icn510 once its in position can be a bit fiddly, there is a supplied stylus which slots into the rear of the unit but this is unlikely to be used when in car as relocating it in its slot is impossible.

The buttons above the nav pad allow quick selection of the menu and back into touch screen mode, having selected destinations we were able to enter an address, as you enter the details the display shows how many possibilities there are for your location match, when these get below 5 or so you can then switch to a list for the final selection. Unlike the early versions of TomTom postcode support works well and quickly helps you narrow the area using the first 4 characters of the postcode.

Once the route is set the Navman quickly processes the trip and you get a little percentage complete display, routing speed seems on a par with other systems we have tested and there are options to configure if you'd like the fastest or most direct route. Leaving LPs office the unit plotted a route around the M25 which was a little unusual but not too wild, it did miss the quicker route to the motorway favouring A roads over the slower unclassified rat runs LP normally frequents, but then we can't expect a SatNav system to understand the warp speeds LP drives at!

En route the unit kept up accurately with progress and the scaling according to speed means the map is displayed in an appropriate size for the distance you are covering, however there does not appear to be an override for this to zoom into the map when you approaching the next instruction, this feature may not sound much but when you are hurtling towards a right turn and the map is showing all of London its a bit tricky to navigate!

There are several choices of view, an overall map, map with directions displayed as arrows which also keeps perspective and location of your vehicle, instructions list and the split of next instruction and next map section. The best option is the tracking map with perspective which gives all the info you need although you have to toggle between ETA, direction and distance to destination which could all do with being on screen at once.

There is audio navigation too with both a female and male voice neither of which are too authoritarian however a major issue is the lack of volume from the inbuilt speaker, you only need to have the radio on or the window open and it's very difficult to hear the instructions. This was an issue and still is with some PDA systems as PDA's were not designed to be satnav systems but in a custom design like the Navman icn510 this is unforgivable.

We had a play with POI's or points of information, its possible to upload these via USB connection (with supplied cable) or by popping them on the SD card (also accepts MMC), which also contains the GB mapping data. Like the TomTom Go unit we tested a while back the Navman can run under its own steam using internal batteries these seem good for about 3.5 hours.

Our second and third journeys in the heat of rush hour proved a little more taxing and brought us into more conflict with the iCN510's routing algorithm, perhaps we haven't found the optimum settings yet (balance between motorway and urban roads) but some of the routs plotted were slightly mad. Then we got stuck in a traffic jam and spent ages hunting for the "avoid this area" function which while it got us off the road did not allow us to specify which road to avoid or for what distance a feature which we have grown use to on the TomTom software.

Overall we found the Navman iCN510 to be a good entry level product within the range, its size is a major advantage as it is truly portable and more so than a TomTom go unit, it works well although the routing may take a bit of work to get just right fro our tastes. Downsides are the poor area avoidance system and fiddly controls for use while on the road and the pathetic speaker volume. Priced at £429.99 its not the cheapest device out there amidst the all in one GPS system battle but it compares well to the software + PDA options.

And the question you want us to answer? this iCN510 Navigation unit or a TomTom go unit? well if you want a small ultra portable unit and solid navigation then the Navman iCN510 meets the brief but for a fully featured unit we'd still pick the TomTom Go.

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