Review of Lowrance iWay 250c

Lowrance Electronics never fail to provide its market with products that are highly comparable to other leading brands while maintaining its affordability and practicability. Lowrance iWay 250c is a portable multimedia GPS device with a 3.5 inch and 16-bit color TFT (Thin Film Transistor) touchscreen display.

It has a 12-Channel GPS receiver fully featured with MP3 player and JPEG image viewer, a turn-by-turn routing and re-routing for missed turns and detours including visual and voice directions, and it includes 2GB MMC/SD card preloaded with NAVTEQ mapping detail for US and Canada.

If you are familiar with Lowrance iWay 500c and iWay 350c, this one also has massive points of interest database and supports all current plug-and-play map and chart options from Lowrance (FreedomMaps, Fishing Hot Spots Elite, LakeMaster ProMaps, and NauticPath). You can also update the maps using the device's internal USB port using a pc connection.

According to www.amazon.com, the iWay 250c's 'real strength' is in its advanced features and its easy to use menus on the touch screen which will definitely make the navigation a lot easier. The turn-by-turn audio and visual cues also include auto-zooming and automatic recalculation of directions. For off-road and marine usage, this product also has a straight-line navigation feature.

Like any other GPS product out there, it also has its flaws. Although the 250c does well with alerting upcoming turns (especially when you're new in an area), it can sound a little too much (to the point of annoyance). It alerts you when your 3 miles out, then another alert when you are 2 miles out, then again at one mile out, and then when you're a half mile out. Its voice prompt also does not give verbal warnings like T intersection alerts unlike some of its competitors and sometimes it sometimes conflicts with its own turn indicator (on which case, follow the turn indicator).

Another flaw of the 250c may be on it's the first page of the Find Menu has options for Gas, ATM, Restaurants, and other POI's which does not include parking (which is very important). It also does not support the user in looking for POI's in another city which can be very helpful to someone who's doing future planning.

At a list price of $349, this is not a bad deal at all. It can store 1,000 addresses and it offers voice directions in seven languages and displays texts in 12 different languages. To get your own, some sites that can provide you with the best deals are www.amazon.com and http://www.tigerdirect.com.