Clarion N.I.C.E.

Price Paid:  $799.00 from Frys

Year / Model Reviewed:
2006 Clarion NICE

Summary:
This ia great unit

Has new maps now

at Horizon Nav

the software maker is selling maps now
at $99 with free shipping...

Strengths:
It can do some many things
Software upgrades are $99 with free shipping.

Weaknesses:
It is bright at night

Similar Products Used:
Valor, DUAL and OEM

Price Paid:  $650.00 from online

Year / Model Reviewed:
2006 Clarion N.I.C.E.

Summary:
I purchased this unit on Ebay a little over a year ago.

Navigation: Large screen and multiple viewing options make it easy to see where you are. Annoying voice for navigation, which I immediately turned off. I haven't really experienced the navigation being slow or 'hanging up' once underway. However, one of the features of the unit is that it remembers where you last stopped. So, if you turn it off and drive across town or fly across the country, it can take several minutes to fugure out where it is again, which can be annoying.
Out of the Hundreds of addresses that I have programmed in, only a handfull were unable to be found. If it can't find the address, just put the original street, and find the nearest cross street, and it will get you pretty close. (it will give you a list of streets that intersect with your street of interest.) As far as the points of interest, there are a ton, organized fairly well in menus. The address book is reportedly large, however, it would be nice if I could merge my outlook into the unit, as the operating system is Windows based. (this could be possible, but I tried without any luck)

MP3: 10 gigs of storage for your music and pictures. Great feature. Built in FM modulator with several selectable frequencies allow you to find an unused station. When I first listened to mp3's through my car stereo, I noticed that it didn't sound all that great. The weak link is the FM modulator. Plugged directly into my home stereo via the RCA's, the sound quality is fantastic, so if you have an external input on your car deck, definetely use that.

Picture slideshow: great feature as well, although I did get an error messege after scrolling through a couple hundred pictures, but it was not a big deal.

Haven't used the satellite radio option or backup camera, nor do I plan to, but useful options.

Mounting hardware:
This unit is no tomtom, it is large and heavy, and the suction cup will fall off if you don't wet it before mounting. I found the best way to mount it is with the bottom of the unit touching the dash. Overall this unit is worth what I payed for it. I have not had any of the issues other people have spoke of regarding navigation hanging up, or mp3's skipping etc.

Strengths:
Large hard drive, mp3 player, large screen, ability to listen to music while navigating. Will get you to where you want to go.

Weaknesses:
So far, lack of updated nav software from Clarion. Inability to search for other addresses or points of interest while you have a route programmed. (route must be cancelled, however, the last 15 or so previous destinations are remembered, so it is easy to find.) It beeps every time you touch the screen, and there is no way to turn it off.

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $799.00 from Fry's

Year / Model Reviewed:
2006 Clarion NICE GPS

Summary:
Poor to non-existent technical support. Persistent Error message "KRI Shell out of memory" that cannot be corrected. Second unit has same problem in Photo file. No GPS data upgrade that was to occur in summer 2006.

Strengths:
Good looking multi-functional unit.

Weaknesses:
Non-responsive technical support. No promised data upgrades.

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $800.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 clarion nice

Summary:
PLEASE no matter what the other reviews say I am telling you guys that this Clarion NICE unit SUCKS. It is the biggest piece of crap that I have ever bought. A total waste of money. For one, when I tried to down load mp3 files on the unit, the songs would skip and I could only here parts of the song. SO when I tried to erase the Mp3 files, thinking I made a mistake, all the maps and memory that is stored on the unit were also lost. Next the memory sucks. Dont plan on putting any pictures on the unit because there is not enough memory. Third the suction mount sucks. Fourth the map freezes up when I am in navigation mode and I become more lost than i would be without the unit. SO when I sent the unit out for service it took over a month to get the unit back. THe CLarion spport people had no idea about the unit and had to send me a refurbished model because they could not fix it. Please dont talk to "BEN" who works customer service because he is a liar and a bull"hitter. THey charge you extra money to send you a refurbished model that is probably going to do the same thing as the new NICE would. INstead of calling the unit CLARION "NICE" they should call it CLARION "Piece OF CRAP" I think I have siad enough and I hope you dont waste your money. You get the point.

Strengths:
NONE

Weaknesses:
every thing.

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $899.00 from futureshop

Year / Model Reviewed:
2006 N.I.C.E

Summary:
The Clarion N.I.C.E was nice at first glance its features are eye catching but its has lot's of down sides. at first it was so hard to find out how to work this thing, when we tryed to type somthing it would take away some letters and it will give you a street and if its not the rite street your looking then your screwed. When using NAVI it is slow and it is quite anoying when she says "turn at 500m" why can't it say "turn at street somthing" it has a very slow processor i put a few pictures in it and i put it on slideshow and after 5 pictures or so it said "out of memory" and it looked like Windows it had a cursor now i can't seem to get rid of that cursor. also what sucks is that you cant put photos that are over 1MB i suggest you keep it around 500KB or it might run out of memory. The MP3s skip in the middle of the songs. I do like the fact that it has sirius sattelite and that you can connect your dvd and video games to it but then agian it really isn't worth 900 bucks i am plaining on returning it and getting a cheeper one that WORKS! i don't suggest the clarion N.I.C.E DONT BYE IT hahaha.

Strengths:
Wide screen, You can put skipping mp3's on it, you can connect a rear view camera, can connect a dvd or video gameing system.

Weaknesses:
DEFECTIVE.