Dash Express Two-Way Internet-Connected Portable GPS Navigator

I have used GPS from Tom Tom, Navigon, and also Garmin. All those units have been though a lot of development, and it shows.

The dash express has not, and it really shows. While the traffic monitoring idea is a great concept, this unit has too many other shortcomings to tolerate.

Basically, most other features on a low end $120-150 gps are missing. A glaring one is planning preferences like avoiding highways, another one is avoiding toll roads, it gets worse from there. While the concept is super-innovative, I do have to question how much the developers of Dash spent using other GPS devices!

The text to speech is the worse I've come across, and the lack of choosing a voice or making adjustments is missing--this is such a basic feature I have to wonder if it was ignored or skipped over in desperation to get this device out of the door.

The last insult has to be a $12-13 dollar monthly fee to use the connected features. While I don't particularly care for $80 or so bucks to update maps and POIs, I'm ok with it as a one time expense (or more depending on how up to date you want your maps). The dash has considerably fewer POIS in memory without being able to connect online via GRPS to download more, so without the monthly fee--its crippled.

And lastly, trying to route me during the route, on a light white map, the route marked on the road was...white...

For $300 you should be able to get a full featured GPS with a better feature set. Sure it won't have the innovative traffic feature...but...this needs to be a lot more than it is. Considering Dash just let a bunch of people go and changing their business model, I guess they might license their traffic technology to other GPS makers and this might be their first and last attempt at a gps device.

I had mine only for a few days before I sent it back and got my old tom tom one back...

Screen was real nice. Device huge though.

The Dash Express is now a collector's item. Dash is getting out of the hardware business and going to try to get their software on other devices. Maybe Garmin or Magellan will buy them. I am sticking with my iPhone personally.

I love this GPS. I tried it in the worst scenario: downtown in a big city. I relied on it completely and it got me to my destination in spite of my hesitations!!!

It is not perfect, but the Dash crew has been there for me every time I have a question, problem, comment, suggestion. I feel that I am an integral part of making the Dash become better and better over the years.

Yes, it sometimes makes mistakes, but the errors are getting fewer with every update. And the USERS get to be a part of the actual development. No GPS is yet "perfect"...neither are maps. This is a keeper as I won't ever (I hope) have to "upgrade" to something else or buy new maps. They are part of the subscription package.

My complaint is that since I drive a BIG TRUCK and trailer and it is far noisier than a car, it is sometimes difficult to hear even with the sound turned all the way up. And, of course, I do not have the kind of warnings I need: low clearance, restricted routes, bridge or road weight limits or roads that are impassible with a 42,000# rig. I also simply CANNOT keep this unit attached with the suction cup...

For almost anyone: the screen is too sensitive to the touch.

I give it a 4 for the above reasons, but I think it has saved me time and effort and given me routing that is far more accurate than I have had with other GPS units. I am also confident that as the months go by and the new updates become available I will see even better routing and even more features.

I recently picked up a Dash unit, and my complimentary internet connection is about to expire... And I'm can't justify actually paying for a subscription.


= Performance

I purchased the Dash to help me manage traffic in Seattle - the street planning, particularly downtown, is very poor. But the Dash has been an awful performer - at one point, the darn thing tried directing me through an intersection off an embankment, so I could meet up with the street down below!

I assume it's due to the tall buildings obscuring the GPS signal, but the unit frequently informs me of a turn *after* I've driven past the road it wants me to take. :/

And as for the vaulted ability to route around traffic? It's non-existent - the Dash never helps me route around congestion, and doesn't even seem to take it into consideration when offering me routes.


= Interface

The interface is poor and buggy.

It's ridiculously sluggish, for one - it's not unusually for there to be a ~1 second delay between a button press and the unit responding. Particularly annoying when I'm trying to toggle between muting and unmuting the device. And since the buttons for doing this are non-clicked capacitance touch areas, there's no feedback on whether it read your click or not. So very frustrating.

The menu's are poorly laid out. It takes several clicks and scrolling to get to the addresses associated with the vaulted Send2Car feature, for example. And you can't just typing in an address - it has to be broken down into street number and then street name. The options aren't all that intuitive, either - no one whose tried to use my Dash has been able to decipher how to start the routing on their first try.

And sometimes the Send2Car feature doesn't work. For example - I was driving out to a state park an hour from my home to go hiking. I feed the park's name into the MyDash website so it could feed it to my car. The website cheerfully accepted it and confirmed the destination with a map showing the correct location. Great! So I send it to the car.

Go to the car, which tells me I have a new address. Great!

Go to the list of Send2Car addresses. It isn't there. Befuddled, I clear out a handful of outdated entries, and tried sending it again. Now, the website claims to be sending the address... but the dash no longer claims to be getting it, let alone displaying in the list of available destinations.

Even the update process is lack-luster. When I initially got the unit, I had to install a half-dozen updates, one-by-one-by-one - the unit isn't intelligent enough to manage that itself.


This is not to say the device doesn't have promise - when I'm out and about, the Yahoo! Local Search feature's been quite helpful. But it's the brief glimmers of greatness that illustrate how useful the device *should* be, rather then is.

I had high hopes for the Dash. But given how long its been on the market and how unimpressive it is *even now*... well, I can't say I'm expecting great things in future updates. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

Only is a fee to get the traffic service. The gps still works as do the maps. I got this device some time ago when it was first released. The service and the cell connection is what makes this a killer gps device. Since I've owned the device I've seen a good 5 software updates. A few of them added some nice toys. Also the whole connected GPS rocks when you can right click and send to you GPS device from a computer.

Also for you hardware hackers on Amazon. This device is based on 95%% open source software. Hell even parts of the hardware are open source. [...]You can get full root access to the device if your willing to open it up. Most software from the openmoko can run on this device. The cell connection is provided by t-mobile. And the GPS is sirfstar III