Snooper Syrius - Our Review

We have personally tried and tested all the units, so having used all the products we thought we would share with you our impressions.

The Snooper Syrius uses the same software interface as you get on the Indago. As the Indago is so intuitive and easy to use one can see why they have stuck with it. Being a widescreen system the Syrius is longer than the Indago and surprisingly heavy considering the metal casing has been replaced with a plastic chrome and ebony black effect which is extremely stylish and matches the design of the Snooper Sapphire.

Before using the Syrius it was hard to understand the benefit of a widescreen system as most people have the maps orientated to drive up the screen. However in 3D map mode you can see more than enough of the road ahead than you require and the windscreen design gives plenty of room for your next turn instructions and speed camera alerts to flash up without covering important parts of the map screen. It also allows for a proper layout of a QWERTY keyboard.

As far as the navigation and speed camera alerts side of things, for the benefit of those that have not read the Indago review, it's all great stuff and at the risk of repeating ourselves the highlights are as follows;

The Syrius is very forward thinking in the directions that it gives you. Many competitive systems are based on giving you instructions at certain distances before the turning and if you have 2 or more turnings close together the systems can miss their cue, Syrius is able to factor this in and give you advanced warning to "turn left followed by immediately turn right" for example.

One of the biggest differences between the Snooper Enigma powered units and most of there competitors such as TomTom or Garmin is that they have a proper, professional speed camera database. Others have half heartedly tried to throw together something built up from some enthusiasts databases in an effort to sell more units. Looking at these databases we found they only held about 60% of speed camera locations. Snooper on the other hand have been doing speed camera detection systems for 20 years, they have a range of products solely dedicated to protecting your licence and therefore have to provide and actively keep updated the best possible speed camera database that is possible. The outcome is a truely 2 in 1 product.

Anybody who is not a fan of Microsoft will be glad to know that Snooper have built the Syrius on a Linux platform rather than Windows CE. The result is a much more stable system that we haven't yet been able to crash. Just as well since there is no inbuilt reset button on the unit - a telling sign of lessor products. No expense has been spared on this unit, quality NAVTEQ mapping (as opposed to TeleAtlas), lithium-ion battery (rather than nickel-cadmium) and the latest SiRF Star III GPS receiver. Screen Brightness and volume is also very good. The Syrius Comes with a windscreen suction mount which is simple but effective. The inbuilt battery lasts 2-3 hours and the system comes with a 12v cigar lighter lead and hardwire lead as alternative power options and a mains charger is also included.

A very stylish and sleek design, pleasant to handle with an eye catching contrast between the black and chrome halves of the case. This system is simple to operate with clear icons and descriptions for whatever you are trying to do, whether it is finding a destination or going through the configuration options.

Simple in operation, just turn it on and it is a speed camera unit, no need to put in a route as with other Sat Navs. Camera warnings are clear with spoken speed limit information and if you are under the speed limit it just beeps twice and shows the visual warnings.

Just touch the screen and you are straight into the Sat Nav options. Entering a destination doesn't even require reference to the manual, it is that simple. A technophobes dream!

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