I had been interested in Ivan's product for a few years now and our Mac finally died so this was a perfect opportunity to get a
laptop that can run double duty for us and with little to no independent
reviews on his product I figured I'd do a quick write up.
13" Panasonic CF-31Toughbook 64bit i7 2.7ghz 8Gb RAM 500GB SSD HD, all available maps (Open CPN and TimeZero Pro nav software) AIS receiver, GPS/GLONASS receiver, Windows 10 pro and basically every premium option available except touchscreen.
The good:
-Every useless piece of
software that you normally get with a production
laptop is gone
It is fast, waterproof and tough with one stop
shopping.
The Bad:
-I knew Ivan refurbishes used toughbooks so I wasn't expecting a brand new TB for the
price, but it was disappointing to have 'Property of' with someone else's name etched into my laptop (this may be an issue crossing an international border or with local authorities);
-The
plug in accessories (AIS/GPS/12V adapter/ and AC adapter) are the cheapest available made in
China stuff easily found on Amazon for 1/3 the
price offered;
-The internal
GPS I paid $80 extra for is from what I can tell incompatible with Windows 10 and was not tested prior to
shipping out. Ivan was unaware of the incompatibility and offered help initially, after I tried several solutions with no results communication has all but stopped;
-The DVD/CD burner was shipped separate for me to install (still has yet to arrive);
-The TimeZero bathymetric maps are 'okay' but the
google map overlay is a joke and in no way worth the additional
money, they are old fuzzy
images with next to no resolution (see below pictures, one in SE
Alaska one Downtown
Vancouver and they do not appear to be any better anywhere else in the world);
-Absolutely no product keys for any installed
software;
-When ordering Ivan was very responsive, answered all of my questions almost immediately, after it shipped response time lagged and now he wont respond at all. I am assuming support for his product is now non-existent. I have been polite throughout and given more than adequate time for a response (5 days and counting now, and have entire
email chain to back this up)
Summary:
I would give
https://navigationlaptops.com/ a 2/5 stars for the lack of quality (on the accessories) and lack of operations testing prior to
shipping combined with the lack of technical support. That being said I am more or less happy with the laptop itself (highly expandable, waterproof toughbook) and if I had to do it again I would probably (iffy) order the laptop again, but I would source the accessories separately and certainly not
purchase the premium Time Zero maps (although the software is nice).