Car And GPS (1858)

Navman Spirit TV: 7-inch Satnav with built-in Freeview

Watch while you drive

12 May 2009 20:48 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Navman has announced that it will be launching a supersized satnav device later in the summer, that will include a Freeview tuner so you can watch TV when you aren't trying to find out where you are going.

Claiming to the be the world's first satnav with built-in TV, it will be called the Navman Spirit TV and come in two sizes; a 4.7-inch screen model and a massive 7-inch screen model.

Aside from the ability to pick up television channels when in a decent Freeview area, the unit will be a fully-fledged satnav. It will come with all the latest features as sported on the company's newly announced Spirit range, the Spirit 500, 300 and Spirit Flat - so postcode support, Bluetooth, Google local search, walking mode, Points of Interest and such like.

The unit is expected to cost between £200 and £300 when it eventually does land in the UK.

The catch? Even Mio/Navman themselves are dubious about getting a good TV reception everywhere: "I can't get Freeview where I live", Pocket-lint overheard a spokesman for the company telling a journalist at the UK launch, before omitting that the device "won't be for everyone".

Still, if you need to catch the latest episode of EastEnders on the way home, this might just be the device to do it, well as long as you know where you are going.