Review: Nautiz X7, Ahead of the Curve?

April 14, 2010 By: Don Jewell

Defense PNT Newsletter, April 2010

I was slightly embarrassed a few weeks ago when I received an e-mail from Amy Urban, the director of marketing at Handheld USA, wanting to know how the review of the Nautiz X7 was progressing. I wasn’t embarrassed because I had not reviewed the unit in question, but because I enjoyed the Nautiz X7 so much I had forgotten to return it.

I have been using the Nautiz X7 for the last four months and frankly it has become my everyday rugged GPS for my daily monitoring of the GPS constellation and as a benchmark for other units I am testing. And that came about just simply because the unit is easy to carry, uncomplicated, and a joy to use.

Specifications

The Nautiz X7 is a rugged unit with a fast processor, 128 MBs of onboard RAM, and 4GB of flash storage. My unit sports a SiRFstar III GPS chipset with WAAS and EGNOS options, and Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g WLAN functionality along with an auto-focus 3 mega-pixel camera with flash, and still the battery lasts for between 10-12 hours depending on how many applications you have running simultaneously.

But the good news doesn’t stop there: the Nautiz X7 has a 3G capability for GSM/UMTS phone and data transmissions (HSDPA/EDGE), a very accurate integrated compass and altimeter, and even a G-sensor/accelerometer that measures speed, vibration, and rotation. The things that you can do with this combination of capability and compact size seem to be limitless.

The operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, and you view that on a 3.5-inch color VGA touchscreen display. You have your choice of a numeric or PDA keypad. My unit has the numeric keypad with a virtual PDA keypad that can be called up as needed. Basically, this unit has everything I need in my day-to-day GPS operations and testing and I have come to rely on it for its capability, long-lived battery life, and ease of operation; plus, as I said, it is rugged. The Nautiz X7 has an IP67 ruggedness rating and a MIL-STD rating of 810G — that means it is built to be impervious to dust and water, and it can withstand repeated drops, vibration, and operating temperatures from -22 °F to 140 °F. It only weighs 17 ounces, and its size allows it to be operated in one hand, with a convenient hand strap; and since I live at 7,000 feet MSL, I can vouch that it works at altitude with no problems. Actually, the specs say it will work fine up to 15,000 feet, so I could take it to the top of Pikes Peak if the road weren’t still closed by tons of late Spring snow.

Experience

I have dropped my unit numerous times on hard surfaces, from at least four to five feet in height, and in snow banks and once in a huge slushy, ice-filled crevice, and it never skipped a beat. It has flown off my passenger car seat more times than I can count, with no apparent ill effects.

The 3.5-inch color touchscreen is visible in most lighting conditions due to the anti-glare technology, and one feature that really helps at night is the backlit keypad.

You can purchase the unit with options such as RFID, barcode scanner, and Kenaz DGPS. Even without those capabilities the Nautiz X7 is an extremely capable and accurate GPS embedded into a very easy-to-use handheld computer.

Kenaz High-Accuracy Option

The separate Kenaz NZ100 DGPS unit (see photo) is also rugged and fits onto the top of the Nautiz X7. It gives the user sub-meter accuracy and also supports SBAS (WAAS and EGNOS) corrections. I reviewed the separate Kenaz unit in December 2009. Kenaz models are also available for the TDS Nomad and TDS Recon.

Capabilities

What impressed me immediately when I first started using the Nautiz X7 were the communications capabilities. The unit is sensitive enough to see every network in my neighborhood and it logged onto my private encrypted network without a glitch. Then I installed a special version of Skype that worked well separate from the standard 3G-phone capability, which requires a sim card; it works well as a 3G phone, but for privacy I would recommend using it with a headset.

I took pictures of scrambled electronic components to simulate what an IED (improvised explosive device) might look like and was able to send the photos via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, e-mail, and 3G cellular phone (EDGE data) to my home computer. This all worked the first time, which gives you an idea of how intuitively the software on this unit performs.

The Nautiz X7 comes standard with VisualGPSce GPS software that gives you a ton of information, everything and more than you want to know about a given position. You can include this as metadata in a file with a photo, with altitude, heading, position, number of satellites in view, an accuracy approximation, as well as speed and vertical velocity if you are moving at the time. And it just works. It’s that simple. Without reading any manuals you just do what intuitively comes to mind with this unit and it works. The interface is surprisingly simple and the learning curve is very gentle.

At night the backlit keyboard is red, easy on the eyes, and the keys are large enough that you don’t get them confused. But you can’t operate them with a glove, which is a requirement for some military units, although I operated the unit during the long cold Colorado winter at temperatures down to -20°F for four months at altitude with no problems, minus the gloves. I really dread sending this unit back to Handheld. I am going to be lost without it. (Don’t worry Amy, the unit really is in the mail.)

The bottom line is the marketing tag line for the Nautiz X7 is “Ahead of the Curve,” and I whole-heartedly agree.

Until next time, happy navigating.