Sony XNV-770BT GPS (TOMTOM navigation) with LCD monitor, digital player, DVD player and radio

The Sony XNV-770BT GPS features TomTom navigation and delivers incredible audio and video picture quality. TomTom incorporate real world, real-time feedback, providing the most accurate maps available. An external GPS module essentially puts a TomTom navigation device inside the Sony, utilizing all of the technologies and interface design of TomTom's midtier PNDs. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Sony's newest all-in-one car audio receiver pairs a brilliant 7-inch display with GPS navigation powered by TomTom. The result is almost the best of both worlds, but we'd like to see a bit more integration.

The Sony XNV-770BT features an extra-sharp TFT (WVGA) 7-inch touch-screen display with gesture command and on-screen touch buttons and checks all of the audio and video playback boxes we like to see with iPod, USB, and Bluetooth connectivity. Separate audio and video power supply circuits provide added clarity.

Despite a few forays into the world of turn-by-turn navigation and two generations of Nav-U portable GPS devices, Sony simply isn't a manufacturer that comes immediately to mind when most of us think "navigation." Instead most think of a brand like TomTom for GPS, associating Sony with nice displays or crisp PlayStation-esque graphics. Rather than fighting this brand perception, Sony embraces it with the XNV-770BT in-dash AV/GPS receiver.

This all-in-one receiver plays to its strengths and outsources its perceived weaknesses with an external TomTom GPS module that fills its crisp 7-inch Sony video display with the full TomTom .The XNV-770BT integrates seamlessly with Satellite Radio and HD Radio using Sony Bus adaptors so you can receive digital satellite radio or HD Radio broadcasts.

The menu structure can be a bit clunky, requiring multiple button presses to jump between the device's three modes. The navigation interface runs at a lower resolution than the screen's native resolution, causing maps to look blurry relative to the crisp menus and audio source screens.