Alpine Blackbird portable nav unit

Or nightmares…read about why you should avoid the Alpine Blackbird below…

John Huston’s film noir tour de force, The Maltese Falcon established “the black bird” as an icon that would resonate generations later. A brilliant performance from Bogart, faithful adaption of the Hammett original script from Huston and an amazing ensemble cast tranformed what was a relatively minor film into an icon.
	The SR-71 “Blackbird” was a product of Boeing’s legendary “Skunk Works”. The Blackbird continues to hold all airspeed and altitude records. It’s 107 foot long titanium composite frame gave the Blackbird a cruising speed of Mach 3.2 at an altitude of 85,000 feet (or more). In service for more than 35 years, the SR-71 instantly became an icon of American prowess in airframe design and construction. Almost a half century after it’s conception, the revolutionary silhouette of the plane is still one of the most recognizable in the world.
Alpine’s new PMD-B100, Blackbird navigation strives for similar success. It’s not the largest, it doesn’t have the most POI (Points Of Interest), it’s not the smallest, the most expensive or the most elaborate. What the Blackbird strives to be is efficient, stylish and ergonomic, and at that, it almost succeeds. Problem is, almost in a nav unit is not a good thing.
	So what is the Blackbird then? -3.6 inch touch screen LCD -Naviteq navigation supporting six million POIs preloaded onto a 4GB hard drive -Centrality Atlas II ARM9 CPU -MP3/WMA media player (using open SD card slot) -Built-in selectable FM modulator for Music and/or Nav Weighing in at half a pound and measuring a mere 6″x1″x3″ the Blackbird is mostly screen. It has a solid feel for something so light and Alpine thoughtfully provides a very nice padded, neoprene carry case (as well as the usual compliment of car docking station, AC power supply and USB 2.0 cable).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s what you get when you buy a Blackbird…
	The quick start manual is the first thing you come to, secured in the lid of the box. On top of everything is the owners manual and warranty paper.
The owners manual features a ton of screenshots which makes going back to the unit itself almost a familiar experience. Overall, it’s a good manual. Then, once you get past the reference material, you get to the Blackbird itself. The unit itself is very well packed, safely behind a few layer of foam and reinforcing cardboard.
	The 12 volt cradle/car kit. Though the FM modulator is controlled through the touch screen of the main unit, the FM mod itself is built into the cradle. The cradle also features another speaker and an external antenna plug. This may be the worst cradle I’ve yet seen. It seems to have a built-in wobble. You actually cannot tighten it down so the unit tends to shift back and forth, especially when you are changing something on the touch-screen. This only adds to keying errors. The adjustments are two way, which means the angle of view is limited. The worst part about the cradle however is the way it mates with the Blackbird itself. It takes almost three hands to remove the unit from the cradle. When mating the two, you have to open the GPS antenna (which makes sense) but in doing so you eliminate the only place you would naturally hold the unit. Perhaps it was designed for creatures with more than two hands, if so, it’s perfect. As for removing the Blackbird, one hand is used in holding down the locking button the the tries, frequently in futility, to grasp the unit and free it from the cradle. All in all, this is, far and away, the worst cradle for any mobile device I’ve seen.
Of course, it comes with a standard 12 volt lighter plug adapter with a blue LED indicator. And the padded neoprene carry case for the main unit. The padded case may be the nicest I’ve seen. The disappointing part is, the case may be the nicest thing about the Blackbird.
	The Blackbird itself packed in plastic. Included are an AC power supply for charging the included Lithium Ion battery, USB 2.0 data cable and car docking unit. The unit seems to be finicky in charging. Twice I had to reinstall the battery because the unit wasn’t charging properly. The problem is, this isn’t indicated anywhere on the Blackbird. You just figure it out when after eight hours on the charger, it’s still uncharged.
It may seem trivial, but it’s not, a big concern with any portable unit is, “How does it look?” and in the Blackbird’s case, the answer is a sexy, “Quite nice thank you”. Here is the unit in it’s car dock, mounted to my windshiled directly above the MFD. The carry case is hiding the MFD in the top picture. Here are both displays.
	Here it is installed via the included suction cup mounting arm. I just got a Pana-Vise universal bracket which make for a cleaner install. I’ll be moving the nav unit to that as soon as I get an external antenna. Sadly, Alpine still hasn’t made the external antennas available. Delays seem to be par for the course with Alpine and this unit.
Two more views of the Blackbird from the driver’s seat. Keep in mind that the mounting arm allows the unit to be postioned to face either the driver or the passenger. When my wife is with and navigating, we face the unit towards her. It’s easier for her and less distracting for me. Of course, the unit still wobbles in the bracket like the proverbial drunken sailor.
	Two more shots of the Blackbird in use.
The Blackbird has an interesting Trip Information feature where it tracks your current speed, average speed, idling time and total trip time. Here is the Blackbird display in night mode. There is light sensor in the front of the unit that automatically changes the display when it’s dark. The light sensor is, in my opinion, far too sensitive. The purpose of the sensor is to change the display from daylight mode to nighttime mode. It’s not a big deal and it really just turns on the button illumination and changes the nav display background from tan to black. What’s truly annoying is that the sensor is so senstive it constantly changes the display back and forth anytime a small of light, say from the headlights of a following vehicle, flash on it.
	Looking down at the top of the Blackbird you see two things you may not have in previous images. Of course, this shows the extended GPS antenna built-into the back of the unit. It also shows the SD card slot where you can load music into the Blackbird.

PROS

CONS

Final thoughts…
I think one of the biggest problems with most net reviews on equipment is that the review is written so early in the ownership cycle you really don’t get a good picture of what ownership is like, rather, you get a good idea what acquisition is like.

Overall, I really hated the Blackbird. I’m just vain enough about my Prius that I want accessories in it to look nice. The Blackbird does that. But the bottom line is, as a nav unit it’s terrible. The software is clunky and one dimensional. The interface is set up so that it is nearly impossible not to hit the wrong thing while using the touch screen. But most of all, it’s slow and inaccurate. The Blackbird tends to get lost which, as you might imagine in a nav unit, is unacceptable. It takes forever (around a minute or so) for the Blackbird to establish it’s location and locate the GPS satellites which is far slower than any other unit I’ve used (mostly Garmins). It’s especially slow when recalculating routes which, if you have any experience with nav units, happens a lot. So it tends to only make you more lost if you miss a turn.

And while I think the Blackbird is stylish (and it is) there are some bizarre questions in my mind. One of which is, why did this make this enormous, almost useless button fill one third of the front face. The multi-function, which is styled sort of like an iPod click wheel (but isn’t) really doesn’t do much. At least, it doesn’t do enough to merit the amount of real estate it takes. It seems like a superficial decoration to me. Camouflage.

In talking with an Alpine rep I learned my experience is not the only negative one. Apparently Time Magazine slammed it as well. And I think Time slammed it for good reason.

Another thing I learned is, according to the rep, Alpine will be charging significantly for updates. This is a unit that needs to be updated out of the box. The idea that another $100-$300 for an update disc is required for a new unit is repugnant.

And just for the record I used three different Blackbird units over a two month long period. None of them performed properly. At first I thought maybe I just got a bad unit. No, I actually got three bad units which leads me to believe that it’s just plain bad. I drove about 3,000 miles with the Blackbird in the car and while it did, at times, perform adequately, overall and in the main, the Blackbird failed time and time again for one reason or another.

Alpine makes some great gear but the Blackbird is not worthy of the name (either Alpine of Blackbird). It looks nice and has some interesting features but as a nav unit, it’s nowhere near as nice as several others at or below the price of the Blackbird. The Blackbird is poorly engineered, the software is far below average for portable nav units and, apparently, the defect rate is atrocious. The Blackbird is a failure. Avoid it at all costs.

Because it’s all about finding your way back…

(and yes, that’s my front door)