By:
John R. Delaney
Best known for its car stereo products, Alpine Electronics' Blackbird represents the company's entry into the portable vehicle navigation arena, and it's not a bad first try.
The Alpine Blackbird is one sharp-looking device.
As is the case with many of the newer navigation systems hitting the market these days, the Alpine Blackbird uses a 16-channel GPS receiver rather than the standard 12-channel variety, and it has a built-in music player that supports MP3 and WMA files.
The Alpine Blackbird took approximately four minutes to acquire a 3D fix (four satellites locked in) on our maiden voyage; thereafter, the unit initialized and was ready to go in less than a minute.
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