Home > Consumer Reviews > JVC KW-NX7000 Double Din Navigation with 7" Wide Touch Panel Monitor w/ DVD/CD/USB/SD Media Card & 2.0 Direct Receiver

I recently installed a KW-NX7000 in my Honda Civic. Overall it is a pretty good system but it does not really break any new ground either. This is not my 1st GPS, I have installed a Kenwood DNX5120 in my other vehicle and a factory VW Navi in another. I also have various portables from Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, Dash, etc. I will primarlily make comparisons to the Kenwood, the VW system is not worth discussing!

Interface. One big plus I will give to the KW-NX7000 is the interface. It looks good, is intuitive, and is easy to use. Kenwood has good Navi menus (all Garmin) but the rest of the interface is a mess and often requires you to refer back to the manual. With the JVC the manual is really not needed, the whole system is very intuitive.

The navigation itself works very well. It locks signal quickly and presents routes that usually make sense. The database of POI's seems reasonably complete. You do have options for fastest time / shortest distance in both preferences and on a per trip basis.

I am not especially impressed with how the KW-NX7000 displays maps. They are easy to read but kind of dull, often times you are just seeing lines on a white background. Unfortunately, there is no option to show more or less detail. Thus, unless you are zoomed way in to about 600 feet, you do not even see road names, town names, etc., just lines. The 3D view was even more dissapointing as it shows even less detail unless you are in one of the few major metropolitan areas where 3d renditions are presented. I have yet to see it present anything nearly as interesting as the photo on the box! My 10 year old says that my other units maps look more "modern". Although I tend to think Garmins maps look a bit cartoonish, I still prefer them to the blandness of JVC's. I will give JVC the edge in how they present things like speed limits, lane guidance, and other details when you are doing a routed trip. If you are only displaying the map all you get is the map and the time.

The JVC has a feature that menus appear and buttons light up when you hand gets near the screen. This is a nice feature and sensitivity can be adjusted. You can change the screen colors but not the button light colors as you can on the Kenwood or Pioneer units. No big deal but if every other button on your car is red, these will be blue.

Boo-hiss to JVC for not including RDS on FM. This means that the unit does not display the song, artist, or station information. Kenwood does provide this feature. JVC has it for HD Radio only.

I installed the JVC bluetooth module and this works great with my blackberry. Given the price differential between the Kenwood and the JVC, I do think Bluetooth should be built in as it is on the Pioneers.

I have not yet installed the HD radio module as this requires an antenna splitter (KS-U21) to continue getting traffic. Unfortunately, part KS-U21 is virtually unobtainable at this time. I am also waiting on my ipod interface so will have to provide an update on that later.

Physically the unit looks good. As installed in the Civic it looks very close to a factory install. The removable, flip down, screen is a great feature unique to the JVC. The screen is nice and large, defintely bigger than the DNX 5120. However, keep in mind that in some vehicles, the screen will stick out a bit more form the dash than some other units and may thus look more "aftermarket" than some others. I was originally going to install this in a 2nd Gen MR2 and it just stuck out to far for my tastes. In the Honda it sits in a "pod" so this is not an issue.

Install was no harder or easier than any other 2-Din head unit. It does work with the PAC Steering Wheel interface controller.

I do feel that for the price of this unit it should include some additional "standard" features. If it included either Bluetooth or HD built-in, this could make it stand out from the pack and not require another box to hide under the dash. Heck, if they just included an iPod cable or an AV cable it would be nice. Do lifetime traffic instead of 3 months. Just provide something that makes this more than another "me too" GPS. This unit costs a good bit more than the DNX5120 but it does not feel like I got a lot more.

So, is this a good head unit? Absoultely. I think it does everything well. I guess the rub is that it does no one thing great, it just has not raised the bar in any features other than the removable faceplate. Some of this could be revised in software, but the same can be said for every other manufacturer.

If this unit were the same price as the DNX5120 I would call it a toss up. You would be trading some features for others so it is a matter of what is more important to you. Currently it is a fair bit more expensive. If I were to get another GPS today, and it were between these two, I would likely go with the Kenwood.

Pros: Fast GPS, Wide variety of supported inputs, Great quality screen, Senses when your hand is approaching to light up!
Cons: UI could be easier/faster in certain places


Typically I would steer clear of anything with a JVC label. In the past I have been a fan of Onkyo, Alpine and Kenwood products, JVC always seemed like an off brand that did mediocre products. When I found the JVC in my internet searches, I scoured for reviews and information that would dissuade me. I came back shocked to see that it was a rebranded Kenwood product, and furthermore was quite well received by the ever-cynical car audio crowd.

My stipulations for a unit of this type and pricepoint were as follows:
1) Must be touch screen
2) Must support SD memory card(s)
3) Must have GPS with many POI's
4) Must support Sirius
5) Must let me keep my steering wheel control buttons

There are SO many products out there that fit these needs, but the JVC KW NX7000 is one of the few that does so affordably. So I took a chance, and bought it on ebay for around $650 shipped, and once it was installed I was immediately thrilled with it.

It is generally quick and mostly intuitive to use. The satellite radio interface could use some refinement as storing a new channel is a hassle, but overall it works great. The video quality of dvd playback is phenomenal, I was really impressed at the size of the screen and the quality of the picture. The GPS is very fast, both in its initial satellite linkup and in any redirection/recalculation. The traffic service is well worth the 40-or-so dollars per year, too, and its interactivity with that feature is amazing. "Traffic disruption found in your route, new route has been calculated".

Sound quality is also great, I am impressed with the equalizer functionality.

One of the coolest features is the sensor near the JVC logo which can tell when your hand is coming up to the screen. This lights up the buttons but also brings up relevant menu options. This is particularly good for decluttering the interface for navigation... the buttons to make a change to your route only appear when necessary (i.e. when your hand approaches).

The only con I really can say about this unit is the inflated price of accessories like bluetooth antenna, and if you have an iPhone, you'll need a different cable to make it work (which costs 100 dollars).

But overall, it is a nice interface, great navigation system, awesome video quality, great sound, and all around good entertainment center for your car/truck.

Installed this product a couple weeks ago.. i love it.. The Navi works great.. Audio/Video playback is excellent.. MP3, AVI, DVD, Divx, plays just about everything... love the detachable face.. still figuring out the remote tho.. the front panel is convienent and touch screen response is great.. proximity sensor is cool.. i keep asking myself how it know when your a couple inches away from the screen.. speed guidance keeps me from speeding on the interstate..

Initially I just wanted an in-dash Navigational unit, but eventually I wanted everything. And I got it! This unit was relatively easy to install after the required "modification" to the double din kit, due to it being even larger than the standard double din's. the display is large, bright, and user friendly. The media options are nearly infinite, I found the USB input to be most useful, due to the large capacity of thumb drives. The media inputs can be DVD, DVD RW, CD RW, SD card, USB, even i-pod with an adapter.

The navigational unit is the best I have ever had, it cuts off your music and speaks clearly through the car speakers. When the Navigation indicates a turn it tells you at 1.5, .5, and .1 mile, so you have to be deaf to miss your turn. A neat option it has is it will tell you the speed limit of the road you are on and if you choose it will warn you when you exceed 10 MPH above that speed limit "I quickly found that annoying and turned it off". The points of interest are well updated and plentiful, I have found no flaws in addresses so far, and it finds satellite signal quickly and calculates the route faster than any external GPS.

The sound quality will be better than the factory installed stereo, but not a good as you would expect from a high end dedicated music stereo. The highs sound great but the low end bass is not very powerful, but all around it sounds much better than factory.

Bottom line: The best unit, with the most options, for the money on the market. Highly recommended.

This is the best thing i seen so far. the only thing is the safty stuff.. you cant have the dvd playing when your driving but if you know what your doing the kids get to still look at dvds as you drive wink wink