» Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 310 Bluetooth 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 310 Bluetooth 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Save your money if over $200
Comment: I bought it for 199 and got an extra 30 off, but even then the system and maps included and upgradable in US through the HP site is old technology.

The dual core 600 seems misleading- looking further I see 570MHz total and have seen it at 285 (only one core firing up)...I assume it is actually a 300Mhz Dual Core as my 400Mhz Processor in a Mio is seen as 397Mhz and runs much better...

Navigation is built on an IGO8 platform with its own custom Skin and after downloading the 1.7GB HP upgrade the Oasis Interface and system is upgraded along with the IGO8 Software release I believe May 2008, but the majority of the 1.7GB being the Content for navigation remains at the same old Oct 2007 release for maps and poi files.

Back to processor performance - my two sons were playing the same game that is included on the HP and also on the mio, and when they were running a course that is showing 50 seconds at completion, my one son on the mio completed in 57 seconds actual time elapsed, and the one on the HP completed at ~95 seconds time elapsed where screen shows 52 seconds...after a device reset it dropped down to 62, and after the upgrade requires less resets.

The sluggish performance also is apparrent at times with TTS stop and go stutter issues.

The internal Media Player has its quirks, and the system restarts on its own too often when I try to do too much, this is before I added my own additional software...

The reasons I am keeping it is that through the games menu I was able to load my own freeware software TCPMP to play my music and video with much more control and it only has issues with large .mov files it seems, all else play great. I do have to get better video resolution when I convert my files though because the screen is excellent. You can also find much newer releases of IGO8 that are available and release dates in July and September 2008 and Content sets from 01/08 and 2008Q2, and make that software accessible either through the existing menu navigation or alternate within games.

Having this newer release and customization available makes it worth keeping, along with the Screen Resolution - I was almost ready to return it.

I put a 16GB SDHC in it and works great- I'm ready to sell my 30GB Media Players now...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Worst most frustrating GPS I have ever used
Comment: I have owned 3 avaiation and three road GPS's and found this one the most difficult UNUSER Friendly in both road and Avaiation modes... I hate it..

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good GPS, But Needs Improvements
Comment: It has a bright huge 4.3" screen. And it is the most important reason that I have bought this unit. However, sometime the system will halt during turning on, and I have to restart it. In Atlanta area, the map is not accurate and sometime misleading.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One major flaw
Comment: The device has a raised ON/OFF button. You can easily turn on and drain the battery by accident.

The case is tight-fitting. If you put the device in the case, and then apply some pressure to the case, you can turn the power on.

This is a major flaw to me, as I like to carry the device with me. I find myself turning on the power by accident too often.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Could've been alot better
Comment: I have extensively used Garmin, Tom Tom, Magellen and Mio before buying this product. The Mio stood out of all, partly due to iGo6 used for UI and mapping. I had been a big fan ever since I bought it. Mio had some shortcomings, bluetooth, time taken to acquire signal etc, therefore I decided to give that to a friend and buy the ipaq. While this product betters the Mio on its shortcomings and is based on modified version of iGo6, I think HP didn't spend enough time in perfecting it. Otherwise this unit would have got full marks from me.

Plus:
-Excellent screen
-Bluetooth
-3d buildings (marketing feature, not that extensively used)
-Games
-Ability to play video
-Excellent mods to improve the unit
-Pro routing features
-Vivid screen resolution
-Extensive POI database
-Ability to speed alerts (More suited to EU)

Minus:
-Bluetooth doesn't syncs phonebook
-Slightly slow to respond
-UI could have been more intiutive
-Unit hangs while searching for POIs in navigation mode

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