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À commande manuelle avec le compagnon GPS de voyage de l'iPAQ 312 de HP

Je dirais que je suis tout à fait bon avec des cartes et pour cette raison je n'ai jamais eu besoin d'un dispositif de GPS. Après avoir dit cela, je suis également profondément intrigué par la technologie. Aujourd'hui j'ai reçu a Compagnon de voyage de l'iPAQ 312 de HP à la revue.

Avant ceci, je n'ai eu aucune idée Hewlett-Packard avais fait un produit de GPS. C'est en fait leur seconde. Toujours, j'ai été inquiété ils pourrais faire un pas dans le territoire peu familier et la qualité de ce produit refléterait leur manque d'expérience dans le domaine. Après avoir joué avec lui maintenant, il a surmonté toutes mes craintes et je crois qu'il n'y a aucune raison pour laquelle n'importe qui qui recherche un dispositif de GPS devrait exclure ceci de leur liste. Voici mon ce que j'ai trouvé.

À la première impression, vous viendrez pour admirer comment beau l'interface utilisateur est sur cet écran à haute résolution magnifique de la résolution (800×480). Chaque icône est finement détaillée et il y a d'abondance de eux. Le thème bleu frais est conformé pourtant régénérant.

L'interface est également bonne optimisée pour le contact, la seule méthode d'entrée. À la différence du capacitif multi-touchez la manie, utilisations de ce dispositif la technologie résistive traditionnelle de contact qui signifie que n'importe quel objet forcé sur l'affichage enregistrera. Une aiguille est incluse et se repose dans une fente sur le dispositif, mais parce que les boutons sont si grand de toute façon il y a peu si n'importe quelle raison de les employer.

Vous pourriez être mené à croire que ce dispositif exploite un logiciel d'exploitation fait sur commande - peut-être Symbian ou Java, mais en fait comme la plupart des autres dispositifs d'iPAQ de HP qu'il court Windows, CE 5.0 de Windows pour être exact. Et non, il ne s'est pas brisé. C'est un grand exemple d'un dispositif de Windows qui ne crie pas Windows.

En regardant certaines des images promotionnelles de HP de ce dispositif, vous pourriez être facilement convaincu que c'est un grand dispositif, mais en fait il est très compact. Dans la comparaison, il est plus petit que ma souris. Il y a biseau minimal autour de l'écran généreux de 4.3 pouces. Tandis que la taille d'écran ne gêne pas la lisibilité, il aurait été gentil si elle était juste peu un plus grand pour espacer dehors les boutons plus petits peu davantage.

On the right side is a rotatable and clickable scroll wheel - similar feel to a mouse scroll wheel, this serves as an easy way to zoom in and out of maps as well as changing volume and screen brightness. There is also a rubber flap for antenna, headphone and USB connectors. And at the very bottom, a small reset button.

On the left side is the slot for the Secure Digital card. No SD card is required to operate the device, however you can access the media stored on it.

A big selling feature of this device is the 3D map capability, which is a combination of the software and third-party mapping data. Unfortunately the digital map data in Australia is very primitive and does not show buildings and other structures as it would in US or Europe, but you can still see some of the 3D effects on bridges as above.

Personally, I find myself switching back to 2D view again and again because 3D view is quite processing incentive, and doesn’t give the fluid experience of panning around a map very well.

This device had no problems routing all the routes I threw at it, including those in outer suburbia. All the returned routes were exactly the ones I know are the best from personal experience. Routing journeys of around 40 kilometers (25 miles) took less than 4 seconds. Route recalculations such as those from a wrong turn were under 2 seconds. In the route details screen, it was smart enough to show me how many kilometers were traveled on highways and if there were any tolled highways or roads.

However if you’re a freeloader like myself, you can easily set up to avoid toll roads as well as many others unfavorable road features.

The turning point of this device for me from just a digital map to a useful driving tool is this feature of address filtering. I’m not too familiar with GPS devices so I’m not sure how many of them offer similar functionality like this, but what it does is it prevents you from typing addresses which do not exist such as road names and suburb names.

For example, after you input a suburb, it will only allow you to type the roads that exist in that suburb. This filtering continues to cut down letter-by-letter. When appropriate, it will switch views to present you with a list of options you can select.

The same applies to street numbers too.

The text-to-speech synthesizer is equally impressive as well. Whilst it doesn’t announce street names, but does provide very clear and natural directions via the loudspeaker on the back.

Having walked around on foot with the device, the GPS accuracy has an error margin of around 10 meters which is not that much of a deal in a car. However after turning a corner and changing orientation, it is able to correct itself pretty much instantly. Surprisingly with the internal antenna, I was even able to receive some GPS signal on and off under a tin metal roof.

In addition to the navigation features, this device also includes a range of basic entertainment functions like viewing pictures, videos, music and a range of arcade games. I applaud for HP for trying to extend the device with useful multimedia features, but it really falls short.

The Achilles heel of this device is that it is severely underpowered. For example, when trying to play a standard-definition Windows Media Movie video, it was downright unwatchable almost like a picture slideshow. On top of that, when the announcer informed me the GPS signal had been lost, the video actually froze so the speech synthesizer could do its job. Either the multimedia software is severely unoptimized or the processor is not powerful enough, I hope HP takes this problem seriously for the next version. It could have been a serious PMP-contender, but the software and hardware is just not up to scratch.

Since I don’t have a Bluetooth phone, I wasn’t able to check out the Bluetooth connectivity features but at the least it offers hands-free answering capability to receive and dial calls. Most points of interest on the map also has a telephone number which makes it even easier to book reservations at your destinations without ever touching your phone.

The device comes with a standard set of accessories including USB cable, wall-socket power charger, car charger, car windscreen mount, dashboard mount as well as faux leather pouch.

At a recommended retail price of US$450, this GPS device does slip a little into the pricey side. Having briefly compared it with some competing products, I think the user interface alone might be worth its difference. For its second try, HP has built a very solid device with a great piece of software that really shows they’re committed to the GPS experience as much as any of the other competitors. Can’t wait to see where they’ll go next.

Check out my Flickr gallery for more pictures of this device.