Reviews for Pharos POCKET GPS NAVIGATOR CF PPC NAVIGATION SOFTWARE US MAPS PWR

Pharos POCKET GPS NAVIGATOR CF PPC NAVIGATION...

Strengths: The GPS receiver can be used with different mounts to allow for multiple communications types. Bluetooth, CompactFlash, etc.

Weakness: GPS acquisition is really poor. Bundled software is not very friendly.

I was very disappointed with how long it took for the software to acquire a GPS lock. Even after downloading a "patch" application which is supposed to speed the process up from Pharos' website, it took sometimes about 10 minutes to get a lock. The PDA was plugged in so power was not an issue. It also seemed to loose the signal for no reason after a while. I was driving on very clear day on roads with no tree coverage or any other obtrusions, so I'm not sure what the problem could've been.

The bundled software seems incomplete. For example, there did not seem to be consitency on the way it identifies streets, in some occasions it uses the state highway nomenclature for a city street, in other cases the name and in other cases the number for streets that seem to me of the same type. This can be confusing when the name it shows is not necessarily the predominant name on the street signs.

When referring to highway exists it does not show the exit number. This is normally very useful.

The Smart Traffic feature is a really good idea but I'm not 100% sure of what it did. I saw some icons on the map but they were only for road construction information, nothing else. I also don't know if they affected in any way the routes. It would be useful if after a download the application gave you a status of what it downloaded and how it could affect your route.

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