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| Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 310 Bluetooth 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Category: CE
List Price: $449.00
Buy New: $238.89
You Save: $210.11 (47%)
New (7) Used (5) Refurbished (3) from $179.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 5243
Platform: Pda
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: Yes
Native Resolution: 800 x 480
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 3.4 x 4.3 x 0.7
MPN: 310
Model: 310
UPC: 883585309559
EAN: 0883585309559
ASIN: B000VRYLU2
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 HP new revolution January 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's one month & i don't found any drawbacks for this product. I have spend less than $250 & it has everything like Music, Video, Games, Blue tooth conectivity etc. Product is very user friendly. Route reclculation is very fast. Once you start GPS, it's connect with satelite in couple of seconds. The great 3d view of the buildings in metro area like New York City. There are similar products like Garmin & Magellan are there in the market @ $400 to $600 average. You don't need to spend more money, since Ipaq available at great price. I am 100 % satisfied for this products.
HP gps January 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A wonderful product. Easy to use and great picures. Top of the line in all GPS systems we looked at.
 Too much bang for the buck? January 20, 2008
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I bought the HP Ipaq 310 GPS because it has a lot of features not available on other GPS units in this price range. Unfortunately I had already been spoiled by my older Garmin unit (I'm not pushing Garmin, it's the only point of reference that I have). The IPaq has and does a lot of things the others won't do, like bluetooth, playing video & photo's, games, etc. Maybe GPS quality was compromised a little to accomodate the other features.
The IPaq unit is reasonably fast, and has a good display, but I have some problems with it, as follows:
> The voice prompts have reasonably good diction (using some voices - this unit has several choices). Unfortunately, they are not very loud and are hard to hear and understand.
> The bluetooth feature linked with my phone, but apparently couldn't hear me when I tried to use voice dialing (even up close), or else it didn't communicate properly with the phone (which kept asking, "Please say a command..."). I'm sure it must work, but it will apparently take more study to figure out how. Again, not intuitive or well thought out.
> The menu system is cumbersome compared to my older Garmin unit. I have had to stop and park just to get basic information that I could have gotten with a touch on the Garmin unit.
> The Points of Interest feature needs work and is pretty cumbersome. Several times when I searched for something (say, "Olive Garden") it couldn't find it under the restaurant category but did find it alphabetically.
I got a great price on this unit ($250, while most places it sells for $350-$400). Even so, I would return it if I could and buy a Garmin, or possibly a Magellin, both companies have much more experience with making GPS units than HP does. (Unfortunately I bought the HP from an online seller and can't return it).
SUMMARY: HP is a great company that makes good products, but not so much in this case. If you want a GPS I'd recommend looking elsewhere until HP gets it's GPS act together. And if you want games, a media player, etc., I'd recommend buying them seperately.
 Like it January 20, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Before writing a review people should learn to use it. TTS Problem is not really a problem I have read here. I put TTS susan and works good . The male voice is hard to understand. If u use non tts voices there loud and clear.
The only really problem i had is with the software . Thanks microsoft! Since owning it i had to reset it about 5 times . No big problem , but there goes one STAR. The screen is wonderful. This is the second gps I have owned . The first was really slow compared to this HP. I put in a 4 gb sd card n have 2 full movies and some mp3 with room to spare. The movies look great , sound could be louder in movies, but there is a headphone jack that u can use..
Bluetooth is a plus, Have use it to make calls several times and it works.
The price if its todays price i would drop down another star. I purchase it on a one day sale with the price considerable lower than todays price.
This GPS unit WOWs compared to others I've tried. January 19, 2008
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
Perspective:
This is the 5th GPS software I've owned:
Pharos, Mapopolis, iGuidance (V1,2,3, and 4), Navigon, HP iPaq (iGo)
(plus Streets & Trips which I have used for navigation with a laptop while I was in Europe.) I classify myself as very tech/computer savvy.
After trying the Navigon 2100 vs. HP iPaq 310, I thought the Navigon was useful, but the HP iPaq just WOWs. If they were ice cream flavors, the Navigon would be vanilla, but the the iPaq would be the fancy sundae treat from Dairy Queen.
For a while there I was thinking of installing iGuidance4 on my iPaq 310, but now I don't see any reason to. After using it for a while, I've found I like the iPaq package a much better solution for my needs!
Overall, I've found the iPaq to be vastly superior to the Navigon in just about every aspect and well worth the extra cost.
I will add that some users have had lockups with their iPaqs which appear to be (bad) hardware related, with some people having their problems resolved when the units were replaced.
Also, HP has released a firmware update which is available when you install the Content Manager software to download and install the update on the iPaq. (It's not available as a direct web download. Must use Content Manager in order to get it.)
I've been using mine for a few weeks now and with all the tweaks and playing around with it, I've not had it lock up even once. I did create a cross country route from Chicago to Vancouver, Canada and the iPaq handled that just fine. The routing calculation took about 30s was reasonably fast compared to other GPSs. After that, it did bog down a little bit, I suspect because I was inside and the GPS position was shifting around causing recalculations every so often, but it never hung.
iPaq Pros:
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"Wow" Features: (thing that make me go, "dang! that's good")
GPS Software
- When configured for 2D display, as you get close to the turn, the software zooms in and switches to 3D mode with heading up. After the turn, the software zooms back out to 2D mode with North up. (That's exactly the way I'd like it to work.)
- parts of the map is 3D!! I'm not talking about the 3D buildings, but the terrain. I was driving over a very short bridge the other day, but the screen showed the bridge was curved and peaked at the top and not a flat bridge. Also I could see the hills in the background. At first, I thought maybe it was just "artificial" landscape, but as I drove around town, it seemed accurate, then when I zoomed out, I realized that, yes, it does (or at least appears to) have 3D or relief information. When in day mode, the map shows the terrain as a relief type map would.
- You can configure how close you want to be to the next turn before the software switches to 3D.
- 12Million POIs. Lot and lot of POIs and very well categorized too. POIs include phone numbers.
- Push in rotary knob on the side is a nice touch. To adjust 3D tilt of the map, just turn the knob. To adjust volume, push (click) the knob in first, then turn the knob. To adjust brightness, double click, then turn the knob. (Hold down knob for additional functions)
- I like how the POIs markers are transparent on the map.
Other Pros:
- GUI for finding POIs around a point on the map is very easy to use: Click on a point on the map, hit the location button, then POIs: Voila, a POI list around the point.
- POI map display had a "distance" setting for each of the categories and some of the subcategories. This lets the system determine how close to the route the POI must be before it shows up.
- for a 800x480 resolution screen updates are fast. (It's 5x the amount of information compared to screens that are 320x240)
- MANY choices for languages and accents. (not quite 100, but just for English alone, I counted 10 different selections of accents/genders/styles. Not all voices have text-to-spech though.)
- dynamic volume adjustment (based on speed) is customizable for min and max speed
- "economical" driving mode which appears to be "lowest fuel cost"
- different routing options based on car, bicycle, truck, bus or taxi
- trips can be planned on the PC, picking restaurants, hotels, etc, (requires online connection which uses google maps data) then downloaded to the GPS.
- Outlook contacts can be sync'd (uploaded) to the GPS (but this has a few quirks)
- Full screen mode which stretches the map so it goes into the menu and status bar areas, (like iGuidance).
- good sensitivity and fast time to fix (I can get a signal inside the house pretty easily)
- many software extras: music player, video player, games
- compatible with SDHC cards
- easy to install additional software and get ActiveSync working.
- Internal and external flash shows up as Mass Storage Media in windows
- Content manager makes it very easy to update software and select what software components (maps, voices, information) the user wants installed
- recalculations are very fast
- predictive text entry
Hardware
- 800x480 screen is FABULOUS and very bright
- decent speaker
- solid feel
- mount is easy to get GPS in and out of and feel secure
- has Bluetooth
- 600Mhz processor with DSP
iPaq Cons:
- can't click on POIs (to bring up details) in map mode, only in list mode can they be selected
- 3D map view zoom level cannot be changed, only tilt perspective can be changed. (Zoom level can be changed in 2D mode though.)
- day view is great, but night view is quite bland.
- Contact lookup could use more artificial intelligence. (state names need to be typed out in full and street NAMES cannot be abbreviated in any way while street TYPES can, but they must not have periods at the end of the abbreviation.)
- power button logic is poor: short press on, and long press off. It should be the other way around or at least require holding down the button to turn it on.
- Although I haven't see one of these yet for any GPS except the Michelin X970, It would be nice if there was a drop in powered dock to use in the car. I don't like having to plug in the power adapter into the side of the iPaq when I use the unit in the car.
As for some things that others have commented on, I do agree with some, but others may be misinformed or just completely wrong on some of the technical points.
1. Some people have said the iPaq can't show a complete route. This is completely wrong. It is very easy to show the complete route on the iPaq:
(a) view route graphically on map: Click on the [2d] screen soft menu.
Rotate the wheel to zoom out as far as you need in order to see the entire route. I routed Chicago to Vancouver. I could get the entire route on the screen. I supposed if you routed coast to coast, there is a possibility that you won't be able to see the entire map of the US on one screen, but you would see at least 3000-4000 miles. Then a click-and-drag can move the map over.
(b) view route in text: Click on Route->Details and scroll through the turn by turn directions.
2. Route calculations.
I've not seen any issues yet. No wacky routes, no driving off bridges, etc, but I did change the default routing method to Economy and that is all I have been using. I don't have any software that I think routes better. I think Streets & Trips and iGuidance are both comparable in routing to the iPaq.
3. Sound:
Yes, I've heard better sound from AIOs, but if you compare the iPaq to the Navigon 2100, the iPaq is just much better. If I compare my iPaq to my Dell Axim X50v, the iPaq sounds louder. If I compare my iPaq to my Dell Axim docked in the iTrex holder with external amplified speaker, the iTrex holder sounds much better. The speaker on the back of the iPaq isn't that big so it is a bit tinny but at least I can hear it over road noise whereas the Navigon was extremely tinny and I couldn't always hear it. Both Navigon and iPaq get crackly at full volume, but Navigon is much worse. I guess it's all relative on what you are comparing the sound to. In terms of voices sounding computer like, I disagree the iPaq is any different than other TTS systems I've heard. I do appreciate the configurability of languages/voices/accents. I think it's a lot better than the iGudiance "young lady (digitized), old hag (TTS)", which although comical is somewhat distracting. I do wish they would have put the speaker so it faces the front. HP and Navigon both put the speaker so it faces the rear of the screen.
This is a great GPS! I highly recommend it.
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