Aldi Bundle - A word of caution

EGC · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 22

Hi all

I'm new to this site and noticed that quite a few people seem keen on buying the Aldi/Medion bundle. I offer a word of caution.

I actually bought one of these about six weeks ago direct from Medion (cost £399!). I was not very happy with it. The Medion 250 PDA is a bit flimsy (compared alongside products like the iPAQ 2210).

Anyway, to cut short a long story, I had a lot of reliability problems with it and finally managed to get a refund (via my Credit Card).

I subsequently purchased an iPAQ 2210 with TomTom and Haicom 303E CF-card receiver (from globalpositioningsystems.co.uk). This is in a totally different league to the Medion bundle and works completely reliably; it is far more sturdy and a real 'professional' product.

The Medion bundle from Aldi is cheap, but in this world there are no bargains and you get what you pay for. Granted, you can take it back and get a refund, but in my view if you are serious about getting into GPS then get one of the better qual;ity systems and save the frustration and messing about.

Just my 2p worth. ;-)

edge · Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 7:01 pm Post subject:

Hi,
I am planning on buying a Medion from Aldi tomorrow so found your comments on the bundle's quality and reliability useful. Really, I need a GPS for our second car--we already have a dedicated unit in my wife's Celica. I thought that for £270 it was worth taking a chance. I've read mixed reviews on the Medion, but it's always great to hear from people who have actually lived with the system, rather than just using it for review purposes. There does seem to be a lot of info on the www about the bundle, most of it in german! I did use a translator but the result was almost unreadable! Could you perhaps outline the main issues that caused you to seek a refund? Was it poor software, unreliable satellite locks, PDA freezing, etc? Also, was the system easy to set up as I've heard that instructions are a little skimpy!
Thanks and regards,
Edge

EGC · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 22

Well, the case is rather flimsy. On mine, if the case was twisted slightly (like when 'adjusting' it in the car mount) the display would go 'patchy' and sometimes the unit would reset itself.

The Nav. software would periodically lock up or give completely the wrong location. Incredibly frustrating when it happened part way through a journey.

An unreliable sat-nav is worse than none at all.

My new system with iPAQ2210 and TomTom seems 100% reliable.

budgie55 · Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 7:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the advice EGC.

However I am still going to take the plunge at Aldi for £270. The only reason I am going against your advice is the Aldi 12 month no quibble money back guarantee, otherwise I would be holding on to my money.

Sorry to hear that you had problems with your unit. Fingers crossed it was not a common problem. If it was I will be going back in a few weeks time with it hehe and seriously looking at an IPAQ/GPS system.

Sigh more reading up to do hehe

Cheers Thumbs Up

Allan

edge · Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:08 am Post subject:

I agree with Budgie. For the low price and ability to return the unit no questions asked is the reason I am going to Aldi. At the higher Halfords price, the package faces very serious competition from more established rivals. I hope that EGC's experiences with the Medion were the exception rather than the rule, but only time will tell. I, too, will return the Medion and consider a higher-priced rival if it proves problematic. Good to hear that EGC has gotten a system that is reliable now.
Cheers,
Edge

dean-gps · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 1

Hi all,
Ive just bought the Medion from Aldi this morning.
As a few of you have said, the same product is for sale in Halfords for £399, surely its a must from Aldi at £269.
So far it seems like a good piece of kit, but time will tell. And with forums like these, im sure someone will soon shout if there are signs of a weak spot on the unit.
Does anyone know of how to get speed camera info from the net so it can be put on the unit ?

Regards Dean

tony66 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 2

Hello
I also bought the Medion from Aldi this morning. and on the box its said its a "Medion PDA MD 41800 ive been trying to search on the internet and cant find anything about this specific one does anybody know what its the size of the processer? also i have read a revius of this pda on the magazine "Computer Active and gives a top marks but ive not taken mine out of the box iet. also this its my first PDA so any info will be appriciate Thanks

rd57chad · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 22

Hi Tony ,
its model is PPC250 try searching for that instead .
Its based on a samsumg 266 mhz processor equivalent to a 400mhz?
Your managing to show remarkable restraint , I've spent all day on mine!
Got everything working . Plays mp3's, WMV's, Synch system ok , pretty straightforward to set up . Apparently they were shifting of the shelves @ a remarkable rate !Hard to fault at the price!? Still early days yet but looks very promising...
Oh yes ditto with Deans remark - anyone know how to sort speed camera info out?

Rob:~)

Earthdweller · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 21

Had mine for six days now (price matched from Halfords!!) and having had psions, ipaqs and casios before I think its a great pice of kit. I like the finish with the shiny grey back and metallic looking front. The screen is very sharp and colourful unlike my Compaq 3870 which was "cloudy".

So far its been completely reliable, no lockups. (unlike compaq 3870) Active sync was a breeze (for a change). The GPS has also been too easy, worked flawlesly. Quicker aquisition and place finding than the car set-up.

Also as an MP3 player 256MB card for less than £40.00 on ebay fill it up, cant go wrong

The only minor problem with gps is the car power cigarette lighter/power plug works lose after a while and I have to push it back in. Re aquires satellites straight away though.

I have sat nav in the car already (fiat stilo) and this compares very well as you can adapt/update/add to this using poi-warner which I have. Not worked out how to install the speed cam poi yet thouigh, I copied it to the poi-warner/pois folder on the ppc but warner is not finding it. It must be something I'm doing wrong because the downloaded/synced pois work ok.

Anyway all in all a great piece of kit and an affordable start with ppc-gps.

Highly recommended

Kirk · Posted: Fri May 14, 2004 9:24 am Post subject:

[I have sat nav in the car already (fiat stilo) and this compares very well as you can adapt/update/add to this using poi-warner which I have. Not worked out how to install the speed cam poi yet thouigh, I copied it to the poi-warner/pois folder on the ppc but warner is not finding it. It must be something I'm doing wrong because the downloaded/synced pois work ok.quote]

When you copied the speed camera POI's did you convert them to ascii format using the POI edit software? If you did then you need to go into poi warner software and tell them they are there, to do this: Open POI warner, go to poi manager, then poi settings, then overlay settings, then press +/- and tick the speed camera box. All done[/quote]

rd57chad · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 22

Kirk,
You are a GENIUS ! Had managed to work out that the file types were different but didnt know how to change them . As soon as i changed pov to asci files using poi edit i started making progress . As soon as i told warner prog where they were hey presto symbols appeared . Cheers for your help , I can go back to bed now - been on this since 4.30am - not good ! :D Wink

tony66 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 2

Hi rd57chad
Thanks for your imput only now i tuck my PDA out of the box install the battery and putting on docking station for chargin so i will be playng tonight wen i will be back home from work wen you alling the screen the cross should be going all the way to the edge of the screen? becouse mine only only went about a centimeter from each corner its this right?

rd57chad · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 22

Tony,
Re: screen setting - yup that sounds right - didnt go to far into the corners. Goodluck !

Earthdweller · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 21

Yup thats right. All the pocket pcs seem to do this on the screen set up. Just try and tap exactly in the centre of the cross. You'll see this screen again if you have to do a hard reset. Sad

Not had to do that on this machine yet though but I did on my compaq 3870.

Finally got the speedcam pois working after I renamed the files to ascii (.asc) with ppi-edit - thanks Kirk.

The speed cams are working fine once I sussed that you have to run poi-warner first and then tap Monitor Now which launches Medion-Navigator.

With pocket gps word speedcams and poi-handlers (cost E12 p.a.) it found all the cameras on my route today and all in the right place, excellent!.

I love this piece of kit, theres so much to do on it. Just off to finish my game of Monopoly on it. Happy

Simon

Earthdweller · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 21

Oops sory spelling mistakes in my last post which might confuse people looking for help.

Finally got the speedcam pois working after I renamed the files to ascii (.asc) with poi-edit - thanks Kirk.

With pocket gps world speedcams and poi-handlers (cost E12 p.a.) it found all the cameras on my route today and all in the right place, excellent!.

Simon

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