GPS Virgin Seeks Knowlegable Partner

Hoops

Firstly this is a great site with some really useful info (right that's the crawling over with)

Having pensioned off my two Ipaq 3630's due to battery life shorter than Ronnie Corbets legs I'm going to purchase a new Ipaq with someones Sat Nav software and a GPS receiver.

Questions

1. I like the Ipaq 2210, however I see the speaker is on the back, will this render itself useless whilst clamped into it's bracket (I don't fancy messing around with an external speaker and all that)maybe a 5xxx would be better (won't use WiFi so these seem expensive)ANY THOUGHTS

2. Having looked at a friends setup his car is a birds nest of cables so I fancy a Bluetooth (I assume this is abbreviated to BT) GPS, however, having struggled to find a workable BT headset for either my Nokia 6310i or T68i I'm not sure BT is dependable enough (constantly dropping out etc)ANY THOUGHTS

3. Given I've emailed TomTom on three occassions and NEVER received an answer are they as customer focused as they should be. DON'T BOTHER ANSWERING JUST GETTING GRUMPY WITH OUR DUTCH COUSINS.

Finally if you were going to spend this sort of cash on a toy to play with in the car what would you buy.

MikeB

And I thought this had turned into a pickup joint. Well no joy there then.

Firstly dont stop crawling. We love it when people tell us how good we are. If you keep it up we might believe it ourselves one day.

In response to your questions:

1) The 2210 is really good. If you dont want WiFi then this is the one to go for. The speaker being at the back is not too much of an issue when used with a brodit mount. It is about 20% louder than the 5450 speaker so it can actually be heard in the car. It is not as good as the 3870 though. I have both and prefer the 2210. Batttery life is far far superior in the 2210.

2) BT GPS does work well with PDAs I have used the Emtac, GlobalSat, and Fortuna GPS receivers and they all work well and reliably.

I was happy with my 5450 and Emtac/GlobalSat I am now even happier with the 2210 and Emtac/GlobalSat. But for car use I have been converted to a permanently mounted and powered mouse GPS.
_________________
Mike Barrett

Dave

Another thing to bear in mind is that because the 2210 is thinner than all previous iPAQ's (except the 1910), there will be space at the back of most mounts, so you won't be covering the speaker up (or you don't need to).

Hardware wise, I like the 2210. I also like the Emtac/TomTom BT GPS's, but I also like the in-car powered Leadtek's that TomTom also supply.

Personally I have the best of both worlds, I have 2x Leadtek's powering my iPAQ's via their charger cables, I can then use Bluetooth but if these batteries run out (because some dumb person forgot to charge them), I fall back to the Leadtek's. Hey, but that's an ideal world that I live in.

Bluetooth is great, and if you want to take it out of car walking then I'd highly recommend it with a 2210.

MikeB

I dont think there is much danger of Dave draining his batteries during a walk. Judging by the ammount he did at the summit I would estimate that a full charge of the Emtac would last about a year!!

_________________
Mike Barrett

Dave

More drinking Guinness from what I recall!

Just wish I left off those double vodka's at 2am!

Hoops

Gentlemen, your insight is most appreciated.

As a simpleton are we saying forget BT unless we venture out of the car.

What about those CF GPS thingy's

I get the fact that the 2210/2215 is the dogs dangly bits, good news, that's some of the hardware sorted.

So that leaves TTN2 I guess, although looking at the "wish list" thread is this really the best in this price bracket.

MikeB

If you are only going to use it in one car then go for a GPS mouse. If you want to move it about consider a CF or BT GPS.
_________________
Mike Barrett

	PocketGPS
	Web