please help

[freeway680]

Hi, this is my first post.



i am a palm user for years and currently using a sony clie 760N. I was thinking about upgrading to the garmin ique 3600 but after 1 month of reading about Pocket PC and bluetooth GPS, I have decided to convert to Pocket PC. Here is the list of things that I am going to get in a month or so.



ipaq h2215 (128mb of ram)

emtac bluetooth GPS receiver

mapopolis navigator 4.10 softwares (tomtom if avalable by then)



Here is my question. Is there a difference between the emtac bluetooth GPS and the socket GPS in term of battery life, sat. reception etc...? I can find lots of review about emtac and how great it is but none about socket gps review. On the other hand, so many places are selling the socket gps for $290 (pricegrabber.com) and only a few places are selling the emtac for $350. If their performances are identical then why would the prices are different?

what about Globalsat BT-308? does anyone know how much it will cost?

I'm trying to save every penny that I can since I am about to spend $800 on all there items that I listed above. I have posted this message at gpspassion.com for almost one week and have no responds from there. I hope I have better luck overhere.

Please help and happy surfing. thank you

[Dave]

There are no technical differences between the Emtac and Socket, they are the same device, just that Socket prefer to distribute a car changer where as Emtac prefer to ship a mains charger instead. The Emtac comes in a proper product box, where the Socket is more of a plain box which looks more OEM. The prices are different probably because companies know people may be willing to pay more. In the US you'll find it listed as the Transplant Computing BT GPS, in the UK/Europe it's Socket (UK primarily Itochu), and the rest of the world it's distributed by Emtac (if I've got it right).



GlobalSat I would expect would be a lot more, it looks to be an Emtac/Socket with a dual height battery giving 8 hours instead of 5-6 hours use between charges.



Personally I wouldn't go with the iPAQ 2215 unless you like dealing with problems and being a guinea pig. The reason for this is that Compaq have consistently had problems with their new models, especially with the Bluetooth stacks. Compaq got to a very stable version of the BT Stack on the 3870 after several ROM updates, then blew this when they released the 3970 and 5450. The most stable BT stack is still unfortunately the 3870 believe it or not. It's nice to get the latest hardware, I'd just be a little warey myself.

[freeway680]

Thanks a lot Dave for the supper fast respond. I think I will go with the Socket since it comes with the car charger and more of them are available in US and it's $60 cheaper. In term of the H2215, I will have to wait and see because I really like the form and factor compare to the 3870. Once again thank you very much and looking forward to your new review about hardware, map software and bluetooth gps.

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