First, to the guy who wrote the review stating there is no "text to speech", it is included! You just have to go to the languages and choose a version with a "TTS" option...

This is is very nice device. If you have looked on the web at videos of the IGo version 8 software, then you know exactly what you are getting. The unit acquires satellites very quickly from a cold start (less than 10 seconds). Routing and recalculating is good. Certainly on par with the two leaders in the GPS market (Garmin and Tom Tom). The screen is magnificent! The graphics are the best I've seen on a GPS device, although I wish I could modify the screen colors. You see terrain, texture, overpasses, bridges, etc. in 3D! The buildings and attractions are quite interesting, too. I can't wait to visit a 3D rendered city that's included in the map. (I browsed Atlanta and NYC). There are a few icons on some screens that are not accessible yet because HP has not yet opened their new Ipaq website for updates. I cannot add any contacts, etc., from Outlook yet. I'm sure the website will open soon as it is already up, just no way to access anything. Overall, a good device and one I would definitely recommend. Here are a few more features:

Navigation - HP UI built on latest iGO8 engine from NavNgo-Text to Speech, Loquendo engine
Maps - TeleAtlas2007.07 full US and Canada with 3D terrain, landmarks, 2D buildings
Points of Interest - Extended Info USA database, over 12 million
Planning - IPAQ web services to tailor and integrate your travel
Screen - High Definition 4.3"WVGA (800 x 480) 3X -5X higher resolution
Processor - Centrality (SiRF) Titan dual core 600 MHz with 3D graphics
GPS - Centrality 40 channel with Autonomy TTFF acceleration
Memory - 128MB fast DDR memory with 2GB flash storage
Entertainment - Music player with MP3 and DRM, High Def Video player, photo viewer, games (Gameboxclassics, Flux Challenge)
Productivity - Contacts manager with Outlook sync, dial and navto contacts, calculator, world clock
Bluetooth - 2.0 EDR with phone hands free and A2DP stereo headset capable
Connectivity - miniUSB2.0 for high speed data sync with your PC
Digital Terrain Data - Realistic display shows elevation of roads and surrounding landscape
3D City Data - 60+ North America cities
3D Landmarks - North America, NY, 1,400 by end of 2007
3D Icons - North America, 500

Well first off, I'd like to say this is a really great GPS and I'm extremely satisfied with it. It may not be for everyone - like anything, you should do your research first. However, I was irritated to read many of the negative reviews here that appear to be due to lack of knowledge or just plain laziness from not reading the manual, etc. I also feel these posters find something that doesn't fit their needs and immediately give it one star. Ok, so it wasn't for you, it doesn't mean the device itself is lacking! Anyway, I felt I needed to write a thorough review to try and identify the true potential of this device.

I upgraded to this item when Amazon had a Friday sale at a ridiculous price. I paid the same that I paid for my previous GPS - A Via Michelin X930, which fails in comparison to the IPAQ 310. While that GPS was a great companion on the road, it was my first system and I found myself wanting some of the bells and whistles that come with higher level models once I had gotten used to how to use GPS navigation.

First off, I trust HP - even though they are new to the scene of GPS - and feel they have built a very solid product. Calling it a 'travel companion' is very accurate, as it does so much more than navigation.

Many of the reviewers seem to not know how to read a manual or edit the settings before you set up a new electronics product - and I don't mean a really thick book, I just mean the basic scan of key items, etc. Also, it seems they are too quick to give a 1 or 2 star rating without really playing with the device. I mean, this is definitely not a beginners GPS, you do have to sit down and configure some options. First off, this item DOES have TTS support, you just have to make sure the voice you choose under settings has 'TTS' next to it - simple. Second, the re-routing issue people seem to have a problem with is most likely due to them not having 'auto re-routing' selected - again, under settings. Finally, the issue of the system being slow when showing 3D buildings is partially true, but common sense resolves it. I mean if you are in a huge city and have the setting on high, yeah it slows down, but why in the world would you want that many buildings on your map!?! They are a really nice and flashy feature, but there really is no need to have it on the high setting since with that many buildings it would make the map too cluttered. The 'close' setting works just fine for me, and I'm in Houston (4th biggest city in the US). Many of the most recognizable buildings are pretty detailed (like the Williams tower here in Houston). I like how the terrain is also in 3D (which I didn't realize until I went to Austin since Houston is so flat!), and the highway overpasses, bridges, etc. are also 'raised' on the map. Those complaining who live in smaller towns and cities, and therefore are not in 3D, are just nit-picky. It clearly says that it's limited to specific areas (namely the largest cities, of course - not sure how many though). Like I said, this product may not be for everyone. If you want 3D buildings and you live in a smaller city, then wait to see if a product comes out later that appeals to you. Anyway, if most of these reviewers just went into the settings area when they first turned it on and played around a bit, they would find the answers to nearly all of the problems addressed!

I have been very happy with this product so far. The size and weight are perfect, and I like the design a lot. It feels very sturdy and well made. The power button could be located in a better position, but I haven't really had many issues with accidentally pushing it like others had mentioned. However, I haven't really carried it around a lot in it's case, but I'm not really sure how you would press it unless you sat on it it or put pressure on the whole unit - and why would you do that?!

The screen is incredible! It is extremely crisp and clear, and I haven't had many issues viewing it in sunlight - less problems than my Via Michelin. I'm just really psyched about the screen, it is by far the best I have seen on ANY GPS today. It really shines when you put it in 'full screen' mode when navigating. The bars at the top and bottom show info you can live without if you have TTS on, so that is how I use it and it really looks good!

Videos have to be converted to a specific format in order to play, so I haven't used that function yet or really played around with it. Music plays fine and you can select it to play then go and select your navigation (plus settings on how you want the music interrupted, etc.) The device has 2GB built in and has an SD slot for additional cards. One thing I really like is that if you have it plugged in to the outlet in your car, the device will automatically turn on when you turn on the engine. Therefore, if you have music set to 'always play in the background', then it automatically comes on too. I really like that. For those wondering, the music pauses when the GPS speaks, so it can get a bit annoying when you are close to your destination due to the pauses (ie - 'turn right on ... in 500 ft' every 100 ft). I didn't find it overly frustrating though. Pictures are organized well and look great on the screen. I like the file system for music and pictures. It is pretty easy to use and similar to a computer's explorer. The games are a really neat little feature - quite a few of them are a real blast to play, with nice graphics to boot. They are played with the stylus that is cleverly and stealthily stored on the top of the device. My favorites are the 3D racing game (although controls can be a bit hard) and Jewel Master. This device is small and light enough to just carry with you on trips (the protective case is really nice and I was surprised to see it included!) so it's good for bored times at the airport etc. The contacts feature is really cool! I love how you can use the addresses to directly navigate and/or call a contact at the touch of a button. It would be nice if you could sync your phone, but you can sync if you have Outlook (which I don't) so I just entered the people I call/see the most into the GPS.

Ok, so now onto a couple of negatives. The speaker is not too great, which others have touched on. It is a bit quiet on it's own, but not terrible. The male voices especially tend to make it vibrate at high volume. At home it sounds pretty loud, but in the car it could be louder due to road noise, etc. However, it has an audio out jack so you can connect it to your AUX in your car. That is how I use it. I have my mp3's, bluetooth and navigation going through my car stereo and it's great to have all this in one device rather than the two or three I had before. Bluetooth with my Motorola V3t worked flawlessly and I'm glad I can finally talk on the phone through my cars speakers just like a dealer-installed option!

The software is decent. I find the menu system easy to follow and there are not a zillion sub-menus to get lost in. It is easy to navigate to where you want to go. There are a few quirks and bugs, but I figure this was only released in November, and HP are pretty good about updates, so most of the little issues that I have run into (like some funky graphics) will probably be fixed later. They are not big enough to cause major issues though. So far I haven't had any crashes that others have apparently experienced, so I can't really comment on stability just yet.

Battery life is also decent. I have a little 'cubby' in my car that lets me just put it there so I can glance at it (but I mostly use the TTS) but it's also in easy reach for entering details. Anyway, for me the charge lasts a week or so with use solely when I'm the car (with music set to 'always on' and backlight at roughly 50%) before the handy 'battery getting low' message appears. I really like this feature since usually you have a little battery icon going low or turning red. This is a full-out message that you have to press 'OK' to get rid of. If you continue to leave it, it eventually has a message telling you it will shut down in 10 secs. I would say the battery lasts about 3+ hours if you had it on continuously. I heard with Bluetooth on it drains the battery faster. The device completely charges in about 2.5 to 3 hours.

So, onto the navigation features:

The device is extremely quick at gaining a satellite signal. I switched it on in my apartment and it literally picked up and fixated on my position in a couple of seconds! My Via Michelin takes about 2 or so minutes. The scroll wheel on the side is a great addition. You can zoom in and out with it or press it in to bring up a shortcut menu. Entering addresses is pretty simple. I had no problems with routing or re-routing, and it is extremely quick at both. I really think the C|Net reviewer had auto-rerouting turned off, since she rated that so low. You would think a reviewer like that would have things set up correctly before testing! The POI index is amazing! It has 12 million POI's according to the literature, and it really does seem that way - more than I could ever want. It made me realize how little my Via Michelin had, although they were definitely adequate for my use. The maps are TeleAtlas and I heard they were not as good as NavTeq, which I have in the Via Michelin. However, I haven't really noticed any notable differences between the two so far.

One feature I really like is the IPAQ website. This allows you to register your travel companion and create routes to download to your device. This is REALLY useful for long trips since you can take advantage of the keyboard and computer screen which makes it much easier to find and enter POI's, multiple stops, etc. The website was not up and running until a few weeks ago, so that is one reason for some negative pointers here and in other reviews. It is working fine now and I think it will be a great resource for updating, etc. My Via Michelin has nothing like this, and with this new device being through HP, I know I will have access to support.

Overall, I feel this is a really good GPS system that has gotten some bad rap due to user ignorance, laziness and too early release for reviewing since the website was not even up yet for the major reviewers. For the price I paid it was an incredible value, but I would say even at near the list price I feel it would be worth the money considering the features compared to other GPS devices that are in competition. Don't let the negative reviews sway you if you are seriously considering getting this device, you really need to test it for yourself and decide if it's for you. I feel I discover really incredible products this way and the IPAQ 310 travel companion follows this tradition.

Pros:
Nice big wide bright screen
Looks great
Great features (Bluetooth, Text to Speech, 3D Maps, Elevation, Games)
Menus are actually not bad and not convoluted.
Removable battery
Audio out, USB, and Antenna connectors are all in one spot (right)
One button
Rubberized back side
Includes stylus
Scroll wheel + clicky
Comes with a leather case

Cons:
Froze repeatedly. Freeze upon freeze.
Stutters a lot when Text to Speech was working
The street name on top does not show the whole name and always scrolls
Rerouting and recalculations were bad at best (slow & inaccurate)
Processing was slow. Showed my position one block away after a reroute.
3D landmarks are very sparse. Maybe 1% of many large cities.
3D landmarks are inaccurate and not as seen as most photos.
Power button easily hit unintentionally: Short press=on Long press=off
Map refreshes vary slowly because of 3D
Voice constantly speaks.
Rerouting is persistent to stick to original route despite settings.
Audio output=low
Proprietary USB charging (can't use other 5v USB chargers)
No camera warnings
No speed warnings
Does not tell you if destination is on the left or right of you.

Major points:

PERFORMANCE:I can't recommend this. I have three other devices. The Garmin Nuvi 350, Mio C310x, and a built-in by Bose. I would have to say, when compared to these three, these three work much better. This device froze so many times when I was driving that I think it might be defective. Other than that, it freezes in other places too like if you search for movies or music if you do not have an SD card inserted. In general, the device is slow to respond. Load time after a hard reset is slow and starting the navigation software is slow too. Acquiring a signal is somewhat quick, half a minute quicker than other handhelds, but not as quick as the built-in Bose.

THE 3D: The 3D maps are much different that what you see in the pictures on Amazon or their website. For example, the Transamerica Building in San Francisco does not look like what you see in the photo, it is some rectangular tall structure. Although it might be insignificant, I believe it is false advertising. Not getting what they show. Yet, it is different and new compared to other devices, but this is not good enough.

VOICE & RECALCULATION: Text to Speech is very rough. 80% of the time it mispronounces and I can't even guess what it is saying. San Jose sounds like "San Jos Eh" and Junípero Serra sounds like "Jnprlsra" or something like that. Insignificant, yes but if I did not know the area, I would be frustrated. Rerouting is terrible. With the other three devices running at the same time, all except the iPAQ insisted to stick to the original route. I tried changing the settings, yet it still did the same thing. It was not until 3 blocks later, it gave up, but was lagging, miscalculating my position, pin pointing me a block back, even after I had made a right turn. There was one instance I was heading to work. It was about a mile away. I went straight after exiting the highway instead of taking a right and a left to a parallel street. The iPAQ then insisted EVERY block for the next MILE to take the next right then left to take the street parallel to the one I was on. It was really not necessary since I did so right before the destination. It really should have known to give up and reroute me correctly.

ACCURACY: I was driving on Highway 280 at night. For about 2 miles, it kept telling me to take left and right turns for no reason. It sounded like it thought I was on local streets instead of the highway. On the map, it showed me off and on the highway, so I think it was not sure where exactly where I was. Going through short tunnels and even some large overpasses, iPAQ would loose GPS signal. It would clearly say "GPS SIGNAL LOST".

Bottom Line:
If you don't need the 3D, wait for HP to fix the software or look for another device. Bluetooth, Text-to-speech, and more accurate maps are available in other devices for more or less, without the hassles.
This navigation device is a buck fifty from perfect. It has a long way to go. Software needs fixing mainly. My device froze repeatedly for some reason. Maybe it was an isolated case. Everything else is just annoyances to me, but was still usable if the device was not frozen or rebooted itself. I like many things like the scroll wheel and the wide screen. The 3D landmarks were a nice touch, but it was marginal at best. Buildings are not even close and does not 3D the whole city. The map refreshes very slowly and easily over-pans when you are viewing the map. I can go on and on but this thing freezes too much so I ditched it.

This iPAQ uses a modified iGO 8 software. More devices will be released that uses this software, one of which will be Mio in the C620 in the near future.

There is a reason why Garmin is one of the leaders in GPS market for the US: it is designed with users in mind. This HP unit has some nice features such as a beautiful screen, relatively fast processor, nice graphic if you live in a major metropolitan such as here in Boston, and a list of POIs that is not too shabby. However, there are three major flaws in my view:
(1) Navigation: route recalculation is so illogical one has to believe the algorithm used is fundamentally flawed.
(2) Sound: What sound? one has to put the unit literally next to your ear to hear anything. Turning up the volume seems to aggravate the tiny speaker as it blares with statics. This is joke if HP engineers have a sense of humor.
(3) Power management: The unit powers on with the slightest touch of the power button. While the manual states that holding down for 2 sec to turn on, a single touch will power it on. As such, do not consider this unit if you intend to keep it in its carrying case to carrying it around, since the slightest squeeze of the case turns it on. The solutions are to set power save to the max and/or take the battery out, else you'll run out of power within a few hours. I called HP tech support and they suggested that I should "tape over" the button!!!

There are some nice features as this GPS unit has its roots traced to the iPAQ handhelds. But clearly, this product is an incomplete and flawed one. HP appears to have rushed this product to production before it is field tested.

I'll keep this review short. I use high end Magellan and Garmin models on a daily basis in my work. Both systems are adequate and both have their flaws. After alot of use Magellans tend to freeze up alot and have some areas where their maps are a bit inaccurate. Garmin, while not as user friendly as Magellen has more accurate maps but more easily loses it's link. Both will usually get you where your going.

I took a chance and bought my wife an HP GPS for Christmas, and I have to say I am blown away! In the areas I have used it, the maps are FAR more accurate than either Magellan or Garmin. The HP is able to connect and find it's position from inside a house, while Magellan and Garmin tend to lose their connection by just going under a bridge. It's POI index is far more complete than either of the previously mentioned systems. It also depicts the map in a topographically correct manner, terrain is correct right down to hills and ditches, something which might not be necessary but is cool none the less.

It's has minor flaws, which include a less than crystal clear speaker. It's screen depicts alot of info along the edges of the map, which might be a burden for those with less than 20/20 vision (though the map and route are crystal clear). The other flaw is support, if you have a problem or question, dont bother searching the HP site, there is no mention of this product anywhere on-line. I had an issue with a broken cradle, which HP replaced for free, but it took alot of fruitless searching on-line before I gave up and decided to talk with a customer service rep. So make sure you keep the product box and info, cause if you have a problem your gonna need it.

All in all, this is the BEST GPS I have used. It has features that you will only find in much more expensive models and has extremely accurate maps. When it comes down to it, the accuracy of the maps is what counts the most, and this GPS will not let you down.

I have extensively used Garmin, Tom Tom, Magellen and Mio before buying this product. The Mio stood out of all, partly due to iGo6 used for UI and mapping. I had been a big fan ever since I bought it. Mio had some shortcomings, bluetooth, time taken to acquire signal etc, therefore I decided to give that to a friend and buy the ipaq. While this product betters the Mio on its shortcomings and is based on modified version of iGo6, I think HP didn't spend enough time in perfecting it. Otherwise this unit would have got full marks from me.
br /
br /Plus:
br /-Excellent screen
br /-Bluetooth
br /-3d buildings (marketing feature, not that extensively used)
br /-Games
br /-Ability to play video
br /-Excellent mods to improve the unit
br /-Pro routing features
br /-Vivid screen resolution
br /-Extensive POI database
br /-Ability to speed alerts (More suited to EU)
br /
br /Minus:
br /-Bluetooth doesn't syncs phonebook
br /-Slightly slow to respond
br /-UI could have been more intiutive
br /-Unit hangs while searching for POIs in navigation mode
br /
br /

I debated for a very long time before purchasing the HP Ipaq 310. My usual habit of shopping around for anything I buy requires me to read every review I can find on the web....Need to know the features, need to get the best price...etc. Gotta admit, this process is sometimes excessive to the point of frustration. I've owned and used about 6 GPS units in the last 5 years or so...they included Navman, Magellan, Lowrance, Garmin; that averages about 1 GPS per year. However, in reality, I had been using Garmin 350 for the last 2 years...everything else were fairly brief. Garmin 350 was simply a breeze to use; it does the GPS' primary purpose very well and is the easiest to use GPS out of the box I've had. The HP Ipaq 310 is NOT easy to use straight out of the box. I fully expected this after reading all of the reviews here in amazon, and cnet, and more exotic sites like [...]; Now, I usually would consider myself somewhat of a techy kind of guy (I've always been the one friends and family would consult for electronics advice) and I rarely have to read instruction manual on most of anything I buy in order to operate them. I received the Ipaq 310 from amazon...got in my car, turned the thing on; then for the next 20 minutes could not make it take me to a destination! I was fully humiliated in front of my girlfriend. So, the thing is not very intuitive straight out of the box. It took me a good 1 or 2 hours of "alone time" at home to figure everything out (and I still didn't read the manual). The marked difference between the 310 and all of my previous GPS in navigation is what made the initial learning so difficult. You enter an address and fully expect the unit to just take you there as with all of the other GPS I had before...not the 310; you would have to perform anothe step of assigning the address as either "destination" or "starting point." And repeating entries because you're not sure if the unit registered your destination correctly are simply added onto the route. You would have to go to another menu to edit the route and delete previous addresses. Really, it makes perfect sense now after I've learned the HP interface. And it really DOES provide some really good features that the other GPS lack. Essentially, the 310 allows you to do that route planning thing you do using Yahoo Maps or Mapquest; you can find out the distance/travel time between any two points on the map. Most of other systems only allow you to calculate route from your current GPS position to your entered destination. This is a really useful feature that some newer higher end GPS are starting to offer (e.g. Garmin 700 series). The 310 had quite a few hardware and software issues that are well documented in various user forums, most notably the sound quality and lockups and crashes. But, here's where HP is coming through with some very nice product updates. There had been at least 1 major update and 1 minor update since the product release. Earlier users also experienced unreasonably difficult process with the automatic update. That had improved by the time I did my update; it took less than 1 hour. The sound volume improved to adequate level. However Susan Text-to-speech still sounds annoying and not as clear as I would've liked. Rerouting seems to have improved. The crashes are VERY infrequent now. I think my review of the 310 turned out a bit more negative than I really feel about the unit; All and all, I was so very close to returning this thing back to amazon; but after the update AND after I learn how to use the interface, I find myself liking it quite a bit now. The screen is bright and sharp. I also like the fact that the battery is user replaceable. My Garmin 350 is basically a permanent wired unit now that the battery won't hold charge anymore. Still haven't played much with the video playback, MP3 stuff. But what's very encouraging is that HP is releasing updates...indeed this unit has tons of potential and it's getting better with each update.

I've used the HP iPAQ 310 over two weeks. I bought it because I wanted a GPS with bluetooth in order to sync with my cingular 8525. The sync worked in seconds and I was able to talk and receive calls at anytime with excellent sound (of course I had to lower the volume of my car)
If you are looking for a GPS that can be used right after you open the box, then this might not be what you're looking for. This GPS requires some quality time to understand all the steps, BUT once you understand how to operate it, then you'll find all the wonderful capabilities this GPS can do.
PROS:
1. Bluetooth with my cingular 8525 is automatic. You don't need to sync everytime you turn on the GPS. As soon as you turn on your car, the GPS stars looking for your phone. It takes few seconds and it's ready (you don't need to turn on your GPS)
2. It finds a new route fast if you missed an exit or street.
3. The GPS changes automatically into night mode at night.
4. Sound is clear and loud, so loud that I need to lower the volume. I use Amy v1.
5. Video is pristine clear, music and photo capabilities, but who needs pictures and music in your GPS???
6. 3D maps, colors, POI's are classified according to types, such as food. In a mood for bbq? then it searches only bbq's restaurants.
CONS:
1. Takes a little of time to find the right software to download to sync your outlook contacts. HP sends you directly to their webside without steps how to find it, but with some few clicks you get everything you need.
2. Took me sometime to understand the Content manager. It's not built to understand easily. I hope HP inproves it.
Conclusion,
It is a great GPS, worth the money (I paid $200...friday's sale yeah), but if you don't know how to operate or download software, then you might feel frustrated.
I do not understand why people complain so much about this GPS. I used a Tom Tom and I have to accept that in 5 minutes you can build your whole travel steps and ready to go (without manual), but it does not have the capabilities of the HP.
I will recommend this GPS, BUT get ready to spend some quality time to master it before you mount it in your car.

This unit is the best I've played with it other than Garmin, Tom and Mio I had used before.

Some people complain about the volume and route calculation. But if they ever had some exploration into pocket PC, they would realize how easily those problems could be resolved. But it requires good eyes because its resolution is much higher than other GPS in the 4.3" category.

The fun of the unit is beyond the map functions. An end user can get into it and shape it to the best fit to his own style.

Don't have enough volume, raise it;
Don't like the colors, change it;
Don't satisfy the zoom response, speed it.
.....

Beyond GPS, there are many other applications and customization you can run, I learned almost all from the site below.
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=96823


Good luck and welcome to the new generation of GPS.

Wow factor galore. This unit rocks. Hardware par excellence and decent accompanying software.
br /
br /This unit is not for the beginner, but will be oh so pleasing for the initiated. The one prerequisite is that the manual should be read and studied cover to cover to extract full value from this unit and to reduce the incline of the learning curve. The unit is usable straight out of the box, but the gems are uncovered when the functions are fully understood.
br /
br /I have the iPaq to go with my TomTom and I am very pleased with it. I agree with some of the criticisms of the unit, as it does have some software flaws, but most can be easily remedied.
br /
br /HP had cut out the Pedestrian mode and carpool lane functions, but I have found simple hacks (code modifications using Winword or Notepad) on-line to restore them and they work. Same for overspeed warnings.
br /
br / I have added Windows Total Commander CE (CECMD) and used this to add TCPMP (media player) in the Games Folder, all of which are freeware. So the unit is very modifiable for those so inclined.
br /
br /The 2 glaring flaws that are not fully user addressable are the on/off button logic and the low volume of the TTS. The unit can be turned on much too easily and this could drain the battery inadvertently. The volume can be improved a bit with a software hack, but the better solution lay with HP upgrading the voice quality to the higher frequencies used by the likes of TomTom. I also read that there is a buffering issue with the TTS voices that can also be addressed by HP in a firmware update.
br /
br /On another point, the early production models with model number FB86.... were flawed and withdrawn. They were replaced by the much better FA97.... series which had way less issues. HP did a software upgrade in Dec. that helped a bit as well.
br /
br /Here is my list of recommendations to HP to make this unit an absolute slam dunk winner:
br /1) Fix the on/off logic
br /2) Make other maps available on SD cards (Coming in a few weeks, I am told)
br /3) Make TMC traffic available in the US
br /4) Restore original iGo functionality like PED routing, Carpool lane routing, etc.
br /5)Increase TTS volume/quality
br /6)Make the factory default Restore pack available (so modders can fix any screw-ups and thus HP can lower their cust service costs. (actually, now that I have discovered how to enter Engineering mode, I can do a restore to factory default myself, but it is a risky procedure).
br /
br /
br /Please note.... before this, I had never used Windows CE, so I am no expert, yet I was able with tips on line to do all that. I am no computer expert, but I can potter around.
br /I had never used iGo navigation software before, and the iPaq runs a modified version of iGo2008 which is NOT YET commercially available.
br /
br /I find the array of options staggering on this machine. It basically can do just about ANYTHING the competitors can. I can only think of 3 useful functions missing that other available offerings can do at present, Reality View, Lane assistant and Selective (named road) route exclusion. The HP does routes exclusion by distance only. Every other cutting edge function exists like, Where am I? ..a la Garmin, Screen lock, disable snap-to-road, 3D mapping (buildings), contour mapping, tracklog, GPS accuracy readout, user changable battery, 3rd party application loading in the Games folder, 2 games provided in the stock unit, elevation readout, destination side of road indication on map, auto time zone switch, GPS AUTONOMY (extremely fast fix), 40 channel/2 million effective GPS correlators!!!, satellite graphics screen, auto day/night switching, etc, etc etc.
br /
br /This unit has it all, and can still be improved. SCARY!
br /
br /To cancel route, depress the scroll wheel on the right side of the unit and that will bring up the option in a small window. The scroll wheel is a hidden functionality in itself.
br /
br /Great info can be found on the forum at [...]
br /
br /General info:
br /The Ipaq 310 new firmware update for North America should be on the server to download this week, the versions for Europe early next week. Both via content manager tool that you download from [...]

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.

I received this 310 device as a gift 4 months ago. The unit had multiple issues. Battery life was horrible. GPS signal detection was spotty. The directions and routes were off and made no sense. The largest problem was random freezes and locks.
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br /The learning curve was high for me and even now when I know how to use the device it is still cumbersome. For the most part I would keep it in my trunk and if by chance I was in an unfamiliar area I mostly used it to help me find the nearest freeway entrance.
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br /I would give the device a 1 star rating; however I noticed HP posted a map and OS upgrade for this unit in June. The 'update,' is 1.7GB in size, which means it is really an entire install of the OS and maps.
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br /So far the device runs far smoother and no lockups. I feel HP shipped a beta version of the software and it took them many, many months to get the system to a decent point.
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br /However; I have to say I appreciate HP for following through and actually posting an update. They could have just completely dropped the ball and left the unit crippled and angered all the folks who were having trouble, but picked this device.
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br /Now I have to say the unit is a decent GPS and if we have regular updates and the ability to load up non-US regions such as China, Europe, etc., then it would even deserve a 4 star rating.

This unit arrived factory sealed. After being charged and fired up, it failed to acquire a satellite track. I called HP support. After working my way through the automatted phone system (which doesn't seem to know HP sells a GPS)and multiple disconnects, I was finally able to talk to a real person. She shipped me a mailing package and the GPS was back in my hands in about 1 1/2 weeks.
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br /I can't really tell you how this unit compares with other units. This is my first GPS. These are just my impressions:
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br /
br /1) Documentation sucks !! Both for the unit and the software updating documentation. Even the updated documentation sucked.
br /
br /2) Maps, POI's, voices, and etc. are all updatable via the web. The updating software is confusing to operate though. The interface is less than intuitive and documentation is again an issue.
br /
br /3) If found the GPS had many features and options but is less than intuitive to operate. Expect to spend some time learning to work your way through the various screens and options.
br /
br /4) If you drive a Lexus and are 25 years old, you might be able to hear the speaker. On the other hand, if you listened to too many loud rock band in the 1960's, don't even expect to know there is a speaker.
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br /All in all, I am very happy with the unit and I would buy another one.
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I have had no problems at all with the 310. The 3D display is incredible, the directions perfect. The TTS is a little low. When using this with my phone via bluetooth, the sound is low and can be tough to hear in a vehicle that does not muffle the outside noise, My kids were able to watch a movie on it at the same time that the TTS was going. Great product and a steal at $199.

The iPAQ Travel Companion is a great tool. It gets me where I need to go. Love the route recalculation feature, economical mode (as opposed to shortest or fastest), and how it shows the upcoming turns in a large box. The text-to-speech needs some work, but the screen is so easy to view with bright backlighting that it doesn't really matter, plus it tells you how many feet, miles, etc, so you always know where to turn anyway.
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br /That being said, this is one tool where you will definitely need to read the manual first, because there are a lot of features customizations that just appear as icons. I love searching for POIs by name, but would never have figured out how to do that without reading the manual.
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br /I think it would be helpful for HP to install the user manual right on the iPAQ so it would always be handy for looking up figuring out how to work it.

HP has packed many great features in a powerful and compact unit. The high-resolution screen shows incredible map detail. In addition, with 12 million points of interest, you can look up virtually any destination. This makes it a very useful reference tool as well.

There are so many choices and adjustments that can be made that some people may find the learning curve a tad steep. I love the flexibility. You can always use the default settings. If you want a simple touch and go GPS then you may want to look at different brands and models. HP has made the unit such that you can customize nearly all the settings to suit your preferences. Once you learn the menus and features, the flexibility becomes a major advantage over simpler units.

If you love high tech gadgets and want a GPS that clearly outperforms many similar priced units then give the HP iPAQ 310 a go. Take your time to learn how it works and you will not be disappointed.

I have had this unit for about 4 months now. When I wanted to buy a GPS, never having owned one, I hesitated between the Navigon 7100 and the HP iPaq 310. The reviews I read about the HP were mixed. The negative ones were not convincing to me. It sounded more as a critique because the HP does not behave like a TomTom or Garmin. I am glad I bought this unit.
br /One of the complaints was that the HP switches from 2D to 3D mode by itself. To me that is a feature. When you are so far from the destination, you really do not want to look at the details of the road. That is when the 2D-mode kicks in automatically. As you get near your destination, you care about the streets preceding the destination. Again, the HP switches automatically to the detailed mode showing the 3D, which in my opinion is superb.
br /In 3D-mode you get a super high resolution scenery of the back-ground. In my case you see the mountains exactly as I see it in front of me. Perfect scenery on the HP screen.
br /Do not get fooled by the Garmin users or TomTom users. This unit is perfect. I find every function to work as designed.
br /There never was a problem with the sound being too low. At least my unit never had a problem from day one.
br /Connecting bluetooth with your cell phone is a breeze.
br /Finding the satellites took place very quickly.
br /So far there has been two firmware upgrade. The only problem with the upgrade is that the provided software takes a long time to download the firmware.
br /I would recommend this to any body

I have been using the Travel companion for the past few days and I do not have any complaints on it. I do not understand why there are so many bad ratings for it. Essentially, it is a device packed with features...you have to read the online manual ( on the CD) to used it well...Once you have done that, it is a fabulous machine...If you do not even bother to even read the manual, then I think you will have problems and possibly a "simpler" device would be better for you.

I bought it for 199 and got an extra 30 off, but even then the system and maps included and upgradable in US through the HP site is old technology.
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br /The dual core 600 seems misleading- looking further I see 570MHz total and have seen it at 285 (only one core firing up)...I assume it is actually a 300Mhz Dual Core as my 400Mhz Processor in a Mio is seen as 397Mhz and runs much better...
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br /Navigation is built on an IGO8 platform with its own custom Skin and after downloading the 1.7GB HP upgrade the Oasis Interface and system is upgraded along with the IGO8 Software release I believe May 2008, but the majority of the 1.7GB being the Content for navigation remains at the same old Oct 2007 release for maps and poi files.
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br /Back to processor performance - my two sons were playing the same game that is included on the HP and also on the mio, and when they were running a course that is showing 50 seconds at completion, my one son on the mio completed in 57 seconds actual time elapsed, and the one on the HP completed at ~95 seconds time elapsed where screen shows 52 seconds...after a device reset it dropped down to 62, and after the upgrade requires less resets.
br /
br /The sluggish performance also is apparrent at times with TTS stop and go stutter issues.
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br /The internal Media Player has its quirks, and the system restarts on its own too often when I try to do too much, this is before I added my own additional software...
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br /The reasons I am keeping it is that through the games menu I was able to load my own freeware software TCPMP to play my music and video with much more control and it only has issues with large .mov files it seems, all else play great. I do have to get better video resolution when I convert my files though because the screen is excellent. You can also find much newer releases of IGO8 that are available and release dates in July and September 2008 and Content sets from 01/08 and 2008Q2, and make that software accessible either through the existing menu navigation or alternate within games.
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br /Having this newer release and customization available makes it worth keeping, along with the Screen Resolution - I was almost ready to return it.
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br /I put a 16GB SDHC in it and works great- I'm ready to sell my 30GB Media Players now...

I have used this thing perhaps 6 times and it has locked up on me twice. It would not turn off and I had to pull the battery out and then re-insert it. HP should be very embarassed to have release such a faulty product. On the positive side, the screen has high resolution and looks very good, but I will not buy another one from HP.

Since this is my first GPS, I have no basis for comparison. However, I like this GPS very much. It wasn't too difficult learning the menu options, but it did take a little getting use to. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase.

Hardware is the best out there(600 MHz, almost HD resolution)- comparable to $600+.
br /Software is good. TTS is not that great. I worked w/ TTS development in the past and the problem appears to be buffering. Due to buffer under runs, at times you will hear words broken up. I am hoping that HP will fix this issue soon. TTS w/ UK voice seems to be better. You can also disable TTS and use regualr voice (no street name).
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br /This is not ur average GPS, you must read the manual(which is in the CD).
br /I hear a lot of people complain things like; how to adjust the volume, enter street number w/ contacts... All this is doable if you read the manual.

This GPS is packed with features. It is priced at a GPS that does half as much. The GPS is fast and maybe too fast. It tries to get you back to your route a little bit, but you just keep driving and it recalcs super fast. The bluetooth works flawlessly and is loud enough in a typical car. If your car is really loud - then obviously you might have problems. We liked the UK voices best. The text to speech isn't perfect - but c'mon - how good do you want it?
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br /The display is amazing and it locks on fast.
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Invaluable for navigation and finding the closest Thai restaurants. Was originally rather buggy, but recent update seems to have stabilized things.
br /Neat trick: with the installation of an SDIO wireless card, such as the Spectec SDW-820 SD WiFi Card (802.11b) and some software tinkering, you can get Opera running on it, for portable internet access, albeit only to unsecured networks.
br /Battery life is rather skimpy.

If you examine only the hardware specs, this device has everything going for it. There is almost no other GPS with specs like this... 800x480 display, BT 2.0+EDR, 128MB RAM, 2GB Internal Flash, 600Mhz CPU etc..

However, clearly nobody at HP must have tested this product before releasing it for launch.

I rushed to buy this device based on the hardware specs and a naive belief that HP's software couldn't really be that bad. I was wrong.

This $300+ device functions not much better than another hundred dollar no-name GPS I bought from your local red stapling office store.

What is bad?

1. The audio volume is very low. I simply cannot hear what the computerized voice is saying. How on earth could a tester have approved such a horrible speaker as on this device??? I mean, speakers cost 10cents to manufacture. First it is not a stereo speaker and second the loudest volume setting *cannot* be heard clearly even with all windows shut in the car while its moving.

2. The custom HP content manager application is horrible designed and crashes all the time. I've been unable to sync the 150 or so contacts I have in outlook as their outlook sync program crashes for me in Vista. Since this device runs Windows.CE, there was no need for HP to invent its own contacts and sync software when Microsoft provides one that works perfectly with ActiveSync and Outlook. Unfortunately this silly device will not recognize any outlook contacts sync'd by Microsoft's ActiveSync. Even contacts that are sync'd with HP's own program cannot be used for navigation because the navigation program does not seem to like the format of any of the addresses.

3. The Bluetooth hands free feature is a joke. Rather than connect to your phone when you start the device, it waits until you try to use the phone functionality and then tells you to wait for about fifteen seconds while it "connects" . This occurs as you are navigating on the road and the "please wait" message obscures the map.

4. Waste of multimedia capabilities. Despite the fast processor, gobs of RAM and large display, the included multimedia player does not play the most common formats such as the motion JPEG movies that I captured with my digital camera or any of the DiVX movies that you can download online. It only plays WMV movies which pretty much limits it to to playing the sample videos that come with Windows.

5. Badly designed and unchangeable navigation display. Instead of using the 4.3" wide screen display to provide more situational awareness, the HP navigation program (actually written by Nav'n Go/IGO) is very miserly with screen space and instead of placing the next upcoming road on the bottom of the screen like every other nav system out there decides to place it in a small sideways scrolling section on the top of the display where one's eyes do not look at and where the bright power LED blinds one at night.

6. Long boot times. This devices takes as much time as my computer to start up. Geez!!!

7. Proprietary USB cables and chargers! Whoa! Why does the USB SiG allow these manufacturers to sell "USB" devices that refuse to follow the standards! HP uses an incompatible USB charger so that if you try to save money by using an existing USB charger, the device will appear to be charging but will actually be draining the battery. This applies both to charging via the cigerette lighter and charging via the USB connection to a PC. Apparently HP wants you to fork over a few more dozens of dollars before you can get chargers for both the car, home and PC.

8. Substandard mapping database and points of interest. At least for the Seattle Metro area. It also chooses weird routing for driving to Seattle instead of the most obvious one that every GPS selects.

9. The "3d maps" feature is very useless and simply clutters the screen and slows the device down. I hate it. its a marketing gimmick!

10. There is talk about "traffic" support but there is currently no way to add traffic management to the USA version of this device.

11. Scrolling through POI's and other lists suck. This is not a computer I don't want to have to aim carefully at scroll bars. What is wrong with buttons for paging???

In all I am very disappointed in what HP has produced and I'm sure many other purchasers of this device feel the same way. HP did not manufacture the device, they did not write the navigation software or the operating system. So was it too much work for them to have done a good job of testing this device for quality assurance and fixing the little things before putting it into a little box and *trying* to charge $400 for it?

HP, please take this device back to the drawing board and fix it. Make sure that your testers have actually used competent auto navigation systems like Garmin, TomTom etc...

With the hardware specs of this device the following features should have been implemented:

1. Voice recognition/command. Just like in the built-in automobile GPS navigation systems or even the high end TOMTOM 920

2. Full bluetooth support. Synchronize phone address book. Automatically connect to phone when device is started and phone is nearby. Allow voice calling. Allow data connection via bluetooth DUN or PAN to provide additional features over the internet such as download of routes.traffic warnings, gas prices,movie listings, etc...

3. 3rd Party games & applications download for the multimedia features usage outside of navigation

4. Full video/music player to support common video and audio formats

5. LOUD stereo speakers

If you're from HP and worked on this Device I would really like to talk to you!!!!

Just got the GPS, used it for 3 days...and now, just can't wait to return this piece of junk. It froze up twice, slow and bad route calculation, the worst text to speech voice ever, not only that you can't hear it, you can't even understand what its trying to say! Not user friendly (especially trying to search for POI in a specific city). Using a gps should not be this fustrating, finally order me a Tomtom instead.

I have returned the product for a refund. The volume at it's highest level was barely audible. Compared to another brand of GPS that I have used, this product was inferior for the price.

The concept and features are novel but this device needs alot of redesigning or work to bring it to its potential. Here are some negatives.
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br /The GPS reciever is no where near as sensitive as it should be, my garmin handheld does a better job of tracking my speed, It doesnt recognize very well when you have taken an off/on ramp, ie it will instruct you to exit the highway, then perform a route recalc because it doesnt know that you are actually on the off ramp.
br /
br /Maps
br /Are woefully out of date in some areas, by YEARS, i dont know what source they are using for their maps in City/Urban driving but they are frustratingly out of date. In city driving the map/gps reciever cannot distinguish between a sharp curve and a turn, any curves that approach 70 degrees will be taken as a turn and the unit will instruct you to make a left/right when it is actually a sharp turn. The unit will switch from 3d back to 2D whenever it likes. If i set a destination and navigate to it, en route the unit will arbitrarily switch from 3D back to 2D and show me a rather large area map, therefore i lose the ability to see any upcoming streets. The unit will revert back to 3D when it is time to execute an upcoming turn but by that time i've missed several points of references/landmarks.
br /
br /Bluetooth/Phone
br /The phone frequently mutes incoming calls, meaning when i answered a call via my phone or via the unit, the callers could hear me but i couldn't hear them.
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br /Nightmode
br /Doesn't allow identify dead end streets like normal mode does.
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br /
br /User Friendliness
br /NONE at all, while it is not recommended to drive while operating the unit, this thing is a HAZARD and you basically have to stop, or plan well ahead because the steps needed to search POI's or enter POI's are very many and very tedious. The instruction manual seems like it was written by the marketing guys versus the Engineers/Tech Guys because it lacks detailed instructions and seems bent on terse praising of the unit and the features versus offering verbose detailed technical information.
br /
br /Online support
br /Trip planner is totally useless, updates are far and few in between if any. You cannot enter or download points of interest from online and i cant seem to get the trip planner to work standalone on the unit, there must be some secret trick to get the option to light up on the unit, because its otherwise darkend/unavailable.
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br /I bought this item brand new on Ebay and i have been strugging to give this unit a chance i have had it about 2 weeks and im ready to throw in the towel. I have given it ample opportunity to perform in City Driving, Suburban driving, interstate and state highway driving. One more week and im selling this bad boy on Ebay. The size of the screen and graphics arent enough to out weigh everything that is wrong with this unit.

I wavered back and forth between this and the Garmin Nuvi 255w and eventually settled on this because it was different and had a number of great features. However, after using it on a 2000 mile trip around the southwest I decided this is a product still in the works. If HP can ever address some of the serious UI issues I wouldn't hesitate to buy this. However, I ended up returning mine. Below are my observations of the basic function of the device - navigating. I didn't spend any time with the photo, music, bluetooth, etc features.
br /
br /PROS:
br /First, the positives. I chose this device largely because of the nice screen and fast CPU. The screen is very attractive and easy to see even in bright sun, but the top and bottom blue bars are kind of annoying. You can switch to full screen mode but then you can't see miles to go or ETA which is one thing I like to know while driving. Switching back and forth is not hard but is a distraction while driving. There are fan sites out there (for example, http://www.gpspassion.com/FORUMSEN/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=101001) that will show you how to do a number of hacks to fix things that HP should have done from the start. If you like hacking your hardware this may be the device for you.
br /
br /The unit also recalculates very fast. My only other reference is a Garmin Street Pilot from several years ago. It had an annoying habit of telling me to make a u-turn to put me back on the original route instead of recalculating a new route. The ipaq handles deviations with aplomb. Seconds after missing a turn it will recalculate a new route to your destination. Sometimes I didn't like the new route (taking me to a left turn across a busy street without a light for example) so I just went the way I wanted to and it would keep recalculating. Eventually, it would take me where I wanted to go. In the end I learned to just trust it in most cases.
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br /The HP ipaq website is kind of nice too. I selected my stops and uploaded them to the ipaq. Then when you are ready to navigate to one you select map - trip extras (or something) and then the points you uploaded will show. If you make one route for your whole trip it will route the whole trip which is sometimes not what you want. I elected to create separate points for each planned stop and then I could select the one I wanted to go to next. It worked out fairly well and better than doing it all from the small touchscreen. Planning out all your POIs this way might help with some of the usability issues.
br /
br /CONS:
br /Unfortunately, that is the extent of the positives. The user interface is horrible, many POIs are incorrect, and there are still stability issues. To its credit, HP released a new major update a few months ago that addressed some of the stability issues and I never once had to reboot the device due to lock ups. However, it will freeze up if you try to move through menus too quickly. When it does, wait 5-10 seconds and it will unfreeze. Better than a crash but still annoying. Perhaps a Windows based OS is not really the best choice.
br /
br /The sound is okay but not great. The text to speech voices sound a bit robotic and are sometimes hard to understand without looking at the street name on the screen anyway. I spent more than half the trip with a basic (i.e. non-TTS) voice that was okay. There are also a lot of languages available which is nice if you live in Europe, but I think very few people in the US will use these so it would be nice to include better English and Spanish options. Many of the languages are quite uncommon in the US and there is a Europe model on which they would be more appropriate. Since the unit is hackable, it wouldn't be hard to add in a language if the one you wanted wasn't included.
br /
br /The maps are very nice but frustrating to use. For example, if you choose a closer 3D view it will stay that way the whole trip. Great for in town but when driving 400 miles on a freeway I'd rather see an overview than the 200 feet in front of me. If you want to do that you have to touch the screen to activate the view choices, chose 2D and then pick a zoom level. Not really something you should be doing while driving. Then when you get close to a point where you have to navigate it will stay zoomed out and you will have to touch it again to change to 3D and zoomed in. Some reviews mentioned auto switching but I never once saw this happen. Maybe it's another of the buried menu options but I looked pretty hard.
br /
br /The real frustrations come in when trying to find a POI. For example, if you need to find a hotel or coffee shop near an upcoming city/town and you are not yet there it is an exercise in frustration. You can choose a POI around the GPS, any address you want to enter, along the route, point on map, etc but none of these produces very friendly results. Choosing along the route will find POIs that are well off your route. I don't consider a 30 mile detour (one way) acceptable especially when there are choices further along but on my route that would be better. Picking a point on the map is hard because the map does not scroll well. You can touch and drag but often it won't move or it will move only a bit. More often than not it just clicks to add a point on the map but not at all where you want since you just trying to scroll.
br /
br /When you do manage to get to a point where you can search for a POI it will present you a menu of choices. If you want a coffee shop for example you will choose restaurant - other area restaurant - and then cafe. Why do you need the "other" option? That was just a needless extra menu. Once you select cafe then it will present you a list of shops. You can also spell out a name and have it list only those (starbucks for example).
br /
br /Actually driving to the POI is another issue altogether. More than half of the POIs I tried to find were non-existent. The device would say "you have reached your destination" but you are in the middle of the road with little to nothing around you. Sometimes I would find the POI a mile or so away by luck and other times I just gave up and chose a different one. This happened a lot and was very frustrating.
br /
br /The menus for other POIs are also annoying. If you want a gas station, the first menu sorts them by folders with the name first and then you have to choose a folder before seeing if there is one nearby. When traveling, I could care less what brand gas I buy. I just want the closest one. Often when you would choose one folder, the next page opens and there isn't any gas stations listed so you have to keep going back up a level, chose a different folder and then see if that company had a gas station near you. There is a little, rather un-obvious button that will pull up POIs around you but not around a distant location - at least I never discovered a way.
br /
br /There is also no way to simply stop navigating. You have to actually delete the route. You can add it back but you have to go through the horrible menus again to do so. If you don't delete the route when you stop for lunch or a break, the unit will sometimes turn back on again and drain the battery. If you put it in your pocket and it turns on it will get very hot. The case is also too tight and presses on the power button so it's not really usable.
br /
br /The unit also gets VERY hot hanging from the windshield. It never caused a problem but sometimes it was almost too hot to touch. Also, when it's hot, you can't run it on battery. If you want to hand it to someone so they can mess with the menus while you drive it will have to stay plugged in if it's hot.
br /
br /Finally, many of the reviews I read said to spend some time with the manual before trying to use it. However, the manual is a joke. It's about 15 pages long and only covers the most basic uses and not even very well at that. At times it will tell you to click a menu choice that doesn't even exist. HP support is also horrible - well actually I never managed to get a real person so hard to say for sure. On three separate tries I navigated the annoyingly long support menu only to end up with an endlessly ringing line and no answer even after 30 or more rings. In the end I gave up trying to get help from HP.
br /
br /CONCLUSION:
br /The device does have a lot of features and if you are willing to hunt and peck your way through the menus you may find some of them. The opportunities to customize it are also appealing, and the fast recalculations is nice as is the screen. In the end, however, if you want a device you can use with minimal issues and a clean and simple UI this is not the device for you. I really hope HP is paying attention to all the comments about this device and does something to fix it. It would be a great GPS if it wasn't for the horrible software.

Directions not very clear and Tech support had no clue as to how to operate unit. Bluetooth operation useless. Not clear and hard for others to hear that are called.

I've had this for a month now. I had a chance to take it to New Orleans LA last week, and it could not find the air port (MSY). It said the desitination is in unreachable area, and it took me to middle of nowhere and deadend road. Maybe the airport was under water during Karina :) But it did pretty good job around Dallas metro area with accuracy. Maybe it is the map it uses, NAVITEQ I believe. And, it does have a few things to be improved; design and functionality wise. Few things from my experience.
br /
br /- I don't like the location of power button as few folks mentioned. It can easily turned by slight touch and pressure even when it is in the case. It should be relocated to top end corner as Garmin has.
br /- I found the satellite reception to be pretty good, even better than my Nuvi 360. Maybe I am blessed with good GPS calibration one.
br /- The screen is awesome. With some searching on the web, found the way to kinda unlock the PDA side of the device (It is WIndow CE based, so). I was able to watch some movies on it after shrinking the move to smaller size/resolution, and it is fantastic. With 8GB SD (since it supports SDHC), I could store more than a dozen movies available to watch.
br /- I found the windshield mount to be pretty good, even better than Garmin ones. It held pretty strong during bumpy ride, and doesn't look like it will "glue" to the windshield like my Garmin mount did.
br /- Yes, the sound of the device is pretty low. But there is a way to increase the volume if you find a right forum. But it takes some general gizmo knowledge, and probably not for everyone. Wish it had a FM transmitter built-in.
br /- Bluetooth....well... it works, but even after authenticating the ipaq in my phone, it does not "sync" automatically when it is in proximity like my Nuvi 360 does. I have to manually turn it on everytime, so it is not that useful.
br /- The 3D thing in some city (40 cities mapped so far I believe) is nice. New Orlease was one of them, and in downtown, it does look quite nice even though it does not look that fance like the picture posted.
br /- I find it quite annoying the sound and backlight setting is not "remembered". When I turn it on, I have to adjust the backlight seeting. And, it did crash/freeze a few time.
br /- The turn instructions can be better. If I decided to keep going instead of turning as it recommeds, it should recalculate adter may be 1 warning of turn back. It does say 2-3 times to turn back before route recalculation, which can be annoying. Probably my fault. I shouldn't have turn it on when I know exactly where I am going :) BTW, the route recalculation is pretty fast I would say.
br /
br /IMHO, if it is cheap enough, and have a courage to "play" with it to unlock some of the stuff, get it. If it is just a navigator you want, Garmin is pretty cheap nowadays. Since most of the people will not using it for everyday, it sounds not bad, but if it can not find your destination when you really need it to, well...

Actually a 3 1/2 out of 5 star rating

Pro's: lots; cool 3d views, lots o POI's, sharp screen, pairs up effortlessly with my Nextel i880, have used in PA, N.J., N.Y., L.I., Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Denver, S.F., San Jose, Sacramento, got me where I needed to go.

Cons: Freezes up, volume too low

Hopefully, as others have pointed out, HP will come out with a revised version that does not freeze up and that has a louder speaker.
(HP, I hope you take heed to what your customers are saying here, don't blow a good thing, keep up the good work!!)

HP help desk has been very helpful, they have done their best to try to reslove my issue.

They are currently sending a return box via DHL, they will either correct the issue or send me a new unit.

My advice to anyone is to write down the exact error message and relay to the help desk.

If they get enough details, then it will make for better revised model?

I bought a refurbished IPAQ 310 and used two weeks; then returned it. If you bought a new one, your experience may vary.
br /The unit's appearance is attractive and in good quality, the screen is bright and big. When I purchased it, I had three expectations:
br /
br /1. GPS, of course
br /2. Ebook reader.
br /3. Multimedia player
br /
br /The device has potential to fulfill all of them. As a portable media player, it plays avi, divx, mpeg and other type of files. However, you need to install TCPMP to play some types of media files. Playing quality is very impressive, I didn't notice lost frames or sluggish.
br /
br /As an ebook reader, you need foxit pdf reader. Currently it is in the first version and the program is not easy to use. but book is still readable and clear. Forget about CHM format. There is no reader for CHM for Windows CE. I probably is writing such a program if I didn't return the device.
br /
br /As a GPS, it disappoints me most and is the reason I returned it. I used it three times, only first time it acquired GPS signal. At first, I thought the problem was caused by modification of the software, so I restored it to factory default using HP current patch. It didn't help. I reset it multiply times without putting any SD card in it, walking in my back yard with no tree blocking the sky. No signal! Another time, I drive to downtown from my house for about half hour. No signal. I didn't see any switch to turn GPS on or off. So I assume it should be always on.
br /
br /Based on my experiece, there are a couple of issues preventing the device being a gread gadget:
br /
br /1. Difficult to acquire GPS signal. This could vary by device. I have no doubt that other units may not have this problem;
br /2. Using Windows CE as its operating system. In my opinion, this is a big mistake. There is literally no software for Windows CE. This is a lesson I learnt from this device and I would NOT buy another device with Windows CE on it. Before I bought it, I thought Windows CE is a variant of Windows Mobile or Pocket PC version. Big difference! If it runs Windows Mobile, the potential of this device is unlimited.
br /3. Could not charge it with car charger. I found this on the road. When I saw a warning of low battery, I plugged it with car charger and the device still turned off in 10 minutes and no matter what I tried, I could not turned it back on. The only way to charge it is to use dual power USB cable with both USB ends plugged into USB hub. Apparently, the unit needs higher power provided by single USB cable. The problem is worsened by relatively short battery life. With a full charged battery, I can only play two hours video, then the unit shut off.
br /
br /The one I bought has product #: FA974AA#ABA. it is not clear whether this is first revision or second. I would suggest you to avoid it if you want to buy refurbished one to save money.
br /
br /

A low price with these features means a confusing unexplained GUI and the slowest web site for software upgrades and map updates I have ever encountered. The latest application upgrade is markedly better than the one on the unit when I bought it! Price is right and plays music videos if you add extra memory.

I bought this product one month ago, and I have been test on all the function inside , so far the hi-resolution of the LCD screen and blue tooth work's fine to me, only the speaker is not that loudly to hear when you drive on the free-way, and GPS some time is take over 1 minute on the cool boot.but final I am very happy with the great price and with more function on this product. thank you

I love the i-PAC 310. It's a great navigation tool. It synchs great with the computer - very versatile. I like the bluetooth feature. The only theing I'm not crazy about is the dashboard holder, which seems flimsy for the product.

I am using the GPS and it is working well. This is in no way thanks to the owner's manual. It is pretty useless. The only way to figure it out is by trial and error and experimenting. I am sure there are features that I am not using yet because I haven't taken the time to play with them.

It is a well designed GPS with fantastic screen, however there is a learning curve to use the product fully. The manual is not well written as compared to the manual for Igo 6.

I just recently purchased the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 310 Bluetooth 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator. It was easy to use rt out the box. The software was easy to install. I used it twice so far on road trips and it was a sinch to use. A must buy, worth every penny...^^
br /
br /

I love my hp navigation. The hard drive isn't large enough to put much on it, as far as pics and music but I bought a sd card. It is very easy to use and worth the price. Shop around though because the prices vary with the retailers on amazon. I'm glad I looked at all my choices on amazon before I bought.

this was my first gps and couldn't have been better, it has so many functions, its great.....i'd recomend it
br /you got to play with it to get to know the functions but is great....

excellent product ..excellent price..would recommend to anyone who was looking to purchase a quality GPS system at an excellent price.

Pros: The graphic is second to none. Beauty and clarity in 4.3 inch of goodness. Route recalculation is fast and easy to understand. All the readings/words are listed in cyan color border on top and bottom, which is just gorgeous. I also like how HP decides to give you a pen stick for free so we don't have to make smudges all over the screen with dirty fingers.
br /
br /Cons: Kinda hard to create a new destination. The navigation path is not as smooth as Garmin's, but once you get the hang of it, it should be okay. It takes a good 3-5 mins to connect with the satellite. That's the worse part of this GPS.

Hi, I bought HP ipaq 310, a month ago, I am really enjoying it. Many features, very much faster and acurate of mapping. i like this feature very much, other i used previous tomtom, shown me several times wrong destinations. I think, i can recomend to buy it.

Thank you
Srinivas Vedic Koduru

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.

I work for HP and own other HP technology I'm quite happy with, but I am appalled by the quality of this product. Yes, it has a very nice high-res screen (not very useful IMHO). But the main functions of this device, namely- GPS and navigation, don't deserve even a single star. Route calculation is whacked and a straight line ride cross-town turned into a zigzag back and forth route for no apparent reason. What's worse is that after 20m the unit generated a very familiar Windows Application Error and I had to cycle the power. 10 minutes later the device hung on "Please wait" screen forever and could only be remedied by resetting the device. Driving at 80 miles/h and trying to fix it is not just a nuisance- it is a hazard. I realize the Mickeysoft OS has some blame to take here- it's not all HP, but overall this Ipaq GPS is terrible. I've had a garmin nuvi 350 unit for over a year, which I "upgraded" to the Ipaq 310. My garmin never hung once or needed to be reset. It did exactly what a GPS unit should do with no failures.

Other cons-
Ipaq 3D maps had only a handful of buildings in New York city, where I'd expect it to have at least most, if not all
The unit does not show a complete route with step by step turns- all you get is the very next turn, so you can't even tell what route it's chosing.
To make things worse, the unit doesn't show the whole route on the map even when zoomed all the way out. It's blind leading a blind !
Voices on the GPS are "computer" like, not human can be very irritating

This is truly a half-baked product and I'm returning it tomorrow.

I was initially impressed after receiving the Ipaq 310 4 days ago. It acquired satellites quickly, the display was crisp, bright, and clear. Routing was acceptable. The interface was fairly intuitive. Then the problems started. The unit crashed twice. It spontaneously turns itself on, twice draining the battery as the device sat unused. HP support recommended I return the device for repair, but since Amazon has a 30 day refund policy, I think it would be wise to cut my losses before I am stuck with a remanufactured lemon. I will be returning the unit for a refund. Listen up, HP: fix the problems before releasing the product!
br /Update: I took the advice of another reviewer and gave this unit a chance. After several weeks of use, I am glad I did. While not perfect, this unit works quite well after all. I learned that turning the unit off while it is navigating will cause the battery drain problem: apparantly the supplied case fits a little snug, and it is easy for the power button to be accidentally pressed. If the unit activates, afer having been switched off while navigating, it will then stay on, draining the battery. The unit has crashed, bit not while operating. THe routes are quite good, and there are plenty of adjustments in the software to allow the user to tweak the results. I do like the advanced features this unit sports, including multipoint routing, and the good display. All in all, I'm glad I kept this device. I would now rate it at least 3 stars, and would recommend it to friends.

I had to give this 1 star but in honesty it would of been 0
br /
br /I am in the UK and bought this to use when traveling in the US as its a "travel Companion"
br /
br /I am just about to throw it in the bin as mine is of no use to anyone. If you get a faulty item from HP then your stuck on there repair merrygo round. I got my unit back from HP EU repair people Mid April and its got the same issue again. It wont power up :(
br /
br /As you can see from the conversation below its just not worth the effort, if it breaks and mine has twice now you may as well go buy a different product.
br /
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:41 PM] -- Kristie L says:
br /We cannot offer you a replacement we can only offer you a repair.
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:43 PM] -- De Wood says:
br /why can you not replace a faulty item the has had the same fault twice
br /at which point do you finally give up repairing it and replace it - will i have to send it back every month for repair until the
br /warranty runs out ?
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:44 PM] -- De Wood says:
br /i am not trying to be awkward i am jsut trying to understand why
br /an obvious fault that has happened more than once now will only be repaired
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:45 PM] -- Kristie L says:
br /three repairs within a 90 day period
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:45 PM] -- De Wood says:
br /lol and it take 4 -6 weeks to repair so thats not gonna happen
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:45 PM] -- De Wood says:
br /that make be laugh
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:45 PM] -- De Wood says:
br /sorry
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:46 PM] -- Kristie L says:
br /Was there anything else that I can help you with or answer any more questions you may have today?
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:47 PM] -- De Wood says:
br /think i will jsut bin it and never buy a HP product again as that is as much use it is and will buy another garmin or tomtom
br /[Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:47 PM] -- Kristie L says:
br /Well if you would like to send it in for repair you can

The device has a raised ON/OFF button. You can easily turn on and drain the battery by accident.
br /
br /The case is tight-fitting. If you put the device in the case, and then apply some pressure to the case, you can turn the power on.
br /
br /This is a major flaw to me, as I like to carry the device with me. I find myself turning on the power by accident too often.

It has a bright huge 4.3" screen. And it is the most important reason that I have bought this unit. However, sometime the system will halt during turning on, and I have to restart it. In Atlanta area, the map is not accurate and sometime misleading.

I have used the GPS two times since i bought it and it preformed just as it was supposed to. Was very easy to set up and was easy to put the directions in the unit. The only thing that I have a gripe about is the sound on the unit it is very low.I bought a set of small speakers for use with it but I still can't turn the volume up loud enought to hear. It is just not me my wife can't hear it either. Also if you want to look up some information about the unit from the literature that was sent with it when purchased lots of luck its useless.[[ASIN:B001B0DCQC (Price/EA)iPAQ 310 TRAVEL COMPANION

I am pretty much happy with the IPAQ 310. I guess one could say I'm "Nit Picking" because the Suction Cup Mount provided is USELESS! Not once has the supplied mount stayed on the window. It's not good to see your IPAQ 310 falling off the mount for a Hard Landing! I had to purchase the Bracketron "Nav-Mat" GPS Dash Mount which sits on the dashboard to hold the HP unit in place. Other than that, the unit itself works just fine for me. I have been using GPS products long before they became "Hot". I really prefer using my Laptop because of the 15.4 Screen. I like to see a whole lot more than these tiny screens. As far as I am concerned, Delorme has the best software on the market, namely "Street Atlas" for PC's.

A wonderful product. Easy to use and great picures. Top of the line in all GPS systems we looked at.

1. Sound (voice) is too weak. A dinamic condition is weakening sound only, but it is not able to increase it. A volume is not enough if a radio is turned off, and almost nonaudible when radio is turned on.
br / 2. Accuracy is not the best property of this device.

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.

When I got this unit via the Amazon Vine program, I was looking forward to it. I have an older Magellen GPS unit for my car, and it works great. The only problem is that it's rather bulky. The iPAQ 310 promised a much smaller and lighter form factor, as well as the ability to run with it away from a power source. Unfortunately, the promise didn't measure up to reality, and I think I'll be keeping my Magellen.
br /
br /The 310 looks really nice, but I was less-than-thrilled with the routing paths it provided. On a number of occasions, it ignored an obviously more direct path to take you on a round-about trip. Since the main thing I wanted it for was navigation, it failed in the primary task. The additional stuff like MP3 player and video player are nice, but I already have iPods and iPhones to do that stuff. I would have preferred it be really great at one thing (navigation) rather than mediocre at a number of things.
br /
br /If you're willing to look at this as a true iPAQ that happens to have GPS built in, then you might have a better impression of the overall package. But if you're looking for this primarily as an in-car navigation unit, it leaves much to be desired.

I bought the iPAQ 310 on a total leap of faith on a Friday deal.

I've not owned a GPS unit before and thought one would be handy for work since I drive to lots of new places. Just from reading the specs on this thing it had so much more packed into it than anything else I just assumed it had to be better than people were making it out to be.

Turns out I was right. Out of the box it seemed OK, but once you do some basic setup you're good to go with what I consider to be a solid experience.

The real deal here is the amount of effort people are putting into modding this thing (although I doubt I'll mess with mine much you can learn a lot about improving the vanilla operation by reading about the customization process).

I usually find a device that does one core function and does it better than anything else on the market and buy it as cheap as I can.

This time around I bought something that I knew nothing about and spent more than I was planning. I'd recommend it just on being a fun tech project (you have to do some research no matter what - GG manual and you can tinker around for a long time), but it also works for what it's meant for.

Pros:
- Fine product as-is, I was really worried until it got here
- Great display
- You're really buying a custom GPS, not just the iPAQ 310 if you want to put in the time it seems like you can make it do a lot
- Tons of apps already available and everything is well documented and easy to do

Cons:
- Sound could be better, but here's an idea, don't turn it up to max or plug it into an AUX jack if you have one (road noise isn't that bad so I can just turn it down so it doesn't distort)
- Please wait freeze happened about 15 minutes in, had to reset, no problems since
- Can't decide if the blinding blue LED at the bottom is good or not, it's bright, but I like the color

I love this unit. I got it from Amazon for incredible price. I used in Canada and 2 different states and performed very well. In Manhattan it was slow and the map took long time to show your position. But that was quickly fixed by reducing the 3D graphics/building to medium from high, and it was back to normal. The 12 million POI is amazing and can be found only on very high end units, and the option to specify the POI in proximity to you location is also nice.
The car mount and USB charging are very nice. you can use the same cable to link it to your PC to charge it at home and to charge in the car. It is actually a standard minUSB to USB cable same is used with Cameras and camcorders. A 2GB built in FLASH plus the SD card reader is awesome.
The 4.3" screen is a plus and the menus are easy to navigate and the screen colors and resolution are amazing. It has a dual core processor with SIRF built in, currently no other GPS has that on the market.
It acquires signal fast which is comparable to other GPSs. It failed to acquire a signal only once during the 3 weeks I have for. I left it for more than 10 minutes but did not acquire signal. I finally reset it and then acquired signal in 10-15 seconds. But I think the problem was because the unit was turned on accidentally while it was in my jacket for a long time.

Finally, the reason I gave it only 4 is the speaker quality. like other people said it has poor sound quality compared to my cousin's new entry-level TOMTOM, but the sound instruction can get loader and clearer if you choose different voices specially the ones that have NO TTS are much louder and clearer. If they fix the speaker problem, then this is a full 5 stars unit.

This GPS is great.

First thing you need to do when you get it is to go use the software that comes with it to update the device to the latest software. most of the bad reviews are of older versions of software. It has been greatly improved lately. notice the newer reviews are a lot better.

HOW TO UPDATE:
****************
you need to go to www.ipaq.com/navigate
you need to create an account. it will ask you for the serial number for your GPS too.

after you create an account.
Click on MAPS and UPDATES, you will see UPDATES & DOWNLOADS in the lower left corner. Select DOWNLOAD button. That will download the CONTENT MANAGER.

Install the CONTENT MANAGER. Run it. There is a help file that comes in the zip file. It will give you step by step instructions.

The content manager will let you update everything. It has map updates, software updates, more languages. It will compare what you have to what is available online and you can select what you want to update.


Here are the pros:
******************
1) POIs - 12 million points of interest
Can find them around your GPS location or on the route you are taking
Can search the database by name -want taco bells near you, no problem.

2) Fast Routing - and reroutes are ligthning fast
smart rerouting - if you get off route it wil attempt several times to get you to turn around to get back on the route. But if you do not turn around it will then find a route by going on the road you are already on. Love this feature since I often go on a trip and want to take roads I am familiar with. It quickly adapts to the new route.

3) Display - very clean clear display. easy to read in bright light or night. Swithces between night and day mode automatically. The street names are easy to read on the map as you drive.

4) Text to Speech - People have been complaining about the sound and speaker but i have to disagree. I have no problem understanding it. For a computer generated voice it is quite good. I usually have trouble hearing a person when I go to mcdonalds at the drive through, but don't have trouble understanding the GPS.

5) Free updates from hps website and you can plan trips on the HP website and download them to your GPS.

6) supports red light and speed cameras - it will warn you when you are coming up to a red light or speed camera.

7) if you liked the MIO GPS products, you will love this.

8) 3D terrain - not only does it do 3D landmarks and building but does 3D terrains as well and for the entire US.

9) 3D roads - It shows road elevations too. It will show elevated highways in 3D so it is much easier to navigate through mix masters.


Cons:
*******
1) Screen layout. I wish the information was on the left or right of the screen instead of the top and the bottom. It is a wide screen display and it just seems like a poor use of space.

2) USB cable that comes with it is the only one that will work to connect it to a PC.

3) If you have bluetooth turned on, it causes the GPS to delay activating for a couple of seconds after turning it on.

It was easy to use, but it seemed like it had some problems in positioning where I was when it was cold. It also had problems with speech. It sounds like it would not finish what it was saying. The routing was very weird. It would take me around places no matter what settings I choose. It would route me the scenic route instead of the fastest, economical, or shortest route. The other features were nice but did not work great. HP computers work great. The navigation stuff does not work as good, maybe because of the software. Needing to use TeleAtlas and iGo software seems to be the problem. They need their own software. Maybe an APPLE navi will come out. It would work just a little better and look a bit better, but cost many times more, plus it would use iTunes :-) j/k

Anyways, this navi seems like it was rushed. It was not finished nor were things fixed from the last firmware update. Keep looking.

This navigation system with its 4.3 inch wide screen delivers great resolution.

The 3d graphics are spectacular! The buildings that it displays are significant or recognized buildings. Also displayed are topography.Zooming in and out is swift.

I am very impressed with mine and also with the Ipaq website downloadsI've gotten.

to me this is a 5 star worthy product and I'd recommend it without reservation.

As above, can't find bluetooth link after you turn it off and on, has to be reset almost everytime it is started to find the satelite.

I should have believed the other poor reviews that the IPAQ 310 has gotten ,but I have been a loyal HP user for years and thought I would give it the benifit of the doubt,But I was wrong.Out of the box this was a very cool unit and seemed to work ok.but it all went south as soon as I installed the updates from HP via the connection manager.now it wont start up and gives error messages. after several attempts to reset it I called HP support and hit a dead end when the rep said this was a problem that couldnt be resolved without replacing it.But I am in the process of sending it back to seller for a refund.I dont want to do a trial and error of hoping I get a good unit and that its going to go south after a simple update with no fix other than to replace it.I love my HP printer but I wont be buying anymore HP electronic gizmos until they improve hardware and ability to resolve issues from my desk!!!!!

This is HP's GIANT idea implemented poorly. I read the specs of this machine and was impressed with its capabilities and advanced design. I questioned the negative reviews and decided to see for myself.
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br /I score this product for each of it's main functions
br /- GPS - Works ok, good reception, but the navigation program resets on occasions making the unit useless. 4/10
br /- Bluetooth pairing with a phone - poor sound quality. HP, if you want a reference on how to build good quality sound in a very small package, check out hTC products. 3/10
br /- MP3 player - Here HP tries hard to create a simple user interface - I wish they didn't. 3/10
br /- Video player - Supports limited formats, did not even test
br /- Games - here you are limited to the preloaded games HP gives you - 6/10
br /- Calculator - 8/10
br /- Contacts - HP tries again to re-invent a well known function. Again, I wish they left the Microsoft standard UI - 3/10
br /- Platform - USELESS. the unit runs on a LOCKED custom Windows Mobile 5 that won't allow you to use this device for any other purpose. This is HP's narrow definition of "Travel Companion" 0/10
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The TTS is horrible; the sound is muffled and the annunciation is substandard. The non-TTS voice of Amy seems very good if you do not care about TTS. The route is not completly correct. There are times when it seems to be using some wrong map; even though the road/freeway has been around for over 10 years. It is a good unit if the TTS can be upgraded.

I have used this device about 3 months. seems the battery is close to dead now. Without a battery you could not use this device. it takes too long time to booting and there is delay for route instruction so you may miss one or two turns specially at small corners. the software is not reliable, sometime it stucks and you have to reboot. in general, it is not a reliable product and I am not satisfied.

I used this gps to take a trip to ma. aboul 700 miles it works great. when you drive in a city it is so cool. I"am going to buy one for my wife I like it so much. it was not hard to input the address or to use the navigator. in spanish no hay de que , hermoso ir de vacaciones. gracias ron

I love the whole product, really loud voice when they give directions! The only thing that the bluetooth is on and off with receiving calls..its weird but everything else is amazing...

This is my first gps device, so I cannot compare it to any other brand device. However, I am very happy with this device. I purchased it as I was traveling to the north in the US and then to Canada by car. Before I started, I connected this device to my computer and got the free updates to the software from the HP website.
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br /The screen resolution is fantastic. Very clear maps and directions. Reasonable volume (I did not have any trouble hearing the directions as some other reviewer mentioned). This device is not crippled in software as some other devices are. (Simple yet convenient features that are unlocked only for the higher end devices)

Let me start by saying that I really wanted to like this device. The screen is great and the graphics are very crisp. However, like other reviewers have stated, that it is more about the routing than the graphics and this is where the unit performs very poorly. There were many cases where the route it created would have me going miles in the opposite direction of my destination before heading back in the correct direction.

The menu layout is poor and the unit is not user friendly in general. Couple that with a manual that is not very detailed (and not available in hard copy form except for a Getting Started guide) and you will have many hours of frustration gettin ghtis thing to work. The map shows many Points of Interest (POIs) but you cannot click on the map to get information on that POI. You have to click on the map, then go to a "cursor" menu where it will show you all of the POIs near where you clicked. This is not helpful if you are looking for a POI located in a highrise with dozens or hundreds of other POIs at the same address.

The speaker volume does not go very high which makes the TTS function almost useless at times when outside noise gets high (usually when you are going over 50mph). The TTS also stutters at times which also makes it difficult to understand. The screen does not allow you to see the whole route for your trip and the "next turn" space at the top of the screen is too small to give full information. For example, when you are merging on a highway it frequently doesn't tell you which direction to go. It will say something like Exit 33 --> Highway 270. You don't know if it's Highway 270 West or Highway 270 East until the last second.

The screen lets you adjust the tilt of the map and the distance, but most views do not allow you to see your turns as well. I also don't believe it shows you which side of the street your destination is on and it definitely does not tell you with the TTS.

The bluetooth feature allows the unit to import address book information from many cell phones. My phone would not allow the import, but I was able to make calls with the unit. To make it easier to dial out, I manually entered address and phone information (the address allows yoou to make a route to your contacts). The problem is that it has a problem with most addresses entered. I had to type the city name in twice in the city field of the address for many of the contacts for it to be accepted and usable by the unit. There are more issues with the device, but I think I have listed enough to get my point across.

Unfortunately, with all of these issues I had to return the unit. It is dissappointing as the specs on this device looked really good on paper, but the interface, routing and user-friendliness made it too frustrating for me.

I've had my 310 for a week and have enjoyed every aspect of it. The interface is simple to use, and the graphics are sharp and very easy to see - even in direct sunlight. The screen is huge for a GPS device - larger than I expected from the online pictures.

One great experience compared to my last GPS is that the 310 picked up on my location as soon as I turned it on - I didn't have to wait for a minute or two for it to pick up the satellite signal. Also, it calculates the route (and re-calculates) in what seems like less than a second. It's definitely the next-generation in portable GPS.

Just to test it out for a flight I'm taking with the family next week, I loaded an .mp4 movie onto an SD card - and the experience was like watching a DVD... flawless.

I haven't loaded any of my contacts into it yet, but I can just imagine how much easier it's going to be to make phone calls from my car (hands free) using the huge touch-screen... I'll figure that out over the Christmas break.

All-in-all I have no complaints, and am excited to push the limits on what this new toy can do. View pictures from my digital camera (uses the same memory card type), load movies for air-travel, and blue-tooth with my cell phone... yay !!

I just ordered this item and know after a day of doing research i am hearign both good and bad things, but the biggest problem i have is that it states in the add that an optional Traffic Channel Car Charger (FB055AA#AC3) is available for real time traffic. s a commuter in LA this is my number one priority and I jst found out that this is not yet availble in the U.S. and there is no time frame as to if and when. Had the staement been clearer i would not have ordered this unit at all and would have found one that better suits my needs. This is going to get turned around upon receipt and I think Amazon should be more clear on ityems it advertises to make sure the accessories are actually availble. I am more disapointed in Amazon then in HP. at least if you go to the HP website it does not list this as an option!!

When I got my hands on this GPS, I was amazed by the size and the usability features of this unit - i just love the 3-D view - seems like a futuristic product to me, designed by people who know where the technology is headed.

Let me summarize the pros and cons:

The good stuff
(1) Good updated map, routing and POI (points of interest) database
- I read some reviews on this board where people complained of bad routing. Yes, GPS can give bad routing sometimes taking you in a
circuitous routes - but that is something which all GPS do, nothing specific to HP
(2) Great touchscreen and crystal clear screen
- I can view the maps even in bright sunlight and touch the buttons even with my big fingers
(3) Small and easy to carry around
(4) 3-D view - Even though not much of Data is not ready for the city where I travel, whenever I travel to the bigger cities, I am amazed by the 3-D view

The bad stuff
(1) Very poor volume - there is where it loses a star

I bought it 4 months ago, if you want a travel comapanion make sure you choose something w internet conection; the games are cool for 10 min. mp3 player ok, navigation system pretty bad , freezes practicaly every single day! and you will have not option but to reset it, which takes 6 to 8 min to complete while you are getting lost. After all is just a GPS, paying more than $200 is a robbery. I paid over $400.:(

Very well designed product with nice features and well laid out. However, the windows program (5.0 ce) that the gps runs on occasionally gets run time errors and completely freezes the screen. A hard reset must be performed followed by a long boot process. When program is running fine the gps is a great unit. Also, route recalculations suck-it generally wants the driver to make a u-turn and follow the original route rather than actually performing a recalculation.

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.

Overall this is an excellent product. Graphics are far better than most competitors, owing mostly to the impressive screen resolution. Routing is intuitive and generally convenient and rerouting after a missed turn is excellent. The interface is quick and easy to use, though it has a significantly bigger learning curve than other units - expect to take some time to learn it. GPS fix is generally fast and accurate.

Being very new, the GPS does have some rough edges, giving some unacceptable glitches occasionally, sometimes requiring the unit to be rebooted. Also, the voice prompts are sub par, delivered through a single underpowered speaker. The text-to-speech generally pronounces things well, but can be hard to understand, especially over noise. The focus of the unit's design is definitely the graphic interface, other aspects seem to have been neglected somewhat - I like it, but some people may not.

I've been using it for a few days and I've found the Hewlett Packard iPaq 310 to be a fantastic GPS system. If you need only one travel companion, this is the one to choose. The screen is big and has great resolution, so you don't need to be squinting while you are driving, trying to see where on earth you're on this map. Yes, the audio could be a little louder, as others have pointed out, but I found the "Susan" voice to be clear enough to tell me where I need to go.

I live in New York, and found it completely unnecessary to have my travel companion show me all the big buildings around me (I know what they are), so I set the system on medium, and it showed me, quickly and accurately, how to get to where I was going. My son and I have been exploring detailed 3D maps of New York and Washington, which are absolutely dazzling, and the fun geography lesson has been a nice bonus to the system. On top of an excellent GPS system, with the iPaq 310 you get games, a calculator, a photo viewer, and the option to connect your phone (if it's Bluetooth enabled) so that you can talk hands free. What else could you want?

Have had this product for two days and so far am very happy with it. Little trouble linking to my Moto Razr, but today it decided it was OK, and linked up with no problem. Love the graphics. Some of the screens are not intuitive, but I have never seen a device with this many features that was. One little quirk reported by a reviewer, it route me off the freeway on an exit ramp and right back on to the on ramp. Beings I had read this, I only found it amusing and not irritating. The map features are outstanding. Features versus price make this a good value in my opinion. I highly recommend it if you don't want to spend the extra money for the high end Garmin. After reading the reviews on Tom Tom and Navigon, I decided against them.

I have owned 3 avaiation and three road GPS's and found this one the most difficult UNUSER Friendly in both road and Avaiation modes... I hate it..
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HP did a good job of making a stylish looking software for the GPS. A sleek product but not fast enough. Nor is it anything exceptional than other GPS. The price range it is in is definitely cheaper compared to other products.
If you have budget that allows you to but the HP GPS system. Go for it... it got all the stuff you need!

Ok, sorry for the bad pun as the title to my review!

By looking at other reviews it is obvious that opinions range from "great" to "horrible" for the HP iPAQ 310 GPS. I can say that I am very firmly entrenched in the "great" category. While the unit has a few small nuances that could be improved I find the overall product to be worth a solid 4.5 stars!

Others have complained about the volume of the speakers - while this is an area that should be upgraded in a newer version - I have overcome the issue by plugging the headphone jack into a set of small Ipod speakers... the volume problem has been solved!

Some of my favorite features -

- The BlueTooth connectivity is great for talking on the phone while driving.
- The contact list that can be typed into the unit works seamlessly with your BlueTooth Capable phone. In fact, once a contact's address is inputted you can select the address and establish a route to the address. This is a great option for salesmen.
- The games that come with the unit are not necessary but are fun to play.
- Built in media player (for movies and music) although not all movie and music formats are recognized.
- Very detailed screen.
- The navigation system works well. I have yet to have a problem of "crazy" routes as other reviewers have mentioned. I will admit that all of the routes may not be "standard" but they do make sense.
- The Points of Interest (POI) function will always help you find gas stations and restaurants. In fact, we have already found newly tagged favorite restaurants based on the GPS's references!
- External memory cards can be inserted.

Possible areas for improvement-

- Inputting addresses is a bit more cumbersome than other models.
- The satellite input is not instantaneous, but not necessarily slower than competing products.
- A wider recognition of file formats would help the iPAQ function as a more handy media player.
- While I have overcome the problem - louder and clearer speakers would help satisfy the most demanding customer.

The HP iPAQ 310 is a great performing GPS at fair price. I have no problems giving it 4.5 stars

Overall i like this device. I have owned over 6 GPS units and this is by far the most feature rich. My kids like the games that are preloaded and I like being able to listen to music while I drive. The mount is very nice and easy to use on an every day basis. I got this for a great price on an amazon Friday deal. The voices are pretty muffled but this was not a big problem as I hooked it into my car's audio system. The GPS routing works fine, and will get you where you are going. Has tons of features. If you are looking for a full featured GPS - this is it. Overall I give it 4.5 stars as it is not for newbies and is not simple to use. But if you are a techie you will love it.

Great Stuff, I really like it. I just used if for several days, the screen and the database are gorgeous.

Like another person who posted, I too work for HP and I would not recommend this unit. That says something. It needs a FW upgrade to get around all the lock-up issues, takes forever to boot, takes 10-15 minutes to acquire satellite signals to tell you where you are, maps are not up to date, sound is terrible, the power button protrudes and turns ON at the slighest touch (even when in the slipcase), I couldn't get signals in Fresno, CA, the trip planning feature is not functional, user manual doesn't tell you how to download music or videos, online support bites, USB plug to my PC doesn't charge the battery - even though the LED says it is charging, menu options are too deep and complicated to use while driving (when you need them most), only 1GB of memory for all music, pictures and video files. So, it needs a little work. Hopefully HP can address these in a FW release, THEN it would be a great unit.

This product is causing so many problems, even after all the updates as of 2008 Feb. 19th.
br /
br /1. The GPS lead me to wrong area(8 blocks away from destination) even when I used navigate to a POI(Target store). On my second try, it was okay.
br /2. Map jumps and rotates when I stop.
br /3. The power keeps on comming on due to bad design. Battery drains in 2 days in standby mode if not accidentally turned on.
br /4. Time zone keeps on changing to wrong time zone.
br /5. TTS(text to speach) does not work properly. The sound is unhearable with TTS on. Volume too low, and sounds very awkward, hard to understand. It's loud and clear when used without TTS.
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br /I want a full refund for this product. It is basically junk and no use to me in this condition. I wonder how hp sells this kind of product with so many bugs. I can say that this product is in a beta testing phase right now. I'd advise amazon to stop selling junk like this to prevent so many return requests.

As a first time user of GPS, I am very impressed by the features on the Hewlett Packard iPAQ 310 Portable GPS Navigator. In my opinion, the units flaws are minor compared to the freedom it provides the user. I have confidence that it's going to get me to my destination and home again.

So far, I've programmed the iPAQ 310 with destinations I'm already familiar with (home to work), areas in unfamiliar parts of town (destination shopping I wouldn't have bothered with unless I had very reliable directions), and destinations in towns up to 100 miles away (long weekend trips).

The route may not always be the shortest, but instructions are clear and detailed. On one occasion it took me off the highway five exits early and directed me on back roads to a destination that was immediately off the expressway. On another occasion, when I was trying to reach a town 70 miles away, it chose a route that was about 15 minutes longer but simplified the trip by adding more expressway and less 2-lane state road driving.

If you miss a turn, the iPAQ 310 will tell you that you're off course and instruct you to turn back. It will even tell you where to turn around. If you fail to reverse in order to get back on your original course, it will plot a new route and continue to give you instructions to the destination address you've entered.

Once you've reached your destination, it automatically starts providing the return directions.

Graphics are excellent - bright, clear, and easy to read. Even when you can't quite make out what the unit is saying, it displays the name of the next street in a scroll band across the top of the display and a relatively large picture-in-picture arrow shows the direction of your next turn. While doing some interstate driving at dusk, I noticed that the background color changed from green to black at the official time of sunset. It made things noticeably easier on my eyes as I glanced between the road and the GPS screen.

The audio can be difficult to understand while the car is in motion. This was very bad when I had the unit lying on the console,or when my co-pilot was holding it - even holding it up to my ear. After I had the unit suspended in the windshield mount, the spoken directions were less muffled and much easier to understand. The speakers could be improved in the next generation model.

Although the audio can be indistinct, the unit repeats instructions at frequent enough intervals that you should be in no danger of missing your turn. For example, "In one mile turn right on Broad Street." "In one half mile turn right on Broad Street." "In one quarter mile turn right on Broad Street." "In 400 feet turn right on Broad Street." "In 20 feet turn right on Broad Street." "Take the next right." Not all GPS units give the street name for the next turn, and having that is a huge help.

Even if you can't hear the audio announcement, a chime alerts you that an announcement is being made for upcoming activity, and graphics indicate the direction of the next turn and the street name.

The delivery format for directions can be toggled between a map showing your vehicle as a moving arrow passing cross streets in real time, or you can view a list of turn by turn directions.

If you're trying to quickly enter a lot of commands, or if you're trying to enter new commands while the unit is processing a command, it may freeze up. There is a reset button to correct this. I have not experienced any freezes while the GPS is giving directions or providing mapping en route.

The charger for this has an unusual configuration. One end of the cable plugs into the GPS device, the other end has a USB port that can plug into your computer to download trip directions, or you can plug it into a USB slot on either the AC wall outlet or car cigarette lighter adapter. Be sure to take the cable and car adapter with you on trips. If the battery dies it may not be easy to find your way.

To sum it up, as noted in other reviews there are some flaws, but they seem minor overall. This is a reliable unit that acquires satellite quickly, and provides clear reliable instructions to reach your destination and get home again. If you haven't used GPS before, be prepared for one of those life changing devices that you'll never want to be without again - think first VHS, microwave oven, or cell phone. Highly recommended!

I'm amazed at all the positive reviews for this lackluster device. I purchased it because of the 12 million POIs which theoretically are great but hard to access. I was also looking forward to the "brilliant" display which for me was underwhelming. The negatives of this device FAR outweighed the meager positives.
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br /The form factor is nowhere near as elegant as the Nuvi - sorry, but it's true, all statements to the contrary notwithstanding. The suction device and attachment mechanism are so clumsy and poorly executed that alone would have kept me from keeping this clunker. The USB cable attaches directly to the device rather than being integrated into the suction cup holder as is the case with the Nuvi. So, instead of simply pushing a button and neatly removing the device you have to wrestle with the awkward release mechanism and then remove the USB cable from the device itself. HP should be ashamed of themselves.
br /
br /And don't get me going on navigating through the menus. It is just downright awful. The Nuvi is simplicity itself. This device is just clumsy and very poorly designed. Yeah, yeah, you CAN eventually do what you want but frankly it is simply not worth the effort. The software designer who came up with this should be fired. It reminds me of the poorly executed MS PocketPC Mobile 6 compared to the Nuvi's iphone like simplicity and elegance.
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br /Hard to believe that a company such as HP would allow this out the door. Do yourself a favor: buy a Nuvi or a TomTom for that matter. Both are considerably better thought out. Even at $200 this device just doesn't deliver. The negative reviews here are spot on. Read them carefully before you purchase this dog.

Too difficult to use. If I wanted a video, music, and phone system I would purchase them seperate. Need to carry around a manual or provide training for the "not so called gadgit oriented person". Satilite pick up was great when the product worked. After download it would not work.

See the other reviews for specs and functionality. As for my experience, it did seem to work as advertised for a while. Then I downloaded the latest version of HP connection manager to sync contacts and update the software.

After the process finished normally. I turn the unit on. It no longer has any POI available, won't show any contacts, and will now not even calculate a route.

A call to HP tech support lasted about 3 minutes. The technician confirmed that the updating process did indeed "kill" the unit. There is no way to restore it to its original factory settings and software. Its just dead and they are sending me a box - I think to bury it in!

TomTom Go 720...On paper lesser technical capabilities than this unit. In real life it functions very very well, updates without a hitch, and generally confirms that this Ipaq unit is weak and undependable.

At first look the specs look impressive, but when I actually tried the unit I saw it was only half baked.

The audio is worthless. Low volume and muffled. You can not hear a thing ! Very disappointing !

Routing is inaccurate and slow.

The unit continuously locks up and freezes and I had to take the battery out to get it to reset.

It powers on by just touching the button. So, my battery is always dead.

3-D coverage while a cool idea only covers the center of very large metro areas. I do not live in downtown Chicago !

Back it goes to the store ASAP.....

Pro:
Good hardware specs. I like the gorgeous screen that comes with the wvga resolution.

Con:
For the hardware part, if only it has wifi support or SDIO...

But the bad story is that Software is immature. A lot of stuff left unfinished. The CPU clock is locked at 300MHZ instead of the boasted 600MHZ.

Update- I have used this GPS for a couple weeks and I have found it to be horrible in accessing the satellite signal as I received a garmin for Chistmas and that one has no problem with the satellite signal and is much simpler to use. Sorry HP but the ipaq needs the satellite reception improved in a major way. Plus the ipaq kept wanting to make one of my destinations as my home address and wouldn't let me change it.

I have never owned one of these before but have read many reviews on the different brands.

Pros: 1. I love the removeable battery, it makes it easy to replace unlike some GPS that the battery is integrated.
2. the screen size is good and the touchscreen is responsive.
3. Somewhat intuitive interface.

CONS: 1. I feel the interface could be improved since it tells you no where that the thing has to access a sattelite signal before it will show the entire route.
--For the turn by turn I feel it would be much better if the input would read Starting point-- input address or allow the satellite input it then have a destination point-- input the address. Plus when you do this it would be so nice if they would show an overall destination map that would show your route. (maybe I missed something but I didn't see this)

2.I have had it freeze up on me a few times and the one time I had to press the reset for it to even shut off.
3. Very difficult to see in bright light
4. Takes forever to aquire a satellite signal inside of the car. (If I stand outside I can get a signal in half the amount of time or less, this is supposed to be for a car so I think they need to make improvements in aquiring the satellite signal)
I wanted to test it so I input the address of a local place we were going to, it took the HP Ipaq at least 15 minutes to aquire a signal, it tried to take us in a circle before heading us to the main road but it did compensate for the different turn we took, we reached our destination and I set it down until we came back out ( iwas holding as a passenger so that I could hear the voice). It lost the satellite signal. I wanted to have it guide us back home (which in a real world situation I would need this, luckily this was a route that we did know) It took until we were 2/3 of the way home before it finally aquired the signal again. "This is much to long to aquire a signal" and there weren't a lot of tall buildings but was a cloudy day.

5. The sound level is much too low and difficult to hear, make the sound more adjustable and a larger speaker would help tremendously.

The way this has performed so far I would not recommend it and I would not buy it. The games are nice and the music features some may use but this is to be a GPS first and I feel it fails in this area since it loses signal too easily and takes a very long time to aquire a signal and the mapping system trys to take you in circles. I would love to try another HP if they improve the GPS.

The Ipaq 310 has amazing resolution and very good detail in 3d mode. Has millions of POI and even had some places that have only been in the city for a year or less. Bluetooth connected to my phone without problem. A very nice gps. The reason I rated it at 3 stars is because, it is advertised as having text-to-speech feature, however this was not true. This was the key feature I was looking for in a gps so I did not have to look at the screen for the street. Needless to say I was very dissapointed to hear "turn right in 500 feet." I contacted HP about this and they had no clue. They told me that it doesn't tell you street names verbally. I read them the side of the box that said, "speaks road names in French, English, and Spanish." Thye got confused and told me sorry can't do anything for you. I returned the product the next day until HP get it figured out.

The iPAQ 310 is a feature-rich device with excellent graphics, average GPS capabilities, and appalling audio.

It has the feel of a work in progress, rather than a mature product. There is an associated website which, for the moment, has very little on it, but could grow to be very useful in time. Many consumers will thus be skipping this release of the product and waiting for the next.

A lot of the negative points mentioned by other reviewers can actually be overcome. In particular, you can attach the audio to external speakers (or to headphones when using it as a portable entertainment center), and in general, many of the problems users encounter are due to incorrect settings. And that raises an important point -- getting the settings right for this unit is a long and quite complicated process, just as it is for many other GPS devices, if you want to really get them functioning the way you want. If you are really adventurous (or foolhardy) you can go `under the hood' with these settings, because you can download code into the games library and run it from there. You could thus gain access to the CE operating system. Of course, you are then very much on your own.

The overall design of the iPAQ is attractive. The slightly protruding power button has caused some users problems, as it can be pushed accidentally if you carry the unit around in your pocket. I carried mine around in the leather case and did not have that problem.

Note that you need to buy an SD card if you want to download music, etc. It takes high capacity SDs. The slide show capability is very good. All in all, the iPAQ functions very well as an entertainment device.

So, is this the GPS for you or not? If the visual display is most important to you, and if you think that the non-GPS features (music, etc) will be useful to you, and if you can get a good price, then yes, go for it. If you want a purely GPS device, and are content with an average display, then for the moment you are better off with a Garmin, for example. Talking of price, the cost of an iPAQ varies tremendously from one supplier to another and even fluctuates violently from day to day with individual suppliers. So spend a few days shopping around.

I've been using my HP 310, and the resolution is stunning! The Garmin and TomTom units are there are nice, but they only have QVGA (320x240) resolution or the widescreens are only Wide-QVGA(480x272).

This HP device is 800x480!! This is 5x the resoluion of the Nuvi 350. The resolution is so crisp, and the performance is snappy.

I'm a big fan of this next generation technology from HP.

QUICK REVIEW: This is a great GPS unit. It has outstanding graphics on 3D maps with good routing capabilities. The sound could be a little better, but it is good enough for me. It comes with additional features for Bluetooth, media, and utilities as the cherry on the sundae. Detailed review based with usage comments follows.

SETUP: There are a couple of things to do to set up your iPAQ GPS. First is charging. I used the wall adapter and the USB charging cable to charge my unit. It was fully charged in about 90 minutes. Once you power on the device, the on screen instructions are simple. There will be a couple of things you will want to change. Under Settings -> Time click on the double clock icon in the lower left portion of the screen. The "Use Auto Time Zone" setting was not working properly for me so I unchecked it and set my timezone manually. At this point my unit began to show the correct time. Then under Navigation -> Settings -> Regional you will want to choose a voice. The ones with (TTS) in the name are the only ones that support text-to-speech during navigation that speak full street names. I have been able to work with the default settings for essentially everything else.

As for in the car usage, it comes with a windshield mount that works well. In addition it has a disc that you can affix to your dash and attach the windshield mount. I am not using the dash disc as it is not removable/reusable once you put it in place. The USB charging cable is plenty long to reach from the windshield in our van to the power port on the console.

NAVIGATION: There are two main ways to navigate that most people will use if you are trying to find a specific address. For the simple cases I recommend going into Navigation -> Route -> Edit Route and clicking the turn sign with the "+" sign. From there you can either enter a new address by selection "Address" or you can selection a previous address from History. From there use the back navigation to get back to the Navigation menu and select "Go to".

For more complex trips, you can use HP's web site dedicated to the iPAQ Travel Companion to plan trips over multiple days with 1 or more stops per day. I used this to plan a trip for Christmas Eve that went looked like this: my house -> church -> my house -> my brother's house -> my house. The site allows you to specific the time of day for each stop along with a duration of stay. The target use for this is business travel as you can share your itinerary with others and optionally allow them to edit it. Once your itinerary is complete, you can sync the trip to your iPAQ using a download that is available from the HP web site. You also need this software to sync contacts to your device. Once you transfer the trip to your device, your trip is available under Navigation -> Nav Extras. Simply select your trip to begin navigation. I actually found that you want to begin with your first stop rather than your starting point when planning a trip. If you begin at a different starting point than planned, the unit will try to send you back to your planned starting point. This may seem obvious, but I thought it was worth mentioning since I made this mistake.

ROUTING/REROUTING: The device performs well in both areas. Despite what I've read in other reviews on both Amazon and CNET, I have been please with the routing capabilities and accuracy of the device. It does a good job of quickly generating an accurate route to your destination/stop, and it reasonably handles the situations when you go off course. It initially tries to send you back to the original route, but if you go far enough off the original route, it will give you a completely new route. I tested this while going between my house and church. Due to traffic flow patterns, it is faster to come home a different way than we used going to church. The route selected our route that we use going from home to church. Coming back, it eventually locked on to our alternate route after trying to get us to go back to the original route. I found this to work in a similar manner to other navigation software that I have used.

GRAPHICS: This is an area where the iPAQ is amazing. The generous 4.3 inch screen is very crisp. The 3D maps allow you to choose different perspectives. The overhead view essentially gives you a 2D map that allows you to keep the heading up at all times. This is mysteriously missing in 2D mode where you are stuck with North up. I don't like this setting so the 2D map is essentially useless. However with the 3D maps and all of their features, I don't know why anyone would ever use 2D anyway. In driving around downtown Dallas, I saw many buildings rendered quite lifelike such as the American Airlines Center and Reunion Tower. This seems like a potentially useful feature for additional visual queues in unfamiliar cities. You can also select different orientations with various depth of field ratios. These are available by tapping on the map during navigation in the center of the screen. This is also how you select the zoom features.

While navigating the street of your next turn along with the direction and distance are giving along the top of the screen. In addition there is an icon on the left side that gives you the direction of the turn along with the distance. In the center along the bottom are two times: the top is the time remaining on trip while the bottom is your absolute arrival time. The only drawback that I noticed on the graphics is that the direction of your heading is mysteriously missing. While this is relatively minor, it does seem like an odd omission.

SOUND: The speaker on the device is not the best. Given the lack of bass that it has, I found that the "Susan" voice gave much better TTS directions than the "Dave" voice. This is probably the one area in the device that could stand some improvement. If I concentrate, I can understand the directions ok. However my wife thinks it is difficult to hear/understand.

BLUETOOTH: In addition to standard GPS features, this device will pair with your cell phone and act as a hands free device. The one thing that is missing in this area is a way to initiate voice commands on your cell phone. The Motorola T305 (see my review) has a "multi-function" button for interacting with your phone. So you will have to initiate calls from your phone. This limits the usefulness to receiving incoming calls which can still be done truly hands free as long as your phone has auto answer features.

MEDIA: This device also comes with an MP3 player, movie viewer, and photo viewer that all work with SD cards. The speaker on the device does not really lend itself to being a multimedia player for use in the car. However it works well with headphones so it can be handy while killing time at the airport or elsewhere. The photo viewer can play slideshows of photos. The general picture viewing experience is pleasant, but I would consider all of these media applications to be nice to have features.

GAMES: The iPAQ comes with 5 games preloaded on it. The graphics are pretty good, and they work will with stylus navigation. I liked Jewel Master the best. These are also a nice to have that are useful for killing time, but are not a real selling point of the device.

EXTRAS: If the above is not enough, the device also comes with a calculator, clock, and phone utilities. These do about what you would expect. The phone utility is integrated with your contacts.

OVERALL: This is a great device. While the price tag seems steep, the 4.3 inch screen and 800 x 480 screen really make a difference. I have not seen comparable graphics in other units. While the sound could be better, it is acceptable to me. I would highly recommend going to a store where they have a live device to test the sound prior to purchasing. All of the other extras are gravy in my opinion.