Globalsat BT-338 GPS receiver > Reviews > Where am I?..aha...eight satellites in view

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Good
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Look & Feel	Excellent
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	small, very sensitive, 17 hour battery length
Disadvantages:	cost

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Many of us are now getting sat nav. Some are complete units with integrated GPS and maps, whilst others are separate units such as a pocketpc or mobile phone, with separate GPS receiver.

The Globalsat BT-338 is one of the latest generation bluetooth GPS receivers using the new SiRF Star III chipset - lower power usage with greater sensitivity. The price varies from £100 on Ebay to £140 in the shops.

The unit itself is matchbox sized and has a rechargeable battery whose life is claimed to be about 17 hours. The pack comes with the GPS receiver, incar charger, mains charger, soft case, and instruction cd. The bluetooth range is 10m, and the GPS can track up to 20 satellites at once.

The GPS is easy to use - one button on the front to turn on/off (with auto power-off if not connected to a bluetooth device in ten minutes). There are three lights on the front - battery low warning, GPS locked/unlocked, and bluetooth connected/disconnected.

Operation is simple. Turn the GPS unit on and pair your bluetooth device to the GPS. After about 45s from cold, the GPS should have locked on to satellites in the area. This latest receiver is excellent in the fact that it is so sensitive it can lock on to satellites even when used indoors, and also has greater sensitivity to help when you get 'urban canyon' effects where previous GPS modules would lose lock.

The GPS is also advanced in that the unit can attain a more precise position than previous generations. If you are a walker, then previous GPS sometimes only use to update position every 50m due to positional inaccuracy. This version comes preset to generate the position to within 10m, so is much more useful for slow navigation.

The GPS performs exactly as it says on the label.
So if you have a device onto which you can load either positioning or mapping software, and you have a bluetooth connection, this receiver can provide you with the GPS tracking.