My main interests are gadgetry, I love playing computer games and designing web sites.
My main interests are gadgetry, I love playing computer games and designing web sites.
Member since:17.03.2005
Reviews:9
I purchased the HP rz1710 because I wanted to have the functionality of PDA and the benefits of a GPS system.
The product comes in two parts basically you get the rz1710 PDA and a stand alone GPS receiver that you can either stick to the window of your car or the dashboard. An adhesive plate is provided if you wish to mount the unit on your dashboard.
The GPS software provided is Via Michelin. The software has been put on an SD card that self installs when you put it in the slot on your PDA. By simply inserting the PDA into the GPS receiver the software recognises the hardware and loads the GPS software ready for navigating. From a standstill I found the GPS receiver locked onto a signal in under a minute, while moving the acquisition was slightly longer. The GPS software is quite good; the interface was very easy to use while driving, the big icons on the screen enable you to control the GPS without having to loose too much focus while driving. The system provides different modes i.e. a top down view of the road or a 3D representation. A nice touch is the night time representation of the map that is much less glaring when obviously driving in the dark. Things that I do not like about the software are the fact that when you select the zoom on the map while driving, the view keeps switching back to the default view. Also I don't like the fact that you cannot set a destination while your moving, you always have to select a start location. Recently the GPS has started throwing error messages when it tries to recalculate a journey if you deviate off your path. I have tried a full reset of my PDA but the problem still persists. The software has not got me lost yet, although it did send me on a shortcut through a farmer's backyard the other day. Via Michelin provides a point of interest database on the software but there is no speed camera data. You can however, get text files with speed camera locations listed from the web and load them into the software.
The actual PDA itself is ok but nothing special, in my opinion the memory on the unit is really inadequate. With only 25mb to play with you will soon run out of space. There is a slot for an SD card but it can only take a card up to 1gb. Even so, I have managed to compress five films onto my SD card which has entertained my family on journeys as they can view films via the GPS holder which also acts as a charger via the cigarette lighter adapter included. As long as you don't want to play games like Age of Empires on the PDA it does an ok job. The preloaded software on Windows Mobile 2003 all works ok and the screen quality is not bad.
All in all this is not a bad PDA it can cope with the roll as a contact/task manager perfectly well. As a very basic media player its ok however, the poor memory capacity stunts the units potential. The GPS functionality is fairly reliable and very easy to use but the method of importing extra points of interest such as speed cameras etc is difficult.
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This product comes direct from HP as part of it's HP RENEW product offering. This is HP's ... more
policy to provide a renewable sustainable life cycle for product that is EXCESS,DISCONTINUED,EX DEMO or RETURNED DOA product which is then repaired and retested t...
Postage & Packaging: £4.87 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Apr 27th, 2006
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