The Best PDA/Sat Nav Combo??

HARDM2000

Hi all im looking at buying something along these lines and was wondering if anyone wanted to share their views on the kit their using or have had any contact with and whether it was sny good. Is an integrated gps antenna better or seperate and it has to be windows based os! Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated and taken on board.
Thanks

Ben

mcwarre

Hi Ben,

A couple of Q's:

1. What (ish) is your budget?
2. What else do you want to do with the PDA (music, wifi, email, surfing, movies etc?)? (May only need a standalone satnav rather than PDA one)
3. Do you have a mobile phone contract? If so are you near renewal (as you can get integrated pda/phones)?

Cheers,

Mick

HARDM2000

Hi Mick, thanks for answering budget is about 200quid, i dont really want a pda phone as i use my phone a lot and i consider them too bulky for continual use. Wifi email would also be an advantage although i would'nt be aversed to buying one for an integrated antenna and then having to buy wifi adaptor for sd card slot or similar, what are your thoughts??
Thanks

Ben
EDIT: Forgot to add already have tomtom in one car but the idea of a more compact unit that does other things as well is another of my reasons for going in this direction.

marmite0

It will blow your budget, but I can recommend the Fujitsu Seimens LooX 560 PDA - its got a nice fast processor, VGA and inbuilt GPS - when I bought a few months ago it was the only one with that combination - and of course it can run tomtom on it - I've seen iGo Europe too and that's very good alternative to Tomtom, looks better IMO - but doesn't have speed camera alerts..

navig8r

whatever you get I would recommend that the Gps part has the latest Sirfstar III chipset receiver.

Dave

marmite0

navig8r wrote:

whatever you get I would recommend that the Gps part has the latest Sirfstar III chipset receiver.

Dave

The LOOX 560 is SiRF III - and yes I agree - much better at holding on to a signal.

mcwarre

Ben,

Have a look at this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=86620
and
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=137520

I agree with the SIRF III comments. Integrated receivers are normally battery intensive (including those that use SD slots) so get a car charger with it. They have less wires/charges though

Try a few out (especially the software). For £200 ish you will have to be shopping at the bottom (or refurbished) end of the market. Still some bargins to be had.

This looks okay (ish) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SAT-NAV-NEW-MAPS-GPS-Navigator-iPAQ-rx1955-PDA-WiFi-WM5_W0QQitemZ120053951784QQihZ002QQcategoryZ75327QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(with Wifi)

This is probably much better http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MITAC-MIO-168-PDA-GPS-SAT-NAV-TOMTOM-6-FULL-KIT_W0QQitemZ230048541385QQihZ013QQcategoryZ75327QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


Let us know how you get on / what you choose. Good luck
(I don't know these sellers so proceed with normal ebay caution)

melipona

I have had a MIO 168 clone for about 2 yrs. Use it daily in the car with TT and it works fine for me. The PDA function is not the fastest but it can do all the usual office stuff. When not driving I use it to read books, handy when away from home.

DuncanMiller

we bought a medion (MIO 168) a few years back and the medion navigator it came with was rubbish and laggy.

installed tomtom on it and now its great - would imagine you can pick them up fairly cheap now too!

james_brown_06

mcwarre wrote:

Try a few out (especially the software). For £200 ish you will have to be shopping at the bottom (or refurbished) end of the market.

You don't have to shop in the refurbs section with your budget, there are some great bargains about at this time of year. The Navman PiN 570 has all the basic PDA functions built in plus plug and go sat nav and an integrated gps receiver! The only downside is that the receiver isn't SiRF Star III.......but for £139 you don't get everything >> http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/navman-pin-570-pocket-pc-includes-smartst-software-and-uk-maps-description.html

mcwarre

Good spot james_brown.

Anyone got experiences of Navman software? I can only comment on TT and co-pilot really.....