I am looking for a pda which will run sat nav, I guess Tomtom is the most popular and well known. I have narrowed down my choice to an XDA 2S (with the pull out mini keyboard)or an Ipaq, the 4700 looks well specified. I would like to use this set up with a bluetooth gps receiver to cut down on the wires etc. My preference is for the XDA as it will take a SIM card and can also be used as a phone and also has a camera, a pretty useless accessory to my mind but you never know - could be useful in the event of a shunt. The pda would be used on a sucker type windscreen mount, probably a powered one with a speaker. I have made one wrong decision and found out to my cost that my planned combination could not be made to work, at least by me. The grand plan is to get as much functionality in one box as I can in order to minimise the amount of technology I carry around with me, and it is for this reason that I dont want a standalone sat nav unit. The new Mio Mitac A201 has the gps receiver incorporated into it and does all the usual pda type things, but doesnt seem to get terribly good reviews. Any suggestions and advice very gratefully received before I once again get my wallet out.
Thanks in advance MGs
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Afraid I carry a separate phone and PDA, the phone is pretty tiny and is easy to take alongside, and I don't have to worry about getting the PDA out in public.
The Dell X51v has a VGA screen, wireless, bluetooth, and is quite small. I have one and run TomTom Navigator on it with a bluetooth GPS receiver. The software isn't cheap (but can be got on E-Bay for a bit of a saving), and I was given the receiver for testing another satnav product.
Sucker car mounts are available from about 30 quid, they get more expensive as you add bluetooth to them. Don't bother with one of the universal mounts, they look naff and are a PITA to work with.
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I run a Dell X50v with BT receiver and TT5 which I am very pleased with. My problem is the windscreen mount. My daughter has a TOMTOM mount which is excellent. I have bought 2 alleged TOMTOM mounts from e-bay and GPS retailers, both of which were identical "chinese copies" with the following faults---would not stick to windscreen, so I tried the vent clip, this broke within 30mins as not strong enough. The holster to sucker mount clips do not hold. Finally the PDA batteries got almost too hot to touch!! So please beware of these "sucker" mounts. They sell for £30+. Does anyone know of a good non amplified mount that will look after your pda and not throw it round the car or cook it, or where I can get a pukka TOMTOM mount?
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I am running a 4700 ipaq with sat nav. I have a Holux gr231 bluetooth GPS, tomtom navigator 5, and a sedio powered mount. It needed a few tweaks, downloads and research to get it all going but is now reliable and with the free (soon to be paid for)camera database doubles up as an accurate speed camera warning.
The 4700 is good and powerful and is synched with my work Lotus Notes Diary and address book. Its large and bright screen makes it a delight to use, and is stable with very few lockups. Battery life is good and the screen resists scratching quite well. Its synched with my Nokia 6310i via bluetooth with my personal ISP for email and instant messaging. ( i dont synch my Notes email as my inbox is huge) As a PDA its the dogs pieces, light and thin.
As sat nav is a delight. Running TomTom nav 5, its very good. The large bright screen makes it every bit as usefull as a commercial stand alone sat nav. The Holux has fab battery life, which makes walking and hiking for most of the day a distinct posibility. You need an amplified mount as the GPS voice is not loud enough. I needed a an extra SD data card to load the Tomtom maps for UK and Europe. The French maps took us to an obscure camp site in France last year with no agro at all.
I have now bunged a 1MB CF card in it and is now my personal MP3 player. Looking for a CF based TV/FM radio card and its a complete travel centre!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I steered away from the 4700 because the speaker was so tinny. The X51v is loud enough to use without an amplified mount. The 4700 does, however, have the advantage of a 4 inch screen IIRC, while the X51v is 3.7", and TomToms are 3.5".
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The 4700 has a good 640x480 64k display too. Does a fab job on Mpegs.
Pity is TomTom cant exploit it properly in Hi res mode.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I use an XDA2i with TT5. I use a wired receiver and mount with speaker. I find the set up very good, TT5 is much better with phone version PPC's then TT3 was. I have also set up TT5 on an XDA Exec using a BT GPS receiver - that was not as easy and had to follow some advice from other forums to get it to work. Thinking about it I have also put TT5 on a XDA2 and Ipaq 1910, works on all of them - but can be a bit slow on the ipaq (also does not leave much memory on the Ipaq) Are you sure about getting the XDA2s - O2 have stopped selling it on their website (Along with the 2i)? It has been replaced by the mini which uses WM5 so I assume will have the same issues as the exec when trying to sort out com ports for the bt receiver, mini also has a slide out keyboard but from the side rather then the bottom. The Exec is a nice bit of kit, but bulky compared with the 2i so if size matters (which it does allegedly!) then the mini might be better. Personally I would never go back to seperate phones and pda's, all in one devices are the way forward. Let us know what you choose in the end.
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There may be problems running TT on WM5
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Works fine on my X51v. WM5 has the advantage of the built-in GPS controller... you just have to be careful when setting the ports up.
I believe a lot of issues were fixed in the version 5.21 update, which you can download from their website.
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WM5 may have a built in GPS controller - however - O2 decide to hide this function so you need to do a registry hack to get it to show or there is another way of getting the BT com port up in TT5 but you have to go through a long winded set up (longer then it should be anyway). The 5.21 version has not fixed all the bugs but there are at least work arounds for them now ;o)
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Many thanks indeed to everybody for your interesting and informed comments. I do in fact have an XDA Exec and have gone through the process of updating the registry entry and getting the GPS option to display in the connections menu. I cannot get the GPS receiver to communicate with tomtom despite hours of frustration and fiddling about, it is currently on ebay hoping for a good result. It is also a bit of a brick as well as somebody said. Hence I want to get a set up that has been tried and tested with a track record from others that can inform my decision. Looks as if both the Ipaq 4700 and the XDA 2 will fit the bill. I am aware of the new XDA with the sideways slide out keypad but of course no evidence of it working as yet.
Thanks for all the comments and feedback, very much appreciated. I will update in due course on the eventual outcome.
Many thanks MGs
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My preference is for the XDA as it will take a SIM card and can also be used as a phone and also has a camera, a pretty useless accessory to my mind but you never know - could be useful in the event of a shunt.
Previous threads in the backrom have recommended a disposable camera for use after an accident, because (if I remember correctly) a digital image is less useful as evidence. That may or may not affect your choice of PDA, but I'd prefer to have the disposable camera than to have to take my valuable PDA out of the car in a post-accident situation.
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