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HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion

Manufacturer: HP Part number: FA974AA#ABA

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$179.99 - $407.84 at 5 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
3.0 stars Good
Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 15 reviews

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: Despite a sleek design and an attractive feature set, the HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion shows an ugly side with inaccurate route recalculations and poor voice directions that makes us say pass for now.
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CNET editors' review

HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion

price range: $179.99 - $407.84

Reviewed by: Bonnie Cha
Reviewed on: 11/26/2007

The good: The HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion is a sleek portable navigation system with a gorgeous screen, text-to-speech functionality, and integrated Bluetooth. It also displays 3D building renderings and has multimedia capabilities.

The bad: The iPaq 310 was pretty awful at route recalculations, and the voice prompts weren't very loud or clear.

The bottom line: Despite a sleek design and an attractive feature set, the HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion shows an ugly side with inaccurate route recalculations and poor voice directions that makes us say pass for now.

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Last year, HP introduced its HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion, a sleek gadget that combined the powers of a PDA and a portable navigation system into one solution. It was the first GPS device for the company, and it enjoyed moderate success with our readers. Now, HP has decided to embark on its first GPS-only venture with the new HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion. It's a sleek device with an exceptionally beautiful and sharp screen, and it has attractive features on the inside as well, including text-to-speech, integrated Bluetooth, and 3D building renderings. Unfortunately, things turned ugly as soon as we hit the road. The iPaq 310 was awful at route recalculations, giving us baffling directions and roundabout routes to our destination. In addition, the voice prompts were difficult to hear and understand. It's a shame because we really wanted to like this device, but HP needs to work out some bugs before we're willing to fork over the $$449 for the portable nav system. In the meantime, if you're looking for a midlevel to advanced in-car GPS, we'd suggest the Mio DigiWalker C520 or the Garmin Nuvi 660.

Design
Though the HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion doesn't offer a remarkably different design than other portable navigation systems, it's still one sleek device. It sports an attractive dark plum chassis and black soft-touch finish on the back, making for a handsome addition to any car interior. The iPaq 310 also has a slender profile (4.3 inches wide by 3.4 inches high by 0.7 inch deep; 6.6 ounces) so you can easily transport it between vehicles or pack it in your suitcase for use with a rental car while on a trip.

On the front, you'll find a spacious 4.3-inch TFT touch screen that shows off 65,000 colors at a sharp 800x480 pixel resolution that makes maps and text look extra crisp and vibrant. It's one of the best displays we've seen on a GPS device to date, and we were able to read it in various lighting conditions, including bright daylight. You can adjust the backlight levels, and there's a night mode option that will automatically switch the map colors at nighttime for better viewing. The touch screen was responsive to our commands, though the system itself can occasionally be sluggish; that can make it seem like the screen isn't immediately responding to your touch. The onscreen keyboard is on the cramped side, so users with larger digits may have a hard time entering addresses with just their fingertips. Fortunately, there's a stylus on top of the unit for more precise text entry.

For the most part, the HP user interface is intuitive and easy to understand. The main menu page presents you with five clear options: Navigation, Entertainment, Contacts, Extras, and Settings. That said, once you dive deeper into these selections, the function of all the different buttons isn't always obvious. The user's manual is pretty barebones, but it at least explains the purpose of each icon.

The Power button is located right above the display, while there's an SD expansion slot on the left side. To the right, you'll find a reset hole, a mini USB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an external antenna jack, and a multipurpose jog wheel that you can use to adjust the volume and backlight, scroll through and select the various menus, or zoom in and out of maps.

The HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion comes packaged with an AC adapter, a car charger, a USB cable, a leather protective case, a vehicle mount (windshield and dash), and reference material.

Features
The HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion was built from scratch and no longer uses TomTom's navigation software. Instead, it uses HP's own navigation software and comes preloaded with TeleAtlas maps of the United States and Canada. As with most portable navigation systems, you can get directions to a specific address, a point of interest (POI), a location from your Favorites or recently visited list, or your home address. Once you've entered your destination, routes can be calculated in several methods, including shortest, fastest, and most economical, and you can instruct the system to avoid certain road types and maneuvers, such as highways, toll roads, and U-turns. There will also be an iPaq-dedicated Web site where you can plan your trips beforehand and then send them the iPaq 310. This is a nice option if you have time to preplan your journey since you can take advantage of your computer's full screen and keyboard to enter all the information. Unfortunately, this feature was not live at the time of this writing, so we couldn't check it out. HP says the site should be ready for public use by late November but didn't give a specific date. Other navigation goodies include automatic route recalculation and safety camera warnings.

The iPaq 310 offers text- and voice-guided directions in English, Spanish, or French. In addition, the unit has text-to-speech functionality so you'll hear actual street names instead of generic voice prompts. Maps are presented in 2D or 3D view, and while driving a specified route, the map screen will show you the distance to and direction of your next turn as well as the street name, your current driving speed, estimated time of arrival, and other useful information. One cool aspect about the iPaq 310 is that you get 3D renderings of buildings. This capability isn't available for all buildings but includes most major landmarks, which can be helpful in getting your bearings in unfamiliar areas since it gives you a visual reference point.

The iPaq 310 also features integrated Bluetooth, so you can pair your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or smartphone with the iPaq 310 and use it as a hands-free speaker system. Once connected, you can either use the touch screen to accept or reject calls. Also, if a number is listed with a POI, there's an option to dial out directly from the iPaq 310. Unfortunately, the system doesn't automatically transfer your phone's contact or call history list, though you can synchronize your device with your PC to transfer Outlook contacts. Again, sadly, this feature wasn't available at the time of this review so we weren't able to try it out.

For entertainment, there's a built-in music and video player. Using the expansion slot, you can load up an SD card with your favorite MP3, WMA, WMV, and AVI music and video files, and check them out on the iPaq 310. The players are pretty rudimentary with just the basic functions--play, pause/stop, rewind, fast forward--but it does support playlist creation. Other extras include a calculator, a clock, a picture viewer, and a set of games.

Performance
We took the HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion out for a test drive in San Francisco, and from a cold start under clear skies, it took about 3 to 4 minutes for the receiver to get a fix on our position, while subsequent starts were almost instantaneous. During everyday drives around the city, the iPaq 310 did a good job of tracking our movements, and it was pretty cool to see the 3D building renderings.

We entered our standard trip from the Marina District to CNET's downtown headquarters, and the iPaq 310 was able to quickly return with an accurate route. Disappointingly, the voice prompts were a bit soft even with the volume at its highest level and there was a bit of reverberation. Also, the text-to-speech directions weren't as smooth as some of the other GPS devices we tested as it mangled and chopped up the pronunciation of some street names. However, more concerning is the system's ineptitude at route recalculations. We missed a number of turns to test this functionality, and while the iPaq 310 was quick to come up with new directions, they were completely circuitous. Instead of coming up with a new route, it would try to have us go back to the point where we missed the actual turn instead of plotting a new course from our current location.

We were able to successfully pair the HP iPaq 310 with the RIM BlackBerry Curve and had no problems making calls. Multimedia performance was mediocre. Given the soft-spoken directions, we weren't surprised to find that songs sounded weak and hollow through the systems speakers. We experienced similar results with video, but on the upside, the audio and picture were always synchronized and picture quality was good.

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 15 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 15

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9 stars

Awesome, absolutely awesome!

by Uncle Ben007 on December 3, 2007

Pros: Best display ever, routing flexibility and 600 mHZ fast!

Cons: Sound level could be better but with the audio out...

Summary: I have been using this PND for a bit over a week now, and I'm impressed. Admittedly, the learning curve is a little steeper than with some other systems ...

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Summary: I have been using this PND for a bit over a week now, and I'm impressed. Admittedly, the learning curve is a little steeper than with some other systems I've used. But there is so much routing flexibility built-in that I think this is a fair compromise. If you want things simple, with no itineraries, no multi-destination routing, no on-line trip planning, no 600Mhz CPU/GPS chip combo designed specifically for navigation... then look for another product, a simpler product.

Yes, the sound level is not one of the 310's strong points. But for fairness sake, I think one should look at the package as a whole, not just one aspect of the audio features of the 310. You can't look at the audio capabilities of the 310 WITHOUT taking into account the Audio-Out port which, by the way, is not a feature common to all GPS devices. Once you connect your 310 to AUX port on your car audio system, directions and videos come out LOUD and CLEAR, much better than any FM Transmitter type connection that some other devices offer.

But more importantly, the claim that the 310 is inept at route recalculation is not only incorrect but absurd. I have been using the 310 for over a week now, and never once experienced a problem with route recalculation. If the CNET reviewer got such poor results on this point, then I suspect that the unit they were using was defective; or else, which is the more likely cause, the 'Off-route recalculation' was NOT set to 'Automatic.' This is a setting that one will find under [Settings][Route]. Bonnie - even if you did set the route-recalc to Automatic, if subsquently you chose a start point on the map other than your current GPS location, did you know that in doing so, the off-route recalc is automatically turned off? That's another possible explanation the poor results you obtained.

No, this is a very good GPS system, one that certainly deserves better than a 6 rating. I deplore the fact that the CNET review is incomplete and flawed in many ways...but eventually, user ratings will speak themselves and prevail. I still think that CNET should make a correction here though.

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Very good but could be great

by daldridge on November 30, 2007

Pros: Contrary to what the review said, I found that route recalculations are fast, and there are a multitude of POI

Cons: I've experienced lockups and fatal errors that can be recreated.

Summary: HP, I hope you're listening... I've noticed some issues with HP not having the correct support on their website. Also if the points of interest have a phone ...

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Summary: HP, I hope you're listening... I've noticed some issues with HP not having the correct support on their website. Also if the points of interest have a phone number, and if my phone is connected to bluetooth, then WHY can't I tap on the phone number and have it dial? I hope this is an oversight that is fixed in a nearby release. All in all though, great unit, VERY accurate. I feel it's a good showing for HP being the new kid on the block.

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Seeing The World in 3D

by KENNL on November 14, 2007

Pros: Super fast satellite acquisition, Good routing, Super fast route recalculation, Best screen in the industry

Cons: Tele Atlas maps (good, but not on par with Navteq yet), Can't modify screen colors (yet), Battery life?

Summary: I've owned the Ipaq 310 for almost a week. This is is very nice device. It uses NavNGo's IGO8 software. The Ipaq acquires satellites very quickly from a ...

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Summary: I've owned the Ipaq 310 for almost a week. This is is very nice device. It uses NavNGo's IGO8 software. The Ipaq acquires satellites very quickly from a cold start (less than 10 seconds). Routing is good and recalculating is VERY fast! 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.

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 stars

Has potential but nees work

by t0ne67 on March 13, 2008

Pros: Screen Size, features

Cons: Software, maps, weak instructions and non user friendliness

Summary: This is a novel concept but it seems to have been rushed to the market without being tweeked or proofed.

There are some problems i've seen in other reviews

...

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Summary: This is a novel concept but it seems to have been rushed to the market without being tweeked or proofed.

There are some problems i've seen in other reviews that can be resolved by reading the instructions, however the instructions arent as detailed as they should be an appear to be done by the marketing guys rather than the technical guys.

Some aspects of maps are woefully out of date not chronologically consistent, in that some aspects of the maps in my area are anywhere from 4 to 10 years out of date while other locations are current. Considering this unit came out on Nov makes the inconsistent and out of date maps unforgiveable.

The unit's memory seems to be incapable of retaining settings at times and will revert to settings on its own.

Route recalculations are incredibly stubborn when you have traveled off route, meaning that it will tell you to turn back 3 or 4 times before it decides to recalc an alt route.

The bluetooth seems to mute calls at times, i havent determined if it is my phone, i have a motorola w385 however if i answer a call using the phone, the other party can hear me but i cant hear them, it only works if i answer the call from the unit, sometimes.

The instructions does not adequately explain some of the operating procedures well enough and seem to be centered on bragging about the unit rather than offering substanial information.

The trip planner that they promote has parameters that are too restrictive because not everybody who uses this thing will be going to a business meeting and adding POI's favorites or marking positions is tedious, the search option as well as other options are hard to find and require alot of screen tapping so it is definitely not to be used while driving, perhaps not even riding a bike.

Updated on Oct 29, 2008
Sold this item on EBAY, for the simple fact that HP will NEVER update its maps.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

Don't bother buying it. Device have lots of issues!

by kyushomaster on March 19, 2008

Pros: I don't see any pros in this peace of junk.

Cons: Unreliable route calculation, screen is freezing, very slow, bad video playback with lousy sound. Generaly speaking it has outsourced (designed/tested in India) quality.

Summary: This is one of the good examples of low quality hi-tech devices where company outsourced their engineering to India. Engineers out there are not qualified to do such job, in ...

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Summary: This is one of the good examples of low quality hi-tech devices where company outsourced their engineering to India. Engineers out there are not qualified to do such job, in many cases not capable thinking out of box, prompt to produce a lot of mistakes while coding and testing that leads to the products like iPaq 310 with extremely low quality. They cheaper, but is it worth loosing reputation on the market by saving few thousands dollars. Another thing you should take in account that you don?t have Customer Support, because those idiots in India are not capable to troubleshoot any issues. Generally speaking you don?t want to buy peace of device with LOW QUALITY and EXTREMELY POOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT!

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1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

Dead On Arrival

by echinacea100 on May 8, 2009

Pros: nice screen, lot of features, solid car mount

Cons: everything else

Summary: I got this unit when I purchased my laptop because they had such a huge rebate and because I've never had a gps before. Out of the box it ...

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Summary: I got this unit when I purchased my laptop because they had such a huge rebate and because I've never had a gps before. Out of the box it seemed to work fine, albeit a bit quirky menu structure. Then I charged the battery. When i went to use it for the first time is when I joined the ranks of others who seemed to experience the same issues:

1) It completely froze when I tried to enter an address
2) there is no way to recover from a lockup except to press the power button which wouldnt work
3) had to use reset button
4) machine takes a long time (youre talking 20 minutes) to reboot/reset
5) eventually when it resets the time needs to be reset (it thinks im in London, not Connecticut)
6) when setting the time the unit freezes again needing another reset
7) when resetting it now pops to a microsoft screen which asks me if want default or last saved settings....either choice leaves you with another 20 minute hang
8) when device eventually resets it now thinks im in houston
9) when talking to HP support they have no software updates and no firmware updates for this unit.....they only offered to replace it with another one

it is evident from the nature of the iPaq310 that HP's entire QA department was AFK during testing and development of this product.

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8 stars

Much better than the Cnet review

by wynner1 on April 29, 2009

Pros: Fast Route Recalculation, bright display, 12 million Points of Interest, 3D maps and buildings in select cities, free map updates when available.

Cons: Occasionally hangs and reboots, Voice directions not as loud as they could be and rural route recaculations can be off. Does not tell which side of the road your destination is on.

Summary: I believe that the reason for most bad reviews of this product are from not reading the directions. It recaculates routes faster than the other GPS units that I've ...

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Summary: I believe that the reason for most bad reviews of this product are from not reading the directions. It recaculates routes faster than the other GPS units that I've used and has many more POIs than most units. The speaker is poorer quality than most other units, but after an update from HP last year, the text to speech is much better than before. I also have a Garmin Nuvi 260 and the HP is far superior in speed of route recaculations and gives better details for upcoming turns. POIs are generally faster and easier to find on the HP than the Garmin. You also have the option of finding POIs near your current location or your destination, which can be very helpful.
The multimedia functions of this unit are a big plus. If your radio has an auxillary input, you can also connect a cable from the unit to the radio and play music, video or talk on your cell phone using the Bluetooth.
I have seen reviews that complain about the unit loosing signal in tunnels. This is not because it doesn't maintain the signal well, but because the processor is fast enough to tell you that you've lost signal before exiting the tunnel while most units aren't.
The biggest drawback of this unit is that it will occasionally reboot itself for no apparent reason. Also, when exiting parking decks where the signal was lost for an extended period, it may take 8 - 10 minutes to regain signal. On these occasions, its faster to press the reset button the side.
In side to side comparisons, its the fastest unit that I've used so far. Its not perfect, but now that its available in some places for under $200.00, its a great buy.

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3 stars

Very frustrating - I would not recommend this unit

by hartcliffe on February 17, 2009

Pros: 1. Looks nice
2. Fast re-route calculation

Cons: 1. Surface mounted on/off button means that unit turns on accidentally very easily
2. Keeps freezing and stops the map auto scrolling
3. Battery life is terrible, basically has to stay connected to the oultlet for any trip
1 stars

Stay away from this

by yokoyano on January 22, 2009

Pros: Good screen. Via point calculation, Bluetooth, Multiple language option for voice and a few more probably.

Cons: On-off switch is too sensitive (100% the time, battery is out of electron)
Absolutely beta stage software
Suction unit does not last.

Summary: Absolutely bad software. Or I should say they never clean up the bugs and bads.
Home position key is very close to alphabet key, when unintentionally touch it, you have ...

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Summary: Absolutely bad software. Or I should say they never clean up the bugs and bads.
Home position key is very close to alphabet key, when unintentionally touch it, you have to start all over for whatever you were inputting. At POI, you have to choose reastaurant, others, Japanese (others is tatally unnecessary), for gas station, you can not find nearest because you have to chosse brand of gas first (like Chevron or Shell), I can go on and on but those were all talked about more than a year ago, and it seemed HP ignored them all. (except volume thing and a few more)
I am really disappointed with HP.
This is my 5rh GPS. (Garmin, Mio and Tom Tom)
Unless they fix the software issues, I strongly recommend other brand.

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4 stars

You State 'Pass for now' but still rate it 6.3?

by LinuxRules on June 25, 2008

Pros: No Rating Here

Cons: (@*&!^^ @*@)

Summary: Bonnie, please please please rate the unit what it is worth. A 6 is Good but you tell us to pass on it. Does not Compute.

Summary: Bonnie, please please please rate the unit what it is worth. A 6 is Good but you tell us to pass on it. Does not Compute.

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 15

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Specifications

Manufacturer: HP
Part number: FA974AA#ABA
Description: Whether you're on the road for business or pleasure, this advanced, high-definition 3-D navigation system will upgrade your trip to first class. Before you go, you can customize your itinerary on your PC and download it to your iPAQ 310 Travel Companion; then it will guide you turn by turn to your destinations. On the way, you can use it as a hands-free answering system for your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, as well as enjoy premium digital entertainment.

General
Width 4.3 in
Depth 3.4 in
Height 0.7 in
Weight 6.6 oz
Localization English / United States
GPS System
Recommended Use Automotive
Connectivity Bluetooth
Voice Navigation instructions
Antenna Built-in
Features Preinstalled POIs, 2D / 3D map perspective, Hands-free calling via Bluetooth
Built-in Memory 2 GB
Digital Player
Digital Player Yes
Supported Formats MP3, JPEG
Built-in Display
Type TFT
Resolution 800 x 480
Diagonal Size 4.3 in
Display Illumination Yes
Color Support Color
Features Anti-glare, Touch screen, Transmissive
Connections
Connector Type USB

Slot Provided
Slot Provided microSD
Battery
Battery Enclosure Type Internal
Battery included qty 1
Battery technology Lithium ion
Miscellaneous
GPS design features USB port, Headphone, Touch screen
Included GPS accessories Stylus, USB cable, Carrying case, AC power adapter, Car power adapter, Automotive windshield mount
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & support type 1 year warranty

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