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[...] got the inside scoop on the best automotive gps systems including the fabulous Garmin Nuvi 265WT now in our GPS review. var $j = jQuery.noConflict(); $j(function() { [...]

Review by Wenzhong Tang for Pharos 150 3.5-Inch Widescreen Portable Drive GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech (Black)
Rating:
I got this unit before my family trip to San Diago, CA last weekend. I tested it around my home at Seattle, WA and liked it. It was light and easy to use, and gave me correct directions around the area. However my experience using it during my vacation is far less than ideal. Below are some bad experiences:

1. We stayed at a hotel close to Legoland just off I-5 exit 48. The GPS directed us to get off the highway at exit 47 and pointed us to a different hotel.

2. After going to San Diago Zoo my kids demanded McDonald’s. I used the POI feature to find one that is supposed to be only 2 minutes away. After about 20 minutes driving around in the unfamiliar neighborhood the GPS reached its destination in the middle of a residential area. We had to go to a gas station and ask the attendant.

3. The gate of the rental car return is on the left of the street, the GPS prompted us to keep right and only told us the destination is on the left of the street after we passed it.

This unit has pretty decent specs with SIRF chipset and NAVTAQ maps. I can only hope that my experience is due to bad software and can be addressed by future updates.

Review by San Antonio Sam for Pharos 150 3.5-Inch Widescreen Portable Drive GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech (Black)
Rating:
The Pharos 150 has all the bells and whistles of a unit costing $100 more. The text-to-speech is worth demanding in any auto GPS and this one has it. I took a trip into a nearby town, selecting a high school (POI) as my go to location. In a 40 mile trip, over freeways and city streets, I never had to even glance at the screen. It vocally tells me to “stay right” or “stay left” as I near a turn; it announces the street name and highway number several times starting 1/2 mile out. You can enter your own favorite places, many of them, for future use to save re-entry. It remembers your last few plotted trips for easy re-use if you decide to stop or cancel along the way. It reroutes you if you miss a turn. It never asked me to “u-turn” when I missed an exit. It will even warn you when you exceed a posted speed limit even though I never used that feature. The battery is rated for 7 hours I believe, I’ve only used it on battery once for about 2 hours. Battery useful for walking trips and, yes, it will plot trips on foot provided you don’t stray far from any road. A useful replacement for all those maps cluttering up my glove box. I paid $100 and that deal goes away Dec 31, 2007.

Update 3/23/08: still like this GPS unit. Works great, battery has generous life. No false routing and finds many short-cuts. Even warned me verbally to be careful when I turned into a gated community, guess it didn’t want me to be hit by the gate. Navteg maps great; operating system great; text-to-speech absolutely a must have along with SIRF chip-set. You can hunt for this and get it around $150 now and it is a bargain at that price.

Update Nov 9, 2009: can’t hold a signal reliably anymore. Gives you the “gps too low” message over and over. Comes back on track later…has never got me lost for long. Still, with no map updates or other support I would no longer recommend purchase. Garmins (refurbed as new) go for under $100 and are great. Too bad because Pharos mapping engine was great.

Review by John Jacobs for Pharos 150 3.5-Inch Widescreen Portable Drive GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech (Black)
Rating:
This little GPS works great. Overall 8 out of ten

1. Text to Speech- 8 out of 10 Mispronounces some street names but still clear and understandable. plenty loud, Speech is not hesitant.

2. GUI Interface – 8 out of 10 This unit does just about everything a unit costing 100 or more dollars can do and more. I just found out it will give you latitude and longitude, and altitude. Recalculation of routes are exceptionally fast. The GUI is not hi-tech cutting edge, But I would say up to date as far as tech goes, and sensible and easy to understand. Took me about an hour to understand and use all the controls in the GUI.

3. Hardware – 8 out of 10 The unit itself seems well built. The hardware, Windshield mount, car adapter, power adapter all well built.

And it comes with a nice little case.

I have a home in a remote area of Georgia, It found it on the map which I can’t get some more expensive units to do.

I paid about $99 including rebate, an excellent value for its abilities. Thats Black Friday prices. IfPharos 150 Drive GPS you can get this unit with some sort of discount or rebate, in my opinion buy it.

Pharos is a reputable company, with a pretty good track record of support for their products. And from what I can gather from the forums they will be updating these units. Uses Windows CE Net 4.2 which opens other doors.

Cons

1. Brightness resets back to 100% after turning off then on again.

2. If you have big fingers you might have a problem, but you can always use the stylus.

3. Difficult to remove unit from cradle. I struggled with this for about five minutes.

4. New unit, not alot of info or support right now on Pharos site.