Pharos Traveler 525 GPS

Nice GPS Devices

Posted Aug 17, 2006 - This is nice device which integrates gps, wifi. bluetooth. This has windows mobile OS, so you can do lots of things with it. Its GPS receiver is really nice. The software is really one of worst as I have seen. It gives you preloaded maps of most of US citis. You have to download your state maps if you are not in major cities. Though it has capability to load more than one map at one time. Its voice guidance is bad. voice is really irriating. Instead of using Ostia software, i installed tomtom navigator 5 software on this and I use its integrated GPS receiver with my tomtom software, and that is working really great !! I recommed you this product very much if you found the way to use another software.

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Pharos GPS525

Posted Aug 9, 2006 - I'm been using Pocket PC's for about 7 years now,starting with the LG Electronics Windows CE machine. (Boy,am I glad they got out of the pocket PC business) Overall the Pharos is one great little machine, while others sit in Panera Bread with their laptops and notebooks I just whip out my Pharos and connect with my e-mail,IM and whatnot. Quality is top notch, good batery life, good solid feel. A real electronic marvel! The only thing I don't agree with is the included GPS software. It needs work and lots of it. Get TomTom navigator 5 and you won't be sorry. Another little problem is the position of the on/off button, can't tell you the number of times I go to use it and the battery is stone dead, because it turned itself on inside my luggage rubbing up against something, thou it is something that I have learned with and now I am little more careful with it when I travel. Bottom Line: great little all in one machine.

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Pharos GPS 525

Posted Jun 4, 2006 - I looked on the internet for a couple of months trying to find a GPS that would work for me. I needed one that would be transferable between my car and my motorcycle, so size and weight were important. I really did not need a PDA, but I was expecting a bonus from that function. Glad I purchased it through Costco On-Line, because of their return policy. After 6 months I just returned it for a full refund. It was OK if you knew where you were going. It often put you on the wrong side of the street, or in the opposite direction of your destination. If you need to make a couple of quick turns it got behind and would leave you in traffic not knowing where you were going. It would send you 100 miles out of the way. I need to get to St. Petersburg FL from Central Florida, 90 miles. It sent me to up to almost Wildwood Florida, then down I-75 to St. Petersburg. 180 miles. It would never find a no freeway route. Fastest route was normally many more miles than shortest route, and longer in time. On a long trip, it was great for telling you how much farther you had to go, and you could switch to satellite mode, and see your speed, altitude, and Lat Long position. You had to leave it on full power for it to keep track of where you were, if you let it go into battery save mode on a long run, it would loose the signal, and often your route. If you wanted to continue using it you would have to do a soft boot, reload the maps you were using, and re enter your destination. It would then loose your preference settings. Also when ever you launched the GPS software you would have to take out the SSD card, and reinsert it before it would recognize it as being there, then you had to load the sections of the country you were going to travel, and the highways in each of the states. It would take a 4GB SSD card to hold the entire US, so you are limited to the size of the area you can traverse. I needed to plug in a device that would deliver the audio output to my hearing aids. That part worked great, except that often times the system failed to announce an upcoming turn until you were past it. Since I wanted to use it on my motorcycle, and the screen was hard to see with sunglasses on I really needed the voice prompts. When it wanted to reroute you it would tell you to make a legal U turn. Using it at as PDA and internet device was OK, but when you turned if off, it would run down the battery in a couple of hours. To get it going again you would have to plug it into the charger, and do a soft boot. Customer service attitude was that it was your problem, and offered no real solutions. Overall I would call the GPS525 a looser. I really tried to make it work.

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Traveler 525 PDA

Posted Jan 27, 2006 - This is a true all-in-one gps, handheld pc. I have serched the net for about a month, and this is the only handheld that fit all my wants. I have only used the gps around town so far. I am looking forward to taking it out on the road to see how well it performs. So far so good.

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Pharos 525 GPS

Posted Aug 7, 2006 - I was a little skeptical about buying this at first. Now that I have it, I can tell you that Pharos took their time and designed this device very well! They thought of little things like the USB 2 connection - no separate power supply/cradle needed for charging. It also has button on the side that brings up the radio (wifi,bluetooth, activesync) on/off control. I had a little problem at first getting it to sync. BUT it turns out that my firewall was the problem! The device itself is very responsive (more responsive than my hp1955 that uses the same processor!) The GPS is excellent. Turned it on in my car and it connected to satelites in about 15 seconds. The GPS software is excellent. It can automatically reroute a mistaken turn in about 8 seconds. It warns you 1/4 mile, ~1/8 mile and 200ft before your turn. I don't understand why people say that the screen is too small and the speaker is not loud enough. The volume is louder than many other PDA's I've used and it easily is louder than the volume I keep my radio. The split screen mode (current location on map on top half of screen, future turn map on bottom) is very readable. Overall I think this is a steal for $349 after rebate at COMPUSA ($449 - $70 CUSA -$30 manufacturer)

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Pharos Traveler 525 GPS

Posted Jun 2, 2006 - This is my first PDA and GPS. I guess that there are lots of stuffs that I need to learn. The best part about Pharos 525 GPS is both functions in one. Also, it came with almost all the necessary accessories that you can think of, such as extra stylus, car mount, car charger, earphone w/ microphone, SD card reader, and etc. Sorry, cradle is not included. Also, I got the GPS signal outside my apartment when I was still trying to figure out how to use the map function (~ 30 seconds). It would be nice if the outer case is sliver instead of dark gray.

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Pharos 525 GPS in a PDA

Posted Dec 13, 2006 - It looks solid build with nice color, touch, cute in size, 1GB SD card and leather host with all cables and software. Only miss is the stylus pen. Actual, stylus pen is a must-have since the screen is small, only 2.8 inchs. The PDA functioned pretty good. Wifi can get me online very easily. Still not find way to get ride off pictures and just using text while surfing web page. Well, screen is a lit small but it is sharp clear. Working smoothly with my desktop PC. For GPS application, mine has error when start up GPS navigation application. But can locate place and find point of interest. Too bad the sound is too low. And manual for GPS say nothing more than start up. I should say this is a 70% PDA and 30% of GPS. The small size may also be a advantage to carry around. It is smaller than a regular wallet. It is definitely a keeper for $230 after rebate.

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