PDA Reviews

I've owned my unit for about a year now and I have to say that this is definitely a tool not a toy. This unit does nothing to diminish Brunton's excellent reputation. They've recently released a more user friendly GPS unit with more bells and whistles to more directly compete with the Garmin units, but there are still solid reasons why you should consider using this unit.

The altimeter, barometer and so forth work well enough. The compass feature also works well, although I usually use a handheld in the field also. The unit is also quite rugged, definitely more rugged than most of the competitors out there. It is also become reasonably priced; you should be able to buy a unit for considerably less than the $399 retail price if you search long enough.

My only complaints: ease of use. I like the fact that the screen is backlight and easy to read, but the buttons are awkwardly labeled and learning the nuances of this machine can take some time. The owner's manual could also be a little better in terms of actually providing you with scenarios on how to use the features correctly. I also wish they would hurry up and produce a USB data cable so that I can use this unit with my Mac; serial ports are getting old.

I have used the MNS for about a year hiking in the mountains of Colorado. I decided I needed a GPS because I started climbing mountains without well-defined trails; I climbed the wrong mountain several times. I used the Brunton MNS in parallel with the Garmin Etrex Vista for about a month.

The MNS is more accurate than advertised when finding positions. When entering a waypoint on the "way out" of a daylong hike, the MNS usually registered "found" within 5 feet of the landmark that I recrossed and recognised on the "way back." The MNS can acquire a signal in light forests near tree line, but not in the heavy forests of Ponderosa Pine at lower altitudes. The heavy smoke generated by the fire burning West of Colorado Springs this Summer killed satellite acquisition.

The altimeter is not accurate to within three feet, even given that the weather is clear and constant. It is of equivalent accuracy to my Sunto Vector altitude watch which is rated accurate to 10 feet; both must have the same internal mechanism. If I start climbing at 10,000 feet and climb to 14,000 feet, both devices will register about 13,900 feet. Interestingly enough, both devices always register low, which allows me to intuit the real altitude. On that closed loop between 10,000 and 14,000 feet, both mechanisms will register within 10 feet of 10,000 feet on return to the starting point.

The MNS mechanism is capable and has kept me from getting lost several times when weather on the return trip became bad.

The Tracklog function has little value because there is a very small limiting number of collected waypoints; a user is bound to miss that bend in the trail or special landmark that he would enter if he were setting waypoints manually.

The MNS is somewhat more accurate than the E-Trex Vista in finding positions. The E-Trex is far more user friendly in entering data. It might take twice as long to manually enter a route using the MNS vis-a-vis the E-trex.

I wear reading glasses. I cannot view the E-trex map or any of the displays without my glasses. I can view all the displays on the MNS without glasses. This was the ultimate reason I kept the MNS and returned the E-Trex Vista.

The Map on the Vista is so tiny as to be of little value. When I hike, I print a map of my route from my mapping software on plasticized paper; this printed map is far more convenient than the tiny map on the Vista.

How is it that Amazon, who claims to have lowest prices, is selling this GPS for $399.00, when Brunton, the manufacturer, has a suggested retail of $359.00?! I've seen this unit listed at $299.00 else where, and that includes shipping. Try Kooters.com

Aside from a major collision, it will stay where you put it. Only problem is viewing the screen up on top of the dash. Too much glare, except at night. Am thinking of an external antenna, but that's another 60 to 90 bucks. Otherwise, wonderful.

The navigation capabilities of the iQue 3600 are fantastic. One really must have this Auto Navigation Kit in order to take full advantage of the unit.

"Friction Mount" in this case means that the unit is attached to a bean-bag base with high-friction rubber underneath so it doesn't slide around your dashboard.

It stays put, it charges, and in New York city it's absolutely indispensable for getting good reception on the run.

This case fits an IPAQ 3650 in a CF sleeve perfectly which is what it was bought for. It is a little too small for a Palm V on the Ministrel (Omnisky) model which I was hoping it would also fit. For the IPAQ, this case has lots of padding and stiffness over the screen area. The inside pouches should be eliminated because it is unlikely that you can use them without taking a chance on scratching the screen [the smaller size which fits a Palm V without the modem has the same problem]. The large case in a slicker graphite fabric looks better than the smaller neophrene ones. Highly recommended but could be improved by substituting a smooth lining and a nylon zipper so the case of the PDA is not "dinged" by the metal zipper as happened to my Palm V with the smaller case.

I have been using this case for my ipaq3150 for a few months now.
Works great. It has good amount of foam padding and paper padding(?) so it feels rigid yet gives enough cushion.

I have actually used 3 pockets inside of the case, but it's nice to have them just in case I receive a business card or something like that.

One thing that I don't like is that It draws shadow on my ipaq when I put it inside the case it's sometimes hard to read what's on my ipaq especially indoors at night.

This case slides smoothly into and out of your pocket. You can take it out, flip it open and it's ready to use right there like a Star Trek tricorder...or those old communicators from TOS...whatever! The case is very plushed up for your PDA's protection. You could probably drop it and your PDA won't break. WAIT! I'm just kidding. I don't know that and I have not tried it...Don't do it! Anyway, it is very plush and snug and it will protect your PDA to a certain degree. It'll prevent scratches...wait, let me rephrase that. Scratches will be at a minimum, dust will collect at a minimum, it'll resist water to a certain degree (I mean you can probably run through rain and the case could protect it, but if you take a swim with it...it's over). Unfortunately, it's not bulletproof.

What more can I really say? A pouch is a pouch. This one works great. Oh, the bad sides to it... For some PDA's, you may have to kind of shift the PDA into the pouch like 1 centimeter to the left because it won't fold perfectly with the stylus on the right, top section of the pouch, meaning the stylus will fold onto the top of your PDA when you close it and it'll kind of bulge out...may not be such a great idea for the display screen, too. OH, I would advise people not to place any hard or sharp object into the pockets it provides because when you fold it shut, obviously it'll touch your PDA screen and...you may begin to cry. I'd recommend putting something like micro-fiber cloth, wipes, etc. into those pockets.

Overall, this is a great case. It's nice in design, it's durable, and convenient to lug around. It's much better than the factory pouch my PDA came with. Basically, it does what it is designed to do, so how can I give it a bad rating? Unless, it had cheap meterial, cheap engineering...but this one...engineered well and tough material. I'd recommend it to anyone with an iPAQ. Hey, for now it's either that or the $40-"executive" leather case, which in my opinion, is simply a cover rather than a case. Of course, there are new cases coming out soon, but like I said, "for now."

I should begin by saying this is the first GPS I have bought, so in my criticisms, I am not comparing it to other GPS units (which may be worse).

First of all, it seems to be quite a good portable unit. It locates the satellites quite quickly, gives position + estimated error in 1 no-nonsense screen. Also seems quite robust - it went for quite a tumble down a 10m cliff face, ending up in a deep pool of water - and all worked ok afterwards :-) (phew!).
The hardware seems great - however the software has some usability bugs that should be fixed.

Taking it along on a long 4wd trip in Australia in May 2004, here is a list of my gripes/criticisms:

1) The auto route navigation is pretty poor. A few times it came up with some crazy routes to get from A to B ... via Z!!

2) Also with the auto route navigation: When zooming in, the purple route marking doesnt correlate with the road its trying to mark. The more you zoom in, the worse it gets. Zoomed into a city streetmap, its completely unusable as the route marking is not even visible on the screen - or if it is, its impossible to work out what streets it is marking. Until this bug is fixed, I certainly would not buy this for auto navigation.

2) The way that route recalculation grabs focus from *whatever* you happen to be doing at the time is a major pain. You may be in the middle of a tedious "Find" operation only to have all of your effort dashed as it snatches you back to your route map and loses whatever you had typed. Grrr!

There are a number of other usability issues - and being a software developer, they stand out to me. The software needs a bit of work before I would give it 4 stars.

GPSMAP 60cs is a nice unit but if you can wait for their next generation handheld, you should. I recently did a 2000 mile motorcycle trip along with several back country hiking excursions and for the normal kinds of things you want a gps to do, (where am I, how do I get there, what direction am I going) the 60CS was great! With CitySelect maps I could see all the roads, even the dirt roads in obscure places like the south western Oregon National forests. I routinely used autonav and it's amazingly fast route calculations made getting to where I wanted to be a real pleasure....almost....

You can display lots of fancy data on almost any of the screens.
The sat pickup is far better then the earlier gpses and fast.
A real compass and altimeter made off trail hiking a breeze
Estimated arrival times and popup turn notifications kept me on my path.

However....
Don't come upon a road block. There is no way to tell autorouting that you must detour. You have to coax autonav to get you around the road blockage by trying to find other road waypoints to build partial routes, When you are in the middle of no where, this is not pleasant. Garmins answer: Buy a bigger more expensive unit.

Don't rely on the 'save tracks' feature. Garmin drops all of the date/time stamps from the active track when it saves it for you (forget about photo gps tagging). They claim it takes to much space (dah? the unit has 56MB!, a track entry is under a couple hundred characters even with date/time!)

Don't use the belt hanger knob on the back. My first use caused the knob to snap off a part of the back housing leaving a 1/2 diameter hole! Since the knob is used by their auto and bicycle mounts, be ware, you may see your garmin bouncing on the street or down by your feet!

This is my first GPS device. My main use is tracking my progress on longer bike rides. The 60CS has a nice "track" feature, which records your journey. When used along with the odometer, you can get some nifty data on how fast you were going, time spent stopped, etc. The track data can then be downloaded onto your computer and viewed with the map software provided with the device. The altitude profile view of your track is very cool.

I found the device's software interface easy to understand once I played with it and browsed through the manual.

If you wish to use this device in a car for directions, be prepared to purchase additional maps from Garmin. The provided maps note highways and their exits but not much detail on individual streets.

So why four and not five stars? While the "track" records altitude and distance, I was a little disappointed that the odometer data was not saved along with the track. The provided software also only works on a Windows PC. Also, on one ride where I was using the "track" feature, the GPS device lost connection to satellites when I entered a tunnel. I expected the device to just start tracking me again when I exited the tunnel; however, I had to hit "ok" on the message box telling me that it losts its way before it resumed the track and odometer features.

Because I like transferring my routes back from my GPS device to my computer for long term storage, I found myself buying the AC Adapter (B00005UK9S) so that I don't run through AA batteries too often.

I already own 1 hp jornada 548 and I gotta say, i love this pda! MUCH better. This thing stands up to horrendus abuse. I'm a delivery driver, and this thing lives in my car. Stands up to heavy weights put on it, baking in the sun for days on end, and I love the flash rom disk! The only bad side I see to it, is the single SDIO slot. I would have preferred a CF slot as well, but for $300, it's still a great value.

For those who wish to get a quick review; This is the best pocket pc in the $200 dollar price range. I bought mine in April and I absolutely love it, my best friend bought one two weeks ago and he loves his as well. I am completely satisfied.

Pros:

After trying several PDA's I've finally found one I really like, at the right price and with the combination of features I will use.

1. (...)this one clearly stands heads and shoulders above the rest in this price range.

2. The e405 is very fast and effective while using media player and running basic games and the like. I'm not what you would call a "power user" but I've compared this to several models in the HP line and it is every bit as fast and functional (or better) in the case of the 1945. This is also the first PDA I've not had to reset once in the first month of use.

3. The form factor (size/shape) of this unit is GREAT, it is the thinnest I've seen and fits well in a pocket. The attractive metal housing is another big plus for me, the buttons are well placed and functional, the screeen is very bright and clear also.

4. I was truly surprised by just how much I like this Toshiba PDA once I started using it, very nice.

Cons:

1. I haven't had to contact Toshiba support as of yet, so it's hard to rate them although I'd suspect it is lacking like most companies in this market today.

2. Battery is not replaceable, but I can live with that for the price range I'm in. Battery life is about the same as the HP models I've tried, I can go 2-3 days between recharging with moderate use.

Just beware. I own an e335 model and am very happy with it. This time I bought the e405 for my wife and "surprise!" it comes without a cradle and a (vinyl) leather case. They are labled as "optional". The e305 vinyl leather case protected mine from an 7ft drop. You will have to spend another $25 for the case and $39 for the cradle.

My gift was incomplete and Amazon doesn't sell these accesories as of today (4/29/2004).

I had to retire a palm zire 21 after 2 months because it would reset itself almost every other day. I sent it to the palm guys and it came back in worse condition that before. After reading the reviews on Amazon...I decided to call it quits while I was ahead and search for another PDA. (I had a palm Vx prior to that for 2 years).

WOW! What a jewel the Sony Clie is! It has much more memory than my other two models and for a work at home mom that's using her PDA to keep track of life, recipes, and wants all names and addresses at her fingertips, IN COLOR, this was a WONDERFUL purchase!

For the price (mine was $139), I cannot complain. It is much faster than my other palm pilots, the battery life is great, I don't really care that much about included applications, although the outlook "handler" does a great job (or seems to), and I think Sony really thought out the organization of the main screen on this PDA. A+

I'll begin by saying that I timed this one right! I got it for 160 before the rebate, so the price (140) was perfect.

I upgraded from an 8mb Visor Deluxe and this is AWESOME! The hi-res color screen is very sharp. My wife has a Zire 71 and we both agree mine is sharper. Palm OS5 is pretty cool too, though you wind up only getting 11 mb useable out of the 16. I fairly quickly bought a memory stick.

This thing is FAST! It's noticeably faster than my wife's Palm and faster than any other PDA I've seen (then again, I don't look if it's over 250). The lack of multimedia capabilities was a bit of a bummer, but I didn't think paying 70-100 was worth it when I have computers just about everywhere I go.

I've read the complaints about the lack of a cradle, but I personally like the little sync adapter. It only needs one of the USB cables with a "digital camera jack" to work. Since I have 5 of them, I took one to work. Now, I just grab my Clie and the 1-inch square adapter and I can sync at work and home. I actually even put the charging cord in the bedroom, so I can keep it on the nightstand charging for those late-night "honey do's" :D

Overall, I'm VERY pleased. Battery life is a bit of an issue, but the LiIon battery has no "memory effect" so I just charge it each night. I can get a solid 5 hours at a lower screen brightness (still easy to see) even using the memoery stick and running CPU-intensive apps.

I'd definitely recommend this if you can find it for less than $170. Totally worth it in my opinion. The cover is a weak spot and the stylus takes some getting used to, but these are the only drawbacks (IMHO) and are quickly eclipsed by speed, "look" (The Clie Launcher is awfully cool) and overall value. Put some pix of your kids, family, vacation, etc on it and show your friends and you'll be hooked! Buy with confidence.

PS Sony extends the warranty to one year for free when you register.

A few follow-ups:

1. Apparently Sony is closing this out to make room for the TJ-27. The Tj-25 can now be found as low as 120 (if you time it right).
2. The cover issue was easily fixed with a dab of superglue on each "hook". Quite solid now (fold cover back to get it out of the way (it's made to do this)).
3. Battery life has been measured more accurately at 4:30 on "medium-low" backlight setting.
4. The sync adapter is still quite handy. A tad bit larger than a postage stamp and quite portable if you already have the aforementioned cable where you're going.
5. I've had it for 30 days now, and aside from wishing I'd caught it at 120, I'm still quite happy.
6. To clarify "lack of multimedia" I mean "even your old Nokia phone had more tones". On the other hand, I always have the sound off anyway (as does my wife who has a multimedia-capable Zire 71) so I didn't need one in the first place.

It is one of the best out of sony products that you can get.

That being said, I only give it 4 stars because I kind of miss the ability to link to my computer (I'm an ultra geek). Still, Lion batteries ONLY have a life of 3 years max - don't let anyone tell you otherwise - and 3 years it won't be NEAR it's original life. EVEN IF it were brand new out of the box, Lion chemistry starts to decay the day after it comes off the manufacturing line - do some research on the internet - that's why the whole slew of ipods are all dying right now.

Enough said - AAA batteries was the primary reason I bought this. Truth is, I rarely keep gadgets long enough to worry about the batteries, but I like passing them on to family and friends and I'd like them to get something that they can use for a couple of years too... Plus, I like putting in a fresh set of batteries every week and not having to worry if it's fully charged... (I use rechargeable AAA's).

All the other reviewers have already covered the basics of the watch. Very easy to use, backlight is amazing at night. History and data compilation are interesting.

What I really wanted to convey is that I was on the fence about this for over a month. Was it worth the money? Would I use it enough? Without a doubt - YES! If it broke today I'd buy a new one tomorrow. The best thing about it is freedom.

I'm pretty anal - most serious runners are. I stick to the exact same path so I can get statistics, make sure I'm sticking to my pace, make sure I ran the distance I intended, compare my run with previous runs. After a while though, it can get a little boring. All of a sudden, I put this on and I'm free from all that. I can run anywhere, I run spontaneously - but a glance down at my wrist and I know how far I've run, I know I'm keeping pace, EVERYTHING. And that little training buddy is pretty cool too - although I usually just like the raw data screen...

I hope in future versions they'll integrate a heart rate monitor. I have one now but can't bring myself to wear two devices at a time...

-jr

I've purchased heart rate monitors, altimeters, and computer software as training aids in the past. Their quality was always subpar, and their utility was limited to a small set of variables. Inevitibly, I was still required to use a pen, paper and calculator to figure out much of the training info I needed. In addition, few of these gadgets were helpful in motivating me. I purchased the Forerunner 101 so that I could track my distance and my pace accurately while I ran. Because it is so incredibly accurate, I can run on any of the trails around my house and still know how far I've gone. The unit has been designed extremely well. The numbers YOU want to see are large. The readability of the LCD is excellent. The price makes the product a GREAT value for the money. The quality overall is outstanding. The unit itself is well designed--The Garmin design team needs to be congratulated. Yes, it's a bit heavy, but for the functions it performs, it's well worth it. The Virtual Partner is a waste of time for me. But when I run an official race, I'm sure I'll use it. Like many of the other reviewers, I wish the Forerunner 201 was equiped with AA batteries, as I simply don't trust ION batteries to hold out for much longer than 3 years. This is one of the best fitness products that you can buy!!

First let me say that I am not an avid runner and to be quite honest I have hated the sport of running. (sorry) Because I am in the military we are required to run so I have had to take up the sport. The biggest problem I had though was finding a way to pace myself and train. Everyone has their own suggestion but to follow most regimens you had to know exactly how far and fast you are running.
Now to the forerunner. Since I have purchase this running has become enjoyable. It has always worked very well even in wooded areas and only takes a short time to lock on. It gives you so much information and can do so many things to help one train and pace!! It is very easy to use and to download to the computer. The log book is also excellent and allows one to keep track of distance, time, pace, calories, etc. It has allowed me to run where ever I want and not have to figure out beforehand how long of a run it will be. Only once did it miscalculate my speed (ran a 5 minute mile; I wish).
The only problem I had was when I first got it and had trouble following the instructions for set up. Also one needs to download the new software for the forerunner and log book which fixes freezes.
Again from a non-runner, I would highly recommend it!

Because of increased travel I needed to be able to do email and web surfing using my Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC through my cell phone. Someone finally suggested Socket might have the digital phone card/cable I needed to connect to my Motorola StarTac phone. Their web site and "pre-buy" customer support were very helpful. After buying the phone card/cable, their tech support was very helpful in set-up and initial connection settings for getting connected to my ISP. Tech support knew the iPAQ and easily walked me through the necessary steps. The digital card has worked flawlessly. I can now download and send email and surf the net wherever I have a digital phone signal.

I purchased this socket modem and have been satisfied with the ease of use. It is a little slow (CDMA phones limit speed to 19.2), but it is more than adequate for remote connectivity. It works well with my Windows 2000 laptop and with my Jornada 548.

If you're going to buy a modem and you have a StarTac phone. Forget the hard line! This thing is great. It was a snap to get it working with both my Jornada and my Dell Inspiron. Bandwidth is very good and I have had 0 problems in 30+ connections the past two weeks.

The best thing about this is the design, but the arms connecting the screen and keyboard look odd when the unit is closed. The screen is fairly dim, and must be used in a dark/moderately lit room. The viewing angle of the screen is horrible; the only position you can see the whole screen without an inversion/blackout effect is at an angle where any overhead lighting glares all over the place. The CPU speed isn't particularly slow, but the graphics ([re]drawing the screen) goes on at an awful crawl - i.e. it's no good for graphical things. Now I must sound entirely bitter and biased against this machine, but I'm not, I carry it in my bag all the time and use it when I can. I even use it as an electronic book, its best use so far.

Let me state first off that I love(d) this machine! It is light-weight, easy to use and interfaces superbly with your desktop or notebook.
That said, I feel that I need to warn you that in 1 year, I have had to return my machine 4 times for the same repair. It freezes, won't shut off, then after a hard reset, won't turn back on. Sharp has replaced the battery, the main chip and the inverter, now is going to charge me [alot] to fix the machine! I was considering buying a new one, until I talked to my Dad who also bought one at my recomendation and found out that his is doing the same thing. Obviously, I didn't get a rare lemon.
Take a chance if you must, but I am steering clear of this wonderful little computer until they fix some major problems!

I just bought this thing from Amazon and all I can say is WOW!!!!

This is probably the best purchase I have ever made. This thing is everything I ever expected and more!! It's easy to use as well - even my wife can operate it!

I have to say, everyone out there who is thinking of buying this, stop thinking. I bought it and I am extremely happy with it the moment I powered this thing on. YOU ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CANNOT GO WRONG WITH THIS PURCHASE! I GUARANTEE IT!!!

The reason i purchased these pencap/stylus thingers was A.) so i could have an extra styli around, and B.) to replace the pencaps that i lose ever so constantly. But i guess it was somewhat my fault for buying these, for within a week or purchase, i found myself purchasing a new set of four. I lost them just like regular pencaps. I think the handspring pen/styli is a much better way to go. It fits into the visor, and is much easier to keep track of.

Nice to have about in an emergency. Converts nearly any pen or pencil into a tol for your PDA. Nice bonus, they glow in the dark (pretty brightly too).

This is definitely one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" ideas. I've got them on pens in my cars, so I don't have to pull the stylus out all the time, and I have a couple on pens within easy reach around the house.

They are more comfortable than the stock stylus, and sharper. The fact that they are sharper bothered me at first, but they don't seem to scratch the screen (expecially if you use the WriteRight protectors)and the fine point makes them more accurate, expecially when trying to get between letters and words on your Palm.

A cheap accessory for yourself, and a cheap, useful gift for a friend with a PDA.