Product Description

The Pharos Drive GPS 150 makes it easy to keep your eyes on the road when looking for a specific address with voice prompts and turn-by-turn spoken instructions that include the name of the street or highway (text-to-speech technology). The large 3.5" color touch screen LCD clearly displays the preloaded U.S. street level maps and navigation routing. Tech Support Hotline: 1-888-PHAROS-8

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40759 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Blue
• Brand: Pharos
• Model: PDR150BLU
• Dimensions: 3.50" h x 6.50" w x 6.50" l, 1.60 pounds
• Native resolution: 320 x 240
• Display size: 3.5

Features

• Large 3.5" TFT LCD with 16.7 million colors
• Fast route calculation by 32-bit CPU processor
• Text-To-Speech; turn-by-turn directions with voice prompts announcing the street name
• Entire US maps; NAVTEQ ON BOARD Millions of POI's; search nearby, near destination, or in a city
• Built-in ultra sensitive 20-channel SiRFStarII GPS for fast and accurate positioning

"From the Manufacturer (June 19, 2008)"
Designed for portability, the Pharos Drive GPS 150 offers just the right balance of power, portability and price for newcomers to GPS receivers. Measuring less than an inch thin and under 4 inches wide, the compact Drive GPS 150 is great for driving with the included car mount and it can be easily slipped into a purse, briefcase, or backpack for usage while on foot.

The Pharos Drive GPS 150 in blue.

The Drive GPS 150 features a 3.5-inch color screen, quick route calculation, and turn-by-turn directions with voice prompts. It comes with everything needed to use the unit, including both car and AC power cords and a 1 GB Secure Digital (SD) memory card that's pre-loaded with street level maps of the United States. This model comes in blue, but it's also available in pink and black.

The Drive GPS 150's intuitive navigation software offers text-to-speech functionality that guides you with turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions. If you miss a turn along the route, the Drive GPS 150 automatically recalculates a route and gets you back on track, pronouncing the names of the streets along the way. If you're on foot, the Drive GPS 150 provides a pedestrian mode that plots routes with pedestrian options and preferences in mind.

The Drive GPS measures less than 1 inch thin and weighs 6.4 ounces (black model shown).

The 3.5-inch color LCD clearly indicates your route.

The highly sensitive, 20-channel SiRFStarIII GPS receiver provides a rapid time-to-first-fix positioning and can acquire a signal even in urban canyons and under dense foliage. It's matched with a 32-bit CPU processor for quick recalculation of your route should you get off the original course.

The 3.5-inch color touchscreen LCD has a 320 x 240-pixel resolution and a color depth of 16.7 million colors for a clear display of the preloaded U.S. street level maps and navigation routing. You can choose to see a two-dimensional or three-dimensional map adjusted specifically for day time or night time conditions. When you begin a selected journey, the Drive GPS 150 provides an overview of your complete route, the total driving distance to your destination, the estimated travel time, and the complete destination address. If you don't have a street address, you can simply navigate to a point on the map by manipulating the touchscreen and selecting it as your destination--the Drive GPS 150 will then calculate your route.

The Drive GPS 150 also comes with a Points of Interest (POI) list that collects thousands of interesting or useful places organized by easy-to-find categories, from shopping centers to restaurants to gas stations. And many of the categories have subcategories to help narrow the choices--for example, under gas stations you'll find names of particular brands.

Other features include:

• Save favorite addresses and points of interest to the Address Book
• Your most recent 64 locations are saved in the Recent Places menu for easy access
• Specify certain types of roads that you want to exclude from route calculations
• Internal speaker with 3.5mm stereo earphone jack
• Mini USB connector
• 1200 mAh rechargeable lithium-polymer batter with 5 to 7 hours of continuous operation; 4-hour recharging tiem
• Dimensions: 3.94 x 3.31 x 0.95 inches (WxHxD)
• Weight: 6.4 ounces

What's in the Box
Pharos 150 GPS device, 1 GB SD memory card, USB cable, car mount, car charger, AC adapter, travel bag, printed quick-start guide, CD with manual

Customer Reviews

Pharos PDR150 - does as expected - HACKABLE!
PROS:
- Destinator v7
- clean interface
- good options
- quick to pick up GPS on cold start (took ~15 seconds while sitting indoors about 8 feet from window)
- works as expected
- Text to Speech
- HACKABLE!

CONS:
- no battery meter in Destinator v7
- not sure if I'll get the advertised 5-6 hours battery


Price paid:
$83, after coupons/discounts/rebates/taxes/shipping
MSRP:
$200

Included in box:
- GPS unit, 3.5" screen (with 1GB unlabelled SD card)
- carrying case (pretty good quality)
- home/wall charger
- car charger
- USB cable (charge with computer)
- window mount (_much_ better than the pdr135 mount I have)
- cd manual
- warranty card
- quick start poster

Software:
- Windows CE .NET 4.2 Core
- Destinator v7

Processor:
- Motorola i.MX21 @ 266Mhz

Memory:
- 64MB, about 45MB usable (guessed)

--------------

My current/previous GPS devices:
- Belkin Bluetooth (rebadged Fortuna) with Belkin Navigator (forget which maps) + Compaq iPaq h1940 (or laptop with bluetooth) = I love this unit, still use it but it's not as convenient as a standalone unit
- Mio C220 - basic unit - does what it needs to do but sometimes not accurate
- Pharos PDR135 - Ostia software not great, but loaded with Tom Tom Navigator or other software this unit works well (hackable)

--------------------

The Pharos PDR150 does what it's supposed to do. I've only been using this for a day so far but it seems fine. The Destinator v7 softare seems fine, the GPS processor works just like the other SiRFstarIII chipsets

The great thing is that this unit is _hackable_ - I've loaded Tom Tom Navigator v6 and it works fine - I'm switching between Destinator v7 and Tom Tom Navigator v6 to test out and play.

(perhaps I'll write more if pricegrabber starts offering a rebate for this review ;))

OVERALL:
5-stars as one of the best in this price range, since it does what it's supposed to do, has TTS, is hackable, and has an SD-card slot. For $80, how can I complain? This is the best bang-for-the-buck and beats out all the other BF2007 GPS deals (FYI I purchased this on "Cyber Monday 2007") --- Would I purchase this for $150-200 (current price after rebates), would I purchase it again? Compared to the other units I've used in this price range, yes, I would purchase this again. However, keep in mind that the "hackability" factor plays a big role in my decision. Out of the box, this thing still works well but may not be the best fit for everyone.

Frustrating start, but seems to have ended well
UPDATE: Pharos came through after the second replacement. A rep called me when they received my return, and a replacement was shipped to me via UPS Next Day service. It turns out, the SD card had come loose, but there was no way I could have known that because Pharos puts a security sticker over the card slot, and if you remove it, it voids your warranty. At any rate, this third unit seems to work perfectly.

If my first problem had been handled as efficiently as the second, I would have been a much happier customer from the start. If I could revise my star ratings, I'd probably up it to 4 stars. Had I received better service, I wouldn't have hesitated to give it 5 stars.



ORIGINAL REVIEW: I had such high hopes for the Pharos 150, but I guess the bottom line is, you get what you pay for.

When I first purchased the unit a few months ago, I tried it out near my home in Maryland, as well as in Miami, Orlando and San Francisco. In Miami, I sat in the rental car lot for 15 minutes waiting for it to lock on to a satellite, and that experience kept repeating itself in other cities.

In fairness, when the unit was functioning, I was very pleased with how well it worked, especially for the price. But, I soon realized that it was generally so slow to find a satellite that it was essentially useless. Who has time to wait 10-15 minutes prior to every trip?

Frustrated, I contacted Pharos support, and they had me send the unit to them in California (at my expense). A replacement GPS came a few weeks later, and it worked when I first turned it on. Then, later in the day, I attempted to use it again, and with every attempt to power up, the initial logo screen would freeze. The on/off button would not turn it off. Pressing the reset button would turn off the screen, but did nothing else in terms of making the unit functional.

I once again called Pharos support (and waited nearly 30 minutes to speak with someone), and they informed me I would have to send this unit back, too, and once again, at my expense. I protested, telling them that while I understood it was my responsibility to pay to return the first unit, I didn't think I should have to pay for returning the second one because the replacement they sent me was obviously defective. The agent said he would speak with his manager to see if something could be done and call me back later in the day.

He did call back, but only to inform there was nothing else that could be done, and if I wanted to have the defective unit replaced, I would have to send it back at my expense. I asked him how many times I would be responsible for paying for returning defective units, and he didn't have an answer.

So, I'm boxing up GPS #2 and will wait another 2-3 weeks with the hope of getting one that works.

All I can say is, if you're shopping for a GPS, look elsewhere. I don't expect perfection, but I do expect a company to take some responsibility for the shortcomings of their products. I didn't mind paying to send back the first defective unit, but Pharos should have been willing to offer some sort of accommodation when the second unit also proved to be defective. I, for one, won't be a repeat customer.

Excellent little GPS for price
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.