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Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
from: Harman Kardon
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Piece Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Street Price: $299.99
Prices subject to change.
Gaunz Org Price: $228.80
Savings!: $71.19 (24%)Prices subject to change.
Average Buyer Rating: 
Sales Rank: 14322
Sales Rank: 14322
Binding: Electronics
Product Brand: Harman Kardon
Color: Silver and Black
Display Size: 4 inches
EAN: 0028292589362
Includes Mp3 Player: 1
Label: Harman Kardon
Product Manufacturer: Harman Kardon
Model: GPS-310NA
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Publisher: Harman Kardon
Release Date: November 05, 2007
Ranking: 14322
Studio: Harman Kardon
Variation Description: Silver and Black
Piece facts:- Text-to-Speech in English announces the next manuever by name such as the street name or highway. The GPS-310's translation from Text-to-Speech is very easy to understand and natural sounding.
- 4" WQVGA 480 x 272 High resolution widescreen provides an increased viewing area and detail making it easier to read instructions and street names
- The GPS-310 features a highly intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Minimal key strokes are needed to program an address, look up points-of-interest or find the song you want to listen to.
- Full-featured MP3 player allows you to search by artist, album, genre, song or playlist and displays album art. Shuffle & repeat mode also included. A SD flash card slot is provided for accessing music stored on SD or SDHC cards (card not included).
- Complete, preloaded maps of the U.S. including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico as well as Canada are included.
0ur opinion:
:
, December 12, 2007:
High-end audio equipment manufacturer Harman Kardon's continues to combine solid navigation with truly superb media player function in its GPS products, creating a bar for navigator/personal entertainment system convergence devices. They've improved their models this year with a fuller feature set.
This Year's Models
With their first line of GPS navigators released last year, H-K wisely stuck to the basics with their navigation. Perhaps that was the reason navigation worked so much better on Harman Kardon's devices than on some other navigators produced by manufactuer's whose core business was not GPS.
With basic nav nailed down however, Harman Kardon added a full feature set into this year's models. All of the new models -- the GPS-310, GPS-510, and GPS-810, -- come with text-to-speech for spoken directions with real street names, a photo viewer and MP3 player. The GPS-510 adds a video player and traffic data capability (from TMC Clear Channel). The GPS-810 has the same features you'd get on the top-end model from any manufacturer, and some you may not expect, including Bluetooth connectivity, traffic data, an FM transmitter that will deliver both directions and music through an open channel on your car's stereo system, and a nifty little Bluetooth remote.
 4-inch WQVGA 480px x 272px high-resolution widescreen touch screen (actual size) |
The main purpose of any car GPS device is to take you reliably from point A to B. Here the GPS-310 performs nicely indeed, providing several options for finding your destination. To get going you can select either a street address, a specific point of interest such as a gas station or restaurant, a recent or saved destination, a postal code, or an intersection (if you're not sure of the exact address). To speed up text entry, the unit employs an intelligent auto-completion feature that displays only the letters that spell an item in its database. This greatly reduces the letters from which you have to choose to tell it where you want to go.
0nce it knows where you are headed, the device offers you the choice of shortest distance or most use of freeways or other high-speed arterials. You'll also find a trip planner that lets you lay out and save multiple destinations, as well as avoidance choices for routing your trip away from borders, toll roads, unpaved roads, ferries, and more. lf you take a wrong turn or need to use a detour, the GPS-310 will automatically re-route you and get you back on your way.
And how did the GPS-310 perform out on the road? ln a word, admirably. The responsiveness of the device and excellent user interface make it a joy to use. The GPS-310 also has an extremely fast and accurate GPS signal processor, so it locks, calculates and recalculates routes, and responds to commands quickly. 0ne of the hardest things for a manufacturer without a long history in building GPS navigators is getting the routing algorithms correct, so it was nice to see that Harman Kardon seems to have gotten this right. ln most cases, the device decided on logical and efficient routes, too--something that can't be said of all GPS devices out there.
 lntuitive interface is easy to operate. See route planning details. | Setup and lnterface Setup is as easy as turning the device on, since it comes loaded with maps of the U.S. and Canada. 0n first bootup, choose from English, Spanish, or French language options for the spoken directions and interface menus. lnteracting with the GPS-310's touchscreen is delightfully intuitive and reliable; there's really no need for a stylus or navigation buttons, which simplifies things on the road. The division of the main interface into four main quadrants is a helpful touch, and it's refreshing to see manufacturers moving away from awkward icon-based menus. lnstead of drilling down through lists of icons, all of the GPS-310's options are presented on simple, color-coded shapes. That said, we were a little puzzled by the use of the 'Source' menu key, which takes the user back to the main menu from any point in the interface. lt's a useful feature, but why not call this the 'Home' button instead? The screen itself is sharp and clear, offering great resolution and clarity in all driving conditions. The map screen is a sight to behold, offering delightfully crisp 3D images, as well as excellent responsiveness when zoomed and panned. Likewise, the interface for music playback ispleasantly uncluttered, responsive, and well thought-out. 0ne problem in our unit, though, was the lack of a sleep mode. The device's screen will stay on at full illumination when it's left idle--even when running on battery power. There's also no sleep button on the device. | |||
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Multimedia
The GPS-310 strives to be much more than just another GPS device in a crowded market, and that's likely why Harman Kardon has polished the multimedia features of the device so well. With support for MP3 and WMA music files, the music player has a refreshingly intuitive user interface and good sound quality. lt's a cinch to browse music on your SD card by artist, album, genre, playlist, and song. Another nice touch is that you can keep the music playing while the unit is in navigation mode.
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Design
The GPS-310 is solidly built--something we expect from Harman Kardon--and it instills a sense of confidence that it can survive the bumps of bruises that come with the mobile lifestyle. Measuring approximately 4.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches high, and a little over half an inch thick, the device is only a little chunkier than your average PDA or Smartphone. The clean lines of the GPS-310 are enhanced by a complete lack of buttons; all interaction with the device happens between the touchscreen and your finger. ln the interest of simplicity, there is not even a stylus that can fall to the floor and roll under the seat of your car.
The only button you'll find on the device is the recessed power button on the top, right next to the SD card slot. The slot accepts cards with up to 4 GB of capacity. There's also a small jog wheel on the right side for volume and display brightness control. Below this dial you'll also find a mini-USB port that serves double duty for both charging and PC-to-device data transfers, as well as a standard 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. Meanwhile, you'll find a pinhole reset button on the bottom, as well as a hold switch on the left side for deactivating the touchscreen. Lastly, the back of the unit sports a small audio speaker and a port for an optional GPS signal booster antenna.
Pros
Excellent user interface
Fast, accurate GPS performance; good mapping capabilities
Polished, user-friendly music playback
Minor lag during some operations
No sleep or low power standby function
GPS-310NA portable navigator, 5-hour lithium-polymer battery, USB 2.0 cable, carrying case, fold-flat windshield/dashboard mounting bracket, car charger, quick-start guide
Piece Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Average Buyer Rating:
Buyer's feedback:
- * Good unit but not perfect ... I wanted a portable GPS unit with at least 4" display and text-to-speech feature. This is my first GPS. I would say the text-to-speech feature is a MUST; otherwise, you may get confused.
A 4" Garmin was too expensive and it didn't look very attractive.
I like Navigon because it made GPS for European cars, it had photo images of the streets, and it looked really good but I need to get the expensive high-end model for the 4" display (the free lifetime traffic info was very attractive too). However, it didn't have any audio and/or video features and several reviews indicated problems with navigation and the text-to-speech.
I could pick TomTom but I liked HK. I picked it has mp3 feature. I wanted the GPS 510 video one but that costed more than I expected. Anyway, I guess I expected too much from HK.
As a basic GPS unit, it's great, especially with the large screen and text-to-speech feature. The display will adjust day/night automatically.
Pro:
1. 4" display, looks beautiful, solid built.
2. It's very easy to use.
3. Speech is clear.
4. Re-routing is very quick (usually takes 5-6 seconds).
5. You can do navigation and listen to music at the same time.
6. It's not too difficult to learn all the features.
7. Long battery life (I think it's 5 hours).
Con:
1. The initial search for GPS signal is very slow, up to several minutes.
2. I turned on all the POI but I don't see them all the time. Most of the time, the unit will tell me turn on which street and then tell me to turn right or left to a ramp but sometimes it tells me to turn left/right after 200 ft. If I set my routing priority to shortest time instead of shortest distance, it will try to get me on the highway even though it is a much longer route.
3. I don't know how to get the most updated map...I am sure it does not
have some of the 2007 constructions.
4. As someone commented on the older model, GPS-300, the speaker was not good for music. I used the unit to play mp3 songs on a SD card (not included) and it didn't sound good. Yes, it's a HK! It may be good for radio programs or sermons.
5. The "quick user guide" and the owner's manual on the HK website are the same. They are way too simple. You need to explore the unit for different features. The guide scared me. I thought I need to charge the unit in my car all the time but someone mentioned you can use the USB cable to charge it from a PC. Yes, I tried it but it didn't tell me when it was fully charged.
I bought the dash mount unit but this GPS unit cannot be sticked to it tight. The unit will move a little bit at a time but it will not fall out from the dash mount.
I am still ok with the unit but I didn't focus too much on the mp3 feature and tried TomTom.
Buyer's feedback:
- Easy to use. Great value.The unit gets amazingly quick GPS locks. Typically less than 15 seconds, and often just a few. The UI is extermely easy to use. Very snappy graphics and operation. No owner's manual is necessary. Has all the features you would expect from a unit this price. Even has 12M POI which is 2x to 9x the number that other units have. I played with the unit a little at BestBuy before buying it. What sold me is the TTS feature that announces street names in the directions (Turn on Lincoln Ave instead of just Turn Left). It was the cheapest one there that had this feature. When I compared the TTS quality with that of the more expensive units, the h/k GPS-310 won hands down. The others sounded like robots. This unit sounds much more natural. Easy decision. Great product. Fantastic price.
Buyer's feedback:
- * A CLEAN unit, very nice. ... I have used both the Tom Tom and the garman Nuvi and I find the GPS-310 to be superior in many ways.
The onscreen display is very intuitive and I really like the widescreen look on such an inexpensive unit. My wife loved it and it has the look and feel of a much more expensive unit. The trip information is shown on the left and is very clear about upcoming turns, distances and the like.
The windshield mount is especially nice and allows a great degree of adjustment and is much smaller and cleaner than my others I have. I don't like such a big block of stuff stuck to my windshield. The unit itself is very thin and just has a very clean look to the whole unit. It is much easier to use that the TomTom as well with fewer menus needed to be accessed to do all of the basic stuff.
The music player works well with artist search, playlists, etc. I synch a few SD cards with my PC and I use it on trips, very slick
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