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Pharos Drive 140 review

Dec 18, 2006 gps navigation, reviews Leave a comment

Pharos Drive 140 was recently reviewed by CNet (6.7/10) and today we have a review from PCMag which also gave the Pharos Drive 140 a ‘good’ (3/5) rating.

In addition to navigation, the Drive 140 has multimedia players for pictures, videos, and music. The device will automatically scan inserted memory cards for compatible content. Keep in mind that the 2GB card supplied is almost completely full so there’s only about 50MB available for your content. You can remove the SD card and insert a card with your own media, but you’ll lose navigation capabilities. I tested all three media players. Though the MP3 player played my tunes without incident, the picture viewer took a while to render each of the 3MB files from my digital camera, but it did display them properly. Because of the 16:9 format, I got vertical black bars on the left and right side of the screen when viewed in full-screen. I was pleased to see that the Drive 140 supported playback of WMV files because many other products play only the .AVI format. However, I was a bit disappointed in the playback; it seemed that every 4 or 5 seconds the video would jump a frame or two.

It sounds like Pharos Drive 140 is suffering from lack of processor/memory power to properly handle large multimedia files. This seems to be a problem for many GPS systems out there that throw in these feature to stay competitive in such a fast growing market.

Pharos Drive GPS 140 review

Nov 18, 2006 gps navigation Leave a comment

Last month we ahd an article about the new Drive GPS 140 from Pharos. Just recently it got reviewed by the cruel CNet team and scored 6.7 out of 10. According to us the Drive GPS 140 deserves to lose couple of points just because they’ve used some cheap plastics but the reviewers are mostly complaining about the confusing interface, sluggish performance with certain tasks and the lack of text-to-speech functionality (most systems don’t have this). But they had a lot of good things to say about Drive GPS 140 too.

We tested the Pharos Drive GPS 140 in San Francisco, and it took only a couple of minutes for the unit to get a GPS fix from a cold start. Subsequent starts were faster, and the device was even able to pick up a signal indoors, which was impressive. Even better, the GPS 140 accurately pinpointed our location as we drove around the city. Unfortunately, things hit a snag when we started planning a specific trip, as the system had a hard time keeping up with our demands. There was a noticeable lag as we entered addresses, and it took a while for the device to compile the POI list. That said, the GPS 140 did offer accurate driving directions and quick route recalculation.

We had no problems pairing the unit with the Cingular 8525 and were able to make hands-free calls, with relatively good call quality. Music playback through the unit’s speakers sounded a bit blown out, and video quality wasn’t the greatest. The picture was really pixelated, though if you’re in a pinch, it will serve its purpose. Also, this isn’t a unique problem to the Pharos device. We have yet to see a portable nav system that does multimedia well. The Pharos Drive GPS 140’s battery is rated for 4.5 hours.

If hands free bluetooth feature is a must in your GPS navigation Pharos GPS 140 maybe one of the cheaper options. Even though it is listed at $550, Amazon sells it for $480.

Pharos Drive GPS 135

Oct 4, 2006 gps navigation Leave a comment

The other new system from Pharos is the Drive GPS 135 – somewhat the smaller version of the GPS 140 we talked about. This one has a 3.5″ inch screen as opposed to 4 (now we know what 135 and 140 stands for). The other differences that makes the GPS 135 $200 cheaper is the lack of bluetooth hands free capability and the OS being Windows CE 4.2 instead of 5.0.

Drive GPS 135 is expected to cost $350.

Drive GPS 140 from Pharos

Oct 4, 2006 gps navigation Leave a comment

An old name in GPS navigation – Pharos – just introduced a GPS navigation system from called the Drive GPS 140. The new system comes with a 4 inch color display and maps of U.S.A and Canada pre-loaded onto a 2GB SD card. Just like most top of the line systems out there, Pharos also included Bluetooth hands free capability plus voice guidance to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel while driving.

Pharos went ahead and integrated todays most common GPS receiver – the SiRF Star III – into GPS 140 and not to be left behind threw in some media players as well.

In the box you’ll find AC and car charger, car mount kit, some manuals and CDs, the 2GB SD card, headset, and the USB cable. The site claims the new GPS 140 has a slim design which better be true because the device already looks a bit ugly from the front.

GPS 140 is priced at $550 which is a good deal considering its’ features but lets wait for the reviews to see if it can compete with the big boys out there.