PDA Reviews

Acer N35 is the third PDA next to Mitac Mio168 and Navman PiN300, which features a GPS receiver. Acer N35 will be a treat to the GPS lovers as this PDA does not require any wires or Bluetooth running on batteries. Acer N35 uses the version three of the Destinator navigator software. Initially Acer was offering both the palm OS and the windows but now it has stuck to windows mobile camp.

Design:

When you take Acer N35 PDA GPS System out of the box, a disappointment will run through your face as it looks cheap and plastic. The PDA lacks lust and even the square shaped raised joystick at the bottom; it has a poor range of movement and can not be used as a button to select any option. It has a two-tone, black and silver look. The unit weight 165 grams and feels bulky when held in hand. It has two lights which includes a yellow one in the left indicates the power button and the blue one in the left glows when the GPS aerial is lifted up. The screen resolution is of 240×320 pixels which is not awful but the quality of the display is. The texts are grained and the brightness is also very less. A SD Card slot, a microphone and a headphone socket is available and towards the down left is the scroll wheel. The hard and soft reset buttons in the bottom of N35 are well recessed and are well protected from accidental activation.

Features:

This GPS PDA’s specification is an average one and uses the 266MHz Samsung CPU. The processor exhibits very average performance when you search for addresses. Acer N35 GPS PDA has 64MB of built-in memory out of which 42MB is available for your storage needs. As a positive note, the 256MB ‘Map and App’ SD card has 52.3MB of free memory. The PDA lacks either built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

A suction holder and a clip that holds the PDA in a place are provided by Acer for the convenience of the car drivers. This will be a helpful accessory except for the stylus issue as it too long, making it difficult to take it in and out of the PDA. Anyway, you will not be using the device while driving and the Destinator 3 software asks you to accept the disclaimer that you will not use the software while driving, which is a very sensible advice. Anyway, it is less flexible to use and asks for you to opt your point of interest database. All the information has to be entered with the stylus which is a time consuming job but at a positive note, the software can directly take the information from the pocket outlook, but this function did not work as smoothly as it was expected to.

The software and its functions:

The Destinator 3software will give you no trouble when you install it for the first time, but once you remove the SD slot and fix it again, the software starts to run again. The cancelling process is not a big trouble but one you click on the cancel button, the software shows the message “not installed successfully”. Though this is a routine message on canceling, it would still remain as a worrying factor for a novice user.

It takes time for you to get used with the software for a while. In order to start navigating, first click on the ‘Destinate’, a box requesting you to enter various details about your destination appears. Fill in all the required information and you are all set to navigate. The address information can be given in any order and this software will do the job for you. This feature is one of the major plus points on this software. An arrow indicating the direction of the turn-off and the time to the next junction and is displayed at the top of the screen. When you approach the junction, an icon showing the direction of the next turn is displayed on the screen in an attractive icon. ETA to destination, the details of the current road and the latitude and longitude are displayed in the bottom of the screen. But, it is all on one line and the information has to switch between them. Presenting this all at once would have been better. At the bottom right, there is a bar which indicates the strength of the signal and when you hit this, a 3D representation of the connections to the satellites is displayed.

The software also provides with some useful voice prompts when you have exceeded the speed limit, while recalculating a route, when the signal is poor and also says “drive carefully” when it starts the route.
Destinator 3 uses algorithms that have the route calculation algorithms better than that of its competitor. One major issue is that, the hardware often failed to detect the GPS signal.

The speaker in this Acer N35 GPS System was good and can be heard well while you are in car. The map view called “Birds Eye” can set it to be viewed in either 2D or 3D, which has a high angle. It consumed some time in order to refresh and for this problem, it is the processor of N35 that is to be blamed.

Battery:
The battery which is rated at 1000mAh is of the non-removable type. This battery delivers around 5hrs of life.

Verdict:

Acer N35’s pros can be said as neat and tidy handheld and GPS combo design and the GPS receiver does a good job with the price being reasonable. And, the cons of this combo device can be said as, performance of the processor, limited memory, the requirement of SD slot by the navigational slot and the lack of any wireless connectivity.

The performance of Acer N95 GPS Receiver is acceptable but cannot be said to be outstanding. Those who prefer style and overall performance as a handheld and navigator will be disappointed. If it had been having a better processor and some sort of wireless connectivity, ot would have been a good choice. Yet, this product is reasonably priced for its features.

Acer N35 GPS PDA - Technical Specification Details

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