Averatec launches Voya 350 handheld NAV
posted Jul 24th 2006 5:15AM
Averatec, a company known best for churning out laptops (and UMPCs as of late) has triangulated a route into the portable navigation market. The Voya 350, its first attempt in the lucrative GPS arena, is a handheld-sized unit that packs all the standard features you'd expect in such a device, and unfortunately not a whole lot more. Powered by a 300MHz Samsung CPU, 64MB of RAM, and operating on Windows CE.net, the Voya 350 displays turn-by-turn guidance while utilizing the usual NAVTEQ maps shown on the 3.5-inch TFT touch-screen. While no built-in hard drive is included, you can store excess data using the SD / MMC slot. Semi-noteworthy features include the 4 hours of battery life you can rely on while trekking in the rough, and weighing just 6 ounces, it makes for an easy tag-along. Although countless similar units have been available for quite some time, it's not really as if one more unit is going to water down the GPS receiver market aymore, so if you're hunting around for a portable nav device that's a tad easier on the wallet than other offerings, the Voya 350 -- albeit under-featured -- looks like a solid value, and can be located now for around $400.
4 hours? Pathetic. By the time you get to your destination the battery's flat.
It looks pretty cool.
This review would be a whole lot more useful if the reviewer would list the missing features that make it "under featured" FYI to some of us features like bluetooth & MP3 & picture viewing while great for some is just wasted money - Like I would willing trade off screen size for features like bluetooth etc.