Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

by Harman Kardon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 4.8 x 2.9 inches ; 1.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000XU4IE6
• Item model number: GPS-310NA
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,956 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description, 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)

Navigation
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.

Once 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. If 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? In 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. One 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. In most cases, the device decided on logical and efficient routes, too--something that can't be said of all GPS devices out there.

Intuitive interface is easy to operate. See route planning details.

Setup and Interface Setup is as easy as turning the device on, since it comes loaded with maps of the U.S. and Canada. On first bootup, choose from English, Spanish, or French language options for the spoken directions and interface menus. Interacting 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. Instead 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. It'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. One 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.

Accurate, detailed 3D navigation, and turn-by-turn directions. Use the unit's touch screen to enter address locations. An intuitive menu lets you switch quickly between music, video, and navigation options.

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. It'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.

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. In 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

Cons
Minor lag during some operations
No sleep or low power standby function

What's in the Box
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

Product Description

GPS-310 Harman Kardon Portable Navigation+Audio device offers a highly intuitive user interface making it an easy to use portable navigation device. It features Text-to-Speech in English. It also offers full playback of digital music files. All access and control is via a high resolution 4" WQVGA touchscreen. In navigation mode it offers easy-to-understand instructions and visuals in 17 languages. Turn-by-turn graphics with all vital information is displayed in 2-D or 3-D and Maps of the U.S. and Canada are built-in along with a 12 million point of interest database. The full blown MP3 player offers browsing by Artist, Album, Genere, Song or Playlist. It will display ID3 tags for artist, title, and album along with album artwork. All digital media is accessed via SD Card slot (SD card not included) and will accept SD and SDHC cards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use. Great value., December 1, 2007

By 

TraveLots (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A CLEAN unit, very nice., November 29, 2007

By 

MFC (Burbank, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.3" widescreen display w/TTS for $300, December 19, 2007

By 

David Hays "HaysDB" (St Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

Pros:
. 4.3" (480x272) screen with text-to-speech for $300.
. Integrated antenna
. Clean, uncluttered, and mostly intuitive interface
. Destinations easy to enter - more on this feature below
. Large "buttons"
. Touch screen requires only a light touch
. Nicely contoured case with a high quality feel
. Suction cup mount nicely designed
. Unit clips in and removes from the mount very easily
. Charges via the USB cable (undocumented)
. Boots instantly
. Volume dial
. Bright screen
. Built-in MP3 player
. A nice compact slipcover is included

Cons:
. It takes awhile to lock on to the satellites. I haven't timed it, but it's much slower than my Garmin Street Pilot 2720.
. I haven't figured out how to save the "current location" to a favorite. Please tell me how to do this as this could be a deal breaker!
. Screen brightness doesn't automatically adjust to the conditions. It switches between Day and Night modes automatically, but not the brightness. Fortunately changing the brightness requires only a few touches.
. Screen can be hard to read in bright daylight.
. Only one choice of female voice. I like the Australian English voice on my Garmin.
. The spoken directions are not as concise as my Garmin, and the unit tends to repeat itself, which is either helpful or annoying depending on my mood.
. No option to prompt the unit to repeat itself, such as if you don't hear the directions over a loud stereo. In fairness, I don't know of any portable GPS units that offer this feature.
. The map is missing some streets vs. my Garmin
. A few options are non-intuitive to reach. This isn't a major problem since there aren't that many options vs. some of the more high-end GPS units, but that makes these few occasions all the more vexing.
. Does not display speed. I like this feature of my Garmin. There also is no "trip computer" although I don't use this feature much.

Top three features:

1. Large high resolution wide screen.

2. Text-to-Speech.

3. Destination entry feature:

As you enter letters in a city or street name, any letters that aren't possible are grayed out. For example, maybe you enter a city name beginning with H. You might then see all letters except A,E,I,O,U,Y grayed out because there are no cities with any other character following the H. This makes entry easier because (A) the next key is easier to find because there are fewer letters to choose from, and (B) touching the wrong key is less likely.

If I were buying a new GPS for myself, it would probably be a Garmin 750 for half again the price, but at the $300 price-point, the mostly minor compromises are acceptable.