Customer Reviews

Harman Kardon GPS-500 Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator, MP3 Player, and Video Player

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I just got this Harman kardon GPS device and thought I'd write up some of my experiences. I bought it for my dad, and it was a bit of a gamble (I was hoping this one would be easy for him to use), but I've been using it myself for the past couple of days.

Overall, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. There are two things that particularly stand out on this device. The first is the big screen. You don't realize how nice such a big screen is until you put it side by side with my dinky Garmin (half an inch goes a long way). It's big, bright, easy to read when it's all the way on your windshield, all that goodness. The second great thing is the user interface. I see the Amazon review caught this too. This is the only nav I've seen that has slick-looking menus and buttons. But more than just looking good, the really nice thing is that it's very easy to get it to do what you want, like entering an address or changing the settings. What I mean is that you don't have to travel to a big menu hierarchy or figure out what the icons mean to get anywhere, everything is just a couple of buttons away with the 'source' button. This is especially useful when you're playing music while navigating and you want to switch between the mp3 player and the map screen quickly. It's little things like that make it seem like a well thought-out product. Like, when you're in the mp3 player, it shows you the name of upcoming streets on the bar at the bottom, and when you're looking at the map it shows the title of the current song. Seems obvious, right? The design of the device is slim and fits in your pocket. It doesn't have a big fold-out antenna (which I didn't realize when I bought it), that little bump at the top left is (I think) the antenna. I was a bit worried about GPS reception, but a side-by-side with my aforementioned GPS, it was not any slower.

Here's the technical good stuff for all of you geeks out there. Like I said, GPS performance seems on par, and there's an external antenna plug if you have a roof one (haven't tried this). Routing is pretty good, if a bit slow. One thing that seems weird is that it considers all the small alleyways in my neighborhood to be streets. It's kind of strange, but not a big deal (it doesn't route me on them). There's a configuration setting for the USB connection that you can switch between Mass Storage and MTP. If you get music or videos from one of the subscription services, you can use it like a Microsoft portable player over MPT. I don't have any of these so did not try this feature out. The device has the maps for the whole US and Canada on internal storage (no SD card required), but has an SD slot that it plays mp3s and videos from. I threw some mp3s and a few of my mpeg4 avi files and it played them fine. It doesn't look like it has enough power to play videos and navigate at the same time, so the nav is paused when you're playing a movie, but you can play mp3s and navigate at the same time. Battery life is good (4-5 hours? I hadn't hit the limit since I mostly had it on the car charger), and it charges over USB (it comes with a handy USB charger that I will be using for my iPod from now on). The mount is stiff and sturdy, and you can take it out of the mount with just one hand and not really any force. It's been stuck on my windshield for about 2 days now, and doesn't look like it's coming off.

Things I didn't like include the annoying warning screen when you play a video. If you're the kind of person that is going to watch a video while driving, I don't think a warning message is going to stop you. And if you're a passenger, you don't need the warning. I wish there was a setting to disable this. The blue light on the cigarette lighter adapter is also too bright. A little duct-tape fixed this.

Overall, I'm glad I bought this thing. It has the big screen and the nice design of a GPS device that costs twice as much. More than that, my dad was able to figure out how to use it (that's saying a lot), so he will actually use it instead of just leaving it at home (which means that I won't be seeing much of it again). Great value, highly recommended.

I've own 2 other GPS units before, both handhelds (a Garmin and a Magellan). They are primarily used for hiking/camping. I also have a built-in OEM GPS navigation unit in my MDX. I bought this unit for my wife for her to use in her car. So far, here are my impressions:

1) Unit size is nice

2) Winshield mounting suction bracket is small and sturdy

3) Screen is clear and crisp

4) Menus are easy and intuitive

5) Battery life is good

6) Easy out-of-the-box setup

7) Does what it's suppose to do (find places and tells you how to get there)

8) Lots of voice commands that let's you have ample time to prepare

9) I like that it uses the mini-USB port to charge the device as well as to sync with your computer

Having said that, there are 2 major gripes that I have with the unit:

1) While driving, it automatically zooms for you. Normally, this is a good feature to have but sometimes, I like to zoom further out so I can have a better idea of what the nearby streets look like. I don't like the fact that 2 seconds after I change the zoom-level to what I like, the unit automatically zooms back to the level it likes. I wish there was a way to turn off this feature. It can be quite annoying.

2) There is no button on the map screen that let's you go directly to the directions list; you have to go through a few menus to get to the directions list. I find it very useful to be able to do this so I have an idea of what turns are coming up, at what streets, etc.

And here are some general comments as well:

1) Like with many other GPS units, when you first turn it on, it takes several minutes to lock onto a signal. The reason I believe is that it has to download the "almanac" from the satellites. Subsequent power-on has taken no more than 15 seconds to lock on. If you have it off, travel several hundred miles, then turn it on, it will also then take several minutes to lock on since it again needs to download the "almanac". Then after that, it should be fairly quick. Please see link for better explaination: [...]

2) Another reviewer mentioned that he had good coverage in SoCal. The GPS signal is not like a cellphone signal in which there are areas of better coverage than others. The GPS satellites has coverage over the ENTIRE world. The main factor that determines your signal strength (or lack of a signal lock) is your view of the open sky. If you are in the city with lots of tall buildings, it may not have an open view to at least 3 satellites in which it needs to calculate your position.

3) Not a major issue with me, but the unit does not seem to distinguish which side of the road your destination is on.

4) Added 06/11/07: Another minor issue -- I wish it had the ability to show current/max speed, odometer, etc. Not something most people would probably need, but it's nice to have.

Overall, I think it's a great unit and it does it's job very well. It's not perfect and doesn't have some of the features (bluetooth, FM modulator, text-to-speech, etc.) of more expensive units, but it is a great GPS for the money. Of course, the true test will be when my wife starts using it!

I just recently got this GPS and had a full 3 days to test it out. Overall, I would say it's a very good GPS unit but with some notable flaws.

BACKGROUND

I was using a Garmin C330 that I got 2 years ago until it decided to bite the dust on me. Spent some time on-line looking at this product along with the Garmin NUVI models and TomTom models. I decided on this one due to its widescreen format, mp3 and video capabilities, and price.

PROS

- The presentation of this GPS unit is very slick. It is pretty thin and not too heavy. It has clean lines and is not over-cluttered with buttons and knobs.

- The screen resolution is outstanding. When I first used it in direct daylight, it appeared "washed out". However, I turned up the brightness on the unit and it was fine - much better than my previous Garmin GPS. In non-direct sunlight viewing and nighttime viewing, the resolution is outstanding with vivid colors and clear text.

- The widescreen format allows more "real estate" to provide additional info including next turn, time/distance to destination, and even the song you're playing (if you're concurrently using the MP3 player).

- The GPS capabilities itself I would rank as average-to-above average. It locks in the signal fairly quickly - about the same as my Garmin. It does sometimes take awhile to calculate the route. That I found a bit annoying, but nothing unbearable.

- I like the fact that you can drag the map around to be able to view upcoming streets, etc. My old Garmin couldn't do this - not sure if they have added that capability in new Garmin models.

- Another great feature of the GPS is the ability to "touch" areas on the map to show business and resident addresses. For example, I "touched" a street corner near my house on the GPS map and it showed the 24 hour fitness gym and other businesses there.

- It has a nice carrying case that makes it easy to carry around for optimal mobile use.

- The battery life is very good. Not quite the 5 hours that Harman Kardon states but I got mine working for 4 hours.

- The User Interface is intuitive, simple and effective.

CONS

- The GPS unit does not tell you if the destination is on the left or right side of the street. I found this rather annoying because it didn't give me ample time to get on the correct side of the road. Granted you can figure out what side it's on based upon address, but I think it's a simple piece of functionality that should be in most GPS units today.

- You cannot turn off the navigation voice while listening to the MP3 player. Personally, I don't always like to listen to the turn-by-turn direction prompts. However, I wanted to listen to my MP3's on the unit. Unfortunately, you can't have both. If you're listening to MP3's, you will get voice prompts (no matter how low you set the volume mixer).

- The sound quality of the MP3 is only average. From a company like Harman-Kardon, I was expecting a much better effort. I have an AUX input in my car and I tested 2 songs on both the GPS unit and my iPod. The iPod sounded far better. Granted, the mp3 playback is not the main purpose of the GPS unit, but still, I expect higher quality from this company.

- The UI "hiccups" that the Amazon review stated were NOT due to pre-production software. I experienced the same thing. Sometimes, it would take the unit 5-8 seconds to respond to my request. Blame it on buggy "1.0" software I guess.

Overall, I think this GPS unit was a good investment and I like most of its features. The few flaws it had are not "make-or-break" for me, but do make things a bit inconvenient.

Hopefully HK will take some of this feedback into consideration when releasing their 2nd gen version. But overall, I think the HK guys did a great job in their first introductory GPS unit in the market.

I have owned the Harman Kardon GPS-500 since April and I am submitting this review after owning it for one month. I have not owned another portable GPS unit, so the only thing I can compare it to is the OEM Navigation system in my Toyota Matrix. The boot up time and the unit's ability to lock onto a satellite signal is pretty quick. The screen resolution is sharp and bright, you can still see the screen even with the sun shining on it. The mounting system is the BEST, no shaking and it doesn't fall off. The speaker and sound quality is great, even at highway speeds with the windows open. I use a cassette tape audio adapater & connect the audio auxillary port on the unit, enabling me to hear it over my car's stereo system. It accepts up to 4GB SD Memory, not the High speed memory, only standard memory. I have loaded MP3 files and they sound great, I have also loaded WMV files and converted DVD movies to WMV to watch movies from the unit. Finding addresses and POI is extremely easy to use, very intuitive menus and on screen buttons. Following the navigation screen and the text to voice is easy and accurate, the voice is very clear. The downside is that if you are at a current location and you want to "MARK" it on your GPS map and save the location, there is no easy way to do this. You have to go through the task of touching the screen, getting an exact address location, then go to "Plan a Trip" mode, type in the address and then save it. On my OEM Toyota Matrix unit, you simply pressed one button, and it would ask "Mark Point" and then I can save and name the marked point and the unit would autopopulate all of the address information. I went to Harman Kardon's website, no customer support phone number listed. I wrote them 3 emails asking them questions about this feature, plus using standard SD Memory card and asking them about how to create "playlists" for the MP3 player function. I got ZERO responses from them, TERRIBLE CUSTOMER support.

Overall, if you are looking for something that is simple and easy to use, has the functionality and convenience to play MP3 and WMV videos and you have no special issues or request for customer support, then this unit is for you. I would rank this as an easy to use unit, small, with a clean look, exceptional display resolution and clear loud audio. Downside is support, I am not looking forward to the day I have a problem with the unit or if I need to upgrade the maps in the unit. It also doesn't have any special mapping features like marking current points and saving them or real time traffic monitoring.

Accuracy within a few blocks. I am sad to say that I have had some terrible experiences where the unit failed to locate an address, completely failed to give proper directions to an address, and on another occasion completely flipped out (must have lost the GPS signal) and went crazy I had to pull off the highway and reboot the thing inorder to get my location correct (and that not counting another time it just flat out lead me down the wrong road). This product has the best and the worst qualities. It has the best screen and menu system, but the actual navigation function falls short.

I picked up a TomTom 3rd ED, and although only 3" screen, its navigational functions absolutly blows HK away. I eally liked the slick/coolness factor of the HK, but after experiencing poor navigation, I could not stand it. This TomTom 3rd ED for half, and although smaller screen, still looks great!

*****

HK500 uses TeleAtlas maps, same as TomTom, Nuvi uses Navteq. HK500 battery lasts 4hrs, TomTom only 2hrs, Nuvi supposedly last for 6hrs!

HK500 on occasion is NOT as responsive going through the menus (Windows CE is to blame), while the others are very responsive. HK500 does NOT easily allow to save points on the screen where as TomTom and Nuvi readily allow GPS positioning to be saved or mark "waypoints".

*****

This unit is pretty much idiot proof as far as how to go through the menu system. Very nicly done. And the "realestate" screen/map layout is perhaps the best. Being new to these GPS I weary of all the talk about the U-TURN behavior, such as when you miss your turn and go off route. Reason why is because these GPS do not readily allow for customized routes, so some of us smarter than the machine will want to go slightly a different way. And thus we want these GPS units to reroute the next best way, and not keep telling us to make a U-turn to resume the original route. Anyways, it is not too bad, some times it would prompt multiple times but it really is not a big deal. Navteq is suppose to have the advantage but if my experience was as bad as it gets then its a non issue.

One particular note is how the unit handles a multiple interchanges, here in south florida, the roads can be very crazy, multiple roads spliting off and joining all within 100 feet or so, and thus if your traveling with fast traffic or in a traffic jam, you have little to no advance warning to be in the right spot! Not a problem if your familar, but a freindly reminder to preview the road trip to identify possible tricky situations. An example is on a part of highway there are split offs in the left hand lane immediatly right after each other, and you need to take the second left, well for me it advised to stay in the right hand lane untill i was passing the first left and then it advised me to get in the left lane, with only a split second to react, if I did not know better I could have missed my exit. HOWEVER it does flash the next approaching "turn" so using that info (street/road/exit) and at least in this instance you can see the exit sign and prepare to be in the proper lane ahead of time to be in the right spot at the right time. Miami is the worst for street/ramp/exit sign placment.

In comparison, the Nuvi/TomTom seems to respond faster to commands and ability to tap a point on the map and immediatrly get direction not needing to input a address/place (the HK CAN do the same but the compition has the edge). The Nuvi/TomTom has the ability to speak street names. I was really wanting to get the text to speach but using the simple right/left turns, I do not feel I am missing much. The most important thing are the prompts alerting you to prepare for a turn and when to actually make a turn. Besides hearing the street names are pointless when you can not see the street names untill its to late.

The nice things about this unit are obvious:

* the form factor

* great screen

* video support

The bad points make me want to send it back:

* The maps aren't very complete and they CANNOT be updated. Harmon Kardon's support is nonexistent and they certainly are far from providing map updates. In several cities in Northern California I've looked for restaurants and cafes and found almost nothing, when just driving down main street tells me there's tons.

* Very, very difficult to set a 'Go Back' navigation point.

I originally bought a TomTom 510, but I was disappointed in how bulky it was. It wasn't small enough to fit in my pocket and was a pain to carry around. I saw the harman/kardon GPS-500 and decided to return the TomTom and give it a try. Boy am I glad I did. The GPS-500 is slimmer than my friend's nuvi, and has a high res 4" screen that blows the nuvi away. Graphics are amazing and the UI is extremely simple to use. Navigation is fast and accurate. Did I say the graphics are fantastic? It made my TomTom look like a Fisher-Price toy.

I wasn't expecting the music and video capabilities to be so good either. The videos are as smooth as my video ipod. The device also supports Windows Media DRM. I successfully downloaded music from MTV Urge and their unlimited music subscription service. The multimedia capabilites are so good that I've stopped taking my ipod with me.

Battery life is great. Listened to music and watched videos for 4 hours on a flight and still had enough juice to guide me to my hotel.

Needless to say I am a happy camper. The only downside I see is that you can only have 4GB of storage for music and videos on a SD card. More than enough for a long road trip or plane flight, but not as nice as having your entire collection at your fingertips. Anyway its just a small gripe on a great product.

I was generally pleased with this GPS system--my first--when it worked. I liked the big screen and it was pretty user-friendly. Occasionally it would lose signal in a weird spot, but it wasn't a big problem. About 2 weeks after we bought the thing it died--would not turn on at all. So we took it back and they gave us another one. It worked fine for about 3 months, then when I tried to turn it on today it was dead as a doornail once again. My husband is a systems analyst and electronics whiz, so I'm pretty sure it's nothing we're doing wrong. Back to the store it goes tomorrow, and we're getting a Garmin or Magellan. This was my first and last experience with Harman Kardon.

This is the one device I absolutely cannot live without on my trips and travels. I've bought the latest and greatest GPS units over the past 2 years, ranging from the TomTom Go to the widescreen Garmin Nuvi. I've given up those units since I bought this Harman unit and now my wife wants one for her car!

Like their home entertainment systems, the GPS-500 looks slick and packs a bunch of awesome features.

The navigation software on this device is fast and smooth, unlike the other units I have used in the past. As soon as I picked it from the store, I plugged it in and attached it to my windshield with the supplied mount and I got a signal in less than 1 minute. My TomTom and Garmin took about over 2 minutes when I first bought it.

I recently took the unit on a trip to San Diego and was able to find all the restaurants and movie theaters that were recommended by my friends, not to mention that it works well with my online music subscription service with MTV Urge and Napster! Awesome product for anyone who has a lousy sense of direction like me!

I am extremely disappointed in the performance of this product. We purchased it before a 2 month vacation so we could get around unfamiliar places more easily. Once we had our hotels booked I tried locating them on the GPS-500. Almost none of our hotels were in it's list. And these weren't new hotels in remote locations. They were near Yellowstone park! I ended up having to look up the address and punch it in and was finally able to get the locations we needed. I wish I would have known the maps were not updatable. What actually exists in it's maps will be outdated within a couple years. I e-mailed Harmon Kardon and asked about map updates and got no reply. I tried finding locations around home to see if it's routing was accurate and usually it's not. It'll take you through residential neighborhoods for miles instead of the freeway you should be on. It constantly tells you "prepare to stay left (or right)" going down a road that there really isn't any option but to keep going straight. My home address was not in it's list either and it doesn't allow you to enter a point. The software locks up on a regular basis. I've had to use the reset button many times. The only good things I can say is that if you have an address or are lucky enough that the location you're looking for is in it, it'll get you there eventually. It's rerouting works pretty well too if you miss a turn. If I could send it back for a refund I would.I know there are quirks to any electronic instrument such as this one but this one just has too many to make it acceptable. Buy yourself a Garmin or something else that's more proven.