Pharos PDR200 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

by Pharos

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 3.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001F4UBWM
• Item model number: PDR200
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,748 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

The Pharos Drive GPS 200 is the perfect choice for anyone looking for a very economical yet full-featured GPS navigation system. The Pharos Drive GPS 200 has advanced text-to-speech (TTS) features and a large 4-Inch easy-to-read display. It comes preloaded with the most advanced version of the Pharos Navigation software and street-level maps for the US continental states. Everything you need to begin navigating is included. The bright touch screen display clearly shows your current position, direction of the next turn, remaining distance, and the estimated time to your destination. In addition, the Pharos Drive GPS 200 provides spoken directions which not only tell you the distance to and direction of your next turn, but also the name of the upcoming road so that you¿ll never have to wonder if you are making the correct turn (only available in English). If you do miss a turn or make an intentional detour, the Pharos Drive GPS 200 quickly and automatically recalculates a new route to help you reach your destination effortlessly. Pharos is the recognized GPS technology leader and you can feel confident that the Pharos Drive GPS 200 is an excellent choice to suit your navigational needs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent value for the price, December 14, 2008

By 

Sirocco - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pharos PDR200 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

This is an excellent general purpose GPS unit oriented toward vehicular applications. The widescreen format LCD display is bright, crisp, and mine arrived with no dead pixels or other defects. A small stylus is embedded in the back right side of the case, and in general most of the functions can be accessed with a finger instead.

PROS:

Has both driving and walking modes, and is large enough to be useful while driving yet small enough to still be useful while walking around trails and downtown areas. Signal acquisition is usually very fast, but on occasion it has taken up to 3 minutes to lock in enough satellites to function. Text-to-Speech functionality is excellent, and gives you plenty of advance notice of when it's time to turn. Display is extremely bright, the speaker is suitably loud, and the user interface is serviceable. You can register on the web site to receive yearly map updates. You can also remove the unit's SD card without voiding your warranty!

CONS:

Obviously, maps won't contain any roads built in the last 18 months or so. Opting for Windows CE as a platform was probably not the best choice for something like this, and it shows in the absolutely abysmal amount of time it takes to search through points of interest as well as various stalls going into and out of some menus. The unit feels sluggish thanks to the OS's overhead, but I've read this is common to many GPS units. The user interface is serviceable, but far from optimal, with some elements being non-finger-friendly due to their small size. The placement and orientation of the charger port may be troublesome to some people.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

Contrary to some reports, this bundle does NOT contain an AC adapter, or a case. You get the unit+stylus, a DC car charger, and a car windshield mount. That's it. In short, it's well worth the money.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pharos PDR200 4-Inch GPS w/ TTS, December 27, 2008

By 

B. Hickmon (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pharos PDR200 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

Kudos on the economical price for a TTS GPS. Liked the speed limit alert and immediate route recalculation feature. Also enjoyed the large, bright, easy to read screen and qwarty keyboard. The Pharos PDR200 begans to lose points on the touchscreen feature. When tapping any of the buttons on the bottom it would trigger a button way above it, if it triggered a button at all. The device froze several times and had to be reset each time. When trying to use the POI feature and the Where I am button was selected, it would give me locations in Washington and I'm in Los Angeles. Couldn't figure that one out. The GPS also lacked judgement in finding the quickest or shortest route. When taking the freeway it constantly wanted me to exit the freeway and take the streets. Needless to say the quality of performance was not up to par.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Looks nice, but BARELY gets ANY gps signal., December 26, 2008

By 

Michael F. Shanley "Mike" (Danbury, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pharos PDR200 4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

What a disappointment- I bought this gift for my father for christmas.

Alright, so first off this product is not defective am I'm giving this product one star for its overall functionality. This item is not easy to use, at all, and the software is outdated. Having owned a tomtom and garmin already, I can tell you this item is comparable only as a cheap-knock off.

When you turn the unit on, there is complicated menu, and you have to PUSH the screen or else the button don't work. The unit is also very slow, frustratingly slow.

You might think if a product performs this bad, that its base function would at least work well. WRONG, it takes forever to get a signal, but you quickly loose it in wooded areas. And forget entering directions, the keypad is small and it couldn't find my home address!

After one day of use, I am sick of this product. I told my father I will buy him a better gps, and really because I feel so bad about giving him this piece of junk on one of the happiest days of the year.

With Tomtom units now selling at 100$ - 150$, I can't understand why anyone would buy this poor quality gps for almost the same price.