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

Other products by Harman Kardon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 3.8 x 5.4 inches ; 7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000NNASK6
• Item model number: GPS-500
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,891 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Amazon.com Review
Creating a device that does more than one or two things well has proved elusive for device manufacturers. So-called "convergence" devices--devices that provide multimedia, communication, and navigation functions, for instance--are just beginning to mature into products worth buying. One such product is the Harman Kardon GPS-500, which pulls an admirable hat trick by combining above average music and video playback with a top notch GPS navigation experience.

Navigation, Music and Movies on One Device

Turn-by-turn directions and navigation prompts appear as needed, even during music playback.

Enjoy your favorite music in your car--or on the couch. The unit supports MP3, AAC, and WMA audio formats.

The SD card slot supports up to 4GB, enough room for hours of video.

Granted, you don't get some top shelf features like Bluetooth integration, text-to-speech address announcements, or wireless traffic reports, but Harman Kardon has wisely stuck with basics and polished them into an experience that, apart from a few software problems we encountered on our pre-production model, doesn't fail to disappoint.

Navigation
The main purpose of any car GPS device is to take you reliably from point A to B. Here the GPS-500 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.

Accurate, detailed 3D navigation, and turn-by-turn directions. View larger.

Use the unit's touch screen to enter address locations. View larger.

An intuitive menu lets you switch quickly between music, video, and navigation options. View larger.

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-500 will automatically re-route you and get you back on your way.

Preloaded maps of the U.S. and Canada help you quickly plan your trip. All you have to do is drive. See route planning details.

And how did the GPS-500 perform out on the road? In a word, admirably. Apart from a few lags and interface hiccups that (we hope) can be attributed to our pre-production software, the responsiveness of the device, combined with the excellent user interface, are what make it a joy to use. Add that to extremely fast and accurate GPS signal processing, and you've got a recipe for navigation nirvana. In most cases, the device decided on logical and efficient routes, too--something that can't be said of all GPS devices out there. This is likely the result of using accurate and up-to-date mapping data.

Multimedia
The GPS-500 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.

Video playback is equally straightforward. The device recognizes WMV9 or MPEG-4 AVI video files and presents them in a scrolling list. Press a title and you're off in movie land, complete with smooth framerates and minimal jitters during high-action sequences. We did encounter a format incompatibility with an AVI file encoded in the DIVX format. Attempting to play the file freaked the GPS-500 out, and a hard reset was required. Harman Kardon is very clear about which file formats are supported, but many folks might inadvertantly attempt to play a DIVX-encoded AVI instead of an MPEG-4 AVI. Broader format support would be a welcome addition.

To ease some of the pain of getting your movies and TV shows into the right format for the GPS-500, Harman Kardon provides a brief guide for Windows Media Player users. Mac users will have to use third-party media encoders to prepare their videos for the GPS-500. Lastly, battery life when playing back videos was surprisingly good. After a two-hour movie the GPS-500 was only down to a 40 percent charge.

This personal travel assistant has a super bright, sunlight-readable, 4-inch widescreen with highly accurate 2D and 3D navigation capabilities. See more pictures: back - right side - left side

Design
The GPS-500 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-500 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.

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-500'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-500'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 interfaces for music and video playback are pleasantly 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.

The GPS-500 provides audible commands for turns, which is very useful for anticipating upcoming maneuvers. As mentioned, though, the device does not provide text-to-speech capabilities for reading the names of locations or upcoming addresses.

Pros

• Excellent user interface
• Fast, accurate GPS performance; good mapping capabilities
• Polished, user-friendly music and video playback

Cons

• Minor lag during some operations
• Limited video format compatibility
• No sleep or low power standby function

What's in the Box
GPS-500, car charger, wall charger, USB cable, fold-flat mounting bracket, plastic disc for dash mount, adhesive pad for plastic disc, alcohol cleaning pad for dash surface, quick-start guide, and carrying case.

Product Description

GPS-500 portable navigation + audio + video device offers a highly intuitive and easy to use navigation device. It also offers full playback capability of music and video. All access and control is via a 4" WQVGA touchscreen (wide screen format). In navigation mode, it offers easy-to-understand spoken instructions and visuals in the the language you select (English, Spanish or French). Turn-by-turn graphics with all vital information is displayed and Maps of U.S. and Canada are built-in along with full point of interest database. The full blown MP3 player offers browsing by artist, album, genre, song or play list will display ID3 tags for Artist, title and album along with album artwork. MP3 / AAC/WMA audio formats are supported. In video player mode, the 4" high resolution WQVGA wide screen plays back hours of video and supports MPEG4 and WMV9 video formats.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sleek, Slick, and Easy to Use, April 5, 2007

By	Xander Crews (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great but still could be better..., June 6, 2007

By	Nhatman (Redondo Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

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!

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, slick GPS but with just a few flaws..., April 22, 2007

By	iPod Geek (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

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.