Today for review I’ve got another product from our friends over at Geeks.com, it’s a small and basic GPS unit from Nextar. It’s the model M3-03, and it’s got a small 3.5” touchscreen, as i said it’s a basic unit so don’t expect advanced features, but it can get you from point A to point B without getting lost. It’s a no frills unit really, but it works, for the most part… read on..
Specifications:
This Nextar M3-03 Portable GPS Navigation System offers a multitude of features at an incredible price! It can show you how to get to ANY destination in the United States – by address, by intersection, or by a location selected directly from the map. With Text to Speech you get clearly pronounced instructions, including street names in English, Spanish or French. Plus, the included Secure Digital card comes pre-loaded with the entire USA map!
General Features:
-Plays MP3s
-Includes Stylus
-Built-in Speaker
-Built-in Antenna
-Power Source: DC 5V
-Secure Digital Card Slot
-Power button, Reset button
-Turn by Turn Voice Prompts
-Portable GPS Navigation System
-Dynamic Range: ≥ 80 dB (1 kHz)
-Audio Signal-to-noise rate: ≥ 65 dB
-Channel Separation: ≥ 70 dB (1 kHz)
-Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
-Displays Photos on the JPEG Viewer
-Audio distortion+noise: ≤ -20 dB (1 kHz)
-Built-in Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery
-3.5-inch TFT Touchscreen Color Display
-Voice Prompts & Menu in English, Spanish and French
-US Maps – All 50 States – (Loaded on SD card – included)
-Trip Information: Mileage, average speed and distance traveled
-1.6 Million Points of Interest (Hotels, Shopping, Gas Stations, Restaurants, etc.)
-Text to Speech – clearly pronounces instructions including street names (English)
-Almanac: Provides information related to the sun and the moon, based on current geographical location
-Speed Alert: This feature will warn the user if the vehicle is exceeding the speed limit. There are 2 speed alert options:
—1) Auto Speed Alert: uses the type of road to determine the probable speed limit
—(2) Fixed Speed Alert: lets user enter a speed
Connectors:
-SD card slot
-Headphone jack
-USB Mini B port
-DC 5V input jack
Dimensions:
-3 x 4.1 x 0.8-inches (H x W x D, approximate)
Price: $59.99
Unboxing:
We’ll start off with a video unboxing for you:
As you can see from the video this little tiny GPS unit comes in a huge box, certainly overkill..
There’ is plenty of stuff that comes with it as you might expect. Included is the GPS Unit itself, AC Adapter, car power adapter, stylus, permanent mount, documentation and a USB cable along with a nice carrying case.
The carrying case is actually very nice, it’s nylon but it’s lightly padded as well and even has a pocket inside.
The unit itself is rather small, it seems a bit out of proportion as the border is very thick.
On the top you’ll find the power button and on the bottom is a USB connection.
On the side is where you’ll find the memory card slot, power connection and a headphone jack. The memory card already has United States maps on it for you.
On the back you’ll find a speaker along with a reset button and a place to attach the mounting clip.
With all of these different views here, you may or may not have noticed that there is no place to put the stylus. It’s fine I guess if you’re using the carrying case all of time, you can just put the stylus in there, but then again you really don’t need it at all.
Installation, Performance, Comparison
The fist thing you’ll need to do is attach the clip and then the arm to the unit so you can put it in your car for use.
.. and here it is in my car:
The mount is nice and sturdy, and the suction cup holds very well, but it does leave a funky residue on your window after you remove it.
And that picture above is where the trouble started, as you can see it says ‘Acquiring GPS Signal’, and it spent most of the time doing that.
This little GPS unit does not like clouds or rain, or overcast days. To use this it must be sunny and bright with little or no cloud cover.
There’s plenty of options to change the view you’re looking at in both 3D and 2D modes. So here’s several different views for you, these were taken indoors so it’s going to say Acquiring Signal..
This is a basic GPS unit, so it doesn’t have all the features of other units out there as you might expect. Pressing the Menu button takes you to the main menu with only four options for Destination, Shortcuts, Settings and Information.
Information is just the version etc:
Destination can be done by Address, Favorites, Intersection, Recent, POIs, or even City Center.
The Shortcuts option is actually quite useful with quick routes to ATMs, Hospitals, parking etc:
Clicking Settings gives you six more choices for Route Options, Display Options, Volume, Localization, GPS Info and Speed Alerts.
Here’s all those options open:
Under Destination you can select Points of Interest which gives you many more selections for quick routes to places like Shopping, Hotels, Attractions etc…
So using the GPS as a GPS unit to get somewhere works fine when you can get a signal, as long as it’s a nice sunny day.
The voice though is a female voice and she sounds like an old English woman, rather annoying truly, and no I couldn’t find a setting to change the voice anywhere.
It got me where I was going on the most obvious path. It did seem to keep up very well, updating almost instantly with little or no lag. When going off of the course, it take a few times before it decides where you are going, it will try and make you do a ‘U’ turn, or go around the block to get back on track. once it realizes that you’re not listening it will recalculate the route in a few seconds.
The touch screen is nice and sensitive, though I did find times where it would seem to become unresponsive and I’d have to turn the unit off and turn it back on, it only happened a few times though, twice actually that I can really recall.
The screen itself is viewable in bright light fine, expect when direct light hits it then it pretty much disappears.
Battery life is not the greatest, but if you’re using it in a car you can just use the included adapter for power. I got a little over an hour on battery, and that was leaving it on charge in the house overnight.
You can use it as an MP3 player, but with the included card that was out of the question as there’s no room on it. I guess you would have to copy the contents of the memory card to a larger card if you wanted to listen to music through the Nextar GPS.
Conclusion:
So in conclusion here, the Nextar M3-03 GPS isn’t a bad product, but it’s not a good one either.
When it’s a nice sunny day it’s works perfectly, but add some clouds or rain and it doesn’t work at all basically.
It is well made, it’s easy to use and it includes a nice carrying case.
Pros:
+Well made unit
+Simple and easy to use
+Comes with nice carrying case
Cons:
-Does not like cloudy or overcast days
-Voice is rather annoying
-Unit locked up a couple times
-Nowhere to put the stylus when not in use
-Battery life not that great
Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 3 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5
Disclosure: http://www.bonafidereviews.com/disclosure-policy/
