Review

Hot on the heels of their successful Bluetooth-enabled Axim X30 line, Dell is launching a set of Bluetooth peripherals aimed at the Pocket PC market, starting with a Bluetooth GPS receiver.

It's common knowledge that Dell mostly sells rebranded peripherals, and that holds true here--the Dell Bluetooth GPS receiver is actually a rebranded DConnex DC-0103 in a new case.

The complete receiver package, priced at $249, includes the following:

• 1 Dell Bluetooth GPS receiver
• 2 software and map data CDs
• 1 flexible suction cup mounting arm
• 1 5 volt car power adapter
• 1 velcro adjustable holster

The first thing I noticed in unpacking the Dell GPS was how tiny it is. I've used handheld GPS receivers before, but I didn't really apprecciate how much smaller a Bluetooth receiver is. In fact, the Dell is roughly the size of a clam-shell mobile phone, and about as light to boot, measuring 3.5 inches long by 1.9 inches wide by 1 inch thick, and weighing about 4 ounces. It's even shaped somewhat like a clamshell phone, with a flat back side and rounded front.

Edgewise view. Left, Dell Axim X30. Right, Dell Bluetooth GPS.

The resemblence ends there though. The Dell GPS is made up of a single-piece high-impact plastic casing, silver in color, with only a single switch or control of any kind on it.

That is, of course, the power switch (at left). Since all of the actual functionality such as mapping, waypoints, and system control happens at the PocketPC end, there's really no need for a bevy of switches and gizmos on the receiver. Click on the power, and the receiver automatically activates Bluetooth and starts looking for a satellite lock. It's that simple.

Three LEDs, sitting front and center, proclaim the receiver's system status. Left is the Bluetooth indicator. This flashes slowly when the unit is on, and faster when a Bluetooth device is connected to it. Center is the satellite lock indicator. This turns solid green when seeking a fix, and starts blinking green when it's found one. Right most is the power LED. This turns orange to indicate battery charging, off to indicate a full charge, and red to indicate a critically low battery.

The receiver accepts external power via a 5 volt DC-in jack located on the left front edge near the LEDs. The size and voltage is the same as most PocketPC power supplies, so you can charge the GPS receiver from main power either with the 5.4 volt chargers used by the Axim Line or with the 5.0 volt chargers used by other brands. In fact, the included Y-cable is designed specifically to make tapping into your PocketPC's wall adapter hassle-free. You plug the wall adapter into the empty socket on the right, and the tip into the back of your cradle. Meanwhile the cable on the left terminates in another power tip to plug the GPS into. Simple and elegant.

This interoperability also means that the car power adapter supplied with the GPS receiver can serve to power your PocketPC as well as the GPS receiver, making for one less thing to haul on road trips. And, with the Y-cable, it can power both at once.

Along the right side of the receiver is an MMCX connector for an external antenna. Not usually neccessary, as the main antenna inside the case does an excellent job, but it's available as an option for those who want it, to improve reception in dicey areas like thick forests and urban canyons.

This is my X30 sheathed in the velcro-adjustable mounting jacket that comes with the package. The jacket doesn't really hold on to the mounting arm--in fact, it doesn't do much of anything except look stunningly ugly.

Left, Dell Bluetooth GPS receiver. Right, Dell Axim X30.

While it's certainly designed for use with Dell's Axim Line of PocketPCs, and the Axim X30 in particular, the receiver is completely platform-agnostic. Any client device that supports the Bluetooth serial port profile will work with the receiver--desktop, laptop, Palm, PocketPC, or smartphone. You'll have to bring your own maps, though--the included software is PocketPC only.

The mapping software included with the receiver is a variation on Netropa's Intellinav software. Intellinav is also sold under the Routis, iGuidence, and PrymeNav labels, and is certainly one of the most popular software packages for bundling with a Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Installation of maps is rather flexible. You have the option of loading them by region, meaning state or province, or by choosing a city and selecting a radius around that location. For instance, if you never have a need to venture more that 25 miles from your hometown, you can load just that 25 mile radius and save a considerable amount of memory on your device compared to loading the entire state. A 25 mile radius around my own town ran about 3 MB. A 25 mile radius around Buffalo, New York (City motto: "Why are you Weather Channel people never here during the summer?") weighed in at a still very light 5 MB. According to preference, radial maps can go from 25 miles up to 125 miles. In contrast, loading the entire state of New York requires 69 MB available memory. If you have enough storage, you could even load the entire continental United States--a total of 1600 MB. (Part of Hawaii is also included, but cannot be mixed with any other states' maps.) Canadians get off light, at only 48 MB for the major southern provinces--Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. These six make up the whole of the Canadian map data. I guess that the Maritimes were deemed too much effort for the value added. As for the northern Canadian territories and the state of Alaska--well, you have to have roads before you can have maps.

Maps can be installed to the PocketPC's internal RAM, to a memory card, or to any drive letter on the host PC, such as a memory card reader. When loading to memory card or RAM, the installer even provides you with a readout on free memory.

As the name implies, Intellinav is almost exclusively a navigation package. The interface is designed to follow the inputs of a GPS unit and provide information about routes, turns, points of interest, and other driving essentials. While it can be used to look over the rest of the map, it's not really designed for that. You have no control over the number of roads displayed at a given zoom level, minimal zoom controls, minimal panning and selection capability... I could go on. Intellinav is not intended to be used as conventional map. It is designed to be a navigation aide, and in that it fares reasonably well. Just to note, the following screenshots were taken while simulating a route, rather than actually driving. Going 55 miles per hour while fiddling with a screenshot utility--not recommended.

Top bar is your next turn--bottom bar is current street.

The Manuver Detail screen provides a close in view when turning.

The program offers a variety of viewing choices, including either top-down or isometric 3D view, day and night color schemes to protect night vision, and others. You can also choose how you'd like your route planned: whether to use the fastest route or the shortest, local roads or main roads, and whether or not to include specialty routes like ferries, toll roads, and carpool lanes.

3D view.

There were a few bugs in the maps. For one thing, they claimed that my house was a quarter mile west of where it actually is, which would be a problem if I was trying to get here. For another thing, the Points-Of-Interest database was missing some things, such as the local hospital, local and state police stations, and city hall. Probably more, but those are the ones I noticed. Although, it did have a VERY complete list of all the places to eat. My point is, if you needed to get to a hospital quickly, this would direct you elsewhere instead of sending you to the Wyoming County Community Hospital.

You can, of course, bring your own software--for hiking or boating you would have to, since Intellinav is a roads-oriented map-set. Just like any other GPS, the Dell receiver doesn't care what's on the other end listening to it talk.

Setting up the connection between the GPS and my Axim X30 was a no brainer. I turned on the GPS, told the Axim to discover new devices, and away they went. Of course, the GPS connection isn't going to do you much good without software, so you'll still need a PC to install the maps. But connection is usually 99% of the headache. Not here.

Any GPS receiver has an intial wakeup and signal acquisiton phase, during which it tries to find the first available member of the Global Positioning System satellite constellation. This period is called Time To First Fix, or TTFF. According to the specs on the Dell receiver, TTFF ranges from about 45 seconds in a 'cold start,' with no prior data, to 8 seconds in a 'hot start,' having had a lock recently. These times assume, of course, that the unit has a reasonable line of site to the sky--turn it on in a basement and you'll never get a fix.

I was actually rather surprised at the sensitivity of the receiver. For one thing, it was able to consistently maintain a lock while inside the second story of my house. As a rule of thumb, GPS receivers don't do well indoors. The house is, after all, only made of wood, but it is still a nice thing to see. It's also is very sensitive to even slight movements. Just picking the receiver up off my dashboard registered. Watching the display as you drive, it tracks you perfectly without so much as a second's lag. Even just the motion of the car drifting side to side in the same lane is picked up on by the receiver and reflected in the display. Upon checking the specs, I noticed that it is sensitive to movement as little as 0.1 meter per second, 95% of the time. One tenth of a meter is less than 4 inches. Not a big deal for driving, but if you want to take your GPS out hiking, then such accuracy is nice to have.

I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that the coordinates you see on your PocketPC are those of the receiver, not the PocketPC. I know it sounds silly, but it's worth saying just to make it clear. Even though the range of Bluetooth is only about 30 feet, GPS is accurate to a lot less than that.

With an active Bluetooth connection, and attempting to keep a lock on the GPS satellites through the roof of my house, the Dell Bluetooth receiver lasted just short of 8 hours continuous use on a single battery charge. Average use will probably be a bit more, as the receiver won't have to work so hard in finding the satellites. Either way, this is very good. It's a long day of driving, hiking, boating, whatever you like, without having to charge up. As a matter of fact, your PocketPC will almost certainly quit sooner than the GPS receiver.

Pros:

• Very sensitive
• Tiny size
• Good battery life
• Easy to set up

Cons:

• Marginal software package

Bottom Line:

A solid Bluetooth GPS receiver with excellent battery life.