Being perfectly honest, I have never really liked the looks of my rx4240’s bigger, GPS-enabled siblings in the rx5xxx series. No VGA screen, too big - sorry, but I prefer the small and handy rx4240. Anyways, HP has now released the long-awaited 310 travel companion - and I am sad to announce that the device is completely uninteresting and will no longer be covered on TamsPPC.
HP had the completely boneheaded idea(sorry Stefan, but there is no way I can defend this) to drop Windows Mobile from the equation, making the 310 a GPS-only box. While it probably still runs WM, users can no longer access the classic WM user interface and add additional applications.
As much as this has merits in terms of reduced support costs(see my Garmin interview here), the problem is that these “dumbbox” machines IMHO should not be placed in the iPaq brand. Compaq has always kept the iPAQ brand Windows Mobile touchscreen-only(except for one exception, an old monochromatic BlackBerry) - and the latest non-touchscreen addons don’t really make much sense for me. Don’t get me wrong - I love the idea that HP produces standalone GPS boxen. But I don’t like them being called iPaq…
CNET rates the product 6.3/10(good) due to a variety of routing-related quirks; get the final scoop here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navigation/hp-ipaq-310-travel/4505-3430_7-32595205.html?tag=nl.e404
P.s. I shall personally feature on TamsPPC the first person that manages to get a full WM UI running on that box! Hack it all the way to china, boys!