Acer N35 GPS Pocket PC (Acer N35 GPS)

Member Name: slackjack

Product:	Acer N35 GPS
Date:	21/07/05 (3170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price, Integrated GPS reciever

Disadvantages: Unreliable, poor software.

Having messed around with some basic GPS tools, I fancied the idea of a PDA/GPS combo to get some colour mapping and route finding software. Looking around in January 2005, the Acer N35 seemed to be well priced at under £300, and I liked the idea of the integrated GPS rather than the separate GPS units included with some packages.

The unit itself is nicely built, with a bright sharp screen. It came as part of a generous bundle including Destinator 3 navigation software, and a car mount and car charger. The handheld itself doesn't have quite as high a specification as others, for example no bluetooth, but as I wanted it mostly for the GPS capability, and the lack of extras kept the price down, this hasn't worried me too much.

The Destinator software isn't bad, but having since used the TomTom Navigator software, Destinator does seem rather basic in comparison. It also runs rather slowly on the N35. Route planning seems generally good, but it has been noted by many that Destinator can give confusing directions on roundabouts. TomTom, especially the newer versions seem to run rather faster, and are a slicker package all round. The biggest problem on the GPS front has been the time it sometimes takes to aquire a GPS signal. Sometimes, it will pick up satellites very easily, but others it has taken up to 10 minutes to get a fix, which is very frustrating, and there seems to be no reason or remedy.

The biggest problem has been the unreliability of the unit. About a month after taking delivery, I had started to experiment with some freeware Pocket PC applications. Among these was a Gameboy emulator, which incidentally ran very well, and is a lot of fun. However, in using it, I noticed that one of the hardware buttons on the N35 needed a lot of pressure to operate. This wouldn't usually be a problem, as it only opens the calendar application in normal use. However using the Gameboy emulator, it was really spoiling my game of golf. I called Acer who advised that the unit would need to be sent back. They arranged for a courier to pick it up, and gave me an estimate of one week for the repair.

I contacted Acer via email after being without the unit for two weeks, and received a reply that wasn't quite in English telling me that they were awaiting a new main board and top case to repair the unit, but had no ETA for the parts. I got the same reply after three weeks, and after four weeks (by which time Acer had had the handheld for longer than I had!). The day after my final email however, and despite Acer apparently still not knowing how long they would be waiting for parts, the handheld arrived back on my doorstep.
All was well for about three months, until the screen started to act up. Firstly it took on an occasional purple tint. This went away if the case was given a light squeeze, but started to appear more frequently. After a while the screen started to occasionally blank out altogether, and when it was visible, had the purple tint all the time.

I called Acer again, and got the unit picked up again. This time, the unit was picked up on a Thursday, and actually delivered back to me on the Monday, having arrived at Acer, been repaired, and returned to me all on the Friday. The machine had again had a new main board fitted. However I soon noticed that the unit could not keep time any more, and discovered that when the hatch for the GPS antenna was closed (as it needs to be any time GPS is not actually being used) the unit's clock simply stopped. I have no idea how a PC clock can just stop, but at the moment, it looks like this is harware related yet again, and I am likely to have to return the unit for a third time.

So, it seems like a nice item, but the build quality, and quality of service and repairs is shocking - there's clearly a disadvantage to turning a repair around within six hours. Overall, I could not possibly recommend the Acer N35 to anyone.

UPDATE:
As expected, the PDA has again been recalled for repair by Acer with the clock problem. It also seemed to be taking a very long time to lock onto satellites. I had the opportunity to compare my PDA to an identical model. Mine got a GPS signal in 30 minutes, the other PDA locked in less than a minute - somthing else to be fixed. I'll update again when the machine is returned from its third repair with Acer.

Summary: Nice when it works, shocking quality and service, software not up to scratch.

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Installation:
Noise:
Battery life: