Ftech Solar 7 Bluetooth GPS Receiver Review [Bottom-line: It´s very cool]

Global Positioning System (GPS) users have a lot of options when it comes to buying a GPS receiver nowadays. The truth is that most people mainly care about two things: fast GPS fix* and good positioning accuracy. Not only the FTech Bluetooth GPS performs well at both, but it adds something unique: it has a solar panel that can prolong the battery life or recharge the battery when the device is not in use. It sure sounds cool, but there's nothing like an “Ubergizmo hands-on” to test the coolness of a gadget. Click below to read the full review...

Physical aspect
The solar panel really sticks out as soon as you look at the device. It covers about two thirds of the top surface and provides additional power to the GPS unit. I guess that "Solar-powered" should be replaced by "Solar-assisted" in this case, as the solar panel cannot be the sole source of power (the internal battery provides most of it), but the panel will extend the internal battery life from 8 hours to 30 hours (manufacturer's claim).

There are two LED lights that indicate if the GPS is on and if Bluetooth is active. Two connectors are available: the mini-USB one for charging and another one to use with an external antenna if you want a better signal reception (I think that Most users won't ever need one).

Road test 
After dropping the GPS on the dashboard, we went for a little road trip to test it. The first thing that stroked us is how fast the GPS was able to fix our position: less than 15 seconds. This is pretty good, given that my old (Pharos) GPS does it in 5 minutes. Driving around, we have been able to verify that the coordinates were accurate enough for driving. No problem there. We drove for an afternoon, stopping at various places to have a drink and at each restart, the GPS unit was quick to fix our location. Battery life was not an issue either, with plenty of sun (California is a good place for solar-powered gadgets) to power the Bluetooth transmission of data between the FTech GPS and the Treo 650. If you think that you'll need a wired power source, you can get a cigarette lighter to USB converter. Obviously, you might need another one for the PDA, so getting a cigarette lighter doubler should work out (we're lucky enough to have 2 lighter plugs on the dashboard).

The flashing LED lights were a little bit annoying at night time, because they reflect on the windshield, but they are not distracting enough to be a driving hazard. It is understandable that the manufacturer wants to make them visible in daylight, but they are quite bright in the dark.

The solar panel is quite intriguing and we did not run a full batch of test because in normal use (less then 4 hours drive) the battery would just not die! The battery was drained by running the GPS in the dark overnight (7+ hours), then it was left on the dash board for two hours at lunch in direct sunlight. When it was time to go, the unit worked and held the charge (with the help of the solar panel) during the hour-long return trip. Additionally, the FTech GPS will shut itself down if no Bluetooth communication has been detected for a few minutes. This Bluetooth GPS unit is pretty much maintenance-free: we just left it on the dashboard, and for the past 6 weeks we never ran out of battery. That's very cool.

Possible improvements 
• Add an LCD screen with basic information such as battery life and GPS coordinates. The GPS could then be used as a stand-alone device.
• It might be possible to make the solar panel cover the entire top surface for a greater battery life.
• Move the LED lights so that they won't reflect off the windshield o make the unit flatter.
• Make the GPS solar-powered instead of solar-assisted.

Conclusion
The FTech solar GPS receiver is one of the coolest gadgets we've got our hands on so far. It's a very elegant idea and we wonder why nobody came up with it before. The unit can decode satellite signals in an urban environment with tall buildings (tested in downtown San Francisco) and is accurate enough for driving. This unit is larger than comparable Bluetooth GPS because of the solar panel, but the benefits of this feature largely overcome the bulkier size. Finally, the device is even cheaper than most Bluetooth GPS units, with street prices around $130.

If you have more questions, e-mail us, we’ll try to answer the best we can.

Specs
Chipset: Xemics chipset based on Trimble's FirstGPS technology
Channel: 8 Channel parallel satellite tracking
Time to First Fix (TTFF) : < average 8/42/120 sec. (hot/warm/cold start)
Antenna: built-in active antenna with mmcx ext. antenna jack
Output message: nmea 0183 (gga, gsa, gsv, rmc)
Accuracy: < 5m cep (50%), 7m cep (95%) w/o sa
Power supply: 5v
Power consumption: 45ma continuous mode (30ma with solar battery)
Battery life: 20 hours with user replaceable li-ion battery, 30 hours when working with solar battery Dimension: 55 x 103 x 22 mm (W x L x H)

All the testing was done with the F-tech GPS unit beaming information via Bluetooth to a Treo 650 that was running Mapopolis. During the pas 6 weeks the GPS has been charged only once using the USB connector.

*GPS fix: found enough satellites to provide accurate positioning in 3D

Manufacturer
FTech Corporation
Website: www.f-tech.com.tw/
Product page: http://www.f-tech.com.tw/Eng/Index.htm

Reseller
Semsons & co Inc

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