Pharos EZ Road Pocket GPS Navigator Review [you get what you paid for]

Co-published with Laptop Magazine: Solutions for Business and Life.

Ostia remains one of the better handheld GPS interfaces. Entering origin and destination points from an address, intersection, or one of the points of interest is pretty intuitive. Any of these can be saved as a favorite or set as a default home location. Setting point-to-point or multipoint routes is a cinch. Route options include Fastest, Shortest, and No Highways and you can reverse route instructions in two taps.

Satellite acquisition time often ran in excess of 15 seconds for us, which is quite slow, and we experienced several occasions where the device’s performance became sporadic because the device kept having to reacquire satellites, even outdoors on a clear day. Another major problem for us was the power cable requirement. (continued below)

Pharos includes a USB-to-AC-style power adapter, as well as a DC-to-USB converter. You must use one or both of these to charge the long-running internal battery, because the device cannot trickle-charge from a USB data cable. This arrangement requires mobile users to carry two cables instead of one and can consume two USB ports on your PC.

At $549, the EZ Road is a lot more affordable than most competing standalone GPS units, but probably won’t beat out a far more functional GPS-enabled Pocket PC, such as Navman’s PiN. The Ostia interface is good, but not that good. While the Pharos EZ Road does its core job reasonably well, it feels underdeveloped compared to the competition.

Pros
• Good Ostia interface
• Clear voice prompts
• Built-in MP3 player Cons

Cons
• Maps a bit outdated
• Trouble maintaining satellites
• Must manually enter addresses
• POIs cost extra

Read the full review of the Pharos EZ Road Pocket GPS Navigator.