GPS Sat Nav Systems

Binatone was founded in the year 1958 in UK and were basically into distribution and import of consumer electronics. By the eighties, with their incredible success in the previous years, Binatone had established itself universally in countries like Taiwan, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria and India. The company had created flagships of their own in many areas and in a wide range of appliances. In the following review we will see in detail about the Binatone G350 Satellite Navigation System.

Design:

The Binatone satellite navigation system looks quite different from the other GPS systems in the market that come in the usual boring black enclosure. The G350 looks stylish in its maroon enclosure and stylish finishing. It possesses a 3.5″ touch screen display that is very responsive. The facia of the device has been kept clean and you will not find any fussy controls on it. There is just a charge indicator to the right of the display that displays the charging status (red indicates that the device is charging and green indicates that it is fully charged). You will find the power switch on top of the system as you would find in an iPhone and the speaker is on the rear. And the unit sports all the other controls in its right side and they include a system reset switch, Micro SD memory card slot, a USB port that doubles as power connection and data transfer port and a headphone jack that allows the connection of the external headphones.

Installation of G350:

The installation of the device is quite easy. As in the case of all the other electronic gadgets, before using the GPS for the first time, charge the unit for 5 hours via the DC adaptor, or just until the charge light turns green. If the power button is pressed briefly, the unit will power up, but if you press and hold the button for about 3 seconds, the unit displays two buttons: one is a snoozing smile and the other is a turnoff symbol. Choosing the sleep icon, puts the unit into the Sleep Mode and if you wish to get the unit out of this mode then a Press and hold the On/Off button. When the unit is brought out of the unit, it will show the same screen as when the unit enter the sleep mode. The other will just turn it off and there is also a 10 second timer that starts to count down; if there is no selection within 10 seconds, the unit will turn off automatically. If the unit by any chance goes to “not responding” mode, you have to reset the system and you can find the reset switch on back of the unit. Just insert the tip of the stylus pen into the switch.

If you prefer to install the MicroSD memory card, switch off the unit before inserting or removing the card. Just slide in the card and push it in so that it clicks into place and to remove it, push the card in and it will eject from the slot.

The car mount offered comes with a suction pad that can be fitted either to a flat area in the dashboard or the windscreen. It is a better practice to fit in the holding bracket before it is attached to the windscreen. This is done by sliding the bracket inside the securing lug which is towards the edge of the car mount ensuring the bracket’s top is on the similar side as is the lever and then pushing it down firmly. Now getting that fitted to the windscreen is fairly easy – tug the lever past the suction pad and now place the pad on the windscreen and finally thrust the lever in the direction of the pad  until you hear it click in place. Once this is done, fitting the unit is simple, just slide the unit into the bottom of the bracket and put it back and up until it clicks into place at the top.

Interface:

The GUI of the Binatone G350 is quite attractive in a different way. The interface is very easy to navigate though and very intuitive too. You can use the device to navigate irrespective of if you are travelling by car or on foot. There are applications available to plan your trip to suite your personal preferences and interests and also to note down the interesting destinations before you set off on your journey.

Personalise your GPS:

The night and day option is available and it allows you to change the map colour scheme between daytime view and night time view. Once the option has been selected, the menu option will change to show the option which is currently not selected. There are also 2D and 3D view options to offer you with both the views. You are also offered with a Save Map View feature where the unit will save a picture of the map as it appears on the screen and the picture will be saved as a .bmp file in the Map Image folder on any inserted MicroSD card.

The main display:

The main screen has just the navigation icon, menu icon, signal strength, time and battery strength.

Once you click over the menu button, the following screen appears.

GPS Receiver:

The GPS receiver section just has only information. In this section you get to view the current position in terms of latitude and longitude, the various satellite signals received by the unit, your speed and position status like fixed 3D/fixed invalid and the like. There is also a compass circle displaying the satellites received by the unit with a bar chart at the bottom that shows the signal strength of these satellites.

Settings menu:

Inside the settings menu of Binatone G350 Portable GPS System, you will be able to control the volume, power, backlight, Date / Time and Language of the GPS. You will also find an “About” icon that contain information about your OS software version and this also allows you to default the unit or calibrate the screen to your touches. The default option allows you to reset the device to its factory default settings and the unit will be returned to how it was when it had left the factory. The caliberate function caliberates the unit to respond to your screen taps. This function is used only if the unit begins to respond in an inconsistent way to your screen taps.

By clicking on the multimedia icon, there will be two options of picture viewer and document viewer. As the name indicates, with the picture viewer you will be able to browse through the images and the device supports image formats of .bmp, .jpg and .gif file formats. We recommend that the optimum picture size is about 500kb and it is not recommended to view pictures over 2MB. Once you click on a particular picture, from there on, you are provided with options to move back and forth, zoom in, zoom out, view full screen and rotate. The Document Viewer supports .txt format documents only.

It might take about ten minutes to establish the first connection and the subsequent connections can be done at a faster rate of just 30 seconds to a minute. Once the navigation software of the unit has been loaded, you will be taken to the navigation main menu.

Navigation:

The navigate to icon opens the destination page. From this point you will able to select a point to navigate to or can even select a start / destination point and simulate the route between them just as if you were driving it. With the aid of the route options, you can set the driving preferences. The other icons are mostly straight forward. Home icon takes you to your home in a simplev button press and for this to work, you have to first set your home address via the settings menu. With edit favourites, you can add and edit locations that interest you and in the recent destination is a list that has a record of all the destinations that you have entered recently, so that they can be used again. The view map feature comes in handy with viewing any portion of the installed map such that you have a better idea of the area surrounding the chosen destination before you decide to set off. You will also find a time bar in the menu that shows the current time and data as it is automatically set by the received satellite signals and it also allows you to access the time zone setting when just tapped on.

With the “Navigate To” option, you can either opt to begin a journey straight away or even just set up a route to simulate and the screen changes into a route planning menu. With the “Navi” tab you will be able to navigate to a destination via a number of way points and the “Simulate” tab is used to plan a route which can then be simulated. With “Route Options”, preferred driving preferences and be set.

Address search:

An address search option is available that allows you to add information into several fields that allows you to accurately find the location that your have been looking for. With tapping each fields, a new screen displaying the keypad pops up allowing you to key in the address of your choice for your transits or destination. The current country will be shown on the top right corner and if you wish, you can change it using the list and up and down navigation. Make use of the keypad to enter the addresses; as you enter the characters, you will see a list on the screen and with entering more characters you will notice the list getting narrowed down gradually leaving with barely one or two options. This feature is very handy if you do not know how to exactly spell the city you have been searching for, simply enter the first part of the city name and let the unit do the rest of the work.

POI Search:

The POI Search allows you to quickly search and find points of interest such as petrol stations and restaurants in a database of millions of POI. Two options have been provided for you to search for POIs:  the first being POI near you and the second would be POI in the city. The POI Near You option comes in handy with searching for POIs of a particular category or all categories covering your current location. This can either be your present GPS location or in the absence of a GPS lock the current area shown by the map will be used for your location, up to a distance of approximately 20 miles and the screen changes to the POI category menu. As the name indicates, the “POI in the city” option is used to search for POI in a city that could either be close by or even at a distance from your current location.

Other options:

The Favourites option allows you to choose any one favourite location of yours as a transit or destination with just a simple and quick step. The Recent Destinations has your list of recently searched destinations, all in one quick easy step. With the Map option, you can scroll around the map and to select a location which you would want to use as a waypoint.

Features:

The highlight features the Binatone G350 Car Navigator includes voice guidance, auto zoom, re-calculate, speed camera alert and simulation speed.

Speed Camera alert:

The G350 GPS Sat Nav unit comes with hundreds of pre-installed safety cameras locations. When approaching a safety camera the unit will warn you of its presence both visually and audibly. The display will show the speed limit for the camera as well as the distance to the camera. Along with this the unit will emit a beep sound to warn you of the camera.

Road Block:

In case of closed roads or traffic jams, the program recalculates a route thus circumnavigating the scenario ASAP. However, you must specify a minimum distance after which you want to re-join the original route. Choose a distance that is suitable for the present traffic problem.

Route Options:

In the route options menu, you can set your travelling preferences and influence the way in which the routes are calculated. Here, you will be able to change the speed and transport that you will be using and the options available are car fast, car slow, bicycle and walker. When selecting your mode of transport the unit will take this into account for calculating the time it will take for you to reach your destination. Additionally, the Car Fast option assumes swift driving on motorways and selecting this option in route calculation slightly favours motorways. Car slow works on the contrary with assuming slower driving on motorways. Opting this alternative in route calculation reduces the preference for motorways. When you calculate your route, the Walker and Bicycle options disables use of Toll roads and Motorways.

Routing Style:

You will also be able to change how the route will be calculated to suit your driving needs and the options include “Quickest Route” and “Shortest Route”. Selecting Quickest Route will calculate a route which will result in the shortest time between you and your destination, note this will not always be the shortest route. Similarly Shortest route will calculate a route which has the shortest distance between you and your destination, note this will not always be the quickest route.

Routing Parameters:

As far as routing parameters are concerned, there are 3 options to choose from: Highways, Ferries and Toll. By Tapping each you can chose whether or not to allow that parameter during your route calculation, choosing not to have Highways will cause the unit to calculate a route which does not utilise motorways. The same is true for using Ferries or Toll roads.

Box contents:

The package contents of the G350 includes the satellite navigation system itself, a car mounting kit, an in-car charger, an USB cable, stylus, a DC adaptor, a carrying case and an user guide. The Binatone sat navs are the only models we have seen for a while that comes with a fully printed user manual.

Battery:

The Binatone G350 GPS Sat Nav System comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery. When you are on long journey, we recommend using the in-car charger always to power the unit with end of the charger into the unit’s USB socket and the other end of the adapter into the 12V DC socket of the car’s cigar lighter. Also the adaptor is attuned to 24V DC sources that is found in majority of the heavy vehicles.

Verdict:

Design wise, the Binatone G350 looks exciting and different and the interface is also very clear and intuitive. Performance wise we were not particularly happy as the maps kept disappearing during the journey. Also, the audio quality is also very poor, affecting both the performance and ease of use. Looking for a budget satnav, G350 will be a good choice, but when it comes to reliability, the satellite navigation system fails terribly. Binatone needs to step up its game to survive in the current GPS market.

Binatone G350 GPS System – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Binatone
Model Name	Binatone G350 Satellite Navigation System
Navigator Type	Portable
Dimensions (W x H x D)	99 x 74.5 x 12.5 mm
Weight	122 grams
Display	Full colour TFT touch screen display
Display screen size	3.5 inch
Memory type	64MB SDRAM Built-in
Memory card slot	MicroSD Card
Input method	Software keyboard
Maps included	Full European and ROI Map Coverage
Waypoints/favourites/locations	Millions of Searchable Points of Interest
OS	Microsoft WinCE.NET 5.0 Core Version
Antenna	Built-in GPS high sensitivity receiver(30 channels) 32bit risc CPU SIGE CHIPSETS
Built-in Speaker	1.0W loud speaker
Headphone	2.5mm Mini jack
Wireless communication	Nil
Voice	Voice commands
Text to Speech	No
Connector type	USB
Compatibility	Windows and Mac OS X 10.4 and above
GPS Recommended usage	In-car
Traffic monitoring	No
Speed camera information	Yes
Updateable en route	Yes
Hardware	Gold hardware
Headstock inlay	Cream headstock inlay
FB-Inlay	Rosewood Block
Avoids toll roads	Yes
WaterProof	No
Additional features	New Intuitive User Interface Pre-loaded speedtrap database QuickSpell Millions of Searchable Points of Interest
Included accessories	Binatone G350 Satellite Navigation System, a car mounting kit, an in-car charger, an USB cable, stylus, a DC adaptor, a carrying case and an user guide
Battery type	Re-chargeable Lithium Polymer battery
Battery life	Up to 180 minutes, depends on usage and settings