Windows Phone Thoughts: Slim is In: The Holux GPSlim 236 Reviewed

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Friday, July 15, 2005

Slim is In: The Holux GPSlim 236 Reviewed

Posted by Steve Sharp in "HARDWARE" @ 09:00 AM



Figure 1: Holux GPSlim 236 is the size of 6 quarters arranged side-by-side in 2 columns of 3 quarters, it is 3/4 inch thick and weighs 56 grams or about 2 ounces.

Big Things in Small Packages
When I received the Holux GPSlim 236 GPS unit from Practical Solutions, I first wondered why the box was so light. I considered that some sticky-fingered culprit had swiped the unit from the box while it was in transit. To my surprise, I opened the package and there was the GPSlim 236 unit, about the size of a Matchbox car (but a bit wider) nestled snugly in its packaging material. Along with the unit, the box contained a battery, a CD with optional PC drivers on it, a tiny instruction sheet that shows how to install the battery, and a battery charger.
  • Features easy to read indicator LEDs;
  • Quickly finds and locks on to at least 4 or 5 satellites;
  • The included software provides graphical indicators that show which and how many satellites are tracking the GPS unit’s position;
  • Supports G-Mouse functionality with a Pocket PC, if an optional USB to serial cable is purchased.

Now, Where Was I?
After installing and charging the battery for a couple of hours, I turned the unit on, and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it paired with my Pocket PC. The GPSlim 236 is very straight-forward. It has an on/off switch and 3 LED indicators that show when the battery is low, the Bluetooth indicator, and whether the receiver has a fix on GPS.

I suppose I should caveat the following comments by admitting that I’ve never had to configure a Bluetooth modem connection on my Pocket PC before, and this learning experience made the process of setting up my Pocket PC to work with the GPSlim 236 a bit more aggravating and time consuming than it should have been, but I have to blame my ignorance and not the receiver. I had to fumble around with my Pocket PC user’s manual and go online to find the correct settings needed by the GPSlim 236. Although the conspicuous absence of good ol’ paper manuals accompanying electronic gadgets is a growing trend, it’s still one that aggravates me. Yes, there’s a user manual on the included CD-ROM, but that doesn’t do much good if I’m not sitting at a computer, and it further annoys me to feel forced to print out a 30-something page user manual with my own paper and ink. After I managed to get the Pocket PC configured properly, it was fairly smooth sailing from there.

Wherever You Go, There You Are
With the GPSlim charged up and happily communicating data to my XDA II, I suspect that my neighbor feared that I'd lost my mind as I wandered aimlessly around my front yard, looking at my Pocket PC, and this exercise had lost its luster after about five minutes. Also, I noticed that at a very slow speed, such as casual walking, the speed reading didn’t register at all, for me.

Suddenly, I remembered that this unit is advertised to work with Microsoft Pocket Streets, which I happen to own, and similar mapping software. So, I recruited my faithful companion (wife) to hop into the car and monitor the Pocket Streets map while I drove around town. Incidentally, Pocket Streets 2005 has one button support to pull in GPS data, other versions of the program may also have this feature, but I use the 2005 version.

The unit worked well at providing real-time location mapping with very accurate speed readings. I was impressed with the relatively fast refresh rate, and I consistently had at least 6 satellites locked onto the unit for the duration of my jaunt around town and at various times that I powered the unit on while sitting on my sofa. The graphical software provided with the unit has a nice, easy to read display of the GPS satellites that are locked on to the receiver and this function also updated regularly.

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