Harmon Kardon GPS-300 Review
A leader in the field of navigation, Harmon Kardon continues to impress with its unique, powerful line of GPS units. Offering a wide range of functions from the flashy to the necessary, most of the devices in Harmon’s lineup are a joy to use. However, we were slightly disappointed with the 310, a no-frills device geared towards the budget-conscious.
A Dull Window
The Harmon Karmon GPS 310 starts out with a 4-inch color WQVGA (480 x 272) resolution touch screen display. The color left a lot to be desired, as we found ourselves occasionally having to discern among reds, yellows, and oranges.
The unit enclosure is designed fairly well, roughly one-half inch thick, or slightly thicker than the average Smartphone or PDA. This discouraged us from carrying the device in a pocket, but any spills in the car were easily tolerated. There are no buttons on the device save for a recessed power switch on the top. We were impressed by the display brightness setting mounted as jog wheel on the top of the unit, rather than having to manipulate it via the menu interface.
Battery Life: Decent!
The 310 features a five-hour lithium-ion battery, and is in fact able to run for that amount of time at the lowest brightness setting. However, the 310 is geared towards multimedia which can cut down the time to a couple hours when playing music. In addition, the unit lacks a sleep or low power setting. In most cases though, the battery has little impact given the continual use of a car adaptor.
Ease of Use: Needs a Facelift
The interface may seem easy to use at first, given the main menu is divided into four quadrants. However, the uniform quadrant background color (gray) and small font did lead us to make a wrong decision every so often. Each menu was designed in a similar manner as well.
Another drawback was the main screen or home key. The Harmon Kardon 310 labels this button “Source,” causing unneeded confusion. It would have been better if “Home” had simply been used. However, we did find that the transitions between menus and map zoom were fast and reliable. On other units, the animation would hang, requiring a reboot of the device.
Performance: Not Bad
In any GPS navigation system, the goal is to get the user from point A to B as efficiently and quickly as possible. The Harmon Kardon 310 offers the option to navigate by point of interest (such as a gas station), address, postal code, or intersection. The 310 also offers the ability to avoid certain portions of a route, including borders, toll roads, ferries, and unpaved roads.
Once a destination has been selected, the unit offers a few options: shortest distance, maximum freeway use, etc. Should you miss a turn or exit the unit will automatically reroute and set you back on track. The rerouting algorithms worked well and so did the GPS chipset.
Features: Needs Improvement
The 310 uses a text-to-speech engine to relay the directions via voice, but we found that the tone was unnatural and difficult to understand at times. Besides acting as GPS, the 310 includes a multimedia player, but this was also disappointing. The software is only able to play MP3s and the device itself has no internal storage, just an SD card slot.
Few Benefits
- Fast rerouting system
- Smooth menu transitions
- Unit thickness enables it to withstand jolts and bumps
Disappointments
- Unnatural text-to-speech
- Limited multimedia player
- Difficult user interface
- “Source” rather than “Home” button
Want to compare this model to other H.K models? Click here to download Excel spreadsheet.
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This site contains the personal opinions of various authors and contributors to this website. The opinions in these articles and reviews are offered in good faith, but also come with no guarantees or warranties.
Worst piece of junk ever!!!!!This thing is the worst!……I thought it would be a good product because of the brand …..Maybe they should stick to audio, The unit frequently locked up and had to be restarted, It gave false directions, It didnt recognize addresses, And lost signal all the time….Let me finish by saying that I only had the unit for aprox 1 week and only used it 3 of the 7 days…….not at all worth the money.
Ooops, should have mentioned great post! Waiting on the next post!
Worst piece of junk ever!!!!!
This thing is the worst!……I thought it would be a good product because of the brand …..Maybe they should stick to audio, The unit frequently locked up and had to be restarted, It gave false directions, It didnt recognize addresses, And lost signal all the time….Let me finish by saying that I only had the unit for aprox 1 week and only used it 3 of the 7 days…….not at all worth the money.
Ok, when it has signal… it might take ages to do so!!!!
This was our first GPS, sadly/fortunately it was stolen a few weeks ago. This unit is ok for someone that knows the city and is only looking for a companion that can say where is, that address that you don’t recognize. The routes it gave to us were ok and in most of the cases it took me to the destination without mayor problems. The only time it really frustrated us was when we were in a toll way and I got confused with its directions and suddenly we were going in the wrong direction and the freaking GPS keep telling me to U turn when possible because it thought we were in a dead end alley!!!!… So imagine my desperation. The mayor cons this unit has is the terrible capability to get signal… Man! I can still hear it saying “GPS signal lost”. In some cases (as usual when you need it the most) the unit couldn’t get GPS signal at all, and in some occasions it took it up to 30 minutes to get signal in the street!!!!; in some other occasions in the middle of the journey it simply lost the signal because no reason, so it might get frustrating from time to time. This was a problem I read before buying the unit but still I wanted to give it a chance.
In general is a fine product that has a lot of chances to be a GREAT GPS unit. After our gps was stolen I was up to buy this GPS again, but there was a promotion of the Navigon 2100 here in amazon and, WOW I couldn’t be happier with a GPS… This unit takes some time (3 minutes the most) to get gps signal but NEVER as much as the HK, the display is less flashy but man! it says the distance and the street name too!…
At the end what I can say about the HK GPS unit is that it was fine and in general I liked it… I was up to re-buy it!, but there are other options within the same cost and the can be great! if you’re looking for a GPS unit with MP3 and a flashy display with more than 3″ I think this unit has a fair price and wont disappoint you a lot. If you’re looking for a unit to get signal fast and bring you more functionality than multimedia then you should be reading the reviews of the navigon lol… (it has some flaws it’s not perfect but I’m more comfortable with it)
Good luck with your GPS election and “may the GPS signal be with you!” lol
Smart Design and Graphics
This is one of those great deals where the looks and interface perform better than the price. My only complaint is that the signal is sometimes weak in my Audi, while in the Dodge truck it’s flawless. I believe it has more to do with the film applied to the thick windshield than the GPS as this problem has occurred with previous units. When the GPS has difficulty finding a signal I simply open the sunroof or window and the problem disappears. Besides that, the interface is one of it’s best features. It’s very intuitive and has large buttons to operate without focussing on it too long. The graphics and maps are very up-to-date.
nice design. lots of functinalities. poor algorithm.
i bought this unit last year because:
(+) nice screen size and resolution.
(+) built-in MP3/WMA music player with SD slot
(+) Harman Kardon brand name
and i returned it after 3-week use in multiple states because:
(-) TERRIBLE algorithm and possibly old maps. the software told me to turn left into no-left-turn roads / one-way / into freeway many times.
(-) slow satellite lock-on time, sometimes even minutes. actually slower than my Sprint Mogul.
you don’t want to be a GPS horror story.
GPS
I recently bought this product for my husband as a birthday present. He loves it. Very, Very easy to use, extremely portable, great big screen, and very accurate. I recommend this product to anyone who has a husband that doesn’t stop to ask for directions!!!
Horrible Performance
I bought two of these units because of the price but they aren’t worth any price. I have used two Garmin units in the past but thought why not try this one – how bad can it be? It is just about useless. The screen is great, entering the destination was great – but what matters is the performance and it was terrible. If you went past a turn (testing it) it tried to make you do a U-turn, even though the road I was on was parallel to the road it wanted me to be on. It couldn’t recalculate properly, it was determined to send me backwards and if I kept driving eventually it would recalculate like it should have. It did this multiple times. I couldn’t believe how stupid it was. My Garmin product never did that. Don’t buy it – buy a Garmin. I am.
HK SHould Keep to Audio Equipment And Stay Away From GPS.
UTTERLY USELESS GPS. The first one would not find any sats at all. The replacement tells me I am a block away from my house when I am sitting on the front porch. I traded emails with Tech Support and they had me try all of the usual tasks to no avail and then just stopped responding at all. I finally got the update provided by tech support to load, but then it was even more off on its location. Not to mention it takes forever to find sats when it bothers to find them at all. It has never found more than 3 or 4 of them even though more than 10 are available.
STAY Away from this unit at all costs. I am going back to Garmin or TomTom for my GPS needs.
HK GPS-300 review
I tested this GPS on a 1500 mile from Florida to New England. The unit is well designed with a bright, auto dimming screen, an external volume control, and a cleverly designed suction mount. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. Now the bad news – the unit “locked up” on me in heavy traffic in an unfamiliar city. Not good. My previous GPS ( a megellan) was also prone to lock ups. These products should be more reliable at this point in their development. The unit developes some strange routings, for example, directing me to my house in a very roundabout way. I also found the map database to be out of date. A nearby shopping mall built two years age was a mystery to the GPS. I called Harman Kardon and was told that there was no plan yet to issue a map update. Finally, there is no documentation available, and the HK website is a complete waste of time. I ditched Magellan because of terrible customer service, and I guess I expected better from a quality company like Harman Kardon.
BEST DEAL FOR GPS UNDER $200
I Had a Garming nuvi 200 up to a few days ago when my car got broken in to they stole the Gps + ipod + made a mass all over the car with broken galss’
( do not forget the mounting hardware on your windshield )
i bought it on sale for $149 now its $219!
i replaced the garming with this HK And let me tell you i am more than happy ,much faster connection to the satalite , beautiful screen user interface is PERFECT and its from Harman Kardon !!!
over all much better experience and much more value in the box you will get everything u need including a case + usb cable ( most of the similar product do not include the usb cable )
and all of that for $99
My first ever GPS
It’s my first ever GPS. Had absolutely no clue what to expect. First, like other media devices I have used in the past, I assumed that the unit could be charged via the USB port connected to my Desktop. WRONG! The only way you can charge the unit is through the car cigarette lighter, or an optional USB wall charger, available through Harmon for $26 bucks or so. Anyhow, I found a 12VDC/115VAC wall charger on AMAZON for under $20 bucks that will allow you to plug your USB cigarette lighter plug directly into a 115VAC wall charger. Haven’t got it yet but it should prove to be a convenient investment. (Also, bought a 2GB SD card for around $8 bucks for future music downloads.) Initial SET-UP is relatively easy, in-spite of the absence of a FULL Manual. Just answer the screen prompts and you’ll do fine. NOTE: Per Harman, the GPS-500 is virtually identical to the GPS-300. The only difference is that it has video capability, where the GPS-300 does not. A full user manual is available to download from their site. Moving on: Once initial set-up is complete the Source menu will appear where you’ll find three directories: Navigation; Music; and Settings. Ran through Navigation first, where I entered my HOME address, then entered a destination address. Running the simulation showed me what this puppy can do, and for the money it does a fine job, simple and to the point. The voice is not screechy, nor intrusive, but very mild and understandable. When you finally get to the Music button, it too opens up a straight forward menu of options. Selections are easily found and accessed. The only thing that stumped me for a while was how to stop the music. After a few frustrating trial & errors, I concluded that the PAUSE button controls this. After pressing it, the music, thank God stopped. By the way, some of the music included for demo purposes, frankly, suck! All and all, I’m very happy with my purchase and am looking forward to using in on our next camping venture. FINAL THOUGHT: Personally, I think removing VIDEO from this unit was a good move. Not only does it make the unit more affordable, but too, it will contribute to keeping us “USERS” safe. Watching U-tube while driving is not a good thing.
Harman Kardon GPS300`NA
Great and inexpensive GPS system. Easy to operate out of the box after following the battery charging procedure. Unit automatically switches from day to night mode. The unit includes maps for Anchorage, Alaska which was not denoted in the description, the description stated that maps of Canada and America were preloaded. Clarification was requested but not received in a timely manner. I made the purchase with the risk that the unit was inoperable in Alaska.
Harman Kardon
My wife unexpectedly purchased this unit for X-mas. I was not quite sure how it would fare. For the most part HK nailed it, my friend has a magellan that he’s constantly having problems with and half the time when we’re on road trips it is useless (always searching for signal or freezes). I’ve been using this unit constantly since unwrapping it just to see how accurate it is and low and behold it has not dropped the ball. The only complaint I have albeit a small one is when you get close to your destination it says arrived even though you can be about a 25 to 50 feet away. Mounting is a cinch, I definately recommend this unit.
-Justin
Disappointed
Harman Kardon GPS-300 Portable Navigation Unit with MP3 Player and 4-Inch Widescreen Video
As a GPS, in my rural community, it was consistently wrong. It must have had an outdated map or was simply inaccurate because it mis-located my house by a 1/4 mile. On local trips, it would constantly call for a U-Turn to the point that passengers would want the unit turned on because it was so stupid that it was hysterically funny.
The package does not come with an A/C charger although the instructions require that the unit be charged six hours before using. The start-up manual is incomplete and gives instructions to download a manual from the internet. The manual was not available at the time of this writing.
The mounting to the window contains a lever that can flip inside itself and make installation impossible unless it is flipped back out, something not covered by the instructions.
It does not have the voice to text feature, so it does not speak the name of the oncoming street.
I was disappointed. I returned the unit to Amazon and they recommended the Garmin nuvi 350 saying it was the most popular. It seems to have gotten things right.
Excellent product
I was looking for a slick GPS in my price range, and came across this one.
Harman Kardon really knows how to capture the attention of the technology-wise individuals. This product is simply gorgeous! excellent performance!
Nice size, touch screen, automatic re-routing really fast, nice guidance, 3d maps, street naming, etc. I have tried to get this device confused by not following its suggestions, and it finds a way to get you back ontrack really fast. Like any other electronic device, is not perfect and needs some resetting from time to time..Not big deal!…overall it is worth it!
It comes with everything you will need to protect it and get going fast; except for a way to charge it when in the house. Accessories are not yet available but i’m sure will be available soon enough.
For those who can’t afford a nuby, this is it.
Best GPS under 300
Without a doubt the best GPS under 300.
Great 4 inch screen.
Easy to use.
Good design.
MP3
I have had this for about 2 months now and am very happy with it.
You can’t go wrong.
Great GPS
I m a first time GPS user and must say this product is great. Worked straight out of the box, easy to operate, looks great and has very up-to-date maps. In my experience it re-calculates routes pretty fast (as I have tried to test that as much as possible). The screen is bright (even in Arizona sunlight!) also the night view is great. The suction cup for attaching it to a surface is strong and works great.
In some places it took a couple of minutes to get a signal, but no big deal really. (maybe 10% of the time in my case). Very easy to put in addresses or places to go. It gives very good verbal directions, so it is perfect if you are in busy traffic, you don’t even have to look at it.
You can avoid toll roads, highways, ferries, u-turns, border crossings and permit needed.
You can prioritize by time or distance.
You can plan trips by address, zip-code, city center, place, intersection, recent places, home or saved places.
I bought this one for my wife and would buy one for myself in a heart beat.