Home > Consumer Reviews > Averatec Voya 350 Handheld GPS

My husband and I just moved to a new city out of state, so we figured a GPS system will help. Once we took the gadget out of the box and charged it, it had worked as expected right away. It has been particularly useful as the highways exits and road systems are quite different from one state to another, so having the GPS telling you to stay on the left or right lane before a turn or exit saved quite a lot of headaches.

Also the decision of buying this vs other more known brands of similar price (we were going to get the Megellan Roadmate 760 as recommended by Consumers Reports) was because this has a battery, and it's flat so it is very portable. I can actually fit it in my purse.

Our only complain (and this is minor) is that the volume seems to be loud sometimes. We didn't find any volume control on the system, but it hasn't bothered us enough to go look in the box or online to see if there is such an option yet.

I have had the unit for three weeks. It has failed to start twice.

Tech support had me do a hard reboot by removing the battery and peeling the serial number sticker off the reveal a reset button.

Once you remove the battery or let it fully discharge, all of your personal settings will be lost.
You can not save more than 8 favorite places to volatile memory.

Tech specs. States "USB connection". There is some sort of a connector on the bottom of the unit (NOT USB) but no cable shipped or mention of USB connection in the manual.

Unit will not work if the SD card is removed, locked or damaged.

This is Averatecs first GPS and they are still working on support.

For $40-50 more you can get a very good mid level Garmin or equivalent.

My experience with Averatec products have been very positive. I own two notebooks from this brand and both have been good work-horses for me. So I decided to try their GPS, since I have been in the market for one and I did'nt want to spend a large amount on it.

From what I have noticed, Averatec products are priced lower than other brands, yet it it comes with the same feature when compared to other notebooks. Also, it actually performs as it should.

The GPS is the same. It comes with alot of features that the more expensive brands come with. It is very easy to use, and the buttons on the touchscreen are very large (I have thick fingers). The best thing about this GPS piece is that it is portable (it comes with a rechargeable lithium battery - will last about 2 hours) so that you can use it while walking in metropolitan areas where the streets are really close by. It comes with a car charger and a home charger (if you use it as a portable).

The price is incredible, I have seen it as low as $350 elsewhere, but I bought it at Amazon because I have bought other things here and I have never had a problem with them. The only other one that I have seen that is similar to this GPS from Averatec is a Garmin, but the Garmin is about $800 and it has alot of other stuff (like playing music) that I really would not care for or need.

Overall, I have been thouroughly satisfied with this product. Averatec is a brand that I can say has earned my business.

I bought it on Black Friday of 2006 for $225.00, and I just couldn't wait to write a review on this product.

Pros:
Very easy setup and navigation right out of the box. Easy mount on windshield, easy to detach. Backlit buttons is convenient for night time driving. Excellent for city navigation. Can play music files, so it's good for a walk.

Cons:
1. Took GPS on a long distance trip, GPS avoided interstate highways, taking us along local roads through cities. We got lost, got directions from gas station attendant to reconnect with interstate. There's no setting on GPS to avoid local roads. We ignored GPS thereafter, until destination city where GPS became useful in getting us to our host.
2. Battery life too short, manual says 2 hours, but unit drains very quickly even when turned off. Takes too long to recharge, and then it drains too quickly.
3. GPS requires frequent reset, losing your local settings.
4. Clock setting is not steady, always defaults back to 12.01 am, or something like that.
5. Regional setting always defaults back to Pacific Time. It refuses to set at my local time zone - Eastern.
6. GPS setting would not remain steady at Georgia, it always defaults back to Oregon when unit is turned on. It also does not remember my home address.
7. When I tried to calibrate, it goes into a loop. Had to reboot to get out of loop.

So today I took it back to store for a refund, just over a week since I bought it. On a final check I found that I still had my music files stored. I looked for an on-screen delete feature, found none. Could not find a hard reset button either. The only way to delete is to reconnect back to computer. Got no time to play with it anymore, so I left my music files in there for the next owner. Received full refund, will add maybe a couple of hundred dollars for a Garmin or something of that sort.

I'm sure Averatec will do better next time.

The Voya 350 is extremely easy to use out of the box and offers a 12-channel SIRF III high sensitivity chipset, which is one of the most advanced tracking GPS components you can find in anything in the $300-400 range. The number of channels indicated the number of satellites it can simultaneously use for triangulation purposes, and the SIRF III chipset offers some of the fastest responses for recalculating routes (if you take a wrong turn) and for connecting to the satellites.

On the downside, the Voya 350 is a little buggy. For example, a couple of times it has lost our saved "home" location and we had to reinput it. Also, sometimes it seems a little confused when you input the address and requires you to reinput it.

Overall though, it is easy to use, accurate and extremely fast (which is essential since with some models if you take a wrong turn it can take you a minute or more to recalibrate). For the price, this is clearly a "best buy."