Home > Consumer Reviews > Harman Kardon GPS-310 4-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

The unit gets amazingly quick GPS locks. Typically less than 15 seconds, and often just a few. The UI is extermely easy to use. Very snappy graphics and operation. No owner's manual is necessary. Has all the features you would expect from a unit this price. Even has 12M POI which is 2x to 9x the number that other units have. I played with the unit a little at BestBuy before buying it. What sold me is the TTS feature that announces street names in the directions (Turn on Lincoln Ave instead of just Turn Left). It was the cheapest one there that had this feature. When I compared the TTS quality with that of the more expensive units, the h/k GPS-310 won hands down. The others sounded like robots. This unit sounds much more natural. Easy decision. Great product. Fantastic price.

I have used both the Tom Tom and the garman Nuvi and I find the GPS-310 to be superior in many ways.

The onscreen display is very intuitive and I really like the widescreen look on such an inexpensive unit. My wife loved it and it has the look and feel of a much more expensive unit. The trip information is shown on the left and is very clear about upcoming turns, distances and the like.

The windshield mount is especially nice and allows a great degree of adjustment and is much smaller and cleaner than my others I have. I don't like such a big block of stuff stuck to my windshield. The unit itself is very thin and just has a very clean look to the whole unit. It is much easier to use that the TomTom as well with fewer menus needed to be accessed to do all of the basic stuff.

The music player works well with artist search, playlists, etc. I synch a few SD cards with my PC and I use it on trips, very slick

Pros:
. 4.3" (480x272) screen with text-to-speech for $300.
. Integrated antenna
. Clean, uncluttered, and mostly intuitive interface
. Destinations easy to enter - more on this feature below
. Large "buttons"
. Touch screen requires only a light touch
. Nicely contoured case with a high quality feel
. Suction cup mount nicely designed
. Unit clips in and removes from the mount very easily
. Charges via the USB cable (undocumented)
. Boots instantly
. Volume dial
. Bright screen
. Built-in MP3 player
. A nice compact slipcover is included

Cons:
. It takes awhile to lock on to the satellites. I haven't timed it, but it's much slower than my Garmin Street Pilot 2720.
. I haven't figured out how to save the "current location" to a favorite. Please tell me how to do this as this could be a deal breaker!
. Screen brightness doesn't automatically adjust to the conditions. It switches between Day and Night modes automatically, but not the brightness. Fortunately changing the brightness requires only a few touches.
. Screen can be hard to read in bright daylight.
. Only one choice of female voice. I like the Australian English voice on my Garmin.
. The spoken directions are not as concise as my Garmin, and the unit tends to repeat itself, which is either helpful or annoying depending on my mood.
. No option to prompt the unit to repeat itself, such as if you don't hear the directions over a loud stereo. In fairness, I don't know of any portable GPS units that offer this feature.
. The map is missing some streets vs. my Garmin
. A few options are non-intuitive to reach. This isn't a major problem since there aren't that many options vs. some of the more high-end GPS units, but that makes these few occasions all the more vexing.
. Does not display speed. I like this feature of my Garmin. There also is no "trip computer" although I don't use this feature much.

Top three features:

1. Large high resolution wide screen.

2. Text-to-Speech.

3. Destination entry feature:

As you enter letters in a city or street name, any letters that aren't possible are grayed out. For example, maybe you enter a city name beginning with H. You might then see all letters except A,E,I,O,U,Y grayed out because there are no cities with any other character following the H. This makes entry easier because (A) the next key is easier to find because there are fewer letters to choose from, and (B) touching the wrong key is less likely.

If I were buying a new GPS for myself, it would probably be a Garmin 750 for half again the price, but at the $300 price-point, the mostly minor compromises are acceptable.

I wanted a portable GPS unit with at least 4" display and text-to-speech feature. This is my first GPS. I would say the text-to-speech feature is a MUST; otherwise, you may get confused.

A 4" Garmin was too expensive and it didn't look very attractive.

I like Navigon because it made GPS for European cars, it had photo images of the streets, and it looked really good but I need to get the expensive high-end model for the 4" display (the free lifetime traffic info was very attractive too). However, it didn't have any audio and/or video features and several reviews indicated problems with navigation and the text-to-speech.

I could pick TomTom but I liked HK. I picked it has mp3 feature. I wanted the GPS 510 video one but that costed more than I expected. Anyway, I guess I expected too much from HK.

As a basic GPS unit, it's great, especially with the large screen and text-to-speech feature. The display will adjust day/night automatically.

Pro:
1. 4" display, looks beautiful, solid built.
2. It's very easy to use.
3. Speech is clear.
4. Re-routing is very quick (usually takes 5-6 seconds).
5. You can do navigation and listen to music at the same time.
6. It's not too difficult to learn all the features.
7. Long battery life (I think it's 5 hours).

Con:
1. The initial search for GPS signal is very slow, up to several minutes.
2. I turned on all the POI but I don't see them all the time. Most of the time, the unit will tell me turn on which street and then tell me to turn right or left to a ramp but sometimes it tells me to turn left/right after 200 ft. If I set my routing priority to shortest time instead of shortest distance, it will try to get me on the highway even though it is a much longer route.
3. I don't know how to get the most updated map...I am sure it does not
have some of the 2007 constructions.
4. As someone commented on the older model, GPS-300, the speaker was not good for music. I used the unit to play mp3 songs on a SD card (not included) and it didn't sound good. Yes, it's a HK! It may be good for radio programs or sermons.
5. The "quick user guide" and the owner's manual on the HK website are the same. They are way too simple. You need to explore the unit for different features. The guide scared me. I thought I need to charge the unit in my car all the time but someone mentioned you can use the USB cable to charge it from a PC. Yes, I tried it but it didn't tell me when it was fully charged.

I bought the dash mount unit but this GPS unit cannot be sticked to it tight. The unit will move a little bit at a time but it will not fall out from the dash mount.

I am still ok with the unit but I didn't focus too much on the mp3 feature and tried TomTom.

After doing much research on GPS device's I decided to take the plunge. I had a hard time making up my mind but finally decided on the HK 310 and I'm glad I did. I tested it around my area and was very happy with it. I have turned the GPS on in at least six different areas over a fifty mile radius and haven't had to wait more than one to two minutes to pick up a signal. It was easy to program and the graphics were top notch. I purposely took wrong turns to see how the unit rerouted me and it was perfect. The unit is very well made it seems and in my opinion is the best looking unit that I saw. The only issue I may have is that the sound/speaker could be a little better especially considering that Harmon Kardon is in the audio bussiness. But other than that I am very happy and satisfied with this unit.