Home > Consumer Reviews > Acer n35 GPS handheld Pocket Chauffeur

I purchased this a couple of days ago and I was very dubious as to the quality as it was so cheap in comparison to all the other units I had looked at. I am glad to say that this is an excellent unit and has surpassed my expectations. When you switch it on and put in the memory card it instantly installs the Destinator Software and it is ready to go. The first time I used it, it took almost 40 minutes to aquire a strong signal but from then it has only ever taken 4-5 minutes.

The ability to automatically calculate the route is very useful and very quick, each route I have tried so far has been very accurate. I have switched off the speed warnings as they can be irritating but the variety of Display and Audio options are excellent. The car kit is supplied with the unit, although it would have been better if they had included an external aerial as standard.

All in all this is an excellent unit at good value, with the added benefit of a mid-range PDA thrown in.

Had the device for less than a year and now it's a paper weight.

While it worked I loved it, but about 10 months on the only way I can recharge / sync it is with a complicated cat's cradle of rubber bands. A few experiments have confirmed that the fault lies with the data / power connector at the base of the device rather than any of the four different power leads I've tried.

A quick websearch suggests that this is actually quite a common problem and Acer have been less than helpful in their responses and are charging people 3 figure sums to repair it.

Don't buy it - unless you think it's worth the money for only a few months of use?

I've been using the Acer N35 for about a 18 months now, and upgraded the software to the PN version last September.

Hardware:
I find the build quality to be reasonable; the unit is a little chunky compared to regular PDAs, but this is mainly because of the built in antenna. The antenna works fine, but, like some other people have said, if you mount it away from the dash/windows then you might want to plug it into an external arial. The unit can also struggle to pick up a signal if there is heavy cloud cover - although this is a factor when receiving any satelite signal I guess, not just GPS.
Acer sell the unit primarily as a GPS (rather than PDA) hence the lack of desk mount, although mine did come with a charger, I rarely bother with it. I bought a retractable USB synch/charge cable for about a tenner that I plug it into when it isn't in the car.
The charge cable is easy to dislodge in the car, that said, I've only ever dislodged it whilst trying to move the position of the unit in its cradle so it isn't all that surprising.
Battery life is poor, but no worse than any other PDA I have owned - if left unplugged (and off) it will drain in about a week. If left unplugged for a long period the battery will most likely degrade so it will no longer take a charge just like any other PDA (I have an iPaq that went that way, hence the reason for me buying a USB synch/charge cable for the Acer).
It is not a powerful PDA, but is is adequate. It runs destinator fine, and I have Media Player and a 1Gb sd card playing music in the background no problems.

Software (PN). The software is good, although it does sometimes mistake sharp bends in the road for turns. The main failing in my opinion is the lack of a full postcode lookup (you're limited to the first 4 characters), although Destinator 6 adds full search.
One thing I would say about the software is that you can customise it, change the order/wording of the instructions, or the voice if you like (look on pocketgpsworld.com for info) as well as import camera databases etc.
I would definately recommend this product. It isn't perfect, but it is fairly cheap. Moreover, it has helped make my car journeys with my wife far more pleasurable by removing the inevitable navigation arguments. If we get lost now, we both gang up on the satnav!

I have had the Acer n35 for a few months now. The unit itself is very sylish and light, and having the full functionality of a PDA is a big bonus over specific GPS devices. I drop it into the car cradle when I need to navigate somewhere and when I use it at work as a normal PDA. It isn't perfect. The system frequently reverts to factory settings when plugging in the in car power adaptor, and I had to download a newer version of ActiveSync before i could syncronise with my XP home pc. The PDA is also a little sluggish especially when starting applications, Navigator hangs for several seconds when calculating routes, although it is generally fine once your are on route.

On to the Navigator software...

On the instructions of my girlfriend, I initially tried to drive without looking at the PDA's screen, listening only to the voice commands. The voice commands are very un-intuitive, and very frequently inaccurate. I now wait until I get a voice command, then glance at the screen to verify the correct path to take. I have found this works great and I feel a much safer driver when I am not trying to navigate by road signs at the same time, I simply concentrate on the road and check my route using the GPS.

One small annoyance with the Navigator software is that it frequently gets confused by the shape of the road. A sharp turn will often be confused with a turning, and vice-versa. However, this can be easily rectified by double checking the route on the screen, where the blue line etching out your route along the roads is easy to see under all light conditions.

All in all, not a perfect unit but great for the price.

I describe the acer N35 as a GPS rather than a PDA because the PDA function is limited and is not in use when the unit is being used as a GPS.
Hardware: light and well priced. although a lot more thought should have gone into connections for power and data transfer, the power connection is piggy backed on the data connection which after a short time will tear the connector (which by the way does not lie flat on the motherboard and as such the legs of the connector are not securely soldered to the board) off the motherboard. This results in bad connections meaning no charging and problems with data transmission (necessary every time the battery is discharged and the destinator program is lost.
Software: The Destinator III Software is a joke there are no map updates and if you intend travelling through different map areas as you cant plan a trip from one map to another and you are required to switch maps each time you move across a map boundary. Destinator PN has tried to address this in that it automatically loads a new map when traversing borders, and the maps are up to date (which begs the question why are the new maps not available to Destinator III), Planning a trip accross map boundaries is still a pain and when I tried it, it simply didn't work and I had to revert to entering my destination once I had crossed the map border.