This article is more than 1 year old

Garmin iQue M5 GPS PocketPC

The best GPS/PDA combo currently available?

When you first power up the iQue you'll find a base map of the UK, but to get any detailed any information, such as smaller roads and Points of Interest you'll need to install the data from the three CDs that are included. Doing this is undoubtedly one of the most painful parts of using the iQue, due to an unnecessarily long and complicated registration process. Maps are included for the whole of Western Europe and it makes sense to install all of these to your PC at once. You can then select the maps you need and send them to your iQue as required, either to it's local memory or to an SD card. The whole of the UK and Ireland comes out to 167MB, so you'll want to budget for an SD card. To fit all the map data on at once you'll need a 2GB card, and these are available for around £160.

Garmin iQue M5The iQue's route planning software is split into several different applications. QueMap is the main mapping app that displays your route and your location. Only a top-down, 2D mode is offered, which is a shame. Most of the time a 3D view isn't strictly necessary, but it does make a difference in certain situations, to see more clearly where you're going.

The 'Where Am I' button in QueMap will tell you the name, address, latitude and longitue of you're current location, along with the nearest intersections. You can then add this to 'My Locations' - essentially a list of favourite places.

At the top of the screen your speed, distance to next turning, time to turning and arrival time are all indicated clearly. The settings are set to kilometres but can easily be changed to miles. The amount of detail shown can be adjusted too. As you approach turnings a clear female voice provides instruction and a detail of the turn is flashed up. Unlike the TomTom Go, the M5 doesn't repeat the instruction as you approach a junction, so I found that I had to turn the stereo off and concentrate more than I was used to.

QueFind lets you to search for addresses in a variety of ways. You can search by city, street and post code up to four digits, and hitting the search button will bring up a list of correlating locations. This works well if you know the street number but isn't so great for businesses that doesn't have one. However, this is a problem that afflicts most systems. Alternatively, you can use the comprehensive Point of Interest database, but be prepared to spend some time working out how it categorises things.

For example, Under the Car Dealer sub-category I was looking for Dagenham Motors in Potters Bar, and while the M5 listed several there wasn't one shown in that town. I then switched to searching via 'Near Current Location' and there it was, though listed as Potters Bar Ford, rather then Dagenham Motors. It even provided the phone number, which would have saved the cost of a call to Directory enquiries had I found it earlier. The motto is, the place you're looking for is probably there if you're flexible about your searches.

If your Pocket Outlook contacts are stored in the correct format you can send it directly to the QueFind application to plot a route, though this method won't distinguish between the work and home address and go for the first one listed. It will do so however, if you choose the 'Add to My Locations' option.

Next page: Verdict

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like