GPS

When you boot up just about any device from HP, you get a splash screen exclaiming, “HP Invent.” This may be pure marketing shtick, but in the case of the new HP iPAQ 310 Travel Companion, it’s actually true:

The device offers innovation that its competitors don’t yet have.

When you first open the box, the iPAQ 310 looks just like any other widescreen GPS unit, but once you boot it up, you'll quickly discover that it's far from ordinary. The device features the highest-resolution 4.3-inch screen I've seen, and it delivers gorgeous 3D images.

At $449.99, the iPAQ 310 offers most of the features you'd expect to find in a GPS at this price point, including a capable text-to-speech engine, extensive multisegment routing and a handy Bluetooth phone interface. Live traffic, which is not included, is supported with an optional traffic receiver.

When you first switch on the iPAQ 310, you immediately notice the sharp, clear graphics. The "home" screen shows time and date, Bluetooth status, battery condition, an icon for volume, and a lock icon to lock the screen. At the center of the display, there's a large icon to launch the navigation program and a series of smaller icons labeled Entertainment, Contacts, Extras, and Settings.

The entertainment menu has options for playing music or video, displaying photos, and five games. The music player and picture viewers worked well, as did the video player when handling WMV files, but AVI and MOV files wouldn't play. The "Contacts" feature gives you access to your address book, which you can import from Outlook. "Extras" provides access to a calculator, a three-zone world clock, and the phone menu.

The iPAQ 310 delivered excellent navigation results. On tests, the text-to-speech function pronounced street names well. And routes generated by the device matched those created by other Tele Atlas-based GPS products I've reviewed. Automatic route recalculation after a missed turn was quick. While traveling through New York City, I really liked the 3D rendering of building detail-something a less-capable processor couldn't achieve.

But I did discover that the Bluetooth phone interface, which is linked to the POI database, did not automatically reconnect to my phone during testing, as it should have. I chalk that up to the vast number of phones the device needs to support. Your experience may vary. My only major complaint is with the small typeface used for the data fields at the bottom of the screen. I found myself searching for my reading glasses to read arrival times and remaining travel times.

Overall, the fast processor, high-resolution screen, superb 3D capabilities, and large POI database make the HP iPAQ 310 Travel Companion an excellent navigation device.