With a direct price of $379.99 (not including a $30 mail-in rebate if you order before the end of the year), the Averatec Voya 350 undercuts all the other navigation systems in this roundup -- in some cases by a significant margin. While I fully expected that this bargain price would mean a boatload of compromises, the Voya provides all the essentials: a SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, a generous POI (points of interest) database, and a simple touch screen interface. You don't get bells and whistles like an MP3 player or photo viewer, but how many drivers really use those features, anyway?
  Averatec Voya 350 Click image to launch image gallery. |
At 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.8 inches, the Voya could easily be mistaken for a PDA -- until you spy its protruding "stub" antenna, which makes the GPS a little less pocketable than the other models in this group (which have either integrated or fold-down antennas). At least weight isn't a problem: The unit barely tips the scales at 5.6 ounces. That's in part because it eschews a built-in hard drive in favor of a 1GB SD card, which comes preloaded with map data for the U.S. (all 50 states) and Canada.
A bank of physical controls resides to the right of the Voya's 3.5-inch touch screen. These include power, home, and zoom buttons and a five-way navigation pad. It's disappointing that Averatec chose zoom buttons instead of volume controls when you can also zoom by tapping the transparent plus/minus buttons that appear over the map. To adjust speaker volume (or mute the audio), you have to retreat from the map to the home screen, tap Settings, and then tap Volume. That's way too many steps. Another gripe: The hard buttons are so small and grouped so close together, they're difficult to press.
| ||||
|
|
|
||
|
• Introduction • Averatec Voya 350 • Garmin Nuvi 360 • Mio C710 • TomTom One • Conclusion |
|
||
|
||||
• Image Gallery |
||||
|
||||
It's lucky the Voya is so easy to use, as Averatec provides only a quick-start guide that covers basic operation. Thankfully, there's a more complete manual available on the Averatec Web site, but you wouldn't know that unless you went looking for it; the quick-start guide doesn't mention it.
On The Road
Averatec supplies a five-inch windshield mount, a car charger, and an AC adapter for charging the Voya's battery before a trip. Even so, don't hit the road without the car charger. Although Averatec promises up to four hours of operation, in my tests the Voya petered out after about 90 minutes. Plus, it lacks an onscreen battery gauge, so you won't know if power is running low until an onscreen warning appears.
I took the Voya with me on highways and the streets of suburbia and found it a reliable navigator. I had no trouble viewing the screen, even in direct sunlight. The map data proved admirably current, including a street that was added to my subdivision only a year ago. Alas, it doesn't pronounce street names, only highways (e.g. "Take I-96 East"). I liked the little chime the Voya produced when it was time to actually make a turn. (This is particularly helpful when the streets are close together and you're not sure if it's this road or the next one.) Equally helpful was the "countdown gauge" that showed me in real-time the next turn's proximity. I do wish, however, that the Voya's announcements were in mileage rather than feet. Telling me an upcoming turn is 2,000 feet away isn't particularly useful.
Another minor complaint with the Voya's operation is speed. It was a bit slow to establish a satellite lock, and there's a delay of several seconds before you can start entering an address -- especially when you select "Street First" as the input option. The unit also crashed a couple of times; the resulting dialog box revealed its Windows CE underpinnings.
Fortunately, those glitches aren't deal-breakers, not by a long shot. The Voya 350 is a solid GPS with a killer price, making it a no-brainer for anyone seeking reliable navigation without a bunch of fussy, overpriced extras.
Voya 350 Averatec www.averatec.com Price: $379.99 Summary: Light on the bells and whistles but solid on everything else, the Voya 350 provides affordable GPS navigation in a compact package. |
