CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 04/13/2005
- Released on: 01/05/2005
In most other respects, the M5 represents typical Pocket PC design. Four application buttons (Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, and Que) span the area below the screen, along with a five-way control pad. Along the left side, you'll find only the voice-record button. Garmin chooses not to include the 3600's jog dial, a regrettable decision since it's a convenient way of navigating through menus and zooming in and out of maps. The usual suspects can be found along the top: a headphone jack, an IR port, and an SDIO/MMC slot. Should you need to attach a patch antenna (not included) for better GPS reception, there's a connector covered by a rubberized flap on the right side of the M5. The aforementioned GPS antenna resides on the back of the device, and to its right, there's a small slide lever that releases it. There's a little Reset button on the back, and as always, we appreciate the user-replaceable battery.
Although the M5's 3.5-inch, 320x240-pixel transflective screen displays 64,000 colors and is plenty bright indoors--quite a bit brighter, incidentally, than the iQue 3600's screen--sunlight is not its friend. We found the display fairly difficult to read outdoors, even on a cloudy day; take note if you plan to use the M5 while on foot. That said, it's acceptable when you're in a car, where ambient light is somewhat diminished.
Garmin supplies both a USB synchronization cradle/charger and a suction-cup windshield mount. The latter includes a cigarette-light charger that has its own speaker so that navigation instructions can be heard loud and clear. At first, we had trouble seating the M5 in the two cradles, but for some reason, it got easier with time. We liked the sturdy design of the windshield mount, which lets you easily position the M5. We also appreciated the inclusion of a travel adapter for the AC charger; no cradle is required for hotel-room power.
As a Pocket PC, the Garmin iQue M5 doesn't venture too far outside the norm. It's powered by a 416MHz Intel PXA272 XScale processor, 64MB of ROM, and 64MB of RAM. Alas, the built-in applications leave only 30.5MB of RAM for extra programs, so plan on buying a roomy SD memory card--you'll need one for map data anyway. On a positive note, Garmin allocates 15MB of "safe storage" for backing up data that can survive a hard reset. In terms of software, the PDA includes the usual Windows Mobile 2003 SE applications, plus Garmin's GPS-specific Que programs. The only noteworthy extra is Sprite Backup, a handy utility for making backups to a memory card.
Aside from the advantages of having native support for Windows apps (Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, and so on), business users will appreciate the presence of a vibrating-alarm feature, something we haven't seen on many Pocket PCs. The M5 also features a Bluetooth radio, which is somewhat ironic given that one of the most popular PDA uses for Bluetooth is linking to a GPS receiver--obviously not necessary here. We would have liked to see the addition of integrated Wi-Fi.
Garmin's snazzy software installer makes it easy to load Outlook 2002, ActiveSync, and MapSource City Select. However, as with the Palm version, the latter requires you to plod through a rather lengthy installation and registration process. We recommend loading all the map data (which includes the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico) from the get-go to avoid repeating these hassles later on. On the other hand, if all you need is base-map data--major highways, waterways, and the like--you can skip MapSource altogether; the M5 has a built-in base map of North America, South America, and Puerto Rico.
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