Go-fer this GPS


The Gophers Tri-O comes with everything you need for in-car navigation and is also affordable to boot.

IT HAS been a while since I tested out a standalone GPS unit that was not integrated into a mobile phone but here's one – it's called the Gophers Tri-O and it's a GPS car navigation kit with a complete Malaysian map (and optionally, Singapore maps as well)

The Gopher isn't particularly fancy when it comes to GPS but the big appeal here is that it's very affordable – at just RM898 for the Malaysian map version (which includes Sabah and Sarawak maps as well) or RM998 for Malaysia and Singapore maps.

What you get

Affordable it may be, but the folks at Gophers have included everything you need for in-car navigation, including a car cigarette lighter charger, a suction cup holder that attaches to your windscreen and a USB cable for transferring data to the device.

First off, I have to say that the car holder provided with the device is pretty good, and comes with a little hood to block the sun from the screen when you have it attached to your windscreen.

The holder itself is pretty stable and unlike some of the “bendy” types which use a flexible wire, the jointed screw design it utilises is not so prone to wobbling when you're driving over rough roads.

The downside is that the armature design does limit the possible angles that you can position the device.

The Tri-O itself is quite a nice little device – at 3.5in, the screen is just big enough and the whole unit is quite light – you could easily pocket it when you leave your car.

The device works mostly via a touchscreen interface like most GPS car navigation units, so there are few controls on the side – there's a power button, a volume jog dial, power socket, SD slot, USB port and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack.

Turn on the Tri-O and you'll be faced with a menu giving you access to the Navigation, Music, Photo, E-book, Video applications and general system settings.

The consumer applications are as you'd expect – the Music player is basic but supports MP3, WAV and WMA files while the Photo viewer supports JPEG images (although loading times were a too little slow for my liking) – you get the idea.

One thing I noticed that was weird was that once I started up the Navigation system, there isn't an obvious way of getting back to the main menu of the device to launch the other applications.

In the end I found out that you can only get back to the main menu by exiting MapKing, which is an icon hidden pretty far into the settings page.

GPS

The Tri-O's navigation system is based on the MapKing software and anybody who's used it before will feel right at home here.

To the unitiated, MapKing is possibly the most popular GPS software in the Malaysian market, thanks to the Malsingmaps.com group, which helped to provide the very detailed (and constantly updated) maps.

With MapKing, you get it all – all you have to do is search for a point-of-interest or address, set it as your destination, and the GPS will prompt you with a female voice, giving you turn-by-turn directions as you drive.

Thanks to the use of maps from Malsingmaps.com, there's a very extensive listing of hotels, eateries and loads of other interesting places for most parts of Malaysia.

My only criticism of MapKing is that even in its current iteration, the interface is user unfriendly –for example, when you're in a particular map screen, there's no obvious way of going to the MapKing menu screen (it's accessed when you tap on the screen).

Worse, unlike other GPS mapping applications, MapKing seems to have a strange separation between the map viewing screen and the navigation screen, with the GPS hardware only active in the navigation screen.

You would think that the GPS hardware should immediately be engaged as soon as you open MapKing, no matter what screen you happen to be in.

Nevertheless, you can get used to these strange quirks and once you do, using the Tri-O is pretty straightforward.

Fully charged, battery life is about three to four hours in actual use at maximum screen brightness – never fear, though, since the Tri-O comes with a car adapter by default so you shouldn't ever have to worry that the device is going to run out of juice in the middle of giving you instructions.

Conclusion

At the very reasonable price that Gophers charges you for the Tri-O, there's really no reason not to recommend the device.

Yes, GPS chipsets are increasingly common in mobile phones, but think of it this way – having a dedicated device for navigation means that your driving directions will never be interrupted by an incoming phone call!

So, if you haven't ever tried a GPS before, you might want to take a look at the Gophers Tri-O –it's affordable and it works.

Pros: Cheap; very detailed maps.

Cons: MapKing interface a bit clunky.

GOPHERS TRI-O

(Gophers Technologies Sdn Bhd)

Standalone GPS car navigation unit

GPS chipset: SiRF Star III

Operating System: Windows CE.NET 5.0 Core version

CPU: Samsung S3C2440A 400MHz

Memory: 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM

Storage: SD expansion slot

Display: 3.5in TFT LCD

Battery: 1,200mAH rechargeable lithium-ion battery

Software: MapKing navigation software

Weight: 160g

Dimensions: 90 x 82 x 20mm

Price: RM898 (with Malaysia map), RM998 (with Malaysia and Singapore maps)

Website: www.gophers.com.my

Review unit courtesy of Gophers Technologies Sdn Bhd, 03-8070-6130