Acer N35 v medion PNA 100

rick40 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2005 Posts: 5

Hi I am looking to purchase my first sat nav system, i have decided on a pocket pc based system and would like any user opinions on the acer and the Medion.
I prefer the look of the medion it looks to me to be more robust than the acer the fact that the aerial is not hinged like the acer also looks like a better idea, does anybody know if either type of aerial is better from a "reception" point of view.

I also like the idea that i can attach an external arial to the medion if neccessary i don't think this is possible with the acer.

Does anybody know which software the medion runs is it a version of navigon? i would like to see some screen shots but the medion site doesn't apear to show any.

Does the medion come with a library of poi's?

The destinator software that ships with the acer looks very good is it possible to purchase an unlock key for the european maps and how much does it cost?

The reviews i have read on the acer say the volume is very good where as i am not sure the same can be said of the medion any opinions?

Any help/opinions would be greatly recieved
Rick

scrumble · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 8:25 pm Post subject:

I'm in the same boat as you. Its either the PNA100 or N35, but I can't decide which.

I've been into Comets today to have go with the Acer N35, and I was quiet impressed with it, although thats not saying much as I've never owned a GPS system and not really had much to do with PDA's other than drooling over a friends Ipaq.

I haven't been able to try the Medion as the only place selling it locally is Halfords, and the staff aren't quite as helpful or knowledgable as Comets, at least on the GPS side of thinks.

So far the two main plusses the N35 seems to have is :

A) Its £110 cheaper (N35 @ Ebuyer : £239 inc VAT and shipping Medion PNA 100 @ Halfords : £349 inc VAT)

B) The N35 is SDIO compatible, so you can use of a plethora of add-ons, such as digital camera's and Wifi. As far as I have found out so far the PNA 100 isn't. It might that the PNA100 is SDIO, but if it is I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere so far. Bearing in mind the £110 difference, you could get a Wifi card for the N35 and still be £50 better off than with the Medion

Yesterday I was all for buying the Medion PNA 100, but as it stands now, having had a hands on try with the N35, I find myself more inclined to buy the Acer. I may just end up tossing a coin Smile

steve404 · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:52 am Post subject: Acer or medion

Rick,
I can only give my findings with the Acer N35, which I bought Mid-April for £240 from Eatay online. I received it from them within 23 hours of ordering(good service), and being a newbie to Sat Nav and PDAs sat down to look through the manual! Basically there isnt one and if you plump for the Acer you will find an awful lot more about it on sites like this.
Anyhow, if you do go the Acer way please be aware that SOME of the N35s have a motherboard problem, nothing serious it just makes the inbuilt clock on the PDA slow down when GPS is running, so I sent it back within 4 days to Acer, post free with a promise of a five day turnaround. Over three weeks later and after several long phone queues, I had a new N35 from them Laughing

anyhow, enough of the poor aftersales, the unit itself is in my newbie opinion excellent, it feels stable and works more than adequately for my needs, is easy to set up and has given no problems. Destinator 3 as you are aware comes on a 256mb SD card and is again easy to install, but once more enclosed instructions are minimal and a visit to the forum is advised for advice, the Destinator website is poor
Destinator is an excellent system but has one or two funnies which you may want too look at, for instance the mis-distancing of roundabouts, easily solvable using forum advice, and its persistance of sometimes wanting to go down one way streets, which can be fun.
Other than that I am very pleased with the system and have learnt how to input safety camera databases etc, which makes the machine more personalised and very efficient at its job.
Looking at your points raised, the N35 does have a socket for the attachment of a seperate 'aerial', but I have found the flip up works really well, even when closed, and folds away neatly for storage.
You can add on Wifi attachments via the slot on the top but this would be at the expense of the SD card for the Destinator.
Any more questions as a prospective Acer buyer please feel free to come back to me and I will try and help. Good luck and hope you make the right choice.

Steve

scrumble · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 12:55 pm Post subject:

So far as I can see, without taking both out for a test run, the only obvious advantage with the Medion is that it has a removable battery. Most likely not of much benefit if its mainly going to be used in a car, but if your using it in the field you do at least have the option of carrying a spare. That said, I've not seen anyone selling spare batteries for the Medion, even on Medion's own website shop.

What is the battery life of the Acer N35 like? I'm assuming that it runs down quicker if your using the GPS.

rother · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 5:26 pm Post subject:

my penniesworth just bought a Tchibo medion PNA100, at £250 i think it is a good buy but i would not pay more. you can get spare batteries from Medions site £19.99 and all the other bits.
i am not an expert but i think the main thing you should concentrate on is ease of use of software and which map software the systems use, the Tchibo uses Navteq they seem okay but are not no where up to date,, the Poi warner is excellent with it and works well with the speed camera pois.
If i was buying again and wanted to spend more money i would probably buy a dell axim pda bluetooth tomtom gps and the latest tomtom maps.

rick40 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks all
A couple more questions
Rother: did you get your medion from a Tchibo store or the net and was it recently because thats a really good price
Steve:does the destinator software come with any info on how much it costs to unlock the european maps i can't seem to find anything on the website?
Scrumble: how come the two systems we like seem to have the worst websites particularly the medion one its crap i emailed them yesterday asking for some info and they still haven't got back and the faq section on the destinator site just gives you a tel no so i'm thinking your idea of tossing a coin is looking good

scrumble · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 12:17 am Post subject:

Just found another thread on this forum:

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=101483

Seems like we're too late any way. Medion do this quite a lot, selling their gear cheap through various shops on one of deals, but usually only in limited numbers. Lidl and Aldi are usually favourites.

Believe it or not The Medion site has actually gotten better. I've had a Medion laptop for two years, and when I first bought it the site didn't even have a product list.

The Acer seems a little confusing. The site defintely says " European maps can be unlocked via additional subscription". When I asked in Comets they said it came with european maps, and no mention of having to pay extra to use them. The Comet site also says the same thing,as does Amazon and Ebuyer.That would be a big sticking point for me, as one of the reasons I'm looking right now is that I'm going on holiday to France this year.

Rother: Can you tell me if the Medion is SDIO compatible ie. so you can plug various SDIO gadgets through the memory card slot?

youngun · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 19

i've got the Acer and IMO I think its great. The software seems good and I haven't found any problems with it, (other than sometimes thinks roundabouts are 3 miles away when they are only 2, but this is easily fixed).

I can confirm that it comes with the european maps on a CD, that have to be transferred to the SD. I'm going to buy a bigger SD so I can have all European and UK maps on one SD. You still have to select which map you want to use, so you can't program one route across 2 countrys Sad

Hope that helps. The battery seems ok until you use the GPS then it doesn't last to long especially when I use it in the car I have the speaker and backlight on max. So I leave it plugged in to the 12v supply. That is the only bad thing I have to say is that the power socket is a little flimsey.

rother · Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 7:29 am Post subject:

Ric you must have missed other posts i bought it over the net, i subscribe to the Tchibo mail so new it was coming to sale but they went in the same afternoon.
SDIO not sure says nothing on the box or the instructions, i have nothing to try it with, i think someone at work has a sd tv card so i could ask him to try it in my machine.
I did see on the forum that plusman was after info re a wi-fi card being compatable you could see if he has has success.

The other thing i forgot to add re the navteq maps is that for Germany they include a large selection of cycle routes, which is handy for me as we spend some holiday time in germany.

scrumble · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 12:03 am Post subject:

Having read another thread on this board

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=20540

I think I may well be looking to get a seperate gps & pda setup. The very valid point that the bluetooth unit can stay on, while the pda saves its power, and keep a lock is a key factor.

It also means I can pick a better PDA, with more memory and wifi, although it does push the overall cost up.

The only problem with that is that it now opens up even more possible PDA's to choose from, and if I choose between two, what chance do I have with 200 Rolling Eyes

:D

steve404 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 5:30 pm Post subject: Acer n35

Rick,
The Acer N35 is supplied with unlocked GB and Ireland Maps on the SD card and the pack also contains CDs which cover the rest of Europe, but these require unlock codes available at http://moremaps.destinator1.com
these unlock codes are $79 each, hope this helps Wink

Steve

rick40 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks again everyone
Steve that is just what i was after that seems a very good price for the europe maps.
Scrumble had a look at that thread not sure how come you would need to hold an integratedGPS system at arms length to recieve a signal while a BT reciever will happily sit in your pocket and stay locked on, unless BT arials are more powerfull than built ins. Steve says his Acer is ok even when the arial is folded down. What i am trying to say is that if you put a "built in" in the same place as a BT arial it should work as well as the BT shouldn't it? maybe i am missing something!

scrumble · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 7:43 pm Post subject:

Its obviously down to what you want, and if I'd already bought the N35 I'd be more than happy with it, in fact if Comets had one in stock (the one I tried was only for demo) then I would indeed have one by now

But for me a wifi PDA is a bit of a must, and to do that with the N35 would require a wifi SDIO card, which would also mean I lose the memory card at the same time. Virtually every gadget I have uses compact flash, and I've bought them with CF in mind so I have just one type of card which can be swapped as needed.

Going down the bluetooth track means I can tailor the setup more to what I want.

No doubt when I've got my gps setup running I'll be wishing I'd bought the N35 anyway Laughing

youngun · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 19

Vivaro · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 10:54 pm Post subject: Medion pna 100

I have had my medion for about a month now, and I cannot fault it, I travel all over the north and it has never failed me, The unit comes with maps from all over Europe and I just copied them onto my SD card and they work.
I have just downloaded the speed camera details, now what do I do, can I just copy them over to my new 512mb card onto the UK map and go, or do I have to subscribe to anything,
Help please

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