Reviews

Holux GPSlim236 Bluetooth GPS Receiver

ben.hoffman — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:58:00 GMT

If you have a PDA and are in need of a GPS system, the cheapest and in most cases convenient solution is to get yourself TomTom and a Bluetooth GPS Receiver, in the last year or so these devices have become so affordable that you would wonder why you were ever without one. That is why today I am reviewing the Holux GPSlim 236 Bluetooth GPS Receiver.

Figure 1: The Holux GPSlim 236 Bluetooth Receiver

My first impressions of the Holux GPSlim 236 GPS Receiver were that it is solid, and compact, which is good as it could potentially be another piece of technology in your pocket if you were on foot exploring a new area or city.

The top face of the device has three multi coloured LEDs as per figure 1 above. The first LED is the Satellite status/lock indicator, and displays an amber coloured light until it has locked onto the minimum number of satellites to give a lock. The second LED is the Bluetooth status indicator, and will flash blue until it is paired with a device, at which time the LED will stay blue (no flashing). The third and final LED the battery indicator, lights up when the device is nearly out of power, and is also lit green during charging until the battery is full at which time this LED goes off.

Figure 2: Holux GPSlim236 Front of device, with indicator LEDs and mini USB socket.

The front face of the (Figure 2 above) device has a mini USB socket, that is used to connected the included AC Power adaptor, DC Cigarette lighter adaptor or the USB data cable for direct connection to your Laptop/PC (without the need for Bluetooth). It's good to see Holux has all the options covered, but it should be noted that the USB data cable to connect this device directly to your Laptop (without Bluetooth) is not included with the device.

The left side of the device (Figure 3 below) houses the on/off along with an MMCX type antenna connector so should you have a need to attach an antenna for a more permanent setup, on a boat truck motor home, it can be easily accommodated.

Figure 3: The left side of the Holux GPSlim236 with the MMCX antenna connector and on/off switch

The bottom of the GPSlim 236 (Figure 4 below) contains the battery compartment on further investigation, you will note that the device uses a standard Nokia mobile phone battery, this is a great idea, on behalf of Holux and so now if your battery dies, you are not left which some a piece of technology that that is hard to get a replacement battery for, Nokia phone batteries can be found at most shops and are very cheap to replace.

Figure 4: The bottom of the Holux GPSlim236 with the Nokia type Li-ion phone battery

Testing

I tested this device in various positions within my car and under trees, in all positions tested this device was able to get GPS satellite lock. The positions tested were:

Front dash of my car.
In the compartment between front seats.
On the back seat.

These positions were tested while stationary moving and while under trees.

These results are quite impressive, I have previously tested at least 3 other GPS receivers that failed to obtain a lock unless they have direct line of sight to the satellites, which means the device needs to sit on your dash, this means the device is prone to overheating and theft. The fact that the GPSlim236 operated effectively when in the compartment between front seats means it is out of sight and is one less reason to break into your car.

What the Holux GPSlim236 has going for it:

Small and light weight
Great price
Very sensitive, will obtain satellite lock almost anywhere in your car.
Uses a fairly standard Nokia phone battery for cheap and hassle free replacement

What the Holux GPSlim236 has going against it:

Documentation is very basic
Does not come with a USB data cable for connection to PC/Laptop

Rating: Tech-head gives the Holux GPSlim236 Bluetooth GPS Receiver the following score 8.5/10

In summing up the Holux GPSlim236 is a great little GPS device that I would recommended to anyone in the market for a Bluetooth GPS Receiver.

Do you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Do you know of a better device, let me know I will try to do a comparison.

Sony HDR-SR1 - High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder Review

ben.hoffman — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:26:00 GMT

The Sony HDR-SR1 is the world's first consumer marketed High Definition (HD) Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Camcorder, which retails for around US$1,600. The combination of High Definition and Hard Drive technology was a convergence that was bound to happen, with HD recordings taking more storage, Hard Drive Technology giving consumers this space that they require.

The Sony HDR-SR1 uses a new video compression technology called AVCHD which was jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic but because this standard is so new none of the leading video editing suites yet support the AVCHD standard so you are left with the Sony bundled which is basic at best, and importing video into a MAC is not yet supported. There are already plans by the leading Video Editing suites to release versions of their software that support the AVCHD standard, until then MAC users will need to wait.

Front of the Sony HDR-SR1

On the front of the unit is the Carl Zeiss lens with 10X optical Zoom, as with many of Sony's high end consumer Camcorders this one is equipped with the Automatic lens cap that is activated when the unit is turned off and on or changed from capture mode into preview mode. This lens is more than meets the eye, it includes a manual focus ring which is a welcome change in direction from Sony. The last item of note on the front of the HDR-SR1 is the flash for still shots.

Back of the Sony HDR-SR1

The rear of the unit houses the Battery Slot, Adjustable Electronic View Finder, Record button, The Power/Mode selector toggle that will allow you to turn the HDR-SR1 off along with toggle the camera into Video record mode, Photo still mode, or playback mode. To this left of this toggle you will notice several LED Status lights, that inform you what mode you are in (Video Rec, Still, Play Back) or if the unit is charging.

Left Side of the Sony HDR-SR1

The first thing you will notice on left side the Sony HDR-SR1 is three buttons, from top down these are Backlight, Auto/Manual focus mode, and the Night Shot mode.

Next on the left side of Sony HDR-SR1 is the 3.5" 16:9 LCD Screen, and under the screen on the main body of the unit is a USB2 Port, MemoryStick Slot, Playback Speaker, Disp/Batt Info (used to display Hard drive & battery info when camera is off and change LCD display when Camera is powered on) and a slider that is used to open and close the retractable panel located below the LCD Panel and house the cameras HDMI out, AV out, and Component out ports. Finally to the right of the retractable panel is the DC Power port.

The LCD screen is touch screen, which is a fast way of navigating this units menus and is very easy to use. On the bottom edge of the LCD is a start stop record button, Zoom buttons, the home button to take you back to the home menu and the One Touch Burn DVD button which is used to kick off the data transfer mode (via USB2)and with the provided software will allow you to burn a DVD on the fly or backup video to your PC

Right side of the Sony HDR-SR1

This side of the unit is the 30Gb hard drive just under the hand grip, with the wrist strap, and between where your thumb and first finger would be located you will notice the Headphone and LANC jack.

Top of the Sony HDR-SR1

The top of the HDR-SR1 at the front near the lens houses the built-in Dolby Digital Microphone, behind this is the Active interface, which allows connection of additional accessories such as microphones, and lights. Toward the top rear you will find he zoom still photo button along with the OnOff/Mode selector that mentioned when describing the rear of the HDR-SR1.

Sony HDR-SR1 and Video recording

The video quality of the Sony HDR-SR1 is quite impressive, this is due the HDR-SR1's 1080i record and playback resolution which is four times the resolution of Standard Definition, there are some compression issues caused by the AVCHD compression format, but most users won't notice them, its only the Professionals that may have a problem depending on the work they are doing.

In the area of Low light recording the HDR-SR1 showed average performance, giving grainy results at around the 14-17 LUX region.

Sony HDR-SR1 and Still Photos

The HDR-SR1 allows still photos to be take and the following resolutions 4MP, 3 MP 1.9 Mp and .3 MP, Still photos can either be saved to the onboard hard drive or your own MemoryStick (the HDR-SR1 does not ship with a MemoryStick) via the HDR-SR1 MemoryStick slot. The quality of the still images is quite reasonable for a Camcorder.

The Sony HDR-SR1 ships with the NP-FM50 Lithium Ion battery which we found to give around 100 minutes of battery life.

Full Specification of the Sony HDR-SR1 are as follows:

All in all this is a great camera for most consumers. With the exception of the pro or budget buyer, this Camcorder has enough features and WOW factor to keep everyone from the feature focused consumer to the gadget guru more than happy and interested for a long time to come.

The Sony HDR-SR1 has the following going for it:

30gb Hard Drive (HDD)
3.5" Wide 16:9 LCD Screen (Touch Screen)
High Definition (HD) along with Standard Definition (SD) video recording
Up to 4 Megapixel still photo
Manual Focus ring
HDMI jack for Connection to TV with a HDMI input
Easy to use
Dolby Digital 5.1 Support

The following going against it:

Price quite expensive, this camcorder is not aimed at the budget consumer
Some compression issues associated with the AVCHD format
Very limited editing packages support AVCHD.

Tech-Head Rating 8/10

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