Sunlight and GPS

sora72

Member
Aug 22, 2011
80
1
I took my vtab with me on a trip between VA and NC over the weekend and the stand alone GPS worked great. Just make sure to calibrate it first. Haven't tried sunlight viewing though.
 

Interceptor2k

Member
Aug 7, 2011
2
0
Thanks for the feedback about GPS. That is really the main feature I am looking for.
I want to be able to use it as you would any other GPS, and want to make sure that sunlight does not wash out the display.
 

SEMIJim

Senior Member
Aug 20, 2011
359
23
Thanks for the feedback about GPS. That is really the main feature I am looking for.
I want to be able to use it as you would any other GPS, and want to make sure that sunlight does not wash out the display.
I'll let you know by the end of the day, probably. The GPS is one thing I was also interested in, tho not the primary thing, by far. More a "Gee, that's a neat bonus" :). (What I really want for a GPS is a Garmin Montana 600, but that's currently not in the budget.) I suspect the VTAB won't do all that well in bright sunlight, but we'll see.

Jim
 

SEMIJim

Senior Member
Aug 20, 2011
359
23
Okay, good news and less-than-good news.

It's a lot more readable in bright sunlight than I would have expected. Tried it at just about mid-day, under bright sunshine. Providing the sun isn't over your shoulders, it's actually quite readable. Given even a small amount of shade, it's perfectly readable. But if the sun is shining on it from the angle you've trying to view it: Forget it.

Had a colleague look at it and got his opinion. He agreed with my assessment.

It's better than my phone (Palm Centro). It's better than many dedicated GPS' I've seen. I'd call it "livable," if not "acceptable."

Jim
 

ktackel

Member
Aug 31, 2011
96
4
With a family I can't justify an ipad or other expensive tablet at the moment but felt the Vizio is at a sweet price point so would love a quick overall opinion of the device but as far as the GPS help me out here... most tablets require wifi or 3g so they can get the google maps info to correlate.

So the Vizio does not have 3g and in the car there is no wifi obviously so how does it work? Do you need to download maps to the device first somehow?

Thanks!
 

walrus

Member
Dec 16, 2010
38
0
The GPS chip in the VTAB1008 is quite good,I used it with a map that I cached the greatest error I saw was 30 feet. I have found that you can view it in the sun but it is better if shaded, I have not yet tried it as a stand alone gps unit, as I have not yet found a good gps app. Hope this helps.
 

dornstar

Member
Sep 3, 2011
40
0
I just used my Vtab with CoPilot from Tampa to West Palm this weekend and it worked flawlessly. Looked great in sunny conditions and the GPS is quite good.
 
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