Finally I went for the G33 which has a MT3318 chip made by MediaTek (best known as MTK). This chip features 51 channels, Ultra Low Power and High Sensitivity, WAAS, a 20 hours battery, 5hz Update Rate and Auto Off.
Pictures might not be very professional (I’d say blurry), but hey! this is my first unboxing ever and I just wanted to take the time to make a point here and help a few folks out there to make a decision on which piece of GPS hardware they want to buy.
USPS Envelope (no wonder it took SSOO long to arrive) Just Kidding, thanks to buyGPSnow.com for the free shipping!!! |
The back of the envelope, lots of seals |
Finally the box!!! just as it was pictured in the buyGPSnow.com site, Let’s see what’s inside |
The back of the box, where they tell you this product is intended for use with PDA’s and Smart-phones |
Time to finally open that box!!!! |
When you open the box, you find a plastic casing containing all the juice, the only thing outside the plastic case is the CD with the manual (you were not expecting a printed manual did ya?? come one, this is the XXI century!!!) |
The back of the plastic case, where you can see the battery and the USB car Charger |
We open the casing and finally have access to the contents. The GPS is held by a cardboard while the battery and the charger are wrapped in plastic bags and nicely fitted in the plastic casing |
What’s inside:
- GlobalTop G33 (Left)
- Battery (Bottom)
- Car Charger (Right)
- Universal PDA vent mount (Top)
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As you can see the G33 is really small. Here it is next to the my Dell Axim X51v |
Last shot was not a fair size comparison, here it is next to the iGO Stowaway Bluetooth Mouse. now that’s small!!!!!! |
The battery in its plastic bag, it’s a Lithium Ion battery of 3.7V. battery life is supposed to be 20 hours, but that is yet to be seen |
Nothing new here, a mini USB car charger |
This is the GlobalTop Package, The G33, the car charger, the Li Battery and the CD |
The battery compartment, located in the back of the GPS, the device is very light weight even with the battery inside |
The whole enchilada, this is what you get from buyGPSnow.com all the GlobalTop package PLUS a Universal PDA vent mount, so you can conveniently use your PDA+GPS as an in-car navigation system |
This is the vent mount after taking it out from the plastic bag |
And this is the Universal PDA Vent mount in its full glory!! |
My Dell Axim on the Vent mount |
As you can see my PDA fitted nicely into the mount which is cleverly designed to accommodate all kinds of smart-phones and PDA’s |
After all the unboxing fun and no matter how eager we are to try this baby out, we have to fully charge it for four hours before its first use. |
Our first trip together!!!! the next morning after fully charging it I went for a ride through the city… but that story I’ll save it for my full G33 Review. |
Great review! Thanks a lot and we cannot wait for your full review of G33.
Thanks.
Love the drama
Can’t decide on this one or m1200 or g66 or an iblue810..
I like the 5hz option. Do you plan to use it?
How many mAh is the battery?
Hi Jeremy, I see you’re inclined towards the MT3318 chip (all of the GPS’s you list contain this chipset) and let me tell it’s a great choice.
The 5hz is really a new feature among GPS’s and most commercial software out there does not take advantage of it, as far as I know it’s only used in some very specific (and quite expensive!) military and automotive application, but your average map software would only go as low as 1hz. Anyway is nice to know it’s there same with the 51 channels as there are only 27 Earth-orbiting satellites in the GPS System.
As for the battery current I looked everywhere but could not find a value, I would say it’s around 1200 mAh, but is just my impression I could be terribly wrong, the only thing I could tell you for sure is that it really last longer!!!
Pardon me if this is an ignorant question, but will this receiver support turn by turn (verbal) instructions? I’ve seen several others list this so it makes me think it’s a receiver function rather than a software function (which I would have otherwise expected).
Hi Rich,
No wonder you’re confused, sometimes information posted on sites can be misleading and as I said on my post there’s not much information out there.
The voice command feature as you said is a feature of the software not of the receiver; the point where it gets confusing is that you can buy a GPS in 2 different ways, first you can buy a full blown GPS Device that has embedded software that supports voice commands like Magellan or Garmin devices, or you can buy a GPS Receiver like this (Globaltop G33) that is just a receiver design to be used in conjunction with a PDA or Smartphone whereas the software will be installed in that device. Then again you have 2 options, you can get the receiver bundled with navigation software or just get the receiver alone, maybe what you saw was a receiver like this that was bundled with a navigation software that supported the voice command feature and that got you confused, but as I said it is a feature of the software, not of the receiver.
I hope I was clear enough to answer your question.
Juandg – Great review for your first time. You have coverred an unboxing the way it should be done. Anybody reading your review will have no doubts about the contents/packaging etc. Don’t worry about the photos not quite right – you’re not looking at an international award for photography – you’re passing out information. Now I’m trying to find the review ofthe device with this much detail in explination it should be a ripper.
Is this an american site? Will the car charger work in my Australian car? Just on the slim chance someone knows the answer.
@Josh: The charger will work in the US and Australia (and Europe as well) at least on all the cars I’ve driven. I had sirf III bluetooth GPS receiver with car charger that I order in the States. It charged perfectly on business trips to the US and Australia.
Dave is right, as long as I’m aware these car chargers are universal, I live in South America and the charger works on all cars sold down here, my car is made in Korea (Kia) and my wife own an European car (Škoda) and the charger works perfectly on both.
hi,
sorry this could be a repeat post- lost the first one somehow.
i’m new to all this so be patient … do you need a data plan with your wireless carrier to get driving direction using your gps receiver with your phone? can i use my phone charger with a mini usb to charge this receiver?
thanks for any
Hi mike,
The GPS device (like the one I’m unboxing) only “calculates” your actual location according to some satellites signal, this service is COMPLETELY FREE and provided to you by the U.S. Department of Defense although it’s available WORLDWIDE.
The device itself won’t give you any driving directions, those come from an application (software) that you install on your laptop, pocket pc or Smartphone, and this app would use the GPS to obtain your current location and then it calculates a driving path to your destination point. Depending on the software you’re using those driving direction could arrive in real time, through a cell phone network in which case you would need a data plan and your operator WOULD CHARGE YOU, or they could be preloaded in your laptop or pocket pc in which case you could “update” the “directions database” whenever you’re connected to the internet at home or work.
The GPS device can be charged with MOST mini usb car charger, but as these vary on the operation voltage and output current there would be a few that won’t work, but the good news is that this GPS device comes with its own mini usb car charger, so you won’t have to worry about that kind of things.
Hope I could help…
Good bit of info juandg — you’re the top google result for GlobalTop G33 review.
I’m like so many others, looking at a few BT GPS receivers, but one feature I’m *very* interested in doesn’t seem to get much mention on reviews; maybe you will know what the answer is.
Can you use it as a USB GPS receiver if you connect the “power-port” mini-USB port to a computer? Have you tried connecting the GPS up to a PC or laptop via USB? Does it present itself as a USB-serial bridge, and does NMEA data stream over the new COM port, or is it only useful for updating the firmware?
I know that the Holux M1200 supports this feature, it includes a USB to serial bridge which streams NMEA data — it’s not just for firmware updates and charging. The i-Blue GPSes seem to not stream NMEA data though, unless you do some hardware hacking with a soldering iron.
I know it is primarily designed to use BlueTooth, but sometimes I’ll want to use my GPS with a computer without built-in BT, and adding a USB BT receiver to communicate with a box that already has a USB port seems a bit ugly. Plus there are other times I wouldn’t mind running a wire between the GPS and a laptop, and I’d like to take advantage of the power savings of not having to run two BT transmitters (however slight that might be).
Thanks for the unboxing review. I’m very new to smartphones and GPS, but have my first smartphone arriving today (HTC 8125). I really need GPS since I get lost for a couple hours every time I go downtown.
The price is right and affordable (thanks for the link – same price as eBay but includes a mount!).
How has your experience been thus far? I looked for the full review but didn’t find it. So put simply, would you recommend the G33? I don’t need something super amazing, just get me from point A to point B nicely. Most of this is the software from what I can tell. Is this receiver good? Do you have any software recommendations for WM (looking at TomTom Navigator)?
Hi Russel,
The G33 is a great device, it’s reliable, easy to use and just the right size, it has a ton of features and some of them even exceed normal expectation for a GPS (it has more channels than the total number of satellites in the GPS system and it has a 5hz capture frequency when the fastest commercial software can only reads data at 1hz).
The car charger and universal mount is a very nice plus as I use the GPS mostly when I’m in my car and ith both of my devices (Dell Axim and HTC S621).
If you need it to get directions the device is very accurate, it gets a fix very fast and it’s compatible with most commercial and free software (I haven’t found an incompatible application so far). I don’t have a particular recommendation on the software you can use, try to search which has the best maps for your area.
GREAT information here. I am very new to GPS receivers. I know just enough to look stupid. LOL. Anyways, my question to you or anyone who knows, would this device work with a Blackberry Pearl. I bought an IOGear GBGPS201, and it doesn’t work with the pearl. I keep getting an “exception” error message. I tried a friends older BT model receiver and it worked without a problem. I have blackberry maps and did not install the mapping software from IOGear onto my pearl. I need someone to tell me what Serial Port Profile means, and if the blackberry supports it. ANY advice would be great. I told you I was stoopid…..
Just curious, but what GPS software do you use on your s621?
Hi,
can you tell how fast it is? How much time does it take on average to get a fix? I have an n810 which has a quite unusable GPS inside. It won’t get a fix for minutes and it needs very good conditions to work at all and thus I’m planning to buy a BT GPS receiver as an add on. This g33 and the holux m1200 sounds very good. Though I’m a bit sad about the fact that there are less and less mobile devices with replaceable batteries as it can be very helpful if your battery discharges. (Actually it would even save battery lifetime as you wouldn’t have to charge half-charged batteries, just take a spare with you.)
Hi,
I recently bought a HTC Touch Smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1 and downloaded Google Maps as well as a program called Apic Approach. Both require a Bluetooth GPS to operate. I am a pilot and I plan to use my GPS for additional navigation information. Have you ever heard of people doing this before?
BTW… Your post and those of your followers finally made me decide on the GlobalTop G33. Thanks for the info everyone!