Review: WaWay Q4331 GPS


There's been a veritable flood of GPSs on the market. There's lots of products from the big brands like TomTom and Papago, and there's many emerging small companies who are producing their own GPS systems leveraging off the tech and map services of the big boys. One of them is WayWay, who's latest product is their Q4331 GPS system that gives you the option of not one but two GPS navigation services, on top of media options and a ridiculously large (by GPS standards) 4GB storage space.

Under the hood, is a SiRF Atlas III processor at 372MHZ running the show.You've got a nice bit of screen real estate with the Q4331, a TFT colour touch screen with a good 4.3 inches of screen space at 480 x272 pixels. Unfortunately, the screen isn't very bright in intense sunshine, even with daylight colours, so while you won't be driving blind at midday, it can be a little difficult to see what's going on onscreen.

You've given the usual gamut of ports out at the side, namely a 3.5mm audio port, a microUSB port to connect to PC and the charger and finally a microSD port. As an added bonus, you get a stylus as well. You have all the maps for SEA region included here, as well as optional maps for New Zealand, Europe, the Americas and Canada should you opt for them.

As for the dual GPS aspect, you get the choice of either Papago or WayWay's own iGo navigation system. The former pretty much operates like most Papago GPS systems, with its distinct UI, 3D maps and services, while the iGo nav system is a more basic, straightforward system to use that's pretty much foolproof as it is easy to use. However, satellite pairing seems to be slower using iGo, but should it fail you can always fall back on the more reliable Papago system.
Of course, a GPS isn't just a tool for navigation around the world.

It seems to be simply a must these days to have e-Book readers, movie playback and multimedia properties such as music players and photo viewers inbuilt as well. The Q4331 has the whole plethora of this, and while it is a teensy bit small for good movie viewing, it does the rest of these functions just fine, with audio port to let you enjoy it on the go or port it through your car's speakers for maximum auditory enjoyment.

Overall, the WayWay Q4331 GPS is rather decent for a dual GPS device. The satellite tracking could have been a bit speedier and the screen a bit brighter, but generally it is still rather serviceable especially for those who need a simple and user friendly GPS.