Review: Keomo Bluetooth GPS Receiver

If you're looking to turn your smartphone or PDA into a satellite navigation tool, you'll need some GPS software and a GPS receiver.

As its rather descriptive name suggests, the Bluetooth GPS Receiver from Keomo takes care of the latter.

Being a Bluetooth model, it will connect to your PDA or smartphone wirelessly. Of course, your PDA or smartphone will need to have Bluetooth in order to do this.

It's a little bigger than rival models such as those from Royaltek, but not so big to make it a problem to carry around. The left side is home to the power switch and an external aerial socket, while a USB port sits on the right.

Three lights are placed on the top of the receiver and indicate power, Bluetooth and GPS status.

In an effort to boost battery life, the Bluetooth GPS Receiver uses what Keomo calls a Fuzzy On/Off power saving mode. This leaves the receiver in a standby mode until it detects a Bluetooth connection, when it will then leap back into like.

The battery will last for up to 360 hours or 30 hours if in constant use, which is pretty impressive.

The pack includes an AC adaptor (the version we had used a two-pin European plug) along with an in-car power adaptor. Both the AC and in-car adaptors hook up to the Receiver using the included retractable USB cable.

Keomo also throws in a small anti-slip mat on which to place the GPS Receiver - this is especially useful when situating the receiver on the dashboard of your car.

During testing it worked extremely well. It took under a minute to fire up and locate orbiting GPS satellites.

It's also capable of retrieving signals quickly if, for example, you've just come out of a tunnel.

Despite the range of features and bundled extras, at £64.99 the Bluetooth GPS Receiver from Keomo is one of the cheaper models on the market.

As long as you don't mind its slightly bulky nature, it's a quality GPS receiver.

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