When the Pharos Traveler 127 mobile phone debuted late last year I was pretty excited. I mean, after all, it’s a GPS-focused handset and the nuviphone was nowhere to be found. But I never did manage to get my hands on one, and given a PCMag review of the device I may avoid it altogether.
The business-oriented Windows Mobile Traveler 127 has a spec sheet as long as my arm. And while specs are always important, they mean nothing if usability sucks. That seems to be the case with the Traveler 127. It isn’t even easy to dial a phone number! But at least the GPS focus would redeem the handset, right?
Nope. PCMag said the Ostia GPS application the Traveler 127 uses takes an eternity to launch, after which (at least for them) it crashed numerous times. Not good. However, once the GPS actually got going its performance was good despite not having text-to-speech conversion.
Overall, if you’re looking for a smartphone, PCMag says “there are few reasons to choose the poorly tuned Pharos Traveler 127 over scores of other unlocked smartphones.” Noted.
