Review: Gogopal Q5.0 GPS Navigator with 3D Maps (Singapore and Malaysia)

Review: Gogopal Q5.0 GPS Navigator with 3D Maps (Singapore and Malaysia):

Ever since bought I my first car, I am depending on GPS navigator to travel on the road. I used Garmin GPS navigator, Garmin-Asus GPS phone, and TomTom navigation app for iPhone before.

Recently, I received a Gogopal Q5.0 GPS navigator for review. (Don’t confuse it with “PAPAGO!”) Read on for the detail review, specs, photos and video.

What’s in the box?

gogopal Q5.0 gps navigator package content

The gogopal Q5.0 came in a square box package. Inside the box contains:

• gogopal Q5.0 GPS navigator


• 2GB MicroSD card with SpeedNavi SQ navigation software with Singapore & Malaysia maps


• In-car cradle


• Car charger


• AC Charger


• Mini USB cable


• User manuals and quick start guide

Everything you need for a GPS navigator is included in the box. Don’t need to buy optional item.

Thin and sleek

The Gogopal Q5.0 GPS navigator has 5-inch touch screen display with 480×272 resolution. It is slim (12mm thick only) and has a sleek design with round edges.

The power button is at the top. A stylus pen is hidden at the lower right corner. At the left side, there are mini USB port, MicroSD slot, headphone minijack, and COM port.

You charge and transfer data using the mini USB port. I have no idea what the COM port use for, it is not mentioned in the manual.

In-car cradle has a strong suction cup to mount gogopal firmly on the car windscreen. The cradle also latch the device very tight and not easy to unlatch.

Gogopal Q5.0 GPS navigator review

Gogopal GPS menu

After turn on Gogopal GPS navigator, you need to tap on the “Navigation” button to launch the GPS navigator software, Speednavi SQ. The main screen is simple, 3 big icon: Map, Destinations, Settings.

A “system” menu at the upper right corner allows you to set volume level, check GPS status and system info.

Gogopal GPS search nearby

There are couple of ways to search for a destination using Gogopal. You can search by POI (Point Of Interest) name, Address, Postal Code (Singapore only), Nearby POI, POI category, enter coordinate, and more.

gogopal GPS virtual keyboard

When tapping (use your finger or included stylus) the virtual keyboard for searching, it will grey out the alphabet that’s not available, and displays number of results in bracket. It is handy to fine tune your search, find the next alphabet of your destination search. If too many results, you can narrow down the results by City and Category.

Gogopal gps address search

According to my past experience, searching destination by address often returns no result and useless. Surprisingly, Gogopal’s address search – WORKS! You simply enter destination’s street name and it will return matched streets in database for you to select the correct one (if same street name found in different states).

Gogopal also searches house number so that you get the exact location of the house on a long street. House number search is limited by its map database though.

After setting destination, you will get the map layout but the navigation will not start until you tap on the “Destn” button on the map. That’s a bit confusing. Also, you can also set the location as a “Way Point”, a point on the map where you want to pass through.

Gogopal GPS signal searching is fast, often locking my car position in less than 1 minute while recalculating new route takes 2-3 seconds.

Gogopal GPS 3d map

Gogopal comes with 3D map with 3D buildings which make navigation easier, and easy to locate nearby landmarks. As far as I tested, the included map is quite updated and they actively update the map as well.

Your gogopal comes with a 1-year free map update period. You can purchase 1 more year of map updates for only RM45 after the free update period has expired.

Gogopal GPS navigation display is very informative, including the current street, next exit, next 2 turns, estimated time to destination, distance to destination, etc.

Instead of “estimated time to destination”, I would prefer it to shows “estimated time to “reach destination”, so that know what time I will reach destination at one glance.

Gogopal GPS lane infomation

I love the split window for Junction Zoom and Lane information features. “Junction Zoom” it gives a clear view of the path ahead to help you make the correct turn. “Lane Information” tells you the correct lanes for the next turn or maneuver. No more wrong turning with these helpful features!

When you are on highway, gogopal helpfully shows the rest areas and highway exits along your route. Don’t want to use highway or want a toll-free route? You can change route setting right on the map display.

I have been annoyed by Garmin’s speed limit speech alert. Gogopal use “beep” for speed alert instead, which is much less annoying. There’s option to turn off speed limit too.

Gogopal comes with 9 language voice guidance system: English, Chinese, Malay, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. The user interface can also be changed to 11 languages Chinese, Malay, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish and French to suit your needs.

In the GPS navigation setting, the volume only has 5 level setting. Changing single volume level will make the volume too soft. What I do is setting the volume to maximum in navigation app but adjust the Windows CE system volume.

More than a GPS navigator

The Gogopal Q5.0 GPS navigator runs Windows CE 6.0. When turn on, you see 6 menu icons: navigation, player, tools, system, games, and nav.setup.

Navigation will launch the GPS navigator software.

The “Player” is a media player that allows you to play music, video, ebook, photo and flash.

Under “Tools” are: note, calculator, calendar.

The “Games” has 8 simple games: tetris, snake, chess, gobang, reversi, boxman, linlink, duiduipeng. The system settings include volume, backlight, laungae, etc.

Nav.setup allows you to setup path for navigation software.

Gogopal GPS navigator 3D simulation demo video

Here is the demo video showing gogopal GPS navigator 3D simulation:

Gogopal GPS Specs

• Display: 5.0 inch TFT touch screen with 480×272 resolution


• CPU: SiRFatlasV 533MHz high sensitivity GPS engine


• Flash: 128 MB NAND Flash


• Memory: 64 MB SDRAM


• Operating system: Windows CE 6.0


• Colour: Piano glossy black with silver finished side


• Movie player: Supports WMV, DivX, Xvid, MPEG2, MP4, ASF, AVI and RMVB formats


• Music player: Supports WMA9, MP3, WAV and LRC formats


• Picture viewer: Supports E-album, JPG, GIF, BMP and PNG formats


• E-book: Supports TXT format


• Flash player: Supports SWF format


• Battery: 1200 mAH Li-polymer battery


• Dimension: 127.7 mm x 82.3 mm x 12 mm


• Weight: 175 gram

Price and availability

The retail price of gogopal Q5.0 is RM 499. gogopal Q4.3 with 4.3 inch display also available at RM 299. You can buy gogopal GPS via online or retail outlets. Visit gogopal website for details.

LiewCF’s Buying Advice

I like Gogopal Q5.0 GPS Navigator, the 3D map and split window view are very useful! I would recommend it to friends who need a easy-to-use in-car GPS navigator under RM500.

Editor’s note: I would like to thank Gogopal for giving the review unit. Interesting in sponsoring? I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with me via email.

Review: Gogopal Q5.0 GPS Navigator with 3D Maps (Singapore and Malaysia) is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.