Garmin Nuvi 855 : Go with Garmin 855. It’s a winner

I opted to upgrade to the 855 from a 250W which needed map upgradeing. The new features of the 855 include voice to text commands, the FM transmitter, and lane assist.

The FM transmitter allows receiving the audio from the 855 through the FM radio in your vehicle. It turns out that this is an essential feature as the audio output of the 855 is insufficient to be heard on it;s own. I was able to set the audio output of the 250W to 70% with good claritiy and definition. The 855 with the audio output set to 100% was totally inadequate. The problem may be due to the placement of the speaker in the 855.

The voice to text commands work flawlessly to navigate without having to touch the unit for simple direction input.

The lane assist feature is nice. The display time could be a bit longer as it could be missed if you pay more attention to the road than the unit itself when approaching complex intersections and ramps.

I like the ability to download driving instructions from Google Maps. That is a feature available for the 250W as well, although I was unaware of it. Things that are not addressed in the “Quick Start” instructions that come with the units. Put the full instruction manual on a CD or a chip to better educate customers as to the full capabilities of the GPS units.

I spent a good bit of time familiarizing myself with competitive units and kept coming back to Garmin for features and value.

Garmin Nuvi 260W : Amazingly Accurate

I bought the GARMIN nüvi 260W to help with work and family travels. After extensive research with Magellan, Mio and Tom-Tom, I bought the Garmin for three reasons. 1) Ease of use. 2) Screen clarity. 3) Amazing accuracy. And no, despite where I live, I have no affiliation with Garmin. I don’t even know anyone that works for them. I am in the architectural business.

I have tried several GPSs while traveling with business associates, friends or in rental cars. As such, I have seen them in real world action. All of the devices saved me time and most found the place I needed to be. I could used any of them and been somewhat satisfied.The problem: I am a perfectionist. As such, I want the unit to be the best. So, after using a text-to-speech Garmin GPS unit earlier this year, I knew that was one feature I could not live without when I pulled the trigger on a purchase. Text-to-speech is a must have on GPS. A MUST. If you have never used a GPS, trust me, you have to have text-to-speech. It eliminates the frustration of urban driving and having the non text-to-speech units tell you to turn right in 200 feet, only to find two roads that are 200 feet away and have to pick one and hope it is right.

I decided to wait until a wide screen GPS came out that didn’t have so many bells and whistles and was priced fairly. The GARMIN nüvi 260W 4.3-Inch fit the bill. Pulled the trigger still knowing that GPS units drop in price every month it seems and I would knowingly be mad in 90 days when the unit was 20% cheaper (oh well).

Back to the GARMIN nüvi 260W…I am amazed how it can find the driveway of my house at the end of a cul-de-sac directly adjacent to a road that is named the same. It is so accurate that it lets me know if I pulled into the wrong driveway 15 feet away from mine (I know, I tried it). It is so easy to use; I didn’t even use the manual – once. It is that user friendly. I even downloaded new voices via the Garmin site without a manual. I like the fact the screen is very clear and refreshes quickly. I can even use my polarized sunglasses with the Garmin 260W screen and it does not distort the screen colors or have numerous horizontal lines (if you use polarized glasses, make sure to try out any GPS screen before you buy. Many look blank when using polarized glasses).

The POI seem to be pretty good, but I really haven’t used it long enough to evaluate POI depth. I do know that the maps seem to be fairly accurate in terms of new roads since I have yet to find a road that does not exist on the map.

Not everything is perfect with the Garmin 260W. The downside is the time to acquire a satellite. The 260W takes longer than I like…sometimes up to one minute. However, once it gets a hold of the satellites, it never looses them. Plus it gets such a strong signal (with no external antenna); I can use the device on my lap in the passenger seat (when I am not driving and after it finds a satellite). Another couple of downers are it has very few voices that work with the text-to-speech feature. I hope Garmin increases the choices via a web download in the future (I want celebrity voices…please). Plus, I would have liked a case, any case to be included for the price I paid.

Overall, the unit is amazing and the larger screen size of 4.3 inches really helps those with fat fingers and those that don’t want to squint to read a map. I am just sorry I had to wait this long to own one. It is a must have for those that travel to unfamiliar areas.

Garmin Nuvi 780 GPS : Great Device and Easy to Use

This is my first automobile GPS, and I did a lot of research before settling on the Garmin 780. I live in the Washington DC Metro area, so all of the extra features work here. Upon its arrival, I downloaded and installed the latest Garmin WebUpdater v.2.41 and then updated my 780 from software version 2.50 to 2.90. I also updated the Bluetooth and other firmware, along with the languages that I use. This all worked flawlessly in a Windows XP virtual machine on a Linux host. FWIW, the 780 will charge off of the supplied USB cable.

The 780 acquired the necessary satellites in just a few minutes when first activated, and does so in less than a minute for subsequent activations. I found the screen brightness to be fine for both day and night. I’m using the 780 with the Garmin Portable Friction Mount. Smashing windows and stealing GPS devices is the sport of choice in the DC Metro area, so I wanted no evidence of a GPS extant when I left the car. The friction mount works perfectly on my Honda Accord dashboard and stores easily in the center console, leaving no trace of a GPS behind. Very cool. The 780 easily fits in a shirt pocket, so it’s not necessary to leave it in the car.

I tested the 780 immediately by driving during rush hour to a residence across the river in a tangle of park roads off of the beaten track, then returning at night. The Garmin had no trouble creating a very fast route to the destination that bypassed most of the heavy traffic during rush hour. On my return, I bypassed a turn on its preferred routing. It recalculated a new route in less than a second which was the exact right answer. The new route wasn’t a recapture of the original route, which wasn’t possible from that location, but an entirely new route. The routes it picked were appropriate for the times of day traveled, which can be a daunting task here if you don’t know which roads go which direction during the appropriate rush hour. DC is a notoriously difficult area to navigate, but so far the Garmin seems up to the challenge.

I found the volume of the internal speaker to be more than adequate even with the radio, air conditioning, and windshield wipers going. Voice notifications led upcoming turns by an adequate amount, and the voice prompts always helped me get into the correct lanes in plenty of time for upcoming turns. During a particularly tricky section where several major roads converge on a bridge, then diverge on the other side, the Garmin gave almost constant appropriate guidance to ensure that I took the correct forks and turns. I was quite impressed.

The Bluetooth paired quickly with my Motorola Razr V3. It even provided its PIN code at the appropriate time. The phone functions work great and it’s easy to hear over the 780 speaker. The party on the other side of the phone said that I sounded like I was in a tunnel, which is typical for remote devices for autos. I have another BT hands-free device and it garnered the same comments. The Garmin’s on-screen phone cues make hands-free easy.

Activation of the MSN Direct service was simple over the Net. On initial activation of your free 3 month trial, they offer a 6-month extension for $9.95 which gets you to 9 months of service total for less than $10–a very good deal. MSN Direct information took a while to load the initial information, but then it said that in the Quick Start pamphlet. Once loaded, the traffic, weather, and news worked great. Gas prices were behind by several days, which is an eternity these days. My favorite (and cheapest) station wasn’t listed.

Overall, I’m very happy with the 780. I’ll be working it out heavily in the coming weeks, including on a road trip to another city with MSN Direct service. I can’t believe that I waited this long to take the plunge to a GPS device for my car. Even though I’m a master with maps, the Garmin suggested a clever routing that I did not previously discover on my own. From what I’ve seen so far, the 780 will be a highly valued addition to my road warrior kit bag. I can recommend the 780 without reservation.

Garmin Nuvi 885T : Best GPS

I’ve had 4 previous GPSs: a Lowrance (a good early model), 2 models of Garmin nuvi (both very good), and currenly a GPS that’s built into my Mini Cooper that is so poor (adore the car, detest its built-in GPS) that I bought this Garmin to use instead – and it was well worth the money. The voice recognition is fast and accurate. The mapping and redrawing of screens is very fast, as is the recalculating of routes. Entering addresses is such a breeze using the querty keyboard on the very responsive touch screen that I haven’t bothered to try speaking the addresses. There are lots of settings you can change to meet your needs/preferences.
The part I especially value is how easy it is to find stores and other POIs (Points of Interest) near you location. If you just touch your car symbol, it will tell you where you are, the nearest address, nearest intersection, nearest gas station, nearest hospital, nearest police station. If you need to find a specific store or restaurant or business by name, just tell it the name and it will quickly list all with that name in order of nearest to farthest from where you are. Or search for one by category (e.g., grocery, restaurant, Italian restaurant, hospital, police station, etc.)- just say the category or use the touch screen. I will never buy a GPS where you can’t SPELL OUT THE NAME OF THE PLACE YOU WANT TO FIND (e.g., “Tim Horton”) as well as being able to find it by category: Some GPS’s – like my Mini Cooper’s (adore the car, detest its built-in GPS) force you to guess at what category the manufacturer put it in (I never did find Lowes), and won’t let you search by spelling the name.
And there are loads more features, many of which I don’t even use, though they are neat. Just the things I’ve mentioned make this unit well worth the money.

CONS:
Please note: Even though the model number has a “T” at the end, the lifetime traffic does not come free with the model as it did with previous “T” models (and as some sellers – not Amazon – will tell you this one does). In this case , the “T” just means it comes with the traffic receiver – you must pay a subscription fee to get traffic after the 3-month free trial. Bummer. Had I realized this, I would have purchased the cheaper non-T model 885.
Also note that all addresses in your favorites list/address book are listed in order of closest to farthest from you current location, not by alphabetical order as I would prefer. I wish Garmin would offer alpha-order as an option. But since you can easily just spell the name of the place you want, this extra step is really just a minor inconvenience.

The next time I shop for a GPS, I probably won’t even look at other brands, just Garmin.

Garmin Nuvi 360 3.5-Inch Portable GPS : New nuvi user

We were apprehensive about the technology and probably don’t know everything involved, but we were able to use to unit for our first long trip in a long time. We actually enjoyed using the Garmin 360. We especially got a kick out of the bluetooth feature. Both the driver and the passenger were able to talk hands free. We don’t reget the purchase and look forward to using it in the future.

We were apprehensive about the technology and probably don’t know everything involved, but we were able to use to unit for our first long trip in a long time. We actually enjoyed using the unit. We especially got a kick out of the bluetooth feature. Both the driver and the passenger were able to talk hands free. We don’t reget the purchase and look forward to using it in the future.

Garmin Nuvi 775T : Impressive and great price

Garmin has a somewhat confusing product line, which is somewhat alleviated by a reasonably good online guide on the manufacturer’s web site (you select the features you are looking for, and it narrows down the choices to fewer and fewer models until you find what you are looking for);

I was specifically looking for a model with both North America and Europe maps, capable of supporting multiple languages for speech synthesis (so that my non-English speaking parents could use it as well), traffic information, lane assist, and pretty good UI.

I had narrowed my choices down to the Garmin nüvi 775T and the Tomtom 930T, but eventually went for the Garmin for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I am a little biased, having used their aviation panel mounted models for a few years and I knew that Garmin makes excellent units. I was also impressed by their customer support: they replied to a couple of questions I had about their products pretty quickly, even though I hadn’t bought the 775T yet.

This is a feature rich device; I haven’t had time to play with all its functions yet; it is able to get a satellite fix even in non optimal situations (such as tree coverage, tall building, even indoors if a window is nearby); the routes it picks look quite reasonable (by the way: do not try to make it compute ’silly’ routes, such as asking it to compute a driving route from some place in California to some place in Europe… the unit will get stuck and might require a hard reset). The user interface is very intuitive IMHO and presents the information in a very concise and effective manner (important while driving!)

So overall, I am very satisfied with this purchase, especially at the price that was offered on Amazon (significantly cheaper than what I had found elsewhere).

A couple of things in no particular order:

The safety lock feature is neat (you can protect the unit with a PIN, and if you dial the PIN wrong too many times, the unit can only be unlocked by returning to a ’safe location.’ Sounds neat, until you realize that it is easy to misdial the PIN (until you get used to the touch screen I suppose), which might be a snag if you do that many miles away from said ’safe location’, for instance, when on vacation. I disabled that feature as a result.

The manufacturer’s web site was not specific enough IMHO about which voices were provided ‘out of the box’ for the speech synthesis function (where it speaks the instructions and street names); it turns out that the nice customer service representative answered that question promptly. Note that not all the voices / languages provided can speak the street names (e.g., the various English, French, Spanish, etc. voices can, but the one Arabic voice cannot)

If you choose a voice of a different language than the locale, its pronunciation of the street names can be a bit puzzling at times it does however a remarkably good job most of the times (I went out of my way to try to confuse it ).

Finally, don’t forget to download your one free map update (you’ll have to choose between either the North America or European map for this free update), and the free firmware updates. There are also pretty neat applications available (which combined with some Google Maps features, e.g., possibility to overlay the contents of GPX files that the unit can export onto Google Maps, increase the possibilities.)

Garmin Nuvi 765T : Great so far

I received my 765T a few days ago and love it so far. After reading some up and down reviews, I wasn’t certain what to expect. I am pleasantly surprised.

To start, the unit’s volume is plenty loud, even at highway speeds. The screen is readable at all times, and automatically changes to a darkened “night mode” at night – very easy on the eyes. You can force it to day or night mode, if desired.

The map’s movement and fluidity is tremendous. It has a very natural looking motion at all times. Garmin claims the unit updates at 10fps, and it seems to be about that. I am still deciding if I prefer 3D or 2D mode yet, but both are great. I tested routing on a few trips and the navigation worked perfectly. Directions were given in plenty of time, and repeated at appropriate intervals. When just driving (not navigating) the green bar at the top displays your current road, and even displays the next exit when driving (not navigating) on major highways. This was unexpected for me and really cool! The voice on the unit is clear.

The overall feel of the software is great. The menus move quickly and seem logically laid out. You can add categories to your favorites to better organize them. This helped a lot, since favorites are sorted by default via distance from your current location. Creating folders for your favorites works very well. You can even add a picture (and phone #) to your favorites. Very nice!

As for Bluetooth: I paired the 765 with my Blackberry Storm easily, and everything works flawlessly. My phone’s contacts transferred immediately, and I can call Points of Interest and people from my contacts easily, with 1 touch. I do not have any of the bluetooth issues described in other places. No issues at all. So I’m either lucky or maybe there is some inconsistency in the hardware. More likely, different combinations of cell phones and GPS units lead to varying results. IMPORTANT: I did update the unit to it’s latest firmware, which many say have helped their bluetooth connections.

I haven’t been to an area with a traffic reception signal yet, so I can’t comment on the traffic function.

All the other niceties work well for me also: The picture viewer, MP3 player, etc all work as advertised. I even put 1 of my pics as the startup image.

In conclusion, I am very pleased with the product so far. This is a great product that I would highly recommend.

Garmin Nuvi 760 : Great for the Price, Works Very Well

Easy to set up and use. Sound quality okay. All functions work well. Would like to have a spell search on favorites in addition to distance from current location. Bluetooth connection with a RAZR (V3) was easy and works great. Imports phonebook from phone. Downloading updated maps can take over 2 hours but works well. You get one free opportunity to download updated maps within the first 60 days of GPS use. I read reviews where touchscreen requires harder touching than other units but I did not find that to be the case. Garmin 760 Device quickly acquires satellite fix and generated trip plans seem to work well. Normal trip from my home to my work has a shorter route, but there is a faster route I normally take. The 760 offered me the same faster route to take. I do have the “faster route” setting set. Overall very pleased and with the price what it is, a very good deal.

Garmin Nuvi 265WT : Great GPS with advanced functionality

The 265WT is (literally) THE way to go! It’s an easy-to-use GPS. It has voice turn-by-turn instructions (including street names), free FM traffic for life!, and hands-free Bluetooth capability. The graphics are great too. The antenna is built in and very sensitive.

The FM traffic is a great feature, and unlike other models, it’s free for life with the 265WT. While commuting, I can easily see where traffic is congested or stopped, and my Nuvi 265WT routes me around it. Isn’t technology great!

For the price, the 265WT is a great value considering the advanced functionality. I can’t think of a better GPS with all of the features I need and will frequrently use. The hands-free Bluetooth speaker quality is okay, but not great.

Note: Like all Nuvi’s, the 265WT is fairly intuitive to use, so you won’t need a printed manual. You can download a PDF manual from the Garmin website. Garmin saves lots of paper annually by not including a printed manual with the unit. Way to go Garmin!

Garmin nuvi 255W : Love it! A GPS skeptic now believing

I recently purchased this model and am very glad I did so. I did a lot of comparing between the 255w, the 265wt, and the 750.

I have held off from getting any GPS unit for a long time because I have a book of maps for the United States and I have always been able to update the travel “atlas” and supplement that with free maps from the internet via Google, Yahoo, etc. (yes, being cheap). Plus, I’ve always heard that there are “quirks” with any GPS being accurate, having POIs, etc. I even drove with my in-laws who had an older Garmin and I really didn’t think it was that useful.

After researching this thoroughly, I decided this may actually save me the headaches of getting maps and wondering where there are internet connections to check for maps when traveling – and it has!

First, after hearing and reading many great reviews about Garmin and it’s maps and features (even fun ones like the Garmin Garage), I was sold on that brand.

Second, because I was a skeptic of these devices, I expected it not to be perfect. So, while it doesn’t have every single Wal-Mart, Panera, etc. on the maps, it does have quite a few. If you think about it, depending on what you find interesting, I’m sure you could label 6 million points in each state – let alone all 50. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like the longevity of an establishment has any bearing on whether it is listed. So, if you think that a Wal-Mart is so interesting that it should be on your nuvi, then add it as a custom POI. Basically, I’m impressed that it has as much as it does in the memory it has.

And the directions are good. The point of a map is to get you from point A to point B. This does exactly that. One location my wife and I were going, though it was a short route and we knew pretty much where it was, it showed us a shorter way that we hadn’t yet discovered. On the same trip, it also took us a slightly longer way to finish the trip (apparently it was thinking that its route was faster than traveling a more direct route on a slower road). Regardless, it did exactly what we expected it to.

Third, the features on the 255w are great for me. The 750 has multi-point routing, which I would have really enjoyed, but, as a workaround, you can always add a Via Point on your route. It is truly not the same as you are still determining the route yourself while the 750 is determining the best route for you, but I will live without that to have the newer interface. That newer interface, as another reviewer has mentioned, gives you speed limits on some major roads, shows you your current speed, puts the zoom buttons closer together, changes text size to give you road names, and shows you the direction of the next upcoming turn near the distance to the turn. It also has a “hot fix” which finds satellites faster – which is very useful for starting your trip immediately and great for recalculating routes very quickly. I guess you could say I traded that for the 750’s MP3 player, audio book, the “where did I park” feature, the FM transmitter (for listening to the directions via your car stereo), the included dash friction mount and USB cable for connecting to your computer.

Comparing this to the 265wt, I basically traded the cheaper price for not getting traffic (with ads – supposedly non-intrusive from most reviews) and Bluetooth to my phone (which you have to check to see how much will actually sync with your individual phone).

I don’t travel so much that traffic concerns me and I have a Bluetooth headset, so, no need for the Bluetooth in the nuvi. Again, as other reviews have mentioned (comparing the 750), no need for a USB cable when any USB to mini USB cable (which I have from phones, cameras, etc.) will work, and no need for MP3 player, audio book, “where did I park” feature, when most phones and/or mp3 players will take care of all of those features as well (parking can be a quick note on the phone for example – or even a pic with the camera phone if you are verbally challenged to describe where you parked).

Finally, I love the eco-route features. I like that I can choose the most fuel efficient route (which is usually longer/slower) and that I can have a driving challenge where this nuvi actually attempts to score how efficiently I’m driving. Makes the trip fun (for me the cheapskate).

Bottom line, I love having a GPS, and comparing the features and options for what I wanted to pay, there’s not anything better for me than nuvi 255w.