Garmin’s Nuvi GPS navigation units are one of the most successful GPS devices on the market. The Nuvi 255W is an upgrade to the popular entry level model Nuvi 205W. To stay current with the other GPS devices on the market, Nuvi 255W adds few features on top of the already capable Nuvi 205 unit such as the text-to-speech and pre-loaded maps.

Screen

Garmin Nuvi 255W boasts 4.3 inch touchscreen with anti-glare coating. The color profiles can be changed for day or night driving. This allows for easier viewing in any light condition. The overall screen size does make it easier to operate. The screen was very responsive to touch with minimal delay. The display quality in 2D and 3D was easy to read. Overall, the screen is easy to read and easy on the eye.

Ease of use

The interface is extremely easy to use. You simply enter the destination or Point of Interest for driving instruction. Some navigation units suffer from frustrating interface and complicated operation. The Nuvi 255W’s interface is refined and easy to understand. The unit comes preloaded with map from NavTeq that includes all of North America, Puerto Rico, and 6.5 million POIs. The mounting kit is not as sturdy or well made as some of the others but it does its job well enough. Overall, the unit is ready to use with minimal effort.

Reliability

The most important part of the GPS navigation unit is its accuracy and reliability. With added text-to-speech capability, the navigation is easier and more reliable than the previous model. You don’t get the “turn left” or “turn right” instead, you get the full street names in relatively accurate manner. It did have some problem with harder street names in Tampa area but overall, the street names were understandable and accurate. The route calculations were up to date and the ability to avoid highways or toll roads were useful in Tampa where there are a lot of toll roads. The signal stayed strong even among the high rise buildings. The rerouting calculations were pretty spot on. I did not try the live traffic feature as I did not buy the optional receiver.

Battery life

The battery lasts close to the advertised time of 5 hours. It was closer to 3.5 hours but that was with heavy usage. With normal usage, you will most likely get close to 5 hours on full charge.

Features

The Nuvi 255W is feature rich navigation unit for an entry level model. The HotFix allows the device to remember the last known position of the satellite. When the device is turned on, it calculates the probably location and finds the satellite signal faster. Also, the 255W can show the topographic view of the area showing hills and valleys. This is not very useful in city driving but could be useful in area with steep driving conditions. As stated earlier, live traffic is possible with optional receiver and subscription to MSN Traffic at $49.99 per year. The ability to send addresses and POI directly from Google Maps or Mapquest is another convenient feature. You can always upgrade your maps or add photo media files via SD card slot. These sets of features should cover most of the needs required by most consumers.

Expandability

Garmin continually updates the maps and firmware. The live traffic service is optional.

Pros

• 4.3 inch touchscreen
• Accurate and reliable
• Plenty of POI
• Easy to use
• Battery life

Cons

• Mounting kit
• Maps little out of date

Want to compare this model to other Nuvi models? Click here to download the spreadsheet.

	Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator List Price: $219.99 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $94.99 Average Rating:

	Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator List Price: $219.99 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $94.99 Average Rating:

Garmin

Garmin navigational equipment has led countless drivers through unfamiliar territory with an unwavering reliability and performance rarely seen in other models. The premier Garmin GPS unit line is the nuvi, currently with over a dozen models to choose from. Today, we reviewed the nuvi 650, a device for the value-minded consumer eager to participate in a share of the bells and whistles.

What a View!

The Garmin nuvi 650 has a 4.3-inch display for easy viewing of maps, photos, and directions in brilliant color. The touchscreen is also easy to view in the sunlight, great for summer driving. Always committed to design, the device is enrobed in a sleek silver exterior that fits well in most cars.

Tough Enough for You?

The nuvi 650 was a supremely durable device in our tests. Rarely will the unit suffer from a lock-up or wild miscalculation, but it can happen on occasion. During normal use, the unit will sync up with the satellites very rapidly, but will occasionally slow down and take a minute or two to complete the process. This is due to the SiRF StarIII chipset, the gold standard among GPS units.
Routing is performed expertly on this device, able to avoid certain routes (such as highways or toll bridges) and rerouting is performed on-the-fly in the event of a missed turn.

Power in the Palm of Your Hand

The battery life on the nuvi 650 is exceptional, with a maximum of 7 hours. However, this could get drained fairly quickly with the built-in media player and varying brightness settings. Even still, the included car adaptor renders the battery unnecessary.

Smooth as Silk

The nuvi 650 comes with an easy-to-use interface that clearly illustrates any upcoming turns, while the arrival timer is highlighted in bold in the bottom-left corner and the distance notifications in the bottom-right. Don’t like getting confused by ambiguous icons? When on the main map menu, the nuvi 650 allows users to set a customized car icon to better identify their vehicle on the screen.

Look at All the Features!

While the nuvi 650 is a fit for even the discerning budget, the feature selection is comparable to a high-end unit. For starters, the 650 is preloaded with City Navigator NT street maps with over six million points of interest. Users can also load the device with custom points, including red-light cameras and school zones. In addition to custom POI settings, the device also features Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature to provide that extra layer of security. For the connected individual, the nuvi 650 comes with optional real-time traffic updates via FM transmission. This will provide immediate data for upcoming construction as well.

Media buff? The nuvi 650 comes with a host of media playback options. Indulge with the MP3 player, Audible player, and JPEG viewer. Travel internationally? The unit even has a built-in currency converter.

Expansion: It’s Getting Bigger!

The Garmin nuvi 650 can be updated routinely with the latest maps from the Garmin website for a small fee. In addition, users can purchase add-on SD cards, known as “Garmin Travel Guides” to provide detailed information on attractions and specific locations.

Pros

• Expansion capability via SD cards
• Six million point of interest (POI) database
• Ability to add custom points of interest
• Media player
• SiRF StarIII chipset
• Currency converter
• On-the-fly rerouting
• Big 4.3-inch screen
• Customized car icons for easy screen navigation

Cons

• Battery life can be impacted by media player usage
• Occasional lockups or freezes
• Occasional slow down in satellite synchronization

Want to compare this model to other Nuvi models? Click here to download the spreadsheet.

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Garmin

The Garmin Nuvi 370 GPS: Your Portable Vehicle Travel Assistant

Want to have something on your vehicle that is functional at the same time? If so, getting the Garmin Nuvi 370 GPS will definitely prove to be a smart choice. The Garmin Nuvi 370 GPS is a vehicle travel assistant which is so handy, reliable and useful for your daily needs that you’ll end up wondering how you managed to survive without it this entire time. The 370 is literally jam packed with amazing features, as you’ll be able to find out yourself.

The Main Menu

The Nuvi 370 has a touch-screen and the features you’ll come across are truly impressive. It looks neat and simple, but there are a lot more powerful features beyond its appearance. Its LCD TFT touch-screen is soft touch and navigating through the menu’s different categories in order to access your desired feature is extremely hassle-free. You can see the list of categories in a well-organized manner, so you can easily go to your desired category or feature. Your route will be displayed on-screen (multiple 2d, 3d, day and night modes), which make it easier for you to read. You can also view the turn by turn instructions that comes as voice, visual or even text directions and zoom in or out easily.

Easy To Use? An Understatement!

Garmin Nuvi 370’s interface has proven to be extremely effective and you can use it anytime, anywhere, even when you’re facing heavy traffic. We’re talking about something pocket-sized, so that you can bring it anywhere you want. Thus, it serves as your very own portable personal travel assistant. With its built-in street maps that show both your origin and destination, you can now travel anywhere comfortably and confidently, without being worried about getting lost. It’s also easy to read, because the maps are displayed as either 2D or 3D images and that makes omitting something next to impossible.

Reliability

The Nuvi 370 is a reliable source of everything you need when traveling. Everything you want to know will appear on the screen incredibly fast and information such as what you’re looking at in terms of travel time is always available. You can get the approximate time and conditions just like that, from route to arrival. All of this will give you more convenience, efficiency and even safety when it comes to all of your travel needs, especially if the worst case scenario hits you and you’re facing the risk of getting lost in an unfamiliar place. The Nuvi 370 will save you and, simply put, it will lead you to the right destination easily with its different navigators and its detailed features. Regarding its battery life, you can use it from four to eight hours (depending on the unit’s usage) through a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

Features

Aside from being sleek, innovative and simply looking great on the outside, Garmin 370 GPS is a must-buy thanks to the incredible main features below:

• Built-in 2D or 3D Maps with Turn-by-Turn Voice Directions
• Integration of Traffic Conditions via FM TMC Receiver
• Multimedia Images Slideshow Viewer, MP3 Player, Tools and Many More, which You Can Expand by Using the SD Memory Card.
• Bluetooth-Enabled and Hands-Free Calls
• NavTeq City Navigator NT Street Maps (North America & Europe)

All in All

Once you’ve purchased the Garmin 370, you’ll never look back. Many people find it amazing and very useful in many different ways, especially for road trips and similar occasions. Being worried about an uncertain driving system or traffic issues is now a thing of the past. You can just put all of your maps away and replace them with the Garmin 370 GPS. It’s very portable and no matter what your needs may be, you can consider yourself covered. As far as this amazing product is concerned, the only slight drawback is represented by the fact that it’s not compatible with the MAC OS if you want to download updates.

Want to compare this model to other Nuvi models? Click here to download the spreadsheet.

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Garmin

Garmin has established a solid reputation for their automobile GPS navigation units. The Nuvi 700 series is no exception. The Nuvi 760 retains all the positive aspects of previous versions such as simple design and very intuitive interface and adds live traffic via Traffic Message Channel. Also, text-to-speech and hands free calling via Bluetooth. Most importantly, the Nuvi 760 delivers accurate and precise routing. Some navigation units give routes that are not very optimal or logical. Not so with Nuvi 760.

Screen

Garmin Nuvi 760 comes equipped with 4.3 inch touchscreen with anti-glare that changes brightness according to night and day. The anti-glare treatment is particularly important as it would be hard to read the screen in bright environment. I had no problem reading the screen in bright or dark conditions.

Ease of Use

The user interface is very easy and simple to use. You don't have to navigate through maze of sub menus to get the device up and running. The setting up of the device in the vehicle was remarkably simple. The windshield mounting kit had no problem holding the unit in its place. After plugging in the power cord, the Nuvi 760 took less than 20 seconds to acquire satellite. The built-in FM transmitter was especially useful. You can relay the music and GPS voice prompts through your car's stereo system. Nuvi 760's speakers are adequate but it's much better to have the prompts come through your car's stereo system.

Reliability

I had chance to use the unit in Tampa metro area for about 20 miles. The text-to-speech was really nice with very few mistakes in naming the streets. The route calculation was precise and you can have the unit avoid highways or toll roads. The unit had no problem with losing signal. However, I did not drive in area with high rise buildings or in an area with obstruction to the satellites. I missed few turns on purpose and the unit recalculated routes without problem. The traffic updates were nice as one road did have construction. I was able move around that area. Again, you have to be in the area that has traffic broadcast. You can visit Garmin's website to see if you live in area that has TMC traffic updates.

Battery Life

With internal battery with stated running time of 5 hours, you can use it as personal GPS unit or use it in another vehicle. You will most likely get less than 5 hours depending on the usage. I got solid 2.5 hours on heavy usage.

Features

The Nuvi 760 comes pre-loaded with City Navigator NT maps for entire North American including Canada and Puerto Rico. It also comes with over 6 million points of interest that include ATM, attractions, hotels, restaurants, and gas stations. The unit is capable of live traffic update right out of the box. It has integrated FM traffic receiver that uses TMC Clear Channel. The first three months is included with purchase. Make sure you are in the metro area that is capable of receiving traffic alerts as it is limited to select metro areas. Nuvi 760 also integrates Bluetooth support and media playback. If you travel a lot in unknown areas, this unit has "Where am I?" feature. This feature displays nearest address and intersection as well as emergency locations like police station and hospitals. The Bluetooth connectivity is pretty nice feature if you have a phone that supports the Bluetooth function.

Expandability

Garmin continually updates their product with new maps and firmware updates. The updated map and the traffic service will cost you extra.

Pros

• Nice 4.3 inch screen
• "Where Am I" feature
• Good routing and direction
• Easy to use
• Good rerouting

Cons

• Cost
• Map updates cost extra
• Battery life

Want to compare this model to other Nuvi models? Click here to download Excel spreadsheet.

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	Gilsson 12V Cigarette Lighter Adapter for Garmin GPS Nuvi 650 660 750 755 760 765 775 885 855 850 Zumo StreetPilot C550 List Price: $24.95 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $14.99 Average Rating:

Garmin