Upgrading from an old GPS that I used when riding my bike around town (the Garmin GPS III Plus), this was a world of difference. First of all the size is that of a PDA which is compact enough to carry in your pocket and walk around with it. It comes with a leather case, USB connection, AC and DC cords and a Garmin Travel module from Fodor. It has an internal Lithium battery that cannot be changed by the user. The only external control is a power switch which turns on the unit, toggles between FM and internal speaker, and decreases the light intensity. Everything is operated through a touch screen. I highly recommend a screen protector before operation.
Set up was a breeze. I hooked it up to my PC and updated the firmware which was painless. I proceeded to register the item online to unlock the licenses necessary for operation. I proceeded to charge it and use it the next morning. The signal reception is strong and actually worked in my house which my prior one did not. The screen is large (at 4.3? it is the Biggest of the Nuvi lineup but small in comparison to the less portable Garmin Street Pilot 7500 at 7 inches), sharp and clear and so is the voice direction. The English from the American voice is clear but robotic. I go back and forth between Australian and British Female English voices.
A security feature allows you to lock the device with a PIN that you create and can only be unlocked by you with the PIN or at the factory. I highly recommend activating this option so that if it is stolen, it is rendered useless. Set up requires a clear view to the sky to set a “Safe location”.
Navigation with the menus are easy. The main screen allows simple adjustments such as volume and brightness, or in depth adjustments can be made. There are links to go to your destination, see the map or use the internal card.
A travel card of North America is useful covering major US cities. A short description, phone number, link to go to the location and ability to access through Bluetooth is available.
The FM transmission is easy to set up. Clarity of the voice is decent as is playback of MP3s but no where near the sound quality that an audiophile would appreciate. Clarity of speech for bluetooth communications is good but my callers report difficulty understanding me (it may be due to them using a cellular phone also - since one land line caller had no issues).
Navigation is great. I set my home address so I can always use it to navigate home (mainly to scout for traffic). You can look into category of business or location, enter an address, spell a name or go by intersection. You can also save a location by its latitude and longitude location. From the navigation screen, you can choose the trip computer giving detail about current speed, direction, maximum speed, average speed, trip time, idle time and moving time. Another choice from the navigation screen allows you to preview the directions step by step - to check behind the directions yourself.
Additional features that are helpful include the estimate time of arrival - it gives you a very good approximation of your commute time. I found it useful when planning a trip (i.e. to Business X - the time of arrival is in 35 minutes and I will arrive at 5:05 PM). It is usually within 3 minutes for my experience thus far.
I have not experimented completely with “Avoidance” criteria (U-turns, dirt roads, highways, tolls, traffic) of navigation but there was one time it advised a left turn where it was impossible to do so and another time it advised a U-turn where I told it to avoid it. It did help me navigate out of being lost in downtown DC in the midst of one way streets.
You can visualize your map by having North up, Tracking up (meaning it exposes the map to the direction you are heading) or a nice 3 D feature which is easier to use when navigating in unfamiliar territories. When a turn is missed or you take another route, it automatically recalculates your directions. The vehicle or icon representing your mode of transportation can be customized and more vehicles are available from the website. The map also shows how much distance until your next turn which is helpful for those ‘last minute’ lane changes (which I don’t advocate).
Traffic notification is automatically initiated upon start up and you get 3 months to try it out. It covers major metropolitan cities and the usage fee is $60 USD a year. You don’t need to be on that stretch of highway to see the areas affected by traffic (I can zoom out and see the whole DC Metro and Baltimore region highways - quite depressing when you see what is affected with traffic). It rates degree of severity for traffic congestion and specifies what intervals are affected. Accessing it during a commute is not a wise thing to do but an icon notifies you an incident is occurring. A road is highlighted if it is affected by traffic. A neat feature is that you can select to avoid that road on your ongoing route - I have yet to try that and tried to stomach the “Beltway traffic” (I-495).
I noticed it is not always notifying you of accidents - I do not know the lag time between a slowdown and when reporting occurs since I have seen traffic stopped without notification.
I have not set up 3rd party “POI”s, points of interest, since not many free ones exist in the US. There are a couple of 3rd party sites that require a $5 Paypal fee for ticketing Traffic Lights that are scattered throughout the United States.
Affixing the GPS to the windshield is easy and stable. The DC power cord is obtrusive and an ‘eyesore’ but it is functional.
Additionally, an expansion card can be used to store music. There is only about 600 MB free on the internal memory for storage. I personally use a Sandisk 2 GB card which works without a hitch. Not too much documentation is provided on the use of MP3s other than it can be used and music can be stored on internal memory or the storage media. Sound quality from the speaker is marginally good but no where near what an audiophile will appreciate. There is no equalizer and it has only one speaker. Music is paused when the GPS is system is speaking.
You also have a world clock with up to 5 countries, currency and metric conversion, and a calculator. Too bad it doesn’t include a scheduler and address book - since it would be the most comprehensive PDA to existence.
I never uploaded photos but ’stock photos’ are available to change your startup screen. The quality of viewing images is good. A couple of things that may be useful are a Savers Guide that you can purchase for discounts throughout the US (I didn’t get that yet) and a module for dictionary and phrase guide (mainly European countries).
In summary, setup and use is about as good as it gets. With the added features of Bluetooth and Traffic updates, it is the best as it gets for navigation. It can be used afoot or by vehicle through my personal use.
GPS accuracy is quoted to be less than 10 meters but I set it up on WAAS which has an accuracy of less than 5 meters which does use more battery life.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ITEM - at least until the next best thing comes out.
PROS:
Quality of screen
Ease of use
Versatile and comprehensive data
Compact size and light (6.2 oz)
Can be used in any type of vehicle including your own two feet
FM Traffic reports - worth its weight in Platinum if your area is covered
Upgradeable to 4 GB using an SD card (with the latest firmware upgrade)
CONS:
Single speaker
Lack of CD for internal software (However, you can write to technical support to request a disk if you are a US customer)
Limited internal memory for MP3s
Expensive expansion modules and software disks for Europe and other countries
UPDATE: Today there were numerous traffic alerts including notification that an accident occurred on my current route. I proceeded to avoid the segment of highway using the avoidance criteria on the fly. For a commuter, this feature really does make a difference in the experience of driving to and from work with this feature! The 10-15 minutes of my life that I saved was well worth this feature. I am still amazed at how painless this was.