Car GPS GURU

Garmin nuvi 255W vs. Garmin nuvi 750

2009-08-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

Garmin 255W vs. Garmin 750

I really could not choose among the Garmin nuvi 255W or the nuvi 750, so I concluded to purchase both to draw a comparison. I will clarify you follow as details below.

Garmin nuvi 255W - Customer Reviews

Advantages on Garmin nuvi 255W

I stuck two units to my car windscreen and typed them many targets to navigate at the same time. I noticed that two units used the identical routes and informed the next turns and road names at approximately the identical time.

However I found that the Garmin 255W was updating my spot on the street be over Garmin 750, about 3-4 times. So 255W was shown the greatly flowing graphics of the car movement together with displayed roads, but the nuvi 750 was shown many convulsive movements. And I felt that the screen on the 255W had a better brightness, clarity and more brilliant than nuvi 750 either on sunlight or nighttime.

One feature which I prefer on the Garmin 255W is the turning graphic symbol in the top left corner, but it doesn't have in nuvi 750. It is a little arrow that appears impending turns and the length to that turn. Garmin 255W also has some symbol such as a crossroad in the street, (for example: a Y crossroad), and what cross-way you will be attaining. Whereas the Garmin 750 only shows alphabets on the topmost of screen for next turns, lacking the arrow. This's just a small special character on the nuvi 255W that I prefer.

One more great feature on Garmin 255W is it can show the speed limit of almost streets that you are driving and the speed limit is displayed on right of screen upper current speed. I noticed that I didn't not often look at milometer since this GPS was clearly displayed my driving speed and the speed limit at the same time. Garmin 750 didn't come with this great feature. And I'm also happy that Garmin transferred the zoom in and zoom out buttons on the nuvi 255W to the identical side of screen that it's easier to use. But nuvi 750's zoom buttons are located separately on right side and left side of the screen.

Advantages on Garmin nuvi 750

Next step I will mention about usefulness features of Garmin nuvi 750 which we never get it on the Garmin 255W. Garmin 750 comes with headphone jack that I think to be great feature, because it can transmit its voice over the frequency modulation radio with the supplied cigaret lighter cord. The nuvi 255W didn't come with the MP3 player and Audio-book player but I could found it on nuvi 750. And one more definitely good thing of the nuvi 750 is the car locater. It is an excellent feature when your car are parked in a large parking area, for example in the Disneyland or the ballpark. Then it remembers your car position when you take away it from your car, afterwards you bring the GPS together with you and it can recognizes where is your car position and navigates you toward to your car. The nuvi 255W doesn't have this great thing.

I also found more advantage of nuvi 750 is the sound directions of Garmin 750 which more pleasing sound than the 255W's sound. The nuvi 750's sounds are given a true woman sound, while the nuvi 255W sounds more strident.

Conclusion

My definitiveness is the Garmin nuvi 255W since I truly prefer the upcoming turn symbol and the speed limit displayed and current speed indicators. I think I don't need the MP3 player and Audio book player, however it depend on subjective satisfaction.

For more reviews : Garmin nuvi 255 review , Garmin nuvi 260W review and Garmin nuvi 765T review.

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TomTom Go 720

2009-08-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

TomTom Go 720 Review

I like the TomTom Go 720. After many tried the Garmin nuvi and only disapponted the software almost as much as the TomTom. Searching addresses is truly swift and you will see only city in the province you are searching in. It means no more need to list through 20 various Springfields to get where you are looking for. You can conceal the keyboard to watch a long list of close counterparts so instead of must to press the whole city or road name, you can simply put the first letters then choose from the lists.

TomTom Go 720 - Customer Reviews

Mapshare

Mapshare seems a breakthrough in the world of GPS car. Does a street assigned to open road, whether it should be close? Only rectify the error with a few quick touch on the screen and it is corrected. What is a breakthrough is the performance for sharing my revisions to all other owners of TomTom. I link TomTom Go 720 to the TomTom HOME software, it downloads corrections which other owners submitted.

Everything that appear on the display can be fully adjusted, if you need the status bar on the side, then you can place it on side or you can place it on the end of screen. And you can also choose what information is appeared in the status bar. You can display or conceal the time, the remain time, distance, current position and current speed. If you delete one of the items on the status bar the others would be automatically bigger for larger space. You can whether choose or not to display the street name, and name of the next turn street.
Text-to-Speech

TTS quality of the language is very well-done, and say whether the instructions for example it say "in 150 feet keep left, then take the exit left, 214B towards Westview" or "in 100 meters, turn left, north-east of Madison Avenue". You have the choices from selection voices, even though I believe that the voice of Dave is the best sounds of the group. If you do not like to listen "keep to lane" suggestions you can turn 0ff this feature, but I personally like it. You can even use your own instructions so for example, you could be set your kid's voice to tell you turn right in 100 feet. I did not try.

Screen

The display is very bright and simple to see, even if I am on my sunglasses. The TomTom Go 720 is able to automatically decrease the brightness when use it at night. Thanks for the light sensor that was replaced into the front of this device.

Mount

The mount is good-looking smart and very simple to use. Only force it up to the windscreen and it adheres right on. The TomTom Go 720 can be turned in any bearing to get it precisely where it's simplest for you to look at it.

Disadvantage is that there are no cases in the box. You need a separate purchase.

For more reviews : TomTom Go 930 and TomTom ONE XL-S

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Garmin nuvi 270

2009-07-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

Garmin nuvi 270

The Garmin nuvi 270 is an excellent little unit for the bill. If you aren't looking for something cutting-edge with Bluetooth technology and just need something that will help you throughout the country (the United States or Europe), then this unit is a good buy. You will receive a free update of maps with the first installation which is great, because the cost is around $ 70 for an update. It is very little, but it has a fairly large screen that is easy to see.

Garmin nuvi 270 - Customer Reviews

This unit is sometimes difficult to find the satellites, but generally it works well, gives a great guidance and has a large database of "POIs". Looking for restaurants (filter type: China, Asian, fast food), metro stations, hotels, shops (again by filtering food, convenience, apparel, etc.), attractions, historic monuments, banks, post offices, etc. It lists the results by use of the distance from your current position. You can also incompletely search for some place which not show on the menu with the function "Spell name", if ever in an unknown (or even familiar) city and think to have an Italian food right now and wonder where the nearest Italian restaurant is, you can just type "Italian Food" in the search. I very like this function since that is fantastic.

Another my favorite feature is the option to select the map to be "Track Up", which simply rotate the map to the same direction as you are. Rotating paper maps was a pain.

In addition, the included power adapter in this unit has this excellent feature that permits you to swap the prongs for those of the appropriate country. It is equipped with 3 types of prongs (USA, Europe, and third, I do not know ... the United Kingdom, perhaps?) that snap into the adapter so if you're bringing nuvi 270 beside you to Europe or anyplace, you can just abandon the U.S. prongs at home and charge your device without a travel adapter. (This is admirable, because if you're same as normal people, you have an only one adapter, and around one million units which have to recharge.)

Minus

Once acquired, the memorability satellite is very bad. Sometimes, the airplane GPS device, as well as the Acura will use a few minutes to get the satellites, especially if the device is moved while turned it off, but once satellites are acquired they hardly lose reception, include when you drive through a tunnel. The Garmin Nuvi 270, just beyond the entrance to lose reception.

There is no operating manual for Garmin nuvi 270 either in the box or on the web-site. Only 11 short instructions leaflets in 11 languages.

When recharge, the unit says it is charging, but never inform you when it is fully charged. I am used to charge it more than 24 hours and look on the screen, it still show "charging".

See more great model : Garmin nuvi 275T and Garmin nuvi 255

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Magellan Maestro 4210

2009-07-19T01:14:00.000-07:00

Magellan Maestro 4210 Review

Maestro interface is very easy to use, even for who are not completely familiar with electronics. At the same time, Magellan was leading the industry with useful innovations like multi-destination routing and pre-loaded reviews attractions such as hotels and restaurants (from AAA). With its 3200 and 4200-series, Magellan Maestro line giving them a SiRFstar III chipset that gives very quick satellite lock and becomes thinner.

Magellan Maestro 4210 - Customer Review

Interface

The instinctive user interface makes the Maestro series unbelievably easy to use. Use large icons on the 4.3-inch widescreen touch screen to search for your target by address, crossroad, or any of 6 million points of interest (the POI), including restaurants, hotels, airports, gas stations and more. You can also touch the icon on the screen for a close target, see name and address, and get an instant route. Turn by turn visual guide directions and said to you all step on the road.

Auto re-route gives you quickly back on the track when you turn or miss a turn. QuickSpell feature ingeniously searches, and checks spelling when entering addresses. The Maestro 4210 offers several options, including 2D, 3D, and TrueView that shows the next turn with a 3D split screen. Maneuver List displays the full turn-by-turn details of your route. Auto night view adapts color and contrast for easy viewing at night.

For more Information : Magellan Maestro 4200 Review and Magellan Maestro 4350 Review

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Garmin nuvi 765T

2009-07-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

Garmin nuvi 765T Review

Garmin continues to development its nuvi 7xx series portable GPS navigators with the nuvi 765T, which complements a number of handy routing and communication features to an already impressive list of specifications, including 4.3-inch widescreen display, text to-speech capabilities, media player and FM transmitter for transmission of sound - including MP3 music and directions and audiobooks - from the device to your car radio.

Garmin nuvi 765T - Customer Review

Navigation

Excellent, as is typical for Garmin devices. A couple of times the voice (Australian Karen) told me that my destiny was on the wrong side of the street.

Display

The map is clear, the refresh rate is fast and accurate information on the screen, including information about upcoming turns and junctions, speed limits and traffic alerts. It is annoying that I can't display my current speed to another part of the information. I have a speedometer. Characteristic of buildings in 3D seems pretty gimmicky, and it rarely does, even in downtown Boston. When there is coverage, the majority of monochromatic blocks of buildings, not the photo-realistic buildings in the screenshots.

Lane Guidance

This function is in the field to date. It is good to drive in a new area, not nervous about it in the wrong lane. I have yet to see the full screen 3D Lane Assist View the output appears on many monitors 765T screen-shots.

Hands-Free Calling

I am impressed with this feature so far. It connected with my phone readily, uploading all my contacts in the process. The ability to dial any point of interest is great. The volume is quite high. I has also tried to sending the audio to car stereo via an audio cable, and the output seems a bit low. I have not tried to play audio in car stereo with the FM transmitter. I called my voice-mail, a built-in microphone and my voice reflects quite well with the engine running. I'm not sure how good it is with the highway speeds.

Suggestions for improvement

Garmin doesn't make it easy to search for the actual coordinates (longitude and latitude) for the selection or points of interest. This information should be available at your fingertips.

For more Information : Garmin nuvi 755T Review

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