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Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator  | 
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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
List Price: $329.99
Buy Refurbished: $122.95
You Save: $207.04 (63%)
New (30)
Avg. Customer Rating:  2947 reviews
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Native Resolution: 320 x 240
Display Size: 3.5
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 3.9 x 0.9 x 2.9
Distance
Speed
MPN: 010-00455-00
Model: 010-00455-00
UPC: 753759053642
EAN: 0753759053642
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Compact 700 MB GPS navigator with bundled MP3/audiobook player, photo viewer, and world travel clock | | • | Small enough to fit in a pocket or purse; mounts on vehicle windshield with included suction cup | | • | Preloaded with City Navigator NT maps of U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico | | • | Turn-by-turn directions, automatic routing, and 320 x 240 color touchscreen display | | • | Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot; measures 3.87 x 2.91 x 0.87 inches (W x H x D); 1-year warranty |
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| Accessories:
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
What if one device could help you navigate anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, while offering travel tips, storing your favorite tunes and photos, providing translation assistance, and more? That device is here, and it's not much bigger than a deck of cards. The Garmin nüvi 350 is set to revolutionize what we expect from a GPS navigation device, or from any device for that matter. Which nüvi is Best for You?: Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators 
The nüvi 350 is a portable GPS navigator, traveler's reference, and digital entertainment system, all in one. View product demo (requires Flash). |
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A simple touchscreen interface and voice guidance allow you to keep your eyes on the road. View larger. | 
Listen to an audio book or an MP3 while you're on the road. View larger. | Design
With a total weight of 5.1 ounces and slim measurements of 3.87 x 2.91 x 0.87 inches (WxHxD), the nüvi 350 is just right for the pocket or purse. A bright, 64,000-color display dominates the front of the device and a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels means that there's plenty of room for displaying map data and other elements of the device's interface. An SD memory card slot is provided for expansion software, such as a points of interest database, media files and electronic guides (see below). The flip-up antenna includes an MCX-type connector for connecting the unit to an external GPS antenna. Meanwhile, a powerful built-in speaker resides on the back of device. A built-in lithium ion battery will give you for to eight hours of battery life, depending on use. In addition to an AC charger, the unit also ships with a 12-volt power adapter for vehicle charging, as well as a windshield suction cup mount. Fortunately, Garmin has made it easy to interface with the nüvi 350's 700 megabytes of onboard memory, thanks to "plug-and-play" USB mass storage support. Just plug the device into your computer's USB port and you've got instantaneous access to all the audio books, music, photos, supplemental maps and other data on the nüvi 350's internal and SD card memory. Navigation
The nüvi 350 is first and foremost a personal GPS device. Wherever you go -- in your car or on foot-- the device offers extremely accurate position data, thanks to a high-sensitivity integrated GPS receiver by SiRF and WAAS-enabled, 12-satellite reception. Combined with detailed maps of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico the nüvi 350 provides automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, and touchscreen control-- making it easy to find your way anywhere. Plus, the unique "text-to-speech" feature calls out turns by street name, and you can choose from either 2D or 3D mapping perspectives when you're viewing your route on the display. Additionally, the nüvi 350 is compatible with Garmin's GTM 10 FM TMC traffic receiver*, which allows users to avoid traffic tie-ups by simply pushing a button that will calculate a new route. As mentioned, the nüvi 350 comes packed with mapping data for North America, but you can can also load up your custom points of interest. Set up proximity alerts for school zones, safety cameras, and more using Garmin's free POI (points of interest) loader program (available from garmin.com).
Important note about map updates: Due to our high volume of sales, almost every Garmin portable GPS navigator sold by Amazon.com will come with the most recent map version. If you ever do need a map update, you can purchase one from Amazon.com at our Garmin Store. 
The device automatically calculates the fastest route and provides voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions along the way. | Tools for the Journey
Navigation is just part of the journey, and the nüvi 350 is one of the first devices to recognize that. The built-in "Travel Kit" offers an MP3 player, an audio book player from Audible.com, a jpeg-format picture viewer, a world travel clock with time zones, a currency converter, a measurement converter, and a calculator. In addition to the included travel tools, additional software add-ons are available, such as the Garmin Language Guide, with data provided by Oxford University Press. This software suite contains a multilingual word bank, phrase bank, and five bilingual dictionaries. The multilingual word bank and phrase bank supports nine languages and dialects, including American English, British English, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish. Now you can look up and translate more than 17,000 words or 20,000 phrases per language -- right in the palm of your hand. Through the unit's text-to-speech interface, users can get a spoken pronunciation of each entry in the word bank, along with gender and part of speech information. Another useful add-on software package, the Garmin Travel Guide, is loaded with information provided by Marco Polo. These guides put in-depth travel information such as reviews and recommendations for restaurants, tourist attractions, and more at your fingertips. The software allows you to navigate to an address or search points of interest-- places like hotels, restaurants, shopping, and tourist attractions. The nüvi 350 automatically calculates the fastest route and provides voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions along the way. The unit also audibly announces the name of upcoming streets-- letting you keep your eyes on the road while navigating through busy traffic and tricky roadways. And if you stray off course, the nüvi 350 automatically calculates the quickest way to get back on track. *Traffic services available only in select cities where RDS-TMC coverage exists. Requires the GTM 10 FM TMC traffic receiver and subscription fee to enable traffic capability.
What's in the Box
nüvi 350, Preloaded City Navigator NT for North America and Puerto Rico, Vehicle suction cup mount, AC charger, Vehicle power cable, Dashboard disc, USB cable, Carrying case, Quick reference guide
Which nüvi is Best for You?
For a slightly higher pricepoint, Garmin's nüvi 600 and 700 series devices have richer feature sets including: MP3 players, JPEG photo viewers, the ability to receive traffic and weather information, bluetooth for hands-free calling, FM transmitters that deliver audio through your cars own stereo system, and multi-destination routing that will tell you the best way to make a trip that involves several destinations.
| Screen
Size
inches
(w x h)
| Included Maps
| Text-to-Speech
(Directions in
Real Street
Names)
| Traffic
| Bluetooth
| Media
| FM Transmitter
(audio through
car stereo
system) | Multi-
Point
Routing
| Battery
life
(hours)
| Cont. U.S.,
Hawaii, and
Puerto Rico
| AK and
Canada
| Europe
| | nüvi 200 | 2.8 x 2.1
|  |
|
|
|
|
| Photos
|
|
| up to 5
| | nüvi 200w | 3.81 x 2.25
| |
|
|
|
|
| Photos
|
|
| up to 5 | | nüvi 250 | 2.8 x 2.1
| | |
|
|
|
| Photos |
|
| up to 5 | | nüvi 250w | 3.81 x 2.25
| | |
|
|
|
| Photos |
|
| up to 5 | | nüvi 260 | 2.8 x 2.1
| | |
| |
|
| Photos |
|
| up to 5 | | nüvi 260w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | |
| |
|
| Photos |
|
| up to 5 | | nüvi 270 | 2.8 x 2.1
| | | |
|
|
| Photos |
|
| up to 5 | | nüvi 350 | 2.8 x 2.1
| | |
| | FM (with opt.
receiver) |
| Photos, MP3s
|
|
| up to 8
| | nüvi 360 | 2.8 x 2.1
| | |
| | FM (with opt.
receiver) | | Photos, MP3s |
|
| up to 8 | | nüvi 370 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | FM (receiver
included)
| | Photos, MP3s |
|
| up to 8 | | nüvi 650 | 3.81 x 2.25
| | |
| | FM (with opt.
receiver) |
| Photos, MP3s |
|
| up to 7
| nüvi 660
| 3.81 x 2.25
| | |
| | FM (receiver
included)
| | Photos, MP3s | |
| up to 7 | nüvi 670
| 3.81 x 2.25
| | | | | FM (receiver
included) | | Photos, MP3s | |
| up to 7 | | nüvi 680 | 3.81 x 2.25
| | |
| | MSN (receiver
included;
1-year free);
FM (with opt.
receiver)
| | Photos, MP3s | |
| up to 7 | nüvi 750
| 3.81 x 2.25
| | |
| | MSN-enhanced
(with optional
receiver);
FM (with opt.
receiver)
|
| Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5
| | nüvi 760 | 3.81 x 2.25
| | |
| | MSN-enhanced
(with optional
receiver);
FM (with opt.
receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | | nüvi 770 | 3.81 x 2.25
| | | | | MSN-enhanced
(with optional
receiver);
FM (with opt.
receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | | nüvi 780 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | |
|
| MSN-enhanced
(receiver inc.;
3 months free)
receiver);
FM (with opt.
receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | nüvi 850
| 3.81 x 2.25 | | |
|
| MSN-enhanced
(with optional
receiver);
FM (with opt.
receiver) |
| Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | nüvi 880
| 3.81 x 2.25 | | | |
| MSN-enhanced
(receiver inc.;
3 months free);
FM (with opt.
receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | nüvi 5000
| 4.5 x 2.7 | | |
| | MSN-enhanced
(with optional
receiver);
FM (with opt.
receiver) |
|
| | | external
battery
only
|
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 2490 more reviews...
 A TRUE STORY... March 28, 2007
477 out of 555 found this review helpful
I'm sure you're all aware of the new GPS craze that has taken the country by storm, and if you're aware of that then I'm sure you're all conscious of the present war between the GPS manufactures that is taking place. Customers of these products all seem to have different opinions about which is the better GPS, the two most prominent names being TomTom & Garmin. My friends and I decided to find out personally which is the better GPS for North America by taking both the TomTom One (New Edition) and the Garmin Nuvi 350 for a two week drive across the country.
Having accumulated four weeks of vacation time at my job (and being forced to take at least two weeks off this year because of the extensive vacation time I've built up) my brother-in-law and I decided to put our two GPS products to the ultimate test. He (the owner of the Garmin 350) and I (with the TomTom One) set out to end all disputes about which is the better GPS once and for all.
We routed out all our stops the night before and this is where we ran into the first problem. The Garmin 350 lacks any itinerary planning system. I was able to program into the TomTom One all the destinations on our cross-country voyage from start to finish. My brother-in-law had to use a Rand McNally road atlas. We both got a good laugh about this and both agreed this was a definite plus for the TomTom One.
The next morning we headed out. Our first stop the wonderful city of Chicago, which is about a three hour drive from our hometown. We both turned on our GPS units and waited to acquire a satellite signal. My TomTom One is programmed with the latest maps form Tele-Atlas and has all the latest updates form the TomTom website so I was able to acquire a satellite signal within 25 seconds where as the Garmin 350 took about a minute and a half. Not really that big of deal but when you're conducting a test between two GPS systems everything counts.
Our routes were calculated in about the same time and we were off. The Garmin 350 has the ability to pronounce street names (text-to-speech) so it was a little easier to watch the road while driving. The TomTom One still tells you where to turn when approaching new road but only tells you whether it is a right or left turn. So the driver has to watch the TomTom's screen to ensure he or she is making the proper turn. The Garmin 350 wins in this category.
We noticed on our drive that Garmin 350 gave us a route that would have taken about 15 minutes longer than the TomTom One's directions. Also, once we got to the city the Garmin lacked several streets in it's database we wanted to visit. We then compared the Point Of Interest databases in both devices. They both scored fairly low in this category. The Garmin 350 only located 5 out of the 10 points of interest we entered where the TomTom One located just 6 out of 10.
We left Chicago for New York and noticed again the Garmin 350 gave us a longer route than the TomTom One. This time roughly 60 minutes out of the way. Not very reassuring. Once in New York we decided to visit some family & friends, the address database in the Garmin 350 is extensive but not as accurate as the TomTom One. We visited an old high school friend in Brooklyn, the Garmin 350 recognized the address but was about two blocks off when navigating there. The TomTom One located the same address in it's database and was able to navigate us within 30 yards of it. Out of the 7 different street addresses we visited in New York the TomTom One had trouble locating only 1 where as the Garmin couldn't find 4. It was about this time my brother-in-law smirked at me and said, "Wanna trade?"
On to Texas to visit some filming locations used in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." We ran into some road construction on the way there and had to use several detours. The Garmin 350 hiccupped several times during our alternate routes and became very confused. It attempted to recalculate a route for us but stalled. Eventually it did manage to get a route for us but it ran us in a circle and took us back to the road construction we were attempting to get away from. The TomTom One recalculated routes very quickly, the alternate routes it gave us were accurate, and got us to our destination much faster. It was about this time we noticed the Garmin was having trouble determining the turns on our route. Sometimes telling us to turn left only after the turn had already been made.
We spent four total days in Texas before heading to Southern California. The traffic on Los Angles freeways is frantic making it extremely easy to miss your exit. Several times on the route the Garmin Nuvi 350 thought we were on a different road then we were actually on. It quickly realized it's mistake and began to recalculate it's route. The only problem, while in the middle of recalculating (for quit a lengthy amount of time) we missed a key freeway exit.
All in all we were both surprised by how lacking the Garmin Nuvi 350 is compared to the TomTom One. When we started this little adventure we thought both products would have their ups and downs but in the end be close. This was just not so. My brother-in-law has since exchanged his Garmin Nuvi 350 for a TomTom One. After our cross-country road test and at nearly $200.00 less it seems the more logical choice.
 Small, perfectly formed, great performance, highly recommended November 20, 2005
376 out of 415 found this review helpful
Not cheap but you get what you pay for. Points of interest: (a) very compact but has the same screen size as the Garmin C3?0 series (b) screen readable in bright direct sunshine (c) Navteq US database - the best - and you can fit all of Europe on a single 2GB SD card (card and European map are extra) (d) North indicator on map (missing on C3?0) (e) the GPS is extremely sensitive and locks on very quickly - I've had it work on the second floor of a three floor building (f) intuitive user interface (g) nicely displayed map (better than C3?0) (h) optional traffic capability. I'm finally selling my NavMan! The only two features that are missing to make it the perfect GPS are (a) dead reckoning capability (b) integral satellite traffic capability - given Garmin's pace of introduction of new products I wouldn't be surprised to see those next year...
 My wife is in LOVE!!! August 12, 2006
231 out of 234 found this review helpful
And it took an electronic device. LOL.
OK, here is the deal. This product is as good as any GPS I have ever used or seen. It is small and easily carried with you wherever you go (something most of them can't do at all). It can be used in any vehile (caveat, you do not get multiple mounts, but extra mounts can be purchased for $25), and even has pedestrian and bicycle modes. ABOVE ALL it is easy to use, thanks to good software and an excellent touch screen, although a getting started manual would have helped me enormously.
The thing is great at telling you what to do and where to go. There are no second guesses. It says take a right, it highlights the turn graphically and it even tells you the road or route you are turning onto verbally, something most GPS's are missing. Instead of "turn right in .02 miles", you get "turn on to Vista Drive in .02 miles". It even has some landmarks that comfort you along the way.
On of the best features is something my wife experienced on a trip to NY. She is not familiar at all with the roads here on the east coast and was taking a rather long drive to NY to a hotel we had never stayed at. Along the way, she managed to mess up and miss one turn. For her, that could have been a major hassle. I mean, you know what it is like. I have spent as much as an hour getting back on track when I was lucky. Even more time was lost when I wasn't lucky because of detours or road work. One detour in California took me over two hours to recover from on what was originally a 1/2 hour trip. Other GPSs do this too, but this one seems incredibly adept and efficient at it.
When she missed her turn, the system immediately recognized it and redirected her. She lost about five minutes for her goof and didn't have to ask directions or even pause in her travels.
In NY, she used it repeatedly in pedestrian mode to find where she was going. And it worked like a charm even in the confines of all the buildings in NY.
OK, my complaints are why it doesn't get a 5 star rating. Read them closely, because there are ways around a couple of them, but that said, I don't think ANY GPS would get 5 stars from me.
1. There is no "getting started" manual, although it is referenced by Garmin in one of their manuals, it doesn't exist in the package or on the website. All such a manual (which could be one page long) has to say is how to get it working the first time. I will tell you after this how to work around it, but I think it results in a number of these devices being returned in frustration.
2. It does sometimes get confused about the best route. Don't get me wrong, it will get you there and will show you exactly where you are. But when I use it on roads I know, it often isn't optimal. For example, it wanted me to take a road I knew had 10 traffic lights instead of an open freeway in one instance. Or it told me to drive a half a mile out of my way when the left turn onto the highway I wanted was right in front of me.
3. Detour mode is great if there really is a detour. But I accidentally hit this once and there does not appear to be a way to turn it off. I found this incredibly annoying on one trip because I knew it was the best route, but needed details at the end of the trip and the GPS was trying to send me every way but the right way because I accidentally clicked a button. :-(
4. It has an emulation mude allowing it to pre-navigate a trip for you. I thought this would be an INCREDIBLY useful feature. You could practice a complex route before you actually took the trip. But it works at real speed. So emulating a four hour trip would indeed take, well, four hours. Silly indeed. Great for sales demos, but useless for the customer. If someone knows a way around this, it would be a great thing to tell folks.
5. The battery is not customer replacable.
OK, so how do you work around 1? You charge the battery, you go outside to use it the first time under an open sky, and you give it at least five minutes to acquire the satellite positions. It won't work on your couch in the living room unless you are very lucky. It needs at least 3-4 satellites to triangulate your position, and I couldn't get more than one indoors. Outside, it picks up more than enough satellites to get the job done. Oh, and dont' forget to open the antenna. :-)
How about working around 2? Live with it, it is a factor of the mapping software. It ain't perfect, but it is great when you get lost. That one wrong turn is easily corrected. When you are in an unfamiliar area, it really doesn't matter if you use the perfect route anyway in most cases, just that you got there safely. And add to that you always know where you are, and you have something worth every penny. It truly kills the stress factor of driving in an unfamiliar area.
Now 3 is a problem. Don't use the detour feature unless you are absolutely sure you need to take an actual detour. It takes you literally that the route is detoured, and the only way I could find to work around it was to restart the entire trip over from your current location. Something annoying while driving on the highway if you don't have another person in the car to reset it.
For 4, there is no workaround I have found. It makes this mode useless for only the shortest of trips.
For 5, again, you have no workaround. You will have to take it in for service if the battery wears out. IPODs have a similar issue though, so I am used to that. Battery life appears to be 4-6 hours. So when I use it around town or on short trips, I don't even bother to use the cigarette ligher adapter.
Conclusion: Awesome unit. Wins every comparative review I have found. Works great. And gives you peace of mind for you and your family in your travels.
Better than TomTom 910 May 5, 2006
218 out of 225 found this review helpful
I was recently looking to purchase a GPS unit and I had resigned myself to spending approximately $800. The obvious choices presented to me were the Garmin Nuvi 350 and the TomTom 910. For use in the USA, both machines are essentially equally equipped, with large, bright color touch screens and pre-loaded maps. The TomTom also includes maps of Europe, but as I don't intend to travel there anytime soon, this was not a compelling selling feature.
I spent a bit of time in the store using both devices side-by-side. I entered identical destinations and observed how many keystrokes it took to get the machines to recognize the address. The Garmin Nuvi, with a very refined user interface, took significantly fewer keystrokes in most cases. Since the Nuvi allows you to enter the state first, the machine can pinpoint your destination city much more quickly than the TomTom, which requires that you enter the city before the state. As such, you are presented with a (sometimes) very long list of matching cities, which you then must scroll through to find the correct one. Consider, for example, a city name like "Springfield." Once you manage to key in enough characters that the machine can guess the name, it presents you with a list of Springfields, one for each state! There are a lot of Springfields in the US, so you end up wasting considerably time clicking past the ones you don't want.
Now that the addresses were entered (and I was already starting to get annoyed with the TomTom's inefficiency), the machines begin to calculate a driving route. The Garmin found a reasonable route from Paramus, NJ to Cambridge, MA in about 8 seconds, and it took another 5 or so to draw the map and announce the first move. The trip was estimated to require about 3 1/2 hours (reasonable, if not a bit low). On the other hand, the TomTom required more like 30 seconds to calculate the route, plus another 10 or so to draw the map. What's worse, the TomTom told me it would take over 8 hours to reach the destination. Only on a pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday in snow, many years ago, has it ever taken that long!
I figured perhaps some other customer had chosen a route preference that led to this odd path. After searching hopelessly through several poorly labeled menus on the TomTom and failing to see a "shortest distance" or "quickest trip" option, I tried resetting the machine's preferences. Unfortunately, the machine's touch screen registered a finger-touch event right after the reset (I must have brushed the screen accidentally), and it locked in a foreign language I couldn't read. (I guess the first question it asks after a reset is "what language do you want?") There was no "back" button that I could find, and it kept asking additional questions in this foreign tongue. I needed a translator to continue! At that point, there was no sense in playing with the TomTom any further. The user interface was simply one frustration piled on another. Even if they were to update the menu choices to be more logical, the touch-sensitive feature is slightly misaligned, requiring you to press the bottom corner of a button you want in order to get the correct selection. Button presses made in the center of a button often resulted in the button above being chosen. I don't appreciate electronics that waste my time.
The speed of the Garmin's route calculation is more important that simply allowing you to set off quicker, though. If you miss a turn en route, the machine must recalculate your trip so it can correct your path. The Garmin recovers from missed turns quickly enough that it can usually find and announce the correcting route before the next turn. If a machine cannot recover this quickly, you'll simply miss that turn, too, and the machine will set off recalculating another new route. You'll end up in a vicious cycle of missed turns if the machine is off-line for too long. I have not used the TomTom in a car, but given that it was such a laggard in the store, I would want to experiment with it during a missed turn before investing such a large sum.
As for bright light visibility, the Garmin is more than adequate. I have a convertible, and even in bright sunlight with the top down, the Garmin is adequately legible. The built-in speaker, though small, is powerful and clear. Directions are easily audible over the wind and road noise, assuming I've got the stereo at a reasonably low level. The Text to Speech (TTS) feature allowing the unit to speak street names performs well enough to recognize the street without looking at the unit.
The windshield mount worked quite well despite the stiff suspension in my car, my aggressive driving habits, and the fact that it was in the direct sun and heat for several hours today. (The car corners at greater than 0.95g, and achieves about 1.00g in deceleration, which did not so much as shake the unit or the mount. Larger transient forces such as expansion joints also failed to upset the suction cup mount.) The machine snaps in and out of the charger / holder with complete ease.
Garmin's unit is much thinner than the TomTom, and its battery is rated for up to 8 hours of use while unplugged from the car charger (a wall charger is also included). Becaues the unit is so small (think iPod size), it fits easily into a pocket for walking trips, hiking, and biking. It's also very easy to place in a brief case or pocketbook, further protecting your investment when you park.
$800 is a lot of money to spend on a GPS device, but the Garmin has justified the expense with an exemplary machine. With plenty of map data, a very polished and efficient user interface, and simple setup and operation, they have managed to outshine the competition.
As a footnote, I had planned to purchase the Garmin from Best Buy or Circuit City until they told me there was a 15% restocking fee for a returned item. Given the unique nature of this device (you need to like using it IN YOUR CAR, not in the store), this could be quite a loss if you decide against the item. Amazon has no such penalty. However, if you choose the Garmin, I suspect you will never want to send it back! Hope this helps you choose.
UPDATE: After a 1300 mile road trip to Virginia, I am still extremely pleased with the Garmin Nuvi 350. Even gravel side roads off the Blue Ridge Parkway were accurately labeled and present in the map data! No matter where we were, a few taps on the screen brought up a list of nearby restaurants (marked with arrows so you can choose only ones that don't require a U-turn!) or stores. Also, do not underestimate the utility of having a portable, battery-powered device while walking around unfamiliar cities and towns. It's a huge help. In short, this device is a joy to use. Garmin also plan to release Macintosh compatible software in the next several months (according to press releases on their Web site) so that we Mac users will be able to keep our Nuvi's accurate in the future.
Best Regards,
Daniel Wambold, MD
www.ascendiac.com
Very Nice GPS December 12, 2005
131 out of 137 found this review helpful
After extensive research, I decided to buy either the Garmin 2720 or the Nuvi 350. I wanted reliable maps, ease of use, future real-time traffic expandibility. I decided on the Nuvi because the sensitivity of the GPS antennas is much better in urban environments and the small pocket-sized shape. I have now owned the unit for 2 months and used it extensively. Here are my observations:
1. The antenna sensitivity is outstanding. As a test, the first time I got it, I had the unit "find itself" from within my 2 story house. I was on the first floor and not near a window. While I took a shower, it figured out where it was. In the car, it usually finds itself within 5 seconds. The tangible benefit of this sensitivity is that I don't have to mount the Nuvi on my car dash or window. It just sits on the center console of the car.
2. The maps are very good. So far, it's found every place I searched including little local resturants. The time to calculate (or re-route) based on these maps is very good. I have been able to use the unit straight out of the box without any updates to the software or the maps.
3. The readability of the screen is very good. Even in bright daylight, the screen can be easily read.
4. The speaker on the unit does the job but should be improved. At the higher volume settings the sound is tinny and the cheap little speaker just isn't as clear as it should be. I'm not trying to compare to built-in GPS units from manufacturers like Honda but for $900 the speaker should be better.
5. The internal battery seems to last about 3 1/2 hours with the screen on full brightness. Seems reasonable considering the manufacturer says the battery should last about 4 to 6 hours and we all know how manufacturers over state battery life.
6. The Li-Ion battery is sealed in the unit and can't be replaced by the owner. I don't like this at all. Since this product is reasonably new, there is no detail on how much the battery replacement service would cost. I expect we will get taken to town like Apple with their iPod battery replacements. However, Li-Ion batteries are well regarded so the they should last about 1 1/2 years. We'll see. If anyone from Garmin reads this: Don't do it again. It's not good. Convince your design team that a battery cover with a screw isn't going to take away from the coolness of the product.
7. The software has worked fine. One time it came up with a better route and asked if I wanted to take the new route. However, it didn't say how much shorter or faster the new route would be so I could make an informed decision. Minor detail but if you want me to make a decision, give me some relevant information.
8. The product comes with a quick start guide which is all you really need. There is a product manual but it doesn't get shipped. You can get the pdf from Garmin's web site for free. At $900, I would have expected a paper manual in the box. If you want the paper manual, it's around $10 from Garmin.
9. It comes with the capability to play mp3s and audio books. With the built-in speaker, that is a painful experience. Better to hook-up headphones.
10. One feature that it doesn't have compared to other top-end GPS units is the ability to tell current position in Longitude/Latitude. Minor and not needed but what's the harm? After all there is a screen showing 12 satellite signal strengths and your current elevation.
Overall, I think this has been a good decision. Maybe some of the software issues will be fixed in the future. It is expensive but tangibly better than other GPS units on the market at this time.
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