Garmin nuvi 1350/1350T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have this unit for 10 days now and overall I am very happy with it.For its mainstream feature, navigation, it is excellent.I had a Garmin 350 before this which I loved but it was stolen from my car. I had a Magellan after that which was crap. The price on this unit was great ($247 - Amazon).

I chose it over the 1390T because I opted to not get bluetooth. It is the only difference between the units. I felt the bluetooth quality would be poor based on other reviews of bluetooth in general on GPS units. The main reason was in the way most people use bluetooth.In a typical day I am in and out of my car often.I always need my bluetooth immediately in case I get a call.I don't always need my GPS.And since my previous unit was stolen, and theft of these units is a big problem everywhere, I keep the unit hidden or sometimes remove it from the car.So if you are like me but you get this unit for bluetooth, you will need to stop and mount your gps everytime you get in the car whether you need it or not, just to have blue tooth capability. If you forget and the cell phone rings, you have no bluetooth. So I purchased a separate bluetooth speaker phone from Jabra (very good unit# which is always attached to my visor, pretty good quality, and always there when I need it. I saved about $75 by opting for the 1350T over the 1390T.

A few minor disappointments.The Lane Assist feature works great but is not available everywhere. I used it around NYC and it was helpful.I drove through Pennsylvania and upstate NY and it was not available.Marketing material hypes this feature but they neglect to tell you this one point. But when it is available, it is a great feature.That brings me to traffic.Same story here.I was driving through PA and hit a 1 hour traffic jam.No warnings from the traffic feature because it was not available in that area.When I got to the Scranton, PA area the traffic alerts started working.It alerted me of a major traffic jam ahead and it even rerouted my trip automatically.The reroute would have been a significant addition in miles but would be worth it to avoid the traffic, right?I decided to ignore the re-route just to test the unit to see if the alert was accurate and I was willing to endure the traffic.As I drove my original route, no traffic anywhere. So had I listened to the traffic alert, I would have driven 50 miles out of my way for nothing. Bottom line is, don't let the traffic feature be a deal breaker for the unit you choose. But then again, I got the 1350T for about the same price as the 1350 #same unit without traffic). Updating the map was more difficult than it should have been.I consider myself a very technical person with computers and gadgets but the map update did not go smoothly and took me several tries. I could see where many people will have difficulty with this if they attempt to update the map.

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Product Description:
The widescreen nuvi 1350T adds free traffic alerts to the nuvi 1350. In addition, this ultra-thin GPS has preloaded maps for North America or Europe, announces streets by name, guides you to the proper lane for navigation, offers pedestrian navigation options and calculates a more fuel-efficient route with ecoRoute.
Ultra-thin, affordable, feature-rich navigation with traffic alerts. Click to enlarge.


With nuvi 1350T's widescreen display, you'll always get the big picture. Click to enlarge.


Easy-to-use touchscreen interface. Click to enlarge.


Preloaded with nearly 6 million points of interest. Click to enlarge.


Includes a wealth of travel tools and more. Click to enlarge.


Navigate City Transit
With its enhanced pedestrian navigation capabilities, nuvi 1350T is the perfect travel companion for getting around town. Download optional cityXplorer content to help you navigate city public transit. Know where to walk, where to catch the bus, subway, tram or other transportation and how long it will take to get there. cityXplorer maps are available for select cities throughout North America and Europe. And with prices as low as $9.99, you'll have money left over to spend in the big city.


Take It With You
Twenty-five percent slimmer than other nuvis, you can take the ultra-thin 1350T anywhere. It easily fits in your pocket or purse, and its rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot.


Know the Lane Before It's Too Late
No more guessing which lane you need to be in to make an upcoming turn. Lane assist guides you to the correct lane for an approaching turn or exit, making unfamiliar intersections and exits easy to navigate.


See More
With nuvi 1350T's widescreen display, you'll always get the big picture. View map detail, driving directions, photos and more in bright, brilliant color. Its sunlight-readable, 4.3-inch display is easy to read--from any direction.


Get Turn-by-Turn Directions
nuvi 1350T's intuitive interface greets you with two simple questions: "Where To?" and "View Map." Touch the color screen to easily look up addresses and services and get voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that speak street names to your destination. It comes preloaded with detailed City Navigator NT street maps, nearly 6 million points of interest (POIs), 2-D or 3-D maps and the speed limit for most major roads. Its digital elevation maps show you shaded contours at higher zoom levels, giving you a big picture of the surrounding terrain. With the 1350T's enhanced user interface, you can slide your finger to conveniently scroll between screens. You can also upload custom points of interest (POIs). And with HotFix satellite prediction, nuvi calculates your position faster to get you there quicker.


Receive Free Traffic Alerts
Steer clear of traffic with nuvi 1350T's integrated FM traffic receiver and free lifetime* traffic updates. Receive alerts about traffic delays and road construction that lie ahead on your route. Next, simply touch nuvi's screen to view traffic details or detour around the problem area. Watch informational video


Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nuvi 1350T saves you gas and money with ecoRoute--a green feature that calculates the most fuel-efficient route, tracks fuel usage and more. The 1350T includes many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. With photo navigation, you can download pictures from Garmin Connect Photos and navigate to them. It's also compatible with MSN Direct (receiver purchase and subscription required). With its "Where Am I?" emergency locator, you always know your location. Simply tap the screen to get your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and fuel stations. The 1350T features Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and is compatible with our free Garmin Garage where you can download custom custom voices and vehicles. Enhance your travel experience with optional plug-in microSD cards.

Lifetime traffic extends for the useful life of your Garmin traffic receiver (as long as you own a compatible Garmin GPS) or as long as Garmin receives traffic data from its traffic supplier, whichever is shorter. Traffic content not available for all areas. See www.navteq.com/rdstraffic for traffic coverage areas and www.garmin.com/traffic/fm/navteq.html for program License Agreement containing complete terms and conditions.

What's in the Box
nuvi 1350T, pre-loaded City Navigator NT for North America, lifetime traffic, FM traffic receiver with vehicle power cable, vehicle suction cup mount, dashboard disc, and quick start manual.

Which nuvi is Best for You?

Note: All nuvis come with detailed NAVTEQ maps containing more than 6 million pre-loaded point of interest locations.
Device

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Garmin nuvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I actually could not decide between the Garmin Nuvi 255w or the 750 model, so I decided to buy them both for comparison. I mounted them both to my car windshield and gave them various addresses to find together. I found that both models took the same routes and announced upcoming turns and street names at practically the same time. One thing I noticed about the 255w was that it was updating my position on the road more often, I'd say about 3 times as often as the 750. This made for smoother graphics on the 255w of the vehicle moving along displayed roads, where the 750's display was more of a "jerky" movement. I also found that the display on the 255w was a bit brighter, clearer, and more vivid than on the 750 in both daylight and at night.Another feature I like on the 255w is the graphic turn indicator in the upper left corner, which the 750 lacks. This is a small arrow which shows upcoming turns and the distance to that turn. It also show things like a fork in the road, (ie: a Y intersection), and which fork you will be taking. The 750 just displays text on the top line for upcoming turns without the arrow. It's just a little extra feature on the 255w which I happened to really like. The 255 also automatically adjusts the font size of displayed text so that even lengthy text will fit.
Another feature on the 255w is a display of the posted speed limit on the road which you are currently on right above your current displayed speed. I found myself not even looking at my car speedometer as I could easily see my current speed and the speed limit of my route at a glance. The 750 doesn't have this feature. I also like how they moved the zoom in (+) and zoom out (-) buttons on the 255w to the same side of the screen which makes it a bit easier. On the 750 the zoom buttons are on opposite sides of the screen.
Now there are some features on the 750 that the 255w does not have. The 750 can broadcast it's sound over your FM radio with the supplied cigarette lighter cable, and it has a headphone jack, which I found to be nice features. The 750 also has an MP3 player and an Audio-book player, which the 255w does not. Another really nice feature of the 750 is the car locater. This is a great feature if you are parking in a really big lot, such as at an amusement park or a fair. The 750 marks your location when you remove it from the car, then you take it with you and it remembers where you parked and takes you right back to your car. The 255w doesn't have the car locater.
I also thought the the voice prompts of the 750 where more pleasant sounding than the 255w's. The 750 sounds more like a real female voice, where the 255w sounds more robotic.
Another thing to consider was that I paid $50 less for the 750 and it came with the FM transmitter cable and a USB cord to connect it to your computer for updates and downloads.
My final decision was to keep the 255w and return the 750 because I really liked the graphic turn indicator and the posted speed limit and current speed indicators. I didn't find a need for the 750's MP3 player and Audio book player, but that is up to personal preference. Since the USB cable was not included with the 255w, I purchased it on this site for $10. I also intend to purchase the MSN direct cable when it is available in August 2008.

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Product Description:
The 255W features predictive technology that provides faster satellite lock, a redesigned screen with more information, terrain maps, and an exciting new photo navigation feature. The 255W adds complete maps for North America and Text-to-Speech, so you get turn by turn spoken directions with the real names of streets (e.g. "turn left in 50 feet at Nebraska Way", rather than merely "turn left in 50 feet"). The 255W also offers a wide 4.3-inch (diagonal) screen that displays 70% more of the road around you.

The nuvi 2x5 models all sport the slim design that Garmin introduced with the 200-series last year, so they all fit comfortably in your pocket or purse, and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that makes them convenient for navigation by car or foot.All of the models include useful travel tools like a JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more.
Important Product Information: This device features a "screen lock" feature. This is a standard feature on all nuvi 2x5 and 7x5 Garmin units. If you slide the "Power" key to the right, it will lock the screen and prevent any accidental touches. Once the screen lock feature is engaged, the screen will go black/gray after about 15 seconds to save power on the device. To unlock the screen, just slide the "Power" key to the center position. This feature is really targeted for "Pedestrian" mode so that a user can put the device in his or her pocket/purse and quickly unlock the screen instead of powering on/off continuously. For more information, see page 5 of the product manual.

Key Features/Benefits for all 2x5 Series Navigators

HotFix (Long Term Ephemeris Prediction) finds satellites faster (Learn more)
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Basemap shows 3D shaded terrain features (Learn more)

Faster 333 Mhz processor offers faster, smoother map drawing and vehicle icon motion through turns

Redesigned user interface offers more information (Learn more)
Photo Navigation lets you upload geo-coded photos from a phone, geo-coding camera or photo site and navigate to them. (Learn more)
Send addresses directly to your Garmin from Google Maps or Mapquest (Learn more)
Automatic Time Zone Transition
Text-to-Speech gives directions with real street names
4.3-inch Widescreen shows you more of what's around you as you drive (Learn more)
Memory Card Slots so you can add maps and travel guides, or store photos (MicroSD card slot on 3.5-inch units; SD card slot on 4.3-inch units)
Preloaded Maps with Navteq data of North America + Hawaii + Puerto Rico, including 6.5 million searchable points of interest (Learn more)

Rechargeable lithium-ion battery for easy portability (up to 4 hours per charge)
Custom Vehicle Icons let you personalize your navigator (Learn more)
Integrated Antenna for a slim form factor
Where Am I? -- instantly shows you all of the emergency services nearby (Learn More)

What's in the Box
nuvi 255W, Preloaded City Navigator NT for North America or Europe (full coverage), Vehicle suction cup mount, Vehicle power cable, Dashboard disc, Quick start manual
Which nuvi is Best for You?:
Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators

Learn More

Improved Interface

One of Garmin's key product philosophies is to make extremely complex technology easy to use for anyone right out of the box, and perhaps nowhere is that better exemplified than in the user interface for Garmin's portable navigation devices.

Garmin's interface is a key to their success part of what makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nuvi takes you there with turn-by-turn voice directions, 2-D or 3-D maps and smooth map updates as you navigate.

This year, Garmin has redesigned its interface to include much more useful information.

Old Interface

New Interface

HotFix™ – aka: Satellite Ephemeris Data Prediction

Your GPS device locks onto transmissions from a dedicated network of Satellites in order to determine its position. Until the device gets a "lock" on three satellites, it can't effectively navigate, so decreasing the time it takes for your device to get "satellite lock" is always a goal of GPS manufacturers. With Garmin's new HotFix technology, your Garmin GPS remembers the position of all satellites it is tracking when you turn it off, and calculates their movements in order to predict where they should be the next time you turn it on. This gives the device an idea of where it should look for satellites, and dramatically decreases the time it takes for your Garmin to get its position and start navigating. HotFix can predict satellite positions for up to 3 days after the device was last turned off.

Using Garmin's unique Web site - Garmin Connect Photos - users can choose from millions of geo-located photos provided by Google's Panoramio photo sharing community and download them to the nuvi for a richer navigation experience using pictures as a guide.

Navigate by Photo

Using Garmin's unique Web site - Garmin Connect Photos - users can choose from millions of geo-located photos provided by Google's Panoramio photo sharing community and download them to the nuvi for a richer navigation experience using pictures as a guide.

Choose from Panoramio's collection of photos from around the world.
Easy to use interface displays photos on Google Maps.
Search for photos by location name or map area boundary.
Transfer photos directly from Garmin Connect to device with the Garmin Communicator.
View photos in Google Earth.
Supports Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2+, Safari 3+ on Windows and Mac.

3D Terrain Maps

Shaded relief terrain maps show you when to expect hills, mountains, forests and other natural features. Topographic terrain maps are viewable when using the 2D "birds-eye" view.

Send Addresses Directly from Google Maps or Mapquest

tching to try out a new restaurant, or setting off on a road trip to locate the best toffee apples on the east coast? Now, it's easy to search for locations on Google Maps or Mapquest, then transfer the addresses directly to your Garmin GPS navigator.

Hook up your Garmin to the computer via it's USB port
Search for the location you want
Click the Send link in the info window for the address. That will bring up a popup "Send to" form.

Pick GPS, then pick Garmin and hit the "Send" button.

The address will instantly transfer to your Garmin device, The point will be saved as one of your favorites, and you can navigate to it or view it on a map just like with any other favorite.
The process does require a small plugin, which you can get at Garmin's website at http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3739. You can send business addresses to your Garmin device from these countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Search for the location you want.


Pick "Send to GPS".


Go!

Traffic-Capable for Either FM Traffic or Enhanced MSN Direct Content

FM Traffic

With an optional receiver, you can get alerts from TMC Clear Channel about traffic tie-ups and road construction that might lie ahead on your route. All you have to do is simply touch the screen to view traffic details and you'll be ready to detour around any problem area. And if you end up missing a turn, or you're forced into a detour that is not relayed through the traffic receiver, the nuvi's sophisticated automatic routing will get you back on track in no time.

In most areas, TMC Clear Channel traffic broadcasts are continuous - there's no waiting for scheduled traffic news updates or random alerts. Because traffic broadcasts are received via a "silent" FM data channel, you can still listen to music or news programming on your car radio without interference from incoming FM traffic data transmissions.

Widescreen -- See More of What's Around

The super-bright, 4.3-inch (diagonal) touchscreen display gives is anti-glare for ease of viewing during the day and automatically changes its color profile for easy viewing at night or in dim light. It offers 2d or 3D perspective views.

The widescreen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are more widely spaced and somewhat easier to push. Wider screen lets you see more of what's around. Compare these actual size views of a 3-inch (diagonal) screen

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