Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS Receiver and Sports Watch

Just when you thought Garmin had cornered the market on powerful, affordable, and effective wrist-mounted GPS devices, here comes the Forerunner 205. The release of this device is a major achievement from a design and technology perspective. This isn't just marketing-speak; the Forerunner 205 is the most accurate, most reliable wrist-mounted performance and GPS tracking tool we've ever tested. Yes, it's that good. While no device this compact can do everything (yet), the 205 pushes the boundaries of what is possible from something strapped around your wrist. While the 205 doesn't offer heart rate monitoring, or connectivity with Garmin's wireless speed and cadence sensor -- for that, you'll need to step up to the Forerunner 305 -- but it's a great way to get basic GPS location and performance data.

Not so with the 205. Garmin's engineers apparently burned the midnight oil and acquire arrive up with a waterproof figure that, patch sure not as bantam as a sports catch, feels virtuous as comfortable. The curvilinear frame allows the organization's sensitiveness to face the sky when you're travel, patch the widescreen demo is perfectly positioned for vigil when you poverty it. And the presentation sure deserves a few kudos. Piece it's smaller than the pass institute on previous Forerunners, its determination is far higher, message improbable uncloudedness and crispness.

Garmin has sprucely acknowledged the 205 a unlobed fasten layout and the buttons score a overnice somatosense touch with swell pressing greeting. The far pull houses the menu selection and succeed buttons, time the socialist houses a power/backlight secure and a fashion fasten. This retarded and soignee bleach is

The face of the 205 is pretty ordinary, omit for a row of contacts that programme with the included charging and information provenance. The trough is smallish and retiring and its sole mini-USB porthole connects to either an included AC device, or a USB video that connects to your PC. In improver to accumulation transpose with the USB video, you can also request the 205's embedded lithium-ion shelling via a powered USB instrumentation from your machine.

The big interestingness some the Herald 205 is that it features an unsegregated, high-sensitivity SiRFstar III GPS receiver. What does this miserly? It effectuation that the 205's noesis to both bar, and confirm a interlace on, your opinion is amended than anything before it. After an intial shelling tutelage, our fluid asker had the 205 on his wrist and was following fastness and size with GPS satellites within 3 transactions. The next instance we victimised the 205, satellite acquisition was nearly fast. A run finished dull trees didn't unnerve the thing either; pursuit remained avowedly and firm. Show on a bike was equally awing (more...)

Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor

Just when you cerebration Garmin had cornered the marketplace on compelling, inexpensive, and impelling wrist-mounted GPS devices, here comes the Individual 305. The exude of this figure is a leading action from a ornament and field perspective. This isn't retributory marketing-speak; the Human 305 is the most close, most tried wrist-mounted performance and GPS tracking tool we've ever proven. Yes, it's that favorable. Spell no pattern this wedged can do everything (yet), the 305 pushes the boundaries of what is conceivable from something strapped around your carpus. The 305 display includes wir

The 305's plan is a new exploit from Garmin's old beginning of carpus mounted GPS devices, which reached a pinnacle with the Garmin Forerunner 301. Patch the 301 delivered right heart grade monitoring, opportune show chase, and sufficient GPS reception, it didn't quite speak in the programme division. The var. businessperson was bulky and act it wasn't often opposite than duct taping a full-sized GPS gimmick to your wrist.

Not so with the 305. Garmin's engineers obviously hardened the midnight oil and know originate up with a waterproof design that, piece certainly not as microscopic as a sports watch, feels retributory as homy. The serpentine frame allows the organization's sensitivity to confronting the sky when you're working, patch the widescreen demonstration is dead positioned for watch when you need it. And the demonstration sure deserves a few kudos. Patch it's small than the communicate constitute on early Forerunners, its papers is far higher, gift astounding clarity and breakableness.

Garmin has sprucely bestowed the 305 a simple fasten layout and the buttons acquire a respectable tactile perceive with keen somesthesia activity. The good lateral houses the schedule activity and get buttons, time the parcel houses a power/backlight secure and a style fasten. This cordiform and ritzy whitener is

The side of the 305 is pretty ordinary, eliminate for a row of contacts that port with the included charging and data provenance. The origin is young and retiring and its singular mini-USB porthole connects to either an included AC adapter, or a USB telecasting that connects to your PC. In acquisition to data transference with the USB telecommunicate, you can also incriminate the 305's embedded lithium-ion shelling via a powered USB remembering from your computer. (more...)

 

Garmin nuvi 765/765T

Garmin continues to physique up its nuvi 7xx periodical portable GPS navigators with its nuvi 765T, which adds a symbol of composer routing and connection features to an already expansive recite of specs, including a 4.3-inch widescreen exhibit, text-to-speech capabilities, media contestant, and FM communicator for transmitting audio--including directions and MP3 euphony and audiobooks--from the figure to your car receiver.

New to the nuvi 7x5 roll is Garmin's HotFix follower forecasting (which locates your point quickly and exactly), Lane Support (which provides lane counsel and connecter views when getable), reflex term order transitioning, and 3D Antiquity views as wellspring as Garmin Infix Photos to ply you visually ascertain your post. Additionally, the nuvi 765T includes Bluetooth connectivity to your cell phone and people real-time reciprocation updates from Navteq (for the sprightliness of the emblem) via the included FM reciprocation acquirer with container state wire.

The reverberant, 4.3-inch touchscreen display gives is anti-glare for palliate of watch during the day and automatically changes its influence saliency for painless vigil at nighttime or in dim casual. It offers 2d or 3D appearance views. The widescreen formatting gives you 70 pct many effective sort country than a 3.5-inch door. Primarily this translates into a change orientation of the area through which you are dynamical. This is especially effective. (more...)

Garmin Nuvi 660 Review

Rating: Excellent, 8.3 out of 10

The Garmin Nuvi series has proven to be a great success for the veteran navigation manufacturer. The Garmin Nuvi 350 impressed us not only with its solid performance but also with its travel-friendly features. Armed with navigation tools, travel guides, and multimedia capabilities, it is the ultimate travel companion. Now, the company's latest model in the series, the Gamin Nuvi 660, adds even more improvements, such as integrated Bluetooth and a larger screen, all while delivering solid performance. Now, here's the bad news. It costs a whopping $1,076.91, and you have to fork over even more cash if you want the expanded travel tools. If you don't need all that functionality, the Nuvi 350 is a solid alternative, or take a look at the HP iPaq rx5900 series.

Design

At 4.9x2.9by0.9 inches and 6.2 ounces, the Garmin Nuvi 660 is slightly bigger and heavier than its predecessor but it's still an ultraportable and sleek device that you can use in and out of the car. Plus, the extra size is for a good reason. The Nuvi 660 now boasts a larger, 4.3-inch display compared to the Nuvi 350's 3.5-inch screen. The touch screen has an impressive 480x272 pixel resolution that made maps look extrasharp and colorful. It's also still readable in direct sunlight.

You can access all the Nuvi 660's tools and enter information via the touch screen. The interface is clean, and the menus are clearly identified and intuitive, so there isn't a steep learning curve to operate the device. In fact, it's so easy to use that we didn't even have to crack open the user's manual once. In addition, the icons and onscreen keyboard are large, so we didn't have any problems with pressing the wrong buttons.

With everything handled via the touch screen, the Nuvi 660 can have a minimalist design, which we like. There's a sole power on/off button on the top of the unit, while there's an SD expansion slot, a mini USB port, and a headphone jack on the right spine. Finally, there is a flip-up patch antenna on the back that stores flush with the unit's surface in its closed state, so it doesn't add any extra bulk. Our only wish would be for external volume controls, but if you give the power button a quick press, it brings up a Quick Settings page where you can adjust the sound and screen brightness.

Garmin packages the Nuvi 660 with a vehicle mount (windshield and dash), an AC adapter, a car charger with an integrated FM traffic receiver, a USB cable, a carrying case, and reference material.

Features

The Garmin Nuvi 660 keeps many of the same features that we loved in its predecessor and adds some new tricks as well. First, the system now has integrated Bluetooth, so you can use it hands-free to make and accept phone calls. Once connected, just press the phone icon that appears on the Main Menu page, and you can start placing calls with the onscreen dialer or your phone book. If a number is listed for a point of interest, the Nuvi 660 can dial out to that business with a press of a button--perfect if you need to make a last-minute reservation at a restaurant or hotel. Voice-guided directions are automatically muted during incoming calls. There are also options to send text messages, synchronize your phone's address book and call log, and dial by voice, but these features aren't supported with all mobiles. You can find a list of compatible phones and services on Garmin's Web site, though we were able to successfully pair it with the Cingular 8525, which wasn't included on the list.

As far as navigation, the Garmin Nuvi 660 is equipped with a WAAS-enabled (Wide Area Augmentation System for better position accuracy) GPS receiver and comes preloaded with maps of North America. You get all the standard GPS features found in the latest systems, including turn-by-turn text- and voice-guided directions, automatic rerouting, and text-to-speech functionality, which allows the unit to speak actual street names. The system can generate directions by fastest time, shortest distance, or off road, if you're the adventurous type. The Nuvi 660 isn't just limited to use in the car, either; there are settings for pedestrian, bicycle, truck, and bus modes. Unfortunately, however, the system does not support multistop route calculation.

The Nuvi 660 has a detour function for avoiding certain portions of your prescribed route, but the system also now comes with an FM traffic receiver that's integrated into the cigarette lighter adapter, so you don't have to pay extra for an optional accessory. Traffic information is provided by Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network and can alert you to any upcoming congestion or road construction. With the purchase of the Garmin Nuvi 660, you get a complimentary three-month subscription to the service. After that, you'll have to pay $60 for three more months. Also, be sure to check that your city is covered by the network.

Maps are available in 2D and 3D view with day and night colors, and you can change your view so that either north or the direction in which you're driving is always at the top of your screen. Plus and minus icons on the map screen allow you to zoom in and out, and there's also a trip information page that displays your speed, direction, trip time, and so forth. Finally, the Nuvi 660 has a comprehensive POI database with all the major categories and more specific ones; you can even search for restaurants by type of cuisine.

Among of the greatest perks and differentiators about the Garmin Nuvi 660 are its travel features. Like the Nuvi 350, it has an onboard Travel Kit that includes an MP3 player, an Audible book player, a JPEG picture viewer with a slide-show function, a world clock, currency and measurement converters, and a calculator. You can expand the device's capabilities with one of Garmin's three optional software packages (available on SD cards): Language Guide ($74.99), Travel Guide (price varies depending on what region you want), and SaversGuide ($49.99). The former includes a multilingual word and phrase bank with support for nine languages and dialects and five bilingual dictionaries. Thanks to the Nuvi's text-to-speech functionality, you can also get a spoken pronunciation of each entry in the word bank. The Travel Guide provides reviews and recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and more, while the SaversGuide offers discounts at participating merchants.

Performance

We took the Garmin Nuvi 660 out for a test-drive in San Francisco, and it performed wonderfully. The unit impressed us by acquiring a satellite fix in less than a minute, and subsequent starts were much faster. The system precisely tracked our location as we drove around the city running routine errands. We also entered a specific destination, and the Nuvi 660 quickly returned with a route. The directions were accurate, and automatic route recalculation was also prompt after we got off track.

As we noted earlier, we were able to pair the unit with the Cingular 8525, and we had no problems making calls. The multimedia experience was as to be expected on a portable navigation device: it wasn't great, but it was fine for when you're in an absolute pinch. Music sounded OK through the system's speakers, though it was a bit muffled and soft; we plugged in a pair of Shure E3s, which improved the sound quality.

Where to buy Garmin Nuvi 660

Note: This product is part of the Garmin Nuvi series. See all products in the Garmin Nuvi series.

Reviewed by: Bonnie Cha
Review date: 11/20/06

Garmin Nuvi 350 Review

Rating: Excellent, 8.3 out of 10

Garmin Nuvi 350

Veteran navigation manufacturer Garmin International breaks new ground with its Garmin Nüvi 350. This ultraportable device aims to be the ultimate travel companion, acting as a GPS navigator, a personal traveling assistant, and a digital entertainment center. Unfortunately, you'll pay a premium for all these features. Its retail price of $969 may be more than you're willing to spend on a pocket-size GPS system, and if you want to take advantage of any of the travel tools, such as the language translator, you'll have to shell out even more money. That said, if you crave the latest technology and a big wow factor, the high-performance Garmin Nüvi 350 should be at the top of your list.

Design of Garmin Nuvi 350

No bigger than a deck of cards (3.8 by 2.0 by 0.8 inches; 5.1 ounces), the Garmin Nüvi 350 is small and light enough to fit comfortably in your pocket. The unit's centerpiece is a bright 3.5-inch color touch screen, framed by a thin silver bezel. The 320x240-resolution screen is daylight readable and has five backlight-timer settings. Other than a power switch located on the upper bezel, the Nüvi is devoid of function buttons. Instead, all commands are entered via the responsive touch screen and the user-friendly menu system, although you can use the power button as a shortcut to jump from screen to screen. While the lack of buttons gives the unit a sleek, uncluttered look, a dedicated volume control would be welcome; instead, you have to switch to a settings page to adjust the volume.

A flip-up antenna folds into the back of the case, right above the internal speaker and grille. Along the right side of the Garmin Nüvi 350 are an SD (Secure Digital) card slot, a USB port, and a headphone jack. The Nüvi has 2GB of internal flash memory, half of which is dedicated to the user interface and detailed maps of North America. That leaves about 1GB of storage for digital photos, music, and Audible Book files. The Nüvi is recognized as a removal drive when connected to your PC's USB port, so you can drag and drop files easily into the unit's folders. Included in the box is a suction-cup mount that attaches to your car's windshield and a disc for mounting it on your dashboard; a 12-volt power adapter; a USB cable; and a small carrying case. You can charge the internal lithium-ion battery in your car with the 12-volt adapter or by plugging it into your PC's USB port.

Features of Garmin Nuvi 350

The Garmin Nüvi 350 is based on the SiRFstarIII GPS chip, which boasts fast satellite-acquisition times and improved GPS-signal reception in areas where the view of the sky may be partially blocked by dense foliage or tall buildings. In addition to voice-guided, turn-by-turn driving directions, the Nüvi offers all the usual features we've come to expect from today's crop of in-car navigation systems, including automatic routing, the ability to save your favorite locations, a detour function that recalculates your route when you veer off course, and 2D and 3D map views. It also has text-to-speech directions through which the actual street name is spoken, and you can hook up an optional FM traffic receiver to obtain real-time traffic alerts. Unfortunately, the receiver will set you back another $214 for the hardware, and there's a $60-per-year subscription fee.

Using the Garmin Nüvi 350 is a snap. The main screen consists of three selections: Where To, View Map, and Travel Kit. The Where To page lets you search for destinations from a massive points-of-interest (POI) database, including food, lodging, and transit establishments. You can also enter an address, spell a name, and select a specific intersection, or you can simply tap a point on the map to create a route from your current position. The View Map page displays your location on the map, as well as your heading, speed, and estimated time of arrival to your destination. Two touch buttons let you zoom in and out of the current map view, and a text bar along the top of the screen displays upcoming street names and turns. Touching the text bar brings up a written list of upcoming turns along your route. Likewise, the ETA/speed box opens up a trip-information page that displays an odometer, distance traveled, total travel time, maximum speed, and current speed.

The Travel Kit feature is what separates the Garmin Nüvi 350 from virtually every other GPS system out there, but be prepared to shell out even more money to take full advantage of it. For an additional $75, you can purchase the Language Guide SD card, which lets you translate words and entire phrases in nine different languages. Phrases can be translated from a list of categories such as recreation, food and drink, accommodations, and transportation. You can even have the Nüvi translate common problem phrases such as "Can you get me to a doctor?" and "Have you got anything for a hangover?" The language translations, which include two English dialects, two Portuguese dialects, two Spanish dialects, French, German, and Italian, are displayed in text form and can be spoken by the Nüvi's text-to-speech interface.

Also part of the Travel Kit is an optional European Marco Polo Travel Guide SD card ($160) that offers detailed information on tourist destinations, including restaurants, hotels, shopping, and other attractions. The Travel Guide lets you create routes to each destination and provides reviews and recommendations for each location.

Garmin's SaversGuide is an electronic coupon book for the Nüvi 350, providing more than 45,000 discounts at participating North American FV Entertainment establishments such as restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, automotive repair shops, and more. The SaversGuide SD card is $50 and includes a membership card.

If all these additional costs have your head reeling, there is some relief in that the Travel Kit offers some great free features, including an MP3 player; a JPEG picture viewer with a slide-show function; a world clock; currency and measurement converters; a calculator; and an Audible Book player. The integrated speaker is adequate for voice commands and audiobooks, but if you want to listen to music, we suggest a good set of headphones.

Performance of Garmin Nuvi 350

We were very impressed with the Garmin Nüvi 350's performance. The first time we powered up the system, it took less than 30 seconds to obtain a 3D fix (four satellites). After that, the system was ready to navigate in a matter of seconds. Most impressive was the receiver's ability to maintain a satellite lock when our view of the sky was obscured. For example, we held a strong GPS signal throughout a walking tour of lower Manhattan, where most GPS receivers fall victim to the towering skyscrapers. We even managed to monitor our progress on a 45-minute Long Island Railroad train ride without having to hold the unit up to the window--a testament to the receiver's superior signal-tracking abilities. In the car, the Nüvi worked equally as well. The voice-guided driving directions were easy to comprehend and were spot on in terms of accuracy, and the receiver did an excellent job of pinpointing our location on the map. Route calculations were fast, as were recalculations when we purposefully strayed from our original route.
Garmin claims 4 to 8 hours of battery life, depending on factors such as backlighting and MP3 playback. We managed a solid 6.5 hours of battery time with the GPS antenna active and backlighting set to time out after 2 minutes.

Where to buy Garmin Nuvi 350

Note: This product is part of the Garmin Nuvi series. See all products in the Garmin Nuvi series.

Reviewed by: John R. Delaney
Review date: 2/22/06

Garmin Nuvi 880 Review

Rating: Excellent, 8.3 out of 10

Ever since the Garmin Nuvi 880 was announced at CES 2008, we've been excited to get out hands on this portable navigation system. Given the good track record of the other Nuvi series devices, we expected more of the same, solid feature list and good performance. However, we were most looking forward to taking its speech recognition capabilities out for a test drive. To be honest, we were a little weary since we've tried other such-equipped GPS devices, including the Magellan Maestro 4250 and the TomTom GO 930, and while they worked, there weren't the most accurate and the capabilities were limited. This isn't so with the Nuvi 880. We were blown away at the accuracy of the speech recognition; the range of features you can use it with; and its overall ease of use. This, in combination with the navigation offerings, sleek design, and solid performance, makes it worthy of our Editors' Choice award. The only downfall is that you're going to pay for these features. The Garmin Nuvi 880 has a price tag of $ 1,071.41, but you can probably find it for a bit less online.

Design

Like the rest of the Nuvi series, the Garmin Nuvi 880 is sleek, compact, and simple. It measures 4.9 inches wide by 3.1 inches high by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 6.2 ounces for easy portability between vehicles. The small size also comes in handy when using the device outside of the car as an entertainment device or travel aid, since the Nuvi comes loaded with games and travel tools.

Another benefit is the Nuvi 880's spacious 4.3-inch touch screen. With a 480x272-pixel resolution, the display is bright and easy to read, whether you're reading maps or using the other features. You can adjust the screen's brightness and there's an automatic mode that switches the map colors for optimal viewing during the day or night. The touch screen was responsive to our commands, and the onscreen keyboard is available in QWERTY or ABC format. The keyboard is on the small side, so users with larger fingers might have some problems. The good news is that has predictive text, so it will automatically pull up possible search results as soon as you start inputting a couple of letters.

The user interface and software is intuitive. All the icons and menus are clearly marked, and we found that you could pretty much figure out the basic operations just by playing with the device. However, for some advanced tasks such as planning a multidestination trip or setting up Bluetooth, you might want to consult the user manual.

On the left spine, you will find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD expansion slot, and a mini USB port. There's a power button on top, and the bottom of the unit holds an external antenna jack and power/cradle connector.

The Garmin Nuvi 880 comes packaged with a vehicle mount (windshield and dash), a car charger, a USB cable, a speech recognition remote control, and reference material. The vehicle mount is simple to install and mount, and it securely held the Nuvi 880 in our road tests. We found it interesting that there is a separate remote control for the speech recognition capabilities. On other systems with this technology, it is simply built into the device. The control consists of on and off buttons to activate the feature, and a rubber strap so you can attach it to some place in your car, such as the steering wheel. It's a bit of an eyesore, but we're willing to overlook this minor inconvenience since the accuracy of the speech recognition capabilities are the best we've seen to date (see Performance for more).

Features

The Garmin Nuvi 880 comes preloaded with City Navigator NT maps of North America and millions of points of interest. Perhaps the biggest highlight though is its speech recognition capabilities. We've seen this technology in other systems, such as the Magellan Maestro 4250 and TomTom GO 930, but the Nuvi 880 is the most impressive with the breadth of its capabilities and accuracy. In all, you can use voice commands to perform 30 functions, including entering addresses, adjusting the system volume, activating the hands-free speaker system, playing/stopping the music player, viewing the trip computer, and accessing MSN Direct services.

To start planning a trip, whether by using your voice or the touch screen, you can enter a specific address, choose a POI, or select a location from the Recently Found or Favorites list. The Nuvi 880 can store up to 500 favorites/locations. In addition, it supports multidestination trips and you can add waypoints on the fly. You have your choice of three route preferences (faster time, shorter distance, or off-road) and three usage modes (automobile, bicycle, or pedestrian). You can avoid certain road types if you choose, such as toll roads and highways. There's also a detour function if you want to avoid a certain part of the given route and if you happen to get off track, the Nuvi 880 can do automatic route recalculations. If you don't need guidance, you can just have the Nuvi track your movements by tapping View Map.

The POI database contains all the major categories (gas stations, lodging, ATMs, restaurants by cuisine type, and so forth) and more specialized interests, including golf courses, gyms, and nightclubs. On top of the preloaded entries, you can add custom POIs, such as safety cameras and school zones. In addition, the Nuvi 880 ships with a three-month complimentary trial to MSN Direct services, which lets you get traffic updates, search for nearby gas stations by fuel prices, and movie times by title or theater. You can also plan your trip from your PC via Windows Live Local and send it wirelessly to the Nuvi 880 as well as get the latest weather forecast for your area, news, stock prices, and local events. After the three months are up, you'll have to purchase a subscription plan, which starts at $49.95 for an annual plan or a one-time payment of $129.95. The MSN Direct receiver is built into the car charger, so you don't have to worry about purchasing an extra accessory.

Maps are available in 2D and 3D view with day and night colors, and you can change it so north is always at the top of your screen or the direction in which you are driving. A plus and minus icon on the map screen lets you zoom in and out, and there's a trip information page that displays your speed, direction, trip time, and so forth. In addition to the visual aids, you, of course, get voice-guided turn-by-turn directions with text-to-speech functionality. The Nuvi 880 also has a built-in FM transmitter so you can pipe the audio through your car's stereo for better volume.

Like the more recent Nuvi devices, the Garmin Nuvi 880 has the "Where am I?" feature, which gives you the coordinates of your location, the nearest address and intersection. It will also list the closest hospitals, police stations, and gas stations to your position, giving you a bit of peace of mind if you're in unfamiliar territory and need access to any of these services, or if you need to give your location to a tow truck. You'll also be able to call any of these services or other businesses or POI directly from the Nuvi 880 since it has integrated Bluetooth. We're happy to report that your phone's address book and call history will automatically synchronize with the GPS for easy data transfer.

Finally, the Garmin Nuvi 880 includes a host of other tools that can be useful outside the car. There's a Travel Kit like that included with other Nuvi models that consists of an MP3 player, an Audible book player, a JPEG picture viewer with a slide show function, a world clock, currency and measurement converters, and a calculator. It also comes loaded with a ton of games, including Solitaire, Sudoku, and Space Shooter.

Performance

We tested the Garmin Nuvi 880 in San Francisco, and from a cold start, it took the unit about two minutes to get a fix on our location under partly cloudy skies. Subsequent starts could take up to a minute, but more often than not, the system was able to acquire a fix within a few seconds. While running errands around the city, the Nuvi 880 did a good job of tracking our position. It did lose the lock as we drove through the Broadway Tunnel (a normal occurrence with GPS) but was able to re-establish a connection once we exited.

We planned several trips using the Nuvi 880: all originating from San Francisco's Marina district to Roseville, Calif., Sunnyvale, Calif., and downtown San Francisco. For the first trip out to Roseville (near Sacramento, Calif.), we entered the trip information using the standard touch-screen method and added several stops along the way. It may have been the extra destinations, but it took the Nuvi 880 a couple of minutes to calculate a route. Nothing horribly inconvenient, but just something we noticed. That said, we found the directions to be accurate and it got us to our destinations. The text-to-speech feature did a good job with street pronunciations, and the voice prompts were always loud and clear. We also missed several turns and exits, and the Nuvi 880 was able to get us back on track in a timely manner.

For the next two trips, we used the speech recognition capabilities and we were blown away at its accuracy. With the other systems, we had to ensure that we were in a quiet environment and even then, they were numerous errors. However, this wasn't the case with the Nuvi 880. We were able to launch the various applications and enter addresses with such ease. Even with the radio in the background, the system was able to understand and compute all our voice commands and more importantly, perform them accurately. There was no need to shout, and only once or twice did we have to repeat ourselves. It was truly impressive, and it's the first we felt it's actually worth using the voice commands over the touch screen.

Last but not least, we were able to successfully pair the Nuvi 880 with the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310. The set up process was easy. All our phone book information instantly transferred over to the Nuvi 880 and we had no problems making or receiving calls. The Nuvi 880 has a rated battery life of four hours. The battery is replaceable, so you can purchase an extra battery ($30) to keep as a back up.

Conclusion

As we've come to expect from the Nuvi line, the Garmin Nuvi 880 offers an impressive feature list and solid performance, but it's the accurate speech recognition that really pushes the Nuvi 880 over the edge and makes it one of the best GPS we've tested to date.

Where to buy Garmin Nuvi 880



Note: This product is part of the Garmin Nuvi series. See all products in the Garmin Nuvi series.

Reviewed by: Bonnie Cha
Review date: 6/30/08