Rating: - Well I like it
Seems that satnavs really polarise opinions. I found it difficult to actually find a common opinion between Garmin and TomTom. After trying both brands out in hire cars I went for this product. TomTom seemed a little less intuitive than Garmin and felt a bit more clunky in design.
Garmin 760 turned out to be a good choice. It does what I expect. Only 2 downsides:
- battery life seems short (~2-3hrs). I need to have a lot of spaghetti over the dashboard to keep it on mains. The 12v socket competes between Ipod and Satnav and, on long journeys, sometime I have to decide which to go for.
- Its a bit US-centric. A keen focus in points of interest like bowling centres whilst it lumps museums in with historical. Seems that historical as a definition could probably have been split out a bit more (eg temples, monuments etc). You search on "Cities" in the US sense (ie including villages and hamlets)
Otherwise fine
Rating: - first sat nav!
This is my first sat nav. I researched for weeks before taking the plunge. Just returned from 1000 mile round trip from Norfolk to Sheffield via Nottingham, then on to Devon, and back home. I was guided brilliantly through cities, in the remote countryside of the Peak District and Dartmoor, and along motorway routes. I had complete faith in this brilliant piece of technology and wonder how I ever coped without one! Re routing was so quick too. I can't fault it at all.
This is a very useful device, it is accurate and up to now has been very reliable.
The car mode is very accurate and the estimated arrival time gives a very good indication of when you are likely to reach the destination.
I found this SatNav to be reasonably easy to program, it is quick at route changes and finds satellites reasonably quickly.
Bad Points:
Every part of Europe is treated differently with regard to map updates and speed camera updates so there is a separate charge for updated maps and cameras for every European Country that you visit which IMHO is a rip off. (If you pay for updates for one Member of the European Union you should receive updates for them all).
I am normally good at finding where I park the car but this unit was so reliable in car mode that I decided to try the pedestrian mode when I parked the car in a Spanish City. (That turned out to be a big mistake as I became completely lost). Therefore, (in Spain at least), the pedestrian mode was useless. When I pocketed the device and retraced my steps I found the car by my own instincts but had I relied on this unit I would still be looking for it.
Overall:
To recap, this SatNav is very accurate and responsive when used in a car, it has a pedestrian mode which was ineffective when I tried it and Garmin ask for ongoing annual payments to keep it updated for every European Country which pulls down its star rating.
Rating: - Good unit just hope it will be reliable
This is the second unit I have had as the first would randomly turn itself off and is on its way back to Amazon. I previously had a TomTom Navigator 5 running on a PDA with a separate Bluetooth GPS. This served well for a few years but now crashes all the time. My review is based largely on a comparison between these two systems.
Initial impressions were not great I have to say, partly because the unit kept powering off and also it froze a couple of times. The second unit however has not done this and has been fine so far.
I think in general the TomTom UI is better, but maybe this is partly personal preference and the fact it is new to me. To start with it is difficult to find things and I thought for some time that some of the great features on TomTom were not available on this. For example, if you set a destination and want to see the whole route. (In the map, touch the top green bar and then "Show Map").
I haven't got any info on the traffic alert thingy but to be fair have only tried on short trips. The LEDs on the cable indicate I am getting reception.
FM transmitter works OK but as has been said here the band is very crowded in the South East of England so getting a clear frequency and keeping it for the whole journey may be difficult. Bluetooth connection to phone works OK (like most of these) but does not display phonebook - Nokia N95. Interestingly the product does not list support for Nokia phone models which is interesting as the vast majority of mobiles are Nokia.
Navigation is not quite as smooth as TomTom and going into roundabouts is a little jerky but this is picky.
On the plus side, the POIs are really good and the unit comes with a large number of these with the option to add loads of free or paid for content. Favourites are flexible and destinations can be entered as coordinates which is something I could not do before. I like the last position feature when detached from the mount which helps you find your car later if you forgot where you parked it.
The mount is simple and solid although the FM cable is a bit of a pain if you remove the unit each trip which I do.
Route setting with multiple stops is very good when you get to grips with it.
Some previous comments regarding entering addresses are maybe not as bad as it seems, as you can skip over info you don't know, but asking for the house number before the street seems a little odd.
Conclusion - A good upgrade once you understand the slightly illogical User Interface. Slightly surprised that things have not progressed a little further in the world of sat-nav. But I am happy so far as long as it does not let me down!
Rating: - Nice try - but flawed and needs some work....
I'm used to having a unit built-in to the car, but I wanted a SatNav for European & UK touring - contenders were Garmin Nuvi 760T, and its TomTom and viaMichelin equivalents. ViaMichelin went out of the SatNav business, so it was the (cheaper)Garmin. Once out of its box and charged, it needs to be connected to the internet and registered before you can do any updates or download speed camera data. It wouldn't talk to the Garmin website (talks to the PC ok), so on to tech support.... "Sometimes the registration software is flaky. I'll do it manually for you" Hmmm. Get an email telling me that its registered. Website says its not. Several times, over a couple of days. It's gone back for a refund.
A pity, as the graphics and menu layout are nice & clear, (although the menus are irritatingly idiosyncratic). No manual in the box, just a quickstart guide, so you have to download it. Deals correctly with full UK postcodes, but not rural French ones - it demands a street name instead of being able to enter the code, select the village and go to the area. (Hangover from US design?) The free 1 month trial of speed (sorry, "safety") camera data only covers the UK; thereafter you have to buy a subscription (at £20 per year) for each area of coverage - France, UK, Benelux, etc. Traffic info is free, though. Voice instructions are clear - didn't try the "FM broadcast through your car radio" feature as you can't listen to broadcast radio at the same time, just mp3 content you've preloaded to the Garmin.
Summary:
If it had worked properly, I would have been pleased with it in spite of the irritating design niggles. It didn't. At that price, it should have, and I didn't have the patience to do their development work for them. It's gone back.
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