Domain Name Com's Electronics Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

Electronics Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

Domain Name Com's - Electronics : Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

- Disappointed by Garmin
I chose the Nuvi 680 over other comparable devices based on the Garmin reputation. I should have known better. This product consistently gets me lost and comes up with head-scratching routes for me to take. The only options I have to tweak the route calculation settings are faster or shorter route. You can't adjust the sensitivity for freeways or surface streets, etc. I assume the faster route gathers traffic info from the MSN Direct receiver but since the receiver does not appear to accurately receive updated traffic data unless it is always plugged in to an outlet (even when you are nowhere near your car or gps unit) it is not surprising the faster routes seem pretty slow. The short route option is simply zig zagging through streets to reach your destination since driving diagonally toward your destination is usually not an option.
Now back to the MSN Direct receiver. If you do not keep your MSN Direct receiver plugged in and draining your car battery, it will take about 45 minutes to sync up. By then you will have already reached your destination.
One of the reasons for purchasing this product was the 1 year free MSN Direct subscription. What a joke this feature is. While driving on the freeways of Los Angeles (the 10 or 101) it often gives me flash flood warnings. OK. Or it directs me to a freeway route and the traffic data is actually correct--there is traffic! Thanks for suggesting this route.
The navigation through the menus is not the best either. Though the menus are simple, you often have to hit the back button several times before returning to the main screen. There isn't a main screen button. This can be distracting when you are driving. :P
Also, the map displays all freeways as RED. Hmm, that's a good color for freeways. Makes me think all freeways are heavily congested all the time. Even in LA that is not always true. If you are going to put traffic data on a map, better make it straightforward. Green for no traffic, yellow for moderate traffic, and red for bumper to bumper. It would be nice to show the sections of freeway with traffic as well, like Google maps. Instead, the nuvi 680 only displays a little sign that represents traffic and only for your immediate location. Yeah, I can see that there is traffic right in front of my front windshield but where does it end and where is there no traffic? Let me reiterate the traffic sign only shows up when you are already in the thick of it. You can't look at a bird's eye view of an area and see where the freeways are congested. This is where I pull out the iphone and check Google maps.
The only reason I am giving this unit 2 stars is for the physical design and bluetooth phone feature. Though, the speaker is horrendous for a $400 piece of equipment (think iphone).
Perhaps if I had no experience with a GPS unit I would have given this unit 3 stars. Perhaps if I lived under a rock and never used Google maps with traffic I would have given this unit 3 stars. The fact is, I also have an outdated unit from Lowrance. At least the Lowrance always gave me good directions with an easy to use interface. I never regretted buying the Lowrance. Can't say the same for the Nuvi 680. I curse it every time I get lost BECAUSE of it.

Rating:

- best gps for the price
Love this product,easy to use.But i do think the tom tom 930 would be better but it cost alot more. Tom tom have free updates to Poi and maps through all of there customers.

Rating:

- Excellent product
We are very happy with this product. It is easy to operate and has many capabilities. We shopped long and hard before deciding on this particular Garmin, and we weren't disappointed!

Rating:

- nuvi 680 great, mapping software is not
I bought a Garmin Nuvi 680 quite a while ago. Prices have plummeted since then, and probably will continue. This is a great device, and has helped me many times. We even took it on a trip to Baltimore and Philly (we're in SoCal), and it is totally portable when you buy a beanbag (friction) mount. It took us to every historical site, and even to the local Baltimore McDonalds (you can take it on walks, by setting the Pedestrian mode, and it will route you even the wrong way on one-way streets, since you're walking). It did its best to figure out the bizarre maze of streets in older sections. It knew the layout of Valley Forge and Fort McHenry. It took me right to my mother's birthplace in Washington D.C., and Babe Ruth's birthplace in Baltimore. The Marine Memorial at Arlington is hard to find, but it found it. I would have never found half of these places without it. It even knew where every alley was, and called them "alley".

The 4.2" touchscreen is great, and the text-to-speech very clear. It interfaced via Bluetooth to my cell phone effortlessly, and downloaded the address book automatically. Makes a great hands-free device. In simulation mode you can tell it to go cross-country, and it will start out on its trip, and just keep going (until it runs out of power because it's sitting on the bed, not plugged into the car).

I have one criticism, and it's a big one. Garmin doesn't really care about you after the sale. I fell for the Garmin email that told me to update my mapping software "today!" No mention that within a week their distributors would be selling it for $15 less than their $70 price. When I got the software and loaded it, I found that this "2009 Update" added next to nothing. A Marine Air Station which had been leveled, and turned into a major shopping center over two years ago, was still listed as the air base. Major streets which had been extended through there were not shown. A local shopping center which has been here for five years is not shown, even though other, smaller shopping centers are. Garmin's only comment to this was that they depend on the same source of mapping information as everyone else. I though these companies had people keeping their software up-to-date, and that you could keep updating your maps for much less, if not free. So much for their industry leadership. If I find that something I need to find is not on my Garmin, I'll be checking out Tom Tom and others to see if they can do better. Hopefully they try harder.

I agree with the reviewer who liked the Garmin friction (bean bag) mount. That and the car power adapter/MSN receiver work well (even if every time there is a drop of rain, MSN lists a flash flood alert in the OC). But the mount did slip off my dash several times, and so I fashioned a simple little metal hook and attached it to the mount, and that hooks into a defroster vent to keep it from sliding. Easy to do.

I love "Miss Garmin" (as we call her), even if she does sound a bit put out when she is "recalculating" (when you don't follow her directions to the letter). She won't let you get lost, even if some times she takes you in strange directions.

Rating:

- there are a couple lacking features but it works well
The 680 works better than a few other gps's i've used and had alot of features but needs some work on the usability. If garmin had just made the menus customizable so you can decide what is shown on the map screen and put a "go back to map button" on every screen i'd likely give it a 5, for example, if your deep in the menus you have to hit the back button over and over to get back to the map. Also, you can't see the speed or the time when in route to a destination. I am still happy with my nuvi but would probably not buy it again unless (cough cough to any garmin guys reading this) garmin makes a few simple software changes.

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