kfgecko's Full Review: Garmin nüvi 350 Car GPS Receiver
After insisting on the Nav option in my wife's car, my wife loves it and gave the green light to get one for my car. After comparing in dash units, portables, PDA, etc, I ended up with the Nuvi 350 and am very happy.
PEOPLE WITHOUT NAV DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE MISSING
Can you remember the days before the internet and mapquest? What if you could have a map quest with you all the time? Nav systems are incredibly useful for getting you around quicker and more confidently. Jump in the car, enter the address and go.
I use the "home" destination the most; NOT because I don't know how to get home, but to find an efficient route out of where I currently am, towards home. This should illustrate the usefulness of nav. In addition, you become more aware of where you are geographically and what is around you, as you can see a live map view of you and your surroundings.
My wife (and me) has greater confidence that we will "never get lost" now that we have nav, and that's been the case for the years we've had it.
IN DASH, OR PORTABLE
I went with a portable because my wife already has an in dash in her car, stereo options on the in-dash are pretty limited or very expensive, and the portable allows you to carry it with you on foot or transfer to another car (read: in the rental car on vacation).
So portable it was… but which one?
PORTABLE NAVS
At the time of purchase, $300 was entry price for portable navs (ie TomTom 300), $500 was "good" level, and $700 was Nuvi 350 level… the "great" level, but not "all the bells and whistles" level.
The Nuvi was just superior to the other units for these reasons:
- the screen was absolutely the brightest and clearest of all the available units (vs TomTom, Magellan, and even other Garmin unts, etc)
- the packaging is flat like a PDA, not fat like a miniature TV set
- Garmen gets great marks for useability and quality
- it uses SIRF III technology which is supposedly state of the art for consumer nav
- it has other features like audio book, MP3 player, travel guides (purchased separately), JPEG viewer, etc; and an SD card slot for expansion
THE NUVI 350
The Nuvi is a small flat unit about 3.5"x4" and 1/2" thick. The LCD touch screen is bright and takes up most of the units face for very little wasted space. An SD card slot resides on the side along with an earphone jack and USB port. The antenna folds flush in the back. The unit comes with a car suction cup mount which works really well (older units had suction cup problems but the newer version have excellent suction cups). A car charger comes with the unit and automatically turns on the unit when power is applied and automatically turns off with power is removed (unless you instruct it to stay on). It runs up to 8 hours on the internal non-replaceable lithium ion batteries.
The major difference between this Nuvi 350 and the 360 is blutooth.
MY USEAGE MODEL
There are three map view modes: bird's eye North up, bird's eye by your orientation, and 3D view. Personally, I prefer the north up view to know "where I am on the map". If I'm in an area I am unfamiliar with, I will switch to the 3D view as it gives you the closest representation of the actual streets (and turns) before you. The orientation view seems like it's for people who don't understand the 3D, and can't think in terms of North/West/East/South.
Upon power up, which takes about 30 seconds, the nav looks for satellites. Since it is not connected to your vehicle speed sensor, and since it is a portable unit, it must reestablish it's position every time, unlike in dash navs which assume last data. Acquiring satellite is the bane of most navs and even with the newer technology, it still takes anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes to get a lock (usually about a minute).
Once locked on, you can see satellite strength and other data like speed, miles traveled etc. Even if I'm not actively using it to navigate me to a destination, I still like it on so that I can see where I am, and use the trip info: miles traveled, travel time, stopped time, max speed, etc. Simply by using it this way, I have found new commute routes and realized just how/close far something is to my routes.
When using the nav for directions, I found that it generally gives good directions. It's quick to recalculate the route when you don't follow the directions or go a different way. With it, I have not gotten lost. Plus, it estimates my time of arrival and shows me how far along the route and distance to the destination.
The screen is clear and easy to read, but I have to set it on the highest brightness level to see it during the day. The screen can glare, but the car mount allows quick change of the angle to avoid glare.
The computer automatically zooms in for turn details, and then zooms back out for the longer legs to get a bigger picture of where you are. This is an incredibly useful feature as we are constantly zooming in and out on my wife's nav (from 2004).
We even brought it with us on our vacation and portability made it possible. We were able to do planning in the hotel room on the nav (and even get phone numbers from the points of interest) and get estimates of how long it would take to get there.
I'm constantly saving locations to my favorites to quickly recall later. This places a marker on the map that you can see when you happen to be nearby. Suddenly the world seems like a smaller place.
My biggest complaint is the restriction of only one waypoint plus one more that must be inserted to your route (as opposed to tacked on as a following destination).
VERDICT
I love the Nuvi and wish I had got it sooner. Sure you could do everything on a map (or mapquest), but can you do it live in the car, reacting to your exact position every second? If you decide a portable nav is for you, I recommend the Nuvi line.
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 ...More at Amazon
This pocket-sized personal travel assistant will help you navigate with ease. ; Preloaded City Navigator NT North America. ; Upload custom POIs, inclu...More at 6pm.com
Introducing the Nuvi: A versatile travel assistant that s approximately the size of a deck of playing cards. The Nuvi 350 is a portable GPS navigator,...More at Buy.com
PriceTool.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources,
so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
