Garmin StreetPilot c320 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin StreetPilot c320 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Digital camera Review: Excellent product, Mounting options limited
Summary: 4 Stars
This GPS was purchased for medical reasons and within one month has already paid its worth is stress relief.
The touch screen is simple, logical, and has a specific "Go Home" selection that can be touched to get my family member home from anywhere at any time.
I give the product a 5+++ alone; however I was not impressed with the mounting bracket.
Because I needed the mounting bracket (not the GPS unit) to be permanently mounted in the car, there was no simple way of integrating it in to the rounded surfaces. The only option is an ugly black tripod device permanently glued to the dash board (our car has a tan interior). It's hard to fault Garmin for this because of the possibility of people interfering with their airbag systems, but it was a problem for me none-the-less.
Regardless, I am extremely impressed with the product and its function. I built and installed a modified permanent mount, so everything is working great now.
Digital camera Review: Excellent value for the money
Summary: 5 Stars
We decided on the c320 because it was the lowest cost unit with a touch screen and we didn't need the additional features of the pricier units. The 128 MB card is big enough for us to store 8 local states, more than we even need. Only had the unit for a month, but initial impression is very favorable. The c320 is easy to use and very accurate. Only once did it take more than 5 minutes to acquire the satellites. The voice prompts are legible and the screen is clear. The mounting system is very robust. The battery lasts 6-8 hours and recharging is fairly quick. Try to find the custom fit carry case. It's a perfect fit and stores the c320 mounted with a pocket for the 12V cord. Highly recommended.Digital camera Review: Fantastic - even in the mountains
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm in real estate and am new to the area of Big Bear Lake, CA. The street pilot is amazingly accurate and even estimates how many feet before I get to a turn on an unpaved mountain road with no homes nearby. I am thrilled with this new toy!Digital camera Review: Fantastic value for money
Summary: 5 Stars
NOTE - this is a review for the EUROPEAN edition of the Streetpilot
I needed a Europe SatNav for a long journey I'm making shortly from England through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany but I didn't want to spend very much money. I shortlisted my choice to the TomTom Go Europe or the Garmin Nüvi 350, both hovering around the £200 or more mark.. and then at the last minute I bought this one. And I am very happy I did so!
Having read other reviews I immediately ordered an extra SD card - I got a 1 gig one for under ten pounds. I installed the software on my PC (beware, it doesn't work on a Mac at all!), plugged in the Streetpilot with the 1GB SD card and off we went.
Interestingly I couldn't fit the whole of Europe onto the 1 gig card; I had to remove Egypt (I wasn't previously aware that was in Europe!), Turkey, Albania and Scandinavia; if you really want the whole of Europe you might want a 2GB SD card. But the remaining countries fitted fine on the new card - it took about an hour to prepare the maps and about 45 minutes to transfer them across to the Garmin; still, I don't suppose I'll need to do that again in the near future.
So what do you get for your hundred and thirty pounds (current Amazon price). You get a lot. Why do you get so much? Well I presume it's because the Streetpilot is a chunky unit, rather like a CRT TV in an age of flatscreens. The Nüvi that I was considering is the size of a pack of cards; the Streetpilot has the same size screen but in a chunky unit that sticks out backwards - but at a hundred pounds less! Mind you, I'm not exactly short of space on the dashboard of my car so the size doesn't matter - it's a light unit so I can take it away from the car easily enough for security.
The fixing and mounting bracket seems sturdy enough to me; it fixes very happily to my windscreen although there is no option to detach the charging cable. Bearing in mind the unit also came with a USB cable (which charges it through the computer) and a three pin plug charger, plus its battery lasts five hours, I don't foresee having to have it plugged in whilst driving very often. I actually don't mount mine on the windscreen but slot it into a cupholder in the centre console of my car and have no problems whatever getting satellite reception from that location.
The latest software for the Streetpilot does have UK and European postcodes and this is by far the best way to find your address. It also has a very useful feature whereby you can ask for local banks, restaurants, petrol stations and the rest of it. It picks up the satellites quickly, calculated my route from Kent to Berlin in about forty seconds, and its estimated time of arrival on various routes has been nicely accurate.
Disadvantages? You can't play around with the icon for your car (who cares), you can't use umlauts or other accented characters in naming favourite locations (not very European!), the screen seems quite bright at night (although it goes into night mode automatically) and it can sometimes take a while to redraw when you zoom out. These are all very minor inconveniences and they don't worry me at all because this is such a great value device. The speaking voice (a woman) is clear and she gives you plenty of warning before you have to manoeuvre. Sometimes she seems to think you're turning off a road when it's just an intersection and the left hand lane is peeling away but the map always shows you what's what and this hasn't caused any problems.
All in all I am delighted with this bit of kit, very glad I didn't spend the extra hundred pounds for the Nüvi, and would happily recommend this to anyone else... whilst it's still for sale. Grab it while you can, I expect it won't be around for too much longer.
Digital camera Review: Five stars if the map data was more up to date.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the c320 the middle of October, 2005, and have updated the software to version 4.8 and the map data City Select North America NT version 7.0. This is the latest software and map data as of the date of this review. I really like this unit and would buy it again. I would have given it 5 stars except for the Map Data being just a bit too much out of date. Still, this is an amazing device. Here are some quick pros and cons for those who don't want to read the whole review:
Pros:
- It will get you to your destination.
- Easy to use; you can figure out how to do most things just by playing around with it.
- Calculates new routes very quickly.
- Lots of Points of Interest (POI).
- Map database shows even very remote roads, i.e. dirt paths out in the middle of nowhere.
- Long battery life: about 10 hours.
- Small enough and accurate enough to use while walking.
- North American NT V7 is compact enough to fit ALL on a 1G SD card.
- There is no itty-bitty hard drive to wear out.
- Pleasant British English voice.
- Knows when the sun sets to switch screen brightness.
- ETA is updated in this software version.
- Does not have any problem picking up satellites in any car (or train) I've used it in.
Cons:
- Map data is too far out of date; data must be at least 2 years old.
- Screen is hard to read in direct sunlight.
- Complex process to unlock new map data DVD.
- It's a little fussy about street names when looking up an address.
Nits:
- No altitude indication.
- Does not know when you cross time zone to change clock.
I've used this now for a couple of months, including a train and car trip from Iowa to Arizona. I've also updated the unit software and the map data so I have an idea how easy that is to do.
You can indicate your routing preference (shortest distance or fastest time, no toll roads, no unpaved roads, etc). This will at times produce some funky routes. For example, shortest distance and allowing unpaved roads can send you down some pretty rough roads. If you use it in a place you know well, you will probably disagree with some of its routes. That is to be expected because it does not know about busy roads or traffic lights or other things like that. On the other hand, since using this locally I have found some good routes I have not known about before.
I took this on a train ride across 6 Western states. It had no problem picking up satellites if I kept it up against the window. If you set the unit to show enough detail, it will show you traveling right down the middle of the railroad tracks. Since this is a car navigation device it has a preference for roads, so if there was a parallel road near enough to the tracks the cursor would jump over to the road. Crossing those remote areas showed how much detail is in the map database; some roads that were no more than two dirt ruts showed up on the screen.
We used it in the rental car when we got to Arizona. From the middle of nowhere to Phoenix it worked great. We were able to use it to avoid some heavy Phoenix traffic by just getting off the interstate and driving city streets. Even though Phoenix is pretty much laid out in a grid, I don't think I would have tried to navigate around the traffic jam without the c320. The out of date map data problem showed up in Phoenix in particular. The city is growing so fast that there was several times where the map data did not show a new street.
I've used this in 7 different cars (and 1 train) so far and never have had a problem picking up satellites. Just to try it out, I bought an external antenna that I have mounted on my truck roof. With an external antenna, the signal is a little stronger and maybe it might take a little less time for the unit to first acquire satellites, but the external antenna is not really necessary.
Sometimes looking up a specific address can be difficult. If you don't spell the street name exactly as it expects, it won't find the street. For example, if you are looking for "East Park Ct" and spell it "E Park Ct", the c320 won't find it. The solution is to be less specific; just search for "Park" and pick the correct street from the list it will give you.
I received a free map data update since the new map data was released before I bought my unit. Unlocking a new version of the map data is too complicated. After getting a new DVD, I had to visit Garmin's web site several times to finally figure out how to get my "unlock code" for the new data. Once you get the data unlocked, loading it into a SD card is easy. The "MapInstall" software Garmin gives you is simple to use.
The City Select North America NT version 7.0 map data is the same data as is in version 6.x, but V7.0 is more compressed. As a result, all of the V7 data will fit on a 1G SD card, including all 50 states, all of Canada, and Puerto Rico. Since you can now get all the map data on one SD card, why buy the c330? (The c330 is exactly the same as the c320, except the c330 has its map data preloaded on a little hard drive.) Here is how I see the c320 and c330 compare:
c330:
- Map data is preloaded.
- If the internal hard drive crashes you are screwed; it's not user replaceable.
- Some reports of the c330 not working above 10,000 ft, but will start working again when it's moved below 10,000 ft.
c320
- Map data must be loaded onto a SD card by the user.
- Even if you consider in paying for a 1G SD card, the c320 is still about $100 less than the c330.
- No moving parts.
- If the SD card fails (not likely) you can just replace it with a new one and reload the map data.
- About twice the battery life of the c330
- Works above 10,000 ft.
Overall, I think I would buy the c320 over the c330. I don't know why Garmin doesn't sell a c320 with map data preloaded 1 G SD card and discontinue the c330.