Garmin nüvi 260 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin nüvi 260 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Digital camera Review: A little wonder
Summary: 5 Stars
This GPS is a dream. Reccently I drive from LA to Las Vegas and this GPS told me when to turn, when to stay left or right in a highway, and easily locate the nearest restaurants, hotels, attractions, gas stations etc. I don't have words to describe this little wonder. Recomended at 100%.Digital camera Review: A map problem eroded my trust in it.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had my Nuvi 260 for a month now. The unit is small, good-looking, very easy to set up, came with the latest version of their maps but... if I followed its direction I'd never get out of my neighborhood.
Driving from my home on GA SRXX I need to turn right on Hwy YYY. My nuvi260 tells me to first turn left on ZZZ Rd. about 200 ft from the Hwy, and then make a right U-turn on HwyYYY. The problem is that ZZZ Rd. DEAD ENDS in bushes and there is no way to get to the Hwy from there. This problem makes me wonder where else my nuvi will send me to when I'm in a location I do not know.
Garmin's customer support was very apologetic about this snafu and directed me to the web site where you can report such map deficiencies. But that was it, no patches offered. I guess I'll have to wait until they have a new version released and pay another $70 to get it.
Aside from this one dead-end trap (that I've discovered), my nuvi260 has been giving me generally good directions in my everyday driving within ~100 miles from my home. I'm yet to test it on an out-of state trip.
Overall, I like having a "live" map in front of me with my location clearly marked, particularly when driving at night in a city. The voice prompts about upcoming turns, often with "funny" pronunciations of street names, are very useful in locations you do not know, and they can be muted if you find them distracting. The display of the distance to the next turn is particularly useful for me and saved me several times already from making turns too soon. For the price Nuvis can now be purchased for(~$260), it is a good driving aid to have in your car. But do not trust it completely...!!
Digital camera Review: A must have for home health
Summary: 5 Stars
I have really put my Garmin Nuvi 260 to the test and am very pleased.
I work in home health in a fairly rural area and search for several locations every day. So far I've been able to locate every address in the GPS, but sometimes it has taken a bit of trial and error. For instance, the location city in the GPS is not always the same as the postal address. You can enter 'search all cities' but I usually start with the closest small town and find it pretty quicklly. If the search gives me more than one similar address, I check out the map to see which one sounds similar to the clues my patient has given me. When entering an address on a hwy, you just enter the number of the hwy. With streets with multiple names, you enter the first name (except North etc) then it gives you a list of roads to choose from.
I have programed it for the fastest route and, with the exception of a bridge being out, have agreed with the route it has taken me.
I disable the Avoidances for dirt roads when using the GPS for work and enable the Avoidances for U-turns when using it in our truck when pulling the horse trailer.
Twice, when leaving a driveway or parking lot, the voice has prompted me to turn right when the screen showed the arrow correctly turning to the left. Once, the destination was some 200 yards beyond where the GPS said it would be. Other than that, I've had no problems.
I have not lost my satelite link for more than a second, even during a nasty thunderstorm.
I set the unit in map mode when not using the location finder so that I can see the names of approaching roads, especially at night.
I chose this particular unit because Garmin gets such good reviews, and because of the text-to-speech feature. I no longer have to fumble for directions in my laptop that may not be correct. I get to my destinations a lot faster and I'm a whole lot less frustrated when I arrive. It's a great investment.
Digital camera Review: A real stress reliever
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this GPS to replace the less-than-stellar offerings I've had on my Palm. One motivating factor for purchasing it at this time was a planned trip to Pittsburgh, PA, which has some of the most confusing roads of anywhere I've been. I decided to delay my review until I had a chance to try it out in Pittsburgh.
The unit has been excellent! More than once it got us back to where we needed to go when we took a wrong turn (or no turn when we should have). It seems that every time I thought "I wish it would do" something, I found out that it did. The text-to-speech is also very intelligible. However, one of the biggest pluses is that my wife, who normally has problems with all but the simplest user interfaces, had no problems interacting with it while I was driving. We were both also very pleased with the speed at which it computed routes.
I have no qualms about giving this product 5 stars, something I don't do unless a product is nearly perfect. Great job, Garmin!
Update: After I originally posted my review, we were leaving Pittsburgh and at one point the GPS attempted to direct us the wrong way down a one-way street. Upon further investigation, I determined that this was not an issue with the Nuvi per se but with the NAVTEQ database; Google Maps also uses NAVTEQ as its data source and attempted the same wrong-way routing. I have reported the discrepancy to NAVTEQ.
Also, while traveling back home, I managed to lose part of the car mount I took along, a combination of the cradle from the included suction mount and the arm from the optional friction mount. Those parts are not normally available separately, but Garmin stepped up to the plate when I contacted them, shipping me a new suction mount and dash mount (which uses the same rotating arm the friction mount uses) free of charge.
Digital camera Review: A very good navigator
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought this particular model because it says the names of the streets/roads to turn onto. This is a very helpful feature, though it sometimes produces hilarious pronunciations. Overall this GPS works very well and compares very favorably to several others types we have used.