Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Digital camera Review: Fails Basic Test (+comparison with TomTom 930)
Summary: 2 Stars
There are 3 fatal flows with this product: (1) announcing too late and (2) giving confusing directions at complicated lane guidence situation and (3) taking too long to find satellite initially. I have been testing this product for a month in San Francisco and the Bay area.
(1) announcing too late
When your car is about to pass the intersection at which it is supposed to make a turn, then and only then it announces you to prepare for a turn. I missed so many turns because of the late announcements. It is also incredbly dangerous as you are tempted to attempt last-moment lane changes in order to make the turn. Also the distance to the turn is not that accurate -- when you are almost already at the intersection it shows you are 200 meters away (I changed the measurement setup to meters). SUGGESTION: Certain navigations have a bar-graph showing countdowns to the intersection, and perhaps that's what this navigation must have as well. Also certain navigations ask you to prepare well ahead. Make a customizable setting how long before to make the pre-announcement.
(2) giving confusing directions at complicated lane guidence situation
Time and time again, I missed the right exit on the highway. The map is absolutely no help. The multiple lanes look all overlapped!!! Red lines are cofusing as hell. Annoucement is in this fashion: "Keep to right and then keep to left." What is that supposed to mean and which lane are you supposed to be in? In a fast highway situation, this is incredibly dangerous. I almost got into accidents at many interchanges as I was trying to look both the road signs and my navigation and could not make any sense. SUGGESTION: the map needs major improvement on interchanges -- show us the way!!! Also get rid of "keep to right and then keep to left" style BS for a clearer direction.
(3) taking too long to find satellite initially
If you park your car outside, that would be fine but if you park it in a garage, woe to you. It will take at least 20 blocks to find the satellite and you will be either parking your car on the roadside waiting for godot or meandering down the street without knowing where you are going for very very long time. This is not acceptable. I used other product (magellan) before, and it found the satellite so much quicker. SUGGESTION: technological improvement or better processor.
[ADDED TO THIS AFTER I BOUGHT TOMTOM GO930 AND TESTING IT FOR A WEEK]
After my much frustration with Garmin NUVI 370, I purchased a Tomtom GO930 from local Best Buy. (The price of TomTom 930 at Best Buy was the same as the price at Amazon at USD 450, although I had to pay the tax.)
Wow, what a difference. That's all I can say. TomTom 930 is a bit more expensive than the street price of Garmin NUVI 370, but is so much better that the price difference is immaterial.
(1) prepare... prepare...
TomTom announces well before each turn and actually tells you on which side of the lane you should be in for the next turn. Incredibly friendly announcements. The arrow direction on the map display shows whether you should be making left or right turn as well. I never missed a single turn thanks to the ample announcements.
(2) guiding complicated lane situation with ease
the roads never appear overlapped like the NUVI 370. If there are five diverging roads, all are clearly shown, with the clear indication where you are and where you should go. Mind you, I haven't seen that many Advanced Lane Guidance screen yet as TomTom advertised (I hear that they don't have this on every intersection yet) but even without this, lane guidance is incredibly clear and easy (they show both on the map and on the status bar with muted arrows and one clear arrow). What a refreshing change from Garmin NUVI 370. The voice direction is a lot more clear and easier to understand as well -- it is as if somebody is actually speaking fine English to me. I never missed the right exit.
(3) lightening fast in finding satellites
It actually finds satellites when I am in my room with 4-5 bars. Need I say more?
(4) extras... extras...
TomTom has voice address input feature that is very useful. There are many situations that you hate to put in long characters (In California there are so many cities starting with San...). Simply pronounce it and the machine finds it for you, including the streets. I find this to be working well about 95% of the time. Also it gives you a few choices so that what you pronounced is almost always among the choices. SUGGESTION: This voice feature is not available for Place Name under Point of Interst (available only for the actual address).
Point of Interest feature in TomTom is incredibly extensive. I tested many restaurants listed in Zagat survey and found out that almost all (even obscure ones under "Best Value") restaurants have been registered in TomTom by names and phone numbers. I did not find that to be the case with Garmin NUVI 370 (I actually had to type in the exact address under my favorites). This makes inputing job so much easier. I typed in "Marshalls" under Point of Interest in Sunnyvale, and TomTom returned 7 results, some of them are as far away as San Jose, Mipitas, etc. Again, not so with Garmin.
Downloading updates and changes through computer seems painless and efficient as well. Works perfectly and took about 3 minutes to get the latest updates. Again, Garmin NUVI 370 does not have this feature. I don't know how actually useful the updates would be, but it is assuring that I am using the latest whatever.
Time estimation in TomTom is so much more accurate than Garmin. I found Garmin to be always a bit on the optimistic side (ie I never actually arrived as Garmin estimated especially in a city traffic). I don't know if it is because of the IQ Routes feature of TomTom but the timing estimate seems to be right on and there is little need for any traffic subscription service.
CONCLUSION: I will be updating this review to find any shortcoming of TomTom 930 (and I am sure there will be many) but so far it seems that TomTom is a very clear winner and fully justifies the extra USD 100. If you are looking for a navigation that includes both American and European maps, I guess your choices will be cleary limited: you would have to go for either the Garmin NUVI 370 or the TomTom GO 930, and my recommendation would be the latter -- not for the extra features but mainly for the basic abilities that I listed earlier in this review.
ADDED Later: I have been using TomTom for some time now, and again the fundamental qualities are excellent. In addition to reliable guidance, I find the voice address input feature truly useful and accurate. I use it all the time.
Another incredibly useful feature is the initial preview of the whole route (Garmin Nuvi 370 does not do this). When I used Garmin 370, I did not even know highway 280 existed since it almost always guided me through 101! However, with TomTom 930, at the outset I have the chance to view the entire route, pick and choose any alternative routes from it. This is just so convenient. 280 may be a tad bit longer route, but it has much less traffic than 101, with much better road conditions and scenic views, and just whole a lot better than 101 -- I can't believe Garmin simply never showed it to me!
However, here are a few suggestions to make TomTom better: (1) "Clear Address" is not immediate. If you want to clear the previous address input, you have to touch the screen a few times. This is not convenient. There must be an instant way to clear address. (2) Occasionally (bur very rarely) it misses U-turns. (3) When you turn off the ignition, it does not automatically turn off (unlike Garmin). You must push the button on top. This is not very convenient.
Digital camera Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
It is such a pleasure getting a new product from Garmin. I have been using a Garmin Street Pilot for over 5 years now and am very impressed with the advances in this model.
The 3D view is great and speed of route calculation is much faster. Recalcualation after you take a wrong turn is almost immediate.
Another nice feature - when I leave it powered on in my car (which has permanent power in the cig. lighter) it somehow goes to sleep when I park my car and wakes back up as soon as I open the door. Not sure how this works but I like it. I never have to turn the GPS on when I get in the car.
Once again, a very impressive product from Garmin.
Digital camera Review: Fantastic in and outside the US
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently took my GARMIN on a trip all across Ireland and I would not have been able to travel without it. The GPS was fantastic in all areas country and city and allowed us to take our time and wander more than have mapped out destinations. This is highly recommended for international as well as domestic use.Digital camera Review: Fantastic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely love this GPS. This is my 3rd Garmin GPS, but my first Nuvi. The portable size is great - I took it with me to London and Prague, and it worked like a charm (except that the attractions in Prague were written in Czech, which I don't understand - though there may have been a way to change that which I didn't know!!) The built in Europe maps are a lifesaver for a frequent traveler, and the multi-country adapter is very handy.
The screen is very easy to see. The window mount is great - and the Nuvi is easy to take off of the mount to take it with you.
The only thing I do wish is that Garmin would put an instruction booklet in the box, since I really find that I never take the time or energy to load the disc and read it on the computer - but I guess that's jsut a preference and an old fashioned opinion!!
Really, even if it's not this model, Garmin is the way to go!!
Digital camera Review: Faulty Navagation
Summary: 2 Stars
I recently purchased the Garmen Nuvi 370 for a trip to Italy for Christmas 2007 thinking it would be helpful navigating through Northern Italy over our 16 day holiday. We had plans to drive around Tuscany, with stops in 10 different ancient towns and cities, often with hotels in the city center. I thought this would be handy in the city centers, which I knew from past trips to be confusing, driving challenges.
Fortunately, I brought along the Michelin Italy: Tourist and Motoring Atlas (Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlas : Italy), which proved to be our savior, "go to" source of navigation information.
The Garmen Nuvi 370 was very disappointing in that it consistently sent us on the most convoluted and least efficient route to our destination. Even if we toggled between logic modes: Fastest vs. Shortest. Often, the directions where just plain wrong, with many bizarre turns and shunts off of main roads when it was clearly signed and obvious we should continue on the road we were on. When we would finally be forced to look at the map and reorient, the map route would have little relation to the Nuvi route. The Garmen also did not recognize many one-way streets or pedestrian only streets, (both very common in old cities), leading us into situations where we could not follow the directions it offered. "Recalculating route" became a joke, except for the fact it usually attempted to take us back to the same one-way street. Even when we tried to use the Garmin in less challenging situations, like freeway travel, it was hard to relax and trust the prompts, knowing the likely hood of it failing was high. It got to the point after, 8 or 10 attempts at using the 370 we just turned it off. It was distracting to listen to the inane prompts while trying to navigate through the tangled web of Italian city streets, particularly when the prompts did not jibe with the map route.
I would not recommend this device unless you are completely helpless with a map and even then don't expect to get to your destination if it is in the city center of an older Italian city. I should have taken my money and bought a cell phone to call the hotels to ask directions.
I have had similar experiences using the Nuvi 370 around the San Francisco Bay area: strange turns and lots of back roads that wander through residential neighborhoods. (Frustrating and even scary in certain parts of the East Bay.) The logic the Garmen uses to navigate still needs lots of work before it becomes a substitute for a good map.
Over all a frustrating and useless device that I should have left at home, along with the bulky and heavy charger, case and plug adapter.