Garmin nüvi 775T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator Review
September 22nd, 2009
Garmin nüvi 775T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator Review from Norm De Plume. Very nice! I revise my rating to 4 star…,
Okay, I got lazy and bought the 775t from Amazon. I must say, this is a huge improvement over the built in nav system in my car and even more so over the $100 issue of a nuvi I purchased retail for my wife last year.
I will be traveling to Germany, so paying extra for the built in maps was worth it to me. Amazing detail there, by the way. Even walking paths I used in Bad Homburg were on the map.
As an aside, I’ve learned that the built in nature of the European maps is an improvement to my uninformed suggestion below. Yes, you can save a few dollars by buying the 770t and purchasing additional maps on SD chips, but I suspect this will slow the map retreival process somewhat. The convenience of having the maps preloaded may be worth the extra cost of the 775t.
The 775t is amazingly intuitive. There really is no user’s manual to speak of (unless there’s something online at Garmin, which I haven’t checked). The quick start pamphlet that comes with the unit is all you need to start using this device.
The bluetooth implementation works flawlessly with my Motorola Razor cell phone and is MUCH easier to use than the blue tooth implementation in my car. All the phone numbers in my cell phone transported (transparently) over to the nuvi, and how all I have to do is pick the number out of the nuvi’s phone book and have the nuvi dial it. I’ll be getting another one of these to replace my wifes unused “budget version” nuvi, just to get her telephoning hands-free in her car!
Speaking of my wife’s car: It has an “aux in” port that she can connect this nuvi to. I copied a couple hundred of my favorite mp3 files to the nuvi and these play beautifully over her mom-bomb’s stereo system. The media players functions are minimal, so don’t expect this to replace your i-pod or other mp3 player. Still, it’s nice to have.
The traffic feature may work well, but since we don’t live in the middle of a major urban area, we don’t seem to ever find ourselves in a situation where we’re re-routed because of taffic delays. The construction zones we negotiate don’t flag traffic delays. I like that this nuvi comes with permanent access to traffic info vs the 30 day trial her budget version did. The traffic signals come to the nuvi via fm receiver – no accessories or contracts required for this, unless you upgrade to a different service. This may suggest that the free included service may not be around too long, but consider yourselves advised.
I still can’t give the unit 5 stars because diverting to other features requires the user to step back repeatedly (via Back button) to return to the main menu. There you have to touch the Map icon to return to the mapping function for the route that’s being plotted. Seems to me there should be a simplified function to return you directly to the map from just about anywhere you divert to in the unit.
For example: You’re driving into the city to a friend’s house (the nav system is guiding you there). Enroute, your passenger decides to look for an Asian restaurant near your friend’s house. To return to the map displaying your route guidance can take as many as 5 or 6 steps “back” to get to the main menu. There you have to touch the map again.
But as for finding that asian restaurant, it’s pretty slick. If you know the name of the place you’re looking for, you can type it in (Spell) and viola, the unit hunts for all occurances containing that name. Be sure to select the one you’re looking for though, because the unit will continue to search ad infinitum to find more matches in the data base. Once found, it returns the address and telephone number of the place. You can choose to have the nav system take you there. But if you do it on the fly, I think it will override the destination you are presently being guided to. You can program in a sequence of destinations beforehand to get around this.
I’ve used this simply to get a phone number of a restaurant and love that aspect of it. The savings in terms of directory assistance charges alone may help defray the cost over time.
Another potential flaw is that, despite my powering the unit off, I’ve come back to my car to find the unit on. I don’t know if screen burn is an issue on these units, and I don’t know how, when or why the 775t powers itself back on. If it’s smart enough to know the car door is opened upon your return, then it’s a great feature. It it starts up on its own minutes after I park the car, it’s a flaw. I suppose I could always unplug it overnight while parked in the garage, but I would prefer if the unit just stayed off. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong and a visit to Garmin’s website will clear this up for me.
I recommend this unit despite the minor flaws I’ve encountered in its programming logic.
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original (hasty) review follows:
The 3 star review (which I can’t change as I revise my review) had more to do with Amazon pricing practices than the actual product.
I’ll probably buy this unit elsewhere because Amazon mis-states the Garmin list price at $849. Garmin lists this for $699. Granted, Amazon’s price of $565 reflects a decent discount from list, but other web sites offer it for considerably less (as low as $440 last time I looked). Now as a long time Amazon shopper and Amazon Prime member, my first choice is always Amazon, but this is the second instance recently where Amazon was considerably more expensive than alternate web sites. Where pricing is close, I usually give the business to Amazon as they have treated me well over the years. Even so, this time, I may shop elsewhere.
Another tip. Even at Amazon you can save money by buying the 765T ($407) and the Garmin City Navigator Europe NT SD card (010 10680-50) ($110) instead of the 775t with maps already loaded. If I do buy at Amazon, this is the route I’ll take. ($517 vs $556)
Good luck.
To check price or purchase Garmin nüvi 775T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator.
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