First week with the Nuvi

[Propak]

Well, I have run the Garmin Nuvi 350 through its paces and it has come across as a very capable and handy unit. Is it for everyone? Is it the next standard in GPS units? I'll let you decide. For what I have asked it to do it comes up short in some places and shines in others.

The Garmin Nuvi 350 ships in a box about 7x7x7 and inside you will find the unit wrapped in plastic with a clear plastic screen protector on it. It includes a suction mount for the window and a round disk that you can stick to your dash and attach the suction mount to if you do not want to mount it on your window. Of course the car power adapter and 120v home adapter are included. It ships with a USB cord for hooking it up to your computer for downloads and also for charging. A very basic "Quick-start" guide is the only instructions you will receive. Just the basics on installing and simple functions are explained. The full manual is a PDF file that is in the unit's memory. To access you must hook up the nuvi through USB to your computer. The nuvi will show up as an external drive (700MB) and the manual will be there. Unfortunately, none of this is explained in the quickstart guide and I stumbled upon it. A small yellow card for registering the product is in the package as well. You will need the number on the card (not the unit) to register the nuvi....don't throw it out! It comes with a nice leather case as well but it is open on one end. I wish it had a flap to cover that end but so far it protects it nicely.

Within 10 seconds of opening the box and turning it on, it knew I was in the parking lot of Sam's Club. Wow! The SiRF chip really is impressive. I mounted it to the windshield on the left side of the steering wheel. I plugged power into the side of the nuvi and found out later that I should plug power into the mount. This allows you to remove & install the nuvi with one hand. The mount is rock solid and you cannot even see it while driving. It looks like the nuvi is just floating there in space. Pretty cool! The screen is bright and has a day/night look which is automatic. The only button is a power button on top. All the controls are via the touchscreen interface.

In use the nuvi does a great job. It is very accurate and I love how it figures out what road you are on. My previous unit would have me driving off the road by a 100 or so feet and would keep me there. The nuvi corrects that and intelligently figures that, no, I am not driving in the middle of a field at 70MPH. I must indeed be on the highway and it snaps me over to the road that I really am on. Nice. You have a choice between 2D & 3D views and I have learned to love the 3D mode. It has text-to-speech instructions so you actually hear the names of streets to turn onto, rather than "Turn in 500 feet". It also tells you what side of the street the address is on which really helps at night.

Inputting names is a breeze thanks to its ability to intuitively figure out what you are trying to type. It asks for the state first. After the first letter you type it gives you a list of what state it thinks you're looking for. Cities it finds in about 3 letters along with the street as well. I find this feature a must have especially since the keyboard is in ABC format rather than my typical blackberry QWERTY format. I have not found a way to change the format...maybe a software upgrade? Hint, hint.

Had a couple problems in my week of use but nothing major. The only address it couldn't find was Old Jamestown rd. in Williamsburg, VA. Once I got there (via paper map) I realized the actual name was Olde Jamestown rd. Not sure why it couldn't figure that out, because the road was there on the GPS. Also, when looking for an address in Salvo, NC it could not find the city. It just started looking in all cites for Rampart st. It found it (technically in Waves, NC) but for some reason it didn't find Salvo when I input it. Scrolling through the map I can see Salvo there, it just didn't recognize it when I typed it in. Pretty good considering I put in over 100 addresses this week and it found all but 1 and that was due to poor spelling.

I do wish it had a route overview option where I could see a map of the route and how long the trip will take. It does tell you an estimated time of arrival which is nice but for my use (I bill by the hour and mileage) I need hours and miles. A little bit of math is involved but I can figure it out.

There are many more features on the Garmin Nuvi 350 that I will get more indepth with later. I will post some pictures later as well of some of the screens and the install. Overall it is a simple, compact, sleek, and most importantly, accurate unit that will serve 95% of owners very well. I find myself in the 5% that will be looking for a unit that I can enter multiple waypoints on and maybe has a route overview feature.