 Good Product! |
| Review Date: December 31, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Hello, |
I love the Garmin Nuvi 785t as this is a good unit. From what I am able to tell, it is about 99% accurate but those flaws will not let you miss your destination. Some of the directions around town do not make any sense but being that I know differently I did not take that advice. However, a stranger would not know the difference as gas will be wasted. For the most part, I am very satisfied with this unit.
For those of you that are new to the GPS these features are for you:
The first thing you want to do before routing an address is to connect the unit to a computer and UPDATE the Garmin software. It comes with a USB cable and it is easy to update.
It does speak the name of the street as well as the lane to get in after you make the turn.
U.S. interstates and roads speed is automatically displayed but not for local and state highways/roads.
Your personal speed is shown no matter what road or highway you are on.
The GPS has a mode for "automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian."
You are able to transmit the voiced directions through your radio to your automobile speakers without a cable by simply putting your radio on a FM station WITH static. The lower the channel the better but the lowest station that can be used is 88.1. The con to this is that you cannot listen to your CD's while you are using that feature and you will be able to hear some of the static.
Media card: the unit can take the regular SD card as well as SDHC card but not over 4GB. According to Garmin, anything over 4GB will make the unit slow and they do not advise using anything over 4GB.
It has a picture viewer so you can insert your media card to view your pictures as well as have a picture for the address listed in your favorites or address book.
When you input your address, let the unit find your location and save it as your home address because your location may not match your current address. It might find another address but your actual coordinates will match the location of your house.
The unit draws the map quickly as well as the re-calculation of the route. However, if you are on the interstate and you did not take the routed exit and if you have not passed the street that is attached to that exit, then the unit will not recalculate until you have passed that street especially when the exit is a long road. It will recalculate quickly if a street is not connected to an exit.
You can enter multiple destinations.
The "Where I am feature" is a good feature especially when you cannot find an address. You can pull in a driveway, press the icon and it will give you an address or what they believe to be address. I typed an address in the unit and the address could not be found. Therefore, after arriving at the address, I pressed the icon and it gave me an address which was different from the address that I had and I saved it for the future.
The current temperature is displayed on the GPS.
The "points of interest" is nice because it pretty much becomes a telephone directory.
I have not seen any 3-D buildings on the map.
MSN Direct: I love it BUT traffic reports are not in my area. All of the services of MSN Direct are not available in every area. All available features are available in the most major cities so if you live or travel to major cities, then just for the traffic reports is worth subscribing to this service. We traveled to a large city and were helped with the traffic information. It alerts of the traffic, the delay and how major the traffic has stalled as well as rerouting you passed the stalled traffic. The car icon automatically appears on the screen as you do not have to do anything which is great especially if you are driving alone. The information given gives traffic information for your direct route as well as traffic miles away from your location. You can push the car icon and it lists the location of the reports. Go to this link http://www.msndirect.com/coverage.aspx to find out if coverage is in your area and what features are available in your area.
The "Gas Prices" feature for ME is worth the [...] for the lifetime subscription. It is accurate and I got prices as far as an eleven mile radius of my location. I wish I had this feature earlier when the gas prices were much higher than they are now.
The "Stock Prices" is great if you do not have internet services on your cell phone. Enter the stock symbol and it automatically displays the information. The GPS does not have to be plugged into your car in order to get the update as the adapter has a battery so it continues to update the unit as long as the adapter is connected to the unit.
The "News Headlines" is just as it says. It shows the headlines and a brief summary.
The "Weather" gives you the current weather as well as weather in other cities in a certain radius of your location.
There are other features of MSN Direct but I highlighted some of the features.
Cons: There are two cons with this unit:
Lane Assist: It is not interactive and it looks like what you see when the lane assist is advertised. It flashes briefly across the screen so if you missed it then you missed it. However, you can touch the turn guidance icon and if the lane assist icon is highlighted then you can see the lane assist but if you are driving alone that is a bit much especially if you have to make a split decision. Lane assist is not every where all the time as that feature is very limited.
However, the plus is that the turns and the lanes are pretty much clear to understand without the lane assist.
Battery: The unit is too expensive for this to be a throw away unit. The battery is not replaceable and the guide gives you instructions on how to dispose of the unit but not return the unit to have the battery replaced. Therefore, it is imperative to protect the unit in making sure that the unit is not left in a hot automobile. Yes, the unit has a warranty but |
Garmin + MSN Direct = MAGNIFICENT!
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| Review Date: September 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Joxxy, Long Island, NY United States |
Garmin + MSN Direct = MAGNIFICENT!
This GPS is just INCREDIBLE! It is by far the best GPS I have EVER owned! Better than any portable unit currently on the market and far better than any (over-priced OEM) in-dash GPS unit.
I purchased this GPS because it was taking me between 8.5 and 14 hours to travel from Long Island, NY (where I live) to Lake Placid, NY area (where my wife lives) bi-weeekly. The total distance is between 381 and 465 miles depending on which GPS you use. As you can guess, most of my travel time was spent in heavy traffics between long Island and upstate NY. I just wanted to try it and return it if it didn't fit the bill.
I have now owned this GPS for more than 2 months now and it has yet to fail me. My travel time is now consistently below 6.5 hours and the distance travel is usually around 380 miles (sometimes a little longer when trying to avoid traffic) . Even during Memorial Day weekend, it took me barely 7 hours to get back home with one of the heaviest traffic I have ever seen. I am so sold that I have already purchased the lifetime subscription to MSN Direct. And I already got my money worth!
I have an in-dash GPS unit (slow and lousy at best and that I hate dearly) in my 2006 BMW X5. There is a mediocre and useless in-dash GPS unit in my wife 2005 Nissan Murano. These in-dash OEM GPS units have the strangest routes, they are slow, and just take you from point A to point point B. It doesn't matter how they get you there... I have also owned 2 Garmin Nuvi (350 and 370 - both pretty good) and 2 TomTom (One and 340S (just OK).
Back to the Nuvi 785T. Sorry for getting carried way...
First, lets get the bad/suggestions out of the way:
- Does not display the speed limit/actual speed next to each other (and turning to red when over the limit) like the TomTom beautifully does. It displays mainly the speed limit on major highway and is accurate in most cases.
- The sound is just adequate, but need some improvement. Make sure to adjust the sound to 100%. The default 80% is too low and you may not hear a thing.
- MSN Direct receiver should be integrated in the unit itself, not on the charger.
- Rebooted on me once during my trip. I was checking traffic on my route and VLAM!
- I had to spend another $100 for lifetime MSN Direct!
Second, the GOOD:
- Extraodinary accuracy. The estimated time of arrival is almost always dead on.
- AMAZING display. The best resolution when compared to any other GPS out there.
- Gas Prices on MSN direct - very accurate information, but used it only once.
- Weather on MSN Direct - I love this feature and use it often.
- Bluetooth calling is nice and clear, people could not tell I was calling handsfree. But, the sound wasn't loud enough on my end.
- Great overall feature set.
Third, the GREAT:
- Traffic on MSN Direct - Simply AMAZING! highly accurate and reliable feature. I am no longer thinking about beating NY traffic. I just jump in the car and drive. This GPS really showed me what it capable of during Memorial Day weekend.
- Best routing engine on the market! Always the shortest distance and fastest time when compared to any other GPS.
- Garmin GPS re-route better than ANY other GPS by far. You will never hear "make a U-turn when possible" crap. It just recalculates the best route from your current position.
- Send To GPS - This is maybe one of my favorite features that I use almost daily.
- SUPER fast satellite acquisition and very Strong GPS signal anytime and almost everywhere.
- It is a GRAMIN!!!
My Recommendations to potential buyers:
- update the software and firmware as soon as you receive your unit
- update the maps to the latest as soon as possible
- set the volume to 100% before first use
This is simply a MAGNIFICENT piece of electronic. If you really want the very BEST in GPS technology, this is IT!
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Good Navigation, traffic from MSN works well
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| Review Date: December 12, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Nick from NJ, |
I had an older Garmin C340 device and recently upgraded to the 785T for the wide screen and real-time traffic, weather, gas prices and other information from MSN. I was pleasantly surprised by how much better the 785T is compared to my old C340. I love how thin it is, and the wide screen is nice. I also liked the traffic information and found it to be fairly accurate. Even though the gas prices are going down, they will surely go back up and given how things are with the economy, saving a few bucks helps. I haven't had any problems, but just to be safe I upgraded the 785T's software using Garmin's Webupdater application. The upgrade is easy. After you get the device just install the WebUpdater application on your PC from Garmin's website, connect the device to your computer with a USB cable, and start the Webupdater application.
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