 Improvements over Nuvi 200 appreciated |
| Review Date: October 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: J. Morris, Austin, TX United States |
I had to give the Nuvi 205 a 5-star rating because it's better than the Nuvi 200, which has an average of 4.5 stars at Amazon. All in all, I'm glad I got the 205 vs. the 200. Not in any order are the following improvements I appreciated most:
The faster screen refresh is noticeable. There's a YouTube video where the 205 is compared with the 200. You can see a huge difference.
The redesigned display is more intuitive with arrows vs. "left"/"right". Personally, I think the screen design looks better, too.
The ability to import addresses on the computer from Google map is very nice since entering the address via the touchscreen is a bit cumbersome.
BTW, the documentation is very, very light. There was no mention of how to use the map importation feature so I appreciated the Amazon product page including the link to download the plug-in. Also, I didn't know I could download more vehicles till I dug around the Garmin website.
About text-to-speech, which this unit does NOT have, I don't think I'm going to miss it. Usually I have the radio or iPod blaring, and my car is pretty noisy anyway, so it would be hard to hear the street names called out. In fact, I keep the volume down and rely on the very intuitive display. You clearly see the upcoming street name to turn on and even if there are a bunch of streets bunched up together, the main map would show them all and it would be easy to differentiate the one you want. |
Great entry level GPS
|
| Review Date: May 29, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ken, Dallas, TX |
When researching a new GPS, you have to concentrate on what features you want, and then pay attention to how the unit functions as a whole. The maps will occasionally be wrong with any unit, and locals will likely disagree with some of the routing in areas they are highly familiar with. But you aren't buying this to help you navigate your neighborhood. In my research I've found Tomtom, Magellan, and Garmin all share similarly high reviews depending on the product.
That said, the Garmin Nuvi 205 is a fantastic entry level unit. It is incredibly easy to use, very quick to acquire a signal, immediate re-calculation, and accurate placement and position updates. This unit does not speak street names, but I find the verbal updates adequate enough. "In one mile, turn left" etc. gives plenty of notice on what you need to do without continually harassing you. Enterting destinations is easy. It will guess the city / street names after only a few letters, and it has a large preloaded database of locations to search.
In addition to the map, during your drive it will display your current speed, the local speed limit (most of the time), distance to destination, ETA, and your next turn and which direction it will be. If there are no other turns prior to your destination, it will display which side of the road you need to be on and mark the spot with a checked flag. So far it has been 100% accurate on "side of street" placement.
It has multiple settings if you need to adjust any part of the programming or features. You can have it avoid tolls, highways, u-turns, etc. You cannot edit the main interface, or what it shows you where, I would not make any changes even if I could though. This unit is compatible with the optional traffic receivers, however I have not used any of them. I love the small size as well, it fits well on the windshield with the included mount but does not get in the way, and is still very easy to read.
Updating your maps online seems easy enough, I was able to connect to my computer with a standard mini-usb cable (not included) and load the website quickly. I also downloaded voices and icons directly to the device with no trouble.
If you are looking for a low price GPS for casual use, and can live without bluetooth, spoken street names, and multi point routing (you can have 1 destination + 1 extra stop at once) then the nuvi 205 is perfect, and a great price. I am very satisfied with my purchase. |
improvement over Nuvi 200
|
| Review Date: November 12, 2008 |
| Reviewer: David Goldovt-Ryzhenkov, Boston, MA |
I owned Nuvi 200 in the past. I had to part with it rather unexpectedly, and Nuvi 205 was the replacement I got for it.
It exceeded my expectations.
First on its predecessor Nuvi 200. A very good unit. Found directions well, had 95% accurate map, useful features and good layout to use them.
Nuvi 205 kept most pluses and expanded features.
Graphical interface was refreshed and looks smoother than its predecessor. Nuvi 200 was well laid out, this just puts it in a better wrapper.
It comes with NT2009 maps - newest maps! if you buy nuvi200 now, it may come with 2008, 2007. You'd need to register it and HOPE you get a free map update.
When you zoom out on a map now you will see all your saved locations! this is great, and was not available in nuvi 200.
I particularly like the "where am I", which shows where you are, your grid coordinates, closest address and intersection.
They added a tracker, so you can see what roads you traveled down.
I tried it on foot, and it was ok. Compass was hard to read and I went to reading the sun to figure out which was is North, but using the tracker I was able to approximate how far I went into the woods, where return trail and how far am I away from it.
The only two degrades from nuvi 200 was the favorites. It now has two extra clicks to go through to get to them. When its rerouting instead of explicitly writing "rerouting" it shows nothing, which can be misguiding.
I would recommend it as a good GPS to people in US. for foreign service it does not have the maps and you may consider a different model that does. |
|
