Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Customer Review: The BEST GPS for the money!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my third GPS unit. It's my first Garmin. I've owned a TomTom and a Magellan prior to purchasing this Garmin. Basically that's why I bought a Garmin this time. TomTom's aren't accurate or they take you the long way and Magellan's battries die fast and their cumbersome to use. The Garmin blows their competition away! The Garmin has a nice clear easy to read big LCD screen. The touch screen is perfect, just the right touch required to set everything up. Others out their require too much of a hard touch, or are way too sensative, resulting in misques all the time. Garmin's got it right! The maps are very accurate and easy to use. Garmin's graphical user interface is by far the BEST! It's very easy to figure out, even without reading the instrutions. The voice is loud and clear, and pronunciations of street names are accurarte. Something I can't say about TomTom and Magellan. The Garmin has tons of points-of-interest pre-loaded. Routes are very accurate, with precise easy to understand directions. The FM traffic works well. It's definately designed for city dwellers. It uses Clear Channel traffic alerts. Which if you don't know, is the largest owner of FM radio stations in the U.S. and Canada! I live near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So I'm very fortunate, we have numerous FM stations owned by Claer Channel. So they have a very strong presents in my region of the country. This might not be the case in the smaller populated states in the U.S. So they might not have the coverage for FM traffic that I have. Clear Channel uses up to the minute traffic updates provided by PA DOT cameras from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. So I'm covered! The BlueTooth connection works well. Everyone says I sound pretty good, with only a slight degradation from my actual phone. They were amazed, that I was talking through my GPS unit. The calls are very clear, and the person your talking to sounds very natural. Very close to actually talking through the phone itself. I have an LG Chocalate 3 through Verizon Wireless. The Garmin GPS found it and linked-up the first try. The Garmin has three different American English voices (Regular, Samantha and Jack), I prefer the regular. But all sound well. The other thing I really liked is Garmin's website! Software updates are super easy. The Garmin's garage, which has numerous different cars and some different voices you can download for free. They also use a program called WebUpdater, that you download onto your PC. Then connect your Garmin to your PC and it automatically identifies your nuvi model and checks for the lastest software updates for you. It's a really great feature. I can see why Garmin is number one in GPS sales. They are a company that's got it together, with rock solid well built GPS units. That are the easiest to navigate around. And a website that has everything you need and more. Plus I like the fact Garmin International is U.S. based (Olathe, Kansas). TomTom is European (Netherlands) and Magellan is owned by an Asian company MiTac that also makes the Mio and NavMan GPS units. So you're probably getting the same components and paying more for the name. Garmin's are all made by Garmin, in their own factories, not out-sourced! Their not re-badged brands like so many others. Do yourself a favor and buy the Gamin nuvi 265WT or some other Garmin that meets your needs. Trust me you'll be glad you did. You'll have one of the best GPS units you can buy. The Garmin nuvi 265WT is a great value for the price and included features. Probably one of the best at giving you the most for your money. Amazon's price and shipping once again was unbeatable. That's why I always check prices on Amazon first, before choosing where to buy a product. I love Amazon!Customer Review: Well worth the price of admission
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had the 265wt for a couple of weeks now. I try not to buy gadgets or toys unless I can get a lot of use out of them, this one I use every day. I don't have much experience with other GPS's other than a friend's TomTom but I can offer some insight from just a regular guy.
The TomTom was fun but when I did my research there were a few features that seemed better on this Garmin, most notably "free traffic" which I will discus in a minute.
Navigation
On the first day I took it out we went to my niece's house. I had been there before but was not entirely familiar with the area. On the way there it took me exactly as I had gone before when I used MapQuest. On the way home it told me to drive northeast about 1.1 miles to catch a different highway when I was actually trying to go southeast. Needless to say I ignored the advice. After about five minutes it was clear that I should have listened and my wife and son made some unwarranted comments about how I always think I know better. Forty-five minutes later, rather than twenty-five, we pulled into the driveway and the abuse came to an end. If you get a GPS, keep an open mind about where it tells you to go.
It seems like the Tom-Tom was a little more intuitive about addresses when I was keying them in but the Garmin was easy enough. It helps to know the city you are going to.
The screen on the map has tons of information including speed limit signs and I love the speed limit signs.
Free Traffic
I had to go to my uncle's funeral in some podunk Missouri town. The navigation on the way there was perfect and it took me right to the Funeral Home. On the way home there was one of those rainstorms where you know you should pull off but visibility was so low the next guy would probably just run into the back of you. So it is white knuckle time and about 20 minutes into it the traffic icon changes and shows a one minute delay. About a minute later a little blip shows up on the road ahead of me. As I got closer to the symbol the road went down to one lane and as I cleared the crest of the hill there was a Police car on the shoulder and a car that had slid off the road. It was nice to get the heads up given the road conditions and surprising because I was almost an hour and a half away from St. Louis.
In daily conditions I can't say there is anything too surprising. So far it is just heavy traffic in all the usual places and the unit always shows a delay of some type when I go back and forth to work. I will say it is nice to get an ETA based on the traffic delays.
TTS/Sound
Text-to-Speech is good; the words can be a little strange when you use some of the different dialects. Sound for directions is plenty good. I only have it at sixty percent because after that it interferes with my music. If you need to hear the directions you are going to have to turn the music down a little anyway.
Bluetooth
I didn't really have high expectations for Bluetooth. I already own a Jabra that sits on my visor. The Bluetooth on the Garmin is actually better than the Jabra but sound is still a little too weak for a phone. This feature was about a good as I would have expected.
Overall this was well worth the $250 I paid for it. The traffic was the dealmaker for me and the ads are not an issue at all. They only take up a incredibly small portion of the screen and just go away on their own.
Customer Review: Nice GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
The Garmin 265WT is an easy to use GPS. That's a good thing because there is no manual!
It's easy to read, easy to set up, easy to configure the way you like, the Bluetooth for your cell phone works well, and the Points of Interest is handy. The free traffic feature seems to work well in Southern California, at least in my travels so far.
Some things that I wish were better:
I had trouble with my one free map update. First, it takes nearly an hour to download and execute, even with a high speed internet connection of 10+ Mbps! That is inexcusable in this day and age. Second, the update crashed during the install. And wiped out all maps. Retrying did not solve the problem. After much grief, Garmin Support suggested trying from another computer. Success was then achieved but why? Both run WinXP and there isn't anything special about either PC. BTW, this is the second 265WT I've owned and both had the same problem with map updates on my machines. The map update is my biggest complaint. In an age where Microsoft can send many Gigs to my PC in an OS update in a matter of minutes, and Garmin cannot speaks volumes about the need to fix this.
Bluetooth: cannot dial from my phone. I suppose that is okay but is it any better to be pressing buttons on the GPS to dial out? I have not figured out voice activation with the GPS.
POI: while driving, I'd like to be able to find gas stations and places to eat that aren't several miles off the freeway. There is no way to filter it with today's Garmin software. I have had to give up and go back to looking for signs along the freeway. A slick software update would be to put icons on the map showing nearby gas stations and places to eat, or whatever type of POI the user has selected. And to be able to limit it to a desired distance from the freeway or road that you are on.
I am also experiencing some garbled characters in the Recently Found addresses after a couple of weeks of entering them. Not sure why. They still work but they are garbled in the menu. Boy, I hope the maps never become garbled. I will be screaming bloody murder at Garmin.
On the wish list: more custom vehicles. Right now, they are extremely limited on the Garmin site.
Also on the wish list, much lower priced map updates! My gosh, Garmin is pretty proud of those updates. More of us would probably buy them if the price wasn't in the atmosphere. When it comes time to update mine, I will probably consider replacing the GPS instead. That is a sad statement.
Still another for the wish list: the ability to charge the darn thing via my PC USB port. I'm not sure if an external charger is available--it may be for a price--but right now, the only way I can charge mine is via the included 12 VDC power cord.
Okay, much of this is nit picking but... The 265WT is an awefully nice GPS and you will find lots of positive reviews of it on the web. You'll find that despite my comments above, I am giving it a 5 star rating. It amazes me that they can pack all that it does in such a small package and price it so reasonably. Overall, I like it a lot. It is a positive addition to my driving experience and I am glad that I bought it (two of them actually).
Customer Review: Non Techie - I Heart My Garmin
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted to chime in with my own Amazon review about my Garmin even though there are already so many glowing reviews of the Nuvi 265WT model because I am not one of the early adapters of electronics technology and yet I do love my Garmin.
I have to tell you, the first time someone handed me a Garmin in April 2008 to use when I was visiting Santa Monica, I thought it was really sorta superfluous. The Garmin took a few minutes to program to enter my "TO WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO" info, when I was literally only driving 3 blocks and knew how to get there. So, to start, I had this slightly resistant attitude about it.(Me? Resistant to change? You can't relate, right? lol)
And then when I was moving to a new city 18 months later, I became a tremendous fan of the Garmin. In fact, I borrowed my brothers for a few months to get myself grounded with my new city and not get lost, or at least no terribly lost. Now I have my own!
MORE SPECIFIC DRIVING DIRECTIONS THAN EARLIER MODELS:
The 265WT model differs from the earlier models in the driving instructions given. Earlier versions would often just tell you to "Turn Right." The 265WT gives more specific driving directions, "Turn Right onto Las Vegas Blvd."
NICE GUI:
The level of detail in the maps is really nice when I am driving. I can tell we are getting close, and there are a series of parallel streets. The Image of the Map displays the NAMES of each of the streets, not just an image of a road, and combines it with an arrow image so I can see where I am and that it is at the 3rd consecutive street where I need to turn.
FEATURES FEATURES FEATURES:
I have not yet even begun to tap into all the great features on my Garmin. Where I am staying right now, there is a Toll Road area and the tolls are quite high. Generally, I want to avoid the Toll Roads, if at all possible. There is a setting I can select so that my Garmin does some thinking for me to "Avoid Toll Roads," and provides me with an alternative route.
The Garmin also gives me an Expected Arrival Time which helps for travel planning and communicating with others.
Additionally, while I was in Las Vegas recently, I even took my Garmin out for when I was walking along Las Vegas Blvd. The MAP is a touch screen, and I can move it with a touch my finger. I could then see what Stores, Restaurants, Bars, and Casinos were nearby and choose accordingly.
The only challenge I find, and I don't that it could be any better, is that in places like Las Vegas where there is a lot of construction going on, thee maps just aren't current. I really don't expect it to be 100% as of last week's construction update, just that is an issue. Additionally, some intersection and freeway junctures are just incredibly creative designs by some civic engineers and the Garmin expresses the directions only so well when the roads are arranged in a convoluted manner. I have had to go around and reapproach the route I needed to take because the roads were just weird.
All in all, I adore my Garmin.
Customer Review: Overall a solid product
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this in November to replace a Magellan GPS unit.
I know my area relatively well, and I still love the feel and usability of a map book, but a GPS is useful for a number of reasons, among them being able to not have to look at a book while driving and seeing distances. And with this unit, the traffic.
Pros:
-A very good mount. My last GPS unit's mount was large and awkward. Garmin's ball joint-style mount allows for precise and easy setting.
-Directions are good. I drive an ambulance and use this unit to get to emergency scenes. I'm still wary and we always use the department-provided directions as a backup, but the unit hasn't misled us yet. In personal use, I haven't had many problems not uncommon to GPS units in general. In either use, the maps are the most useful feature. It's good to see what roads are coming up or where I am.
-The speed limits are useful and accurate.
-Traffic is typically fairly accurate. Sometimes I hit some slowdowns before being alerted to them, but in routing mode it will alert you of backups anywhere on your route. It does use a small ad when stopped to support the free traffic, but it takes up so little space and is gone the moment you start moving.
-The connection to the satellites is quick and accurate, and even tracks when it's off so if I travel across the county and turn it on it gets location quickly.
-Pronounces street names in Australian English. I know it does it in North American English and probably British English. In case you were wondering.
-Garmin's online portal is very good and interacts well with the unit. Updating is very very easy, and the extras the provide (different icons for the car, for example) are fun.
Cons:
-In the US at least, should display secondary roads with a name and a number in parentheses, and the opposite for primary roads. Example: it says and displays "Turn right on VA-637" (it pronounces "Virginia"), but the road isn't readily signed or referred to as 637, but rather Cascades Parkway (a minor route). Conversely, it will say and display "Turn left on Harry Byrd Highway", which is more well-known and signed as Route 7 (VA-7, a major primary route), but is at least signed with the road name. This is not a problem with the unit, but Garmin's software and maps. Still a minor annoyance. While that might be ideal in some locations (SoCal?), it should at least display and speak both.
-Requires a more forceful touch than the Magellan I'd been using. With that unit, I could just barely touch the screen and it would register my touch. This just feels like I have to add the extra force and a little more time to type.
-Bluetooth is so-so. It doesn't store/access my contacts so it requires me to know the number or use my phone to find the contact. I personally don't use it and haven't.
Overall a good unit, and I am very satisfied. I will probably stick with Garmin from now on and would definitely recommend this unit to anyone.