Garmin nuvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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Our Price: $48.90 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nuvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: AWESOME!
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered the Garmin 350 after doing extensive research on Amazon, Consumer Reports and other websites that rated the product. I also did a test run at Best Buy where the sales person was telling a group of people that Garmin was the best from a satellite and maps perspective. The price of the Nuvi 350 was well over $100 more than at Amazon.com. AND, they were out of stock, which tells me that even over $100 more it was a good selling item. My motivation to purchase a GPS was due to getting lost in a very unfavorable/dangerous section of Philadelphia where as a female alone I was afraid to stop and ask for directions. I was using Mapquest directions that do not take into account construction detours.
I have used the Garmin Nuvi 350 for several road trips since my purchase. I cannot be more pleased. Navigation through the unit is extremely user friendly. I simply type an address and hit "Go" and I'm on my way. You can add an additional stop to your route and incorporate it into the bigger trip. You can type in key words to a business you might be looking for and it will pull up all listings in the area with that key word. For example, if I am looking for directions or the phone # to Biltmore Winery, which is part of the Biltmore Estate, I simply type in Biltmore and choose from the list it presents me. The Nuvi will also give you listings by hotel or restaurant type and list them by their distance away from your location. You can chooose Chinese, Italian, Steak house, Fast Food, etc. Or you can choose ALL and see what is close to you.
The voices are clear and audible on this unit. It is a cynch to snap in and out of its holder, which suctions to your window. It has a leather case to keep it in when you are using it on foot to navigate through the city. The colors are bright and friendly to the eyes. You can store a list of favorite places and there is a button for "home". Start up is quick and the routes that have been chosen so far are efficient. It may not choose the route that you might usually take, but it does choose good routes from my experience. It recalculates the route immediately if you take a different turn and get off the original route it provided for you. I traveled to Portland, OR to visit a friend. I programmed his address into the unit and from there was able to drive my friend to work, go sight seeing on my own, drive back to his work and pick him up and drive straight back to his home. This was no easy feat with all the turns, interstates and highways that I was not familiar with. However, with the Garmin Nuvi 350 it was so simple to navigate through traffic without a worry. It was incredible. I would be lost without it! No pun intended!
One thing I have noticed, which would be the same with any GPS I imagine, is that when you are parked in a totally enclosed parking garage it takes a moment for the unit to calculate your route. You must get out of the garage into an area where the satellites can reach the unit in order to calculate the route.
Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with the Garmin Nuvi 350. I am not a person that would score this unit less than a "5" b/c of lack of reception in an enclosed parking garage, which would most likely be the case with any GPS unit. The benefits and features, ease of use, feeling of safety for me and my service from Amazon make this product a solid "5" in my opinion.
Customer Review: For the price, its a great toy to have and a nice GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first GPS I've owned but to fairly compare, I've demo'd a bunch of competing units.
When I received the amazon shipment (the free shipping option still got it to my house within 4 days of ordering), I opened the box and surprisingly, the nuvi was cradled right beneath the top flap of the box, not wrapped in any plastic (just a screen protector). Underneath the nuvi, the rest of the accessories seemed to just be tossed in the box (although they were wrapped in plastic). As this was a new item (not refurbished) I expected a little bit better packaging from Garmin.
Anyways, after I got everything out of the box, I powered it up. I didn't even touch the instructions and somehow I instictively navigated the device with ease as if I've owned it for years. The menu selections are foolproof with user friendly icons for just about everything. The first thing I did was go outside and set up my "home" location. I then navigated through the points of interest, and found that there is alot in my area I've never seen!!! This thing was actually giving me ideas for things to do! You can check points of interest for any city in the US. For instance, I'm going to boston next week...I chose Boston as my city and found my hotel I booked just by looking up the name. I also got to scroll through tons of restaraunts. Lots of features here.
So the first use...I went on a short trip in my area just to test out the accuracy of the nuvi and it was decent. I used the points of interest to find my local Wendy's and it was close but not exact (Nuvi might of had an old location on this particular restaraunt). I then used it on my way to work today and it suggested I follow a route that I know for a fact takes longer. I forced it to go my way and it recalculated within 5 seconds every time. There is an option to either go the "fastest" or "shortest" routes, which I believe is why my route differed. There are many different ways to go and in all honestly if I followed the Nuvi I probably would of got to work in the same amount of time.
The voice promting and clarity is what you'd expect out of any GPS. Definitely robotic sounding but clear nonetheless.
The graphics are decent but other units have better. This shouldn't be a driving force for your purchase decision though. These are not gaming machines so the graphics for maps are only going to be so good. I like that you can even change the vehicle icon if you wish (car, truck, ect.).
The touch screen is for the most part accurate but miskeys do happen (especially when hitting the corner buttons). This isn't a big deal though as miskeys are common with any device with a touch screen. You can also recalibrate if you wish.
As far as FM traffic transmitter...this one doesn't have one I don't really think its worth the extra money. For one, the source transmitting the signal has to be available wherever you are and second, who cares? If you see traffic, just turn off and the nuvi will automatically recalc.
The price on amazon is about $70 cheaper than Best Buy's sale price. Its a good deal here and a good value for what you get compared to other GSP units. Plus, this unit is designed to take with you outside of your vehicle. Its ultra portable...all its missing is a phone!
All said and done, this a great GPS to have!
Customer Review: Outstanding and easy to use
Summary: 5 Stars
The Nuvi 350, while a little on the pricey-side, is well worth the investment. This GPS, while diminutive in stature, is grandiose in features; some of which I never thought I'd use, yet do. I never thought I'd use the "audio book" function, but it really is nice to listen to a book on long trips. While the speaker is a bit small, and therefore not rich sounding, it is adequate, but just barely. To help hear it better I simply plug the Nuvi in to my FM modulator that was designed for an MP3 player. I then hear the book via my car's stereo.
The screen is bright, clear, and easy to use. The touch screen works flawlessly and the voice prompts are timely and concise. The Nuvi is smart enough to prompt you based upon your speed. On the highway it gives plenty of warning about changes in course (about a mile or so at freeway speeds) and yet gives less time for around town driving because it knows speeds are lower. Really nice.
The receiver is very sensitive, locks on quickly and keeps it locked even sitting in my garage. Rarely, if ever, does it lose the "birds". The only time I can remember was in an underground parking garage in San Francisco. The loss of the satellites was to be expected in the concrete and steel garage, and who needs a GPS in a parking garage?
I use my Nuvi almost exclusively via the supplied power cord. The battery lasted about 6 hours on a road trip without the cord with the brightness set to about 60%. If I have any concern it is about battery replacement. Since I have yet to crack the case open I do not know how involved of a process this is. There isn't a "remove cover to access battery" on the Nuvi. This is probably a no-brainer, and my Nuvi does not need a new battery, but it will someday.
The dash-disk and suction cup mount is easy to use and removal/installation of the Nuvi is a simple button-press/click. Even the power cord is integral to the mount, so one doesn't have to unplug and then dismount the device every time you park in a public place. Press the thumb button, tilt it forward and it releases smoothly. Reverse the process to install. It doesn't get any easier.
The freely-available POI loaders work well and the Nuvi loads custom made Points of Interest without a hassle. This makes trip planning a snap. I had many mountain-top radio sites saved in my older GPSs and a POI loader made entering them into the Nuvi very easy.
In typical Garmin fashion, bugs in the firmware are fixed on a regular basis, although I hadn't encountered any. Garmin has a "Web Updater" service that checks their updates against your model of GPS and notifies you if there are any updates or upgrades available.
I've owned a dozen or so GPSs since the mid-90s. Some have been simple hockey-puck receivers with no display, others have had rudimentary dot-matrix display or basic black-on-white graphics. The Nuvi is the first full color display model I've owned and I am very happy with it. My only regret? If I had waited just a little bit I could have bought the Nuvi 660 with it's even bigger, wide-screen display. The 350 is big enough as it is, but the 660 would be like trading a standard TV screen for a wide screen model. Both work well, one is just a different aspect ratio. Maybe I'll have to add the 660 to my Amazon wish list?
Customer Review: Garmin Nuvi 350 Review
Summary: 5 Stars
I really love this product. I've been using it daily for about 7 months. I use it in my car as well as on my motorcycle and it is great for both. I find it easy to use and it gives great directions, especially compared to a Magellan model I owned before it. It will allow you to avoid certain conditions like toll roads, expressways, gravel roads, etc and you can have it plan the shortest route or fastest route. It had a vast selection of pre-programmed points of interest complete with phone numbers. Just last week I used this to find a restaurant in an unfamiliar town and phone ahead to make sure they were open. The touch screen is bright and easy to read. The layout of the information is easy to understand while driving. The unit has been durable and reliable.
On the motorcycle it has been a life saver. I often take road trips on my bike to unfamiliar destinations and I have to stop for fuel every 150 miles or so. I put the Nuvi in my pocket with a pair of helmet speakers plugged into the headphone jack. I play MP3s at a safe volume to listen to while I ride and Nuvi will pause the music, give me verbal directions about an upcoming turn, and then resume the music. The built-in lithium ion battery will last about 4-5 hours playing music constantly or about 7-8 hours with no music playing. I like the ability to lock the touch screen so that I don't "plan" side trips while my pocket pokes at the screen :)
It looks like it can be setup for travelling on foot or off road as well as normal street use. I have used it in Washington DC on foot to help with finding subway stations and points of interest. Even when I was just walking around, if I got hungry I'd turn it on, pull up a list of restaurants in the area, touch the one on the list that sounded good, and it would direct me right to their front door. The point of interest list includes gas stations, banks, ATMs, parks, theaters, areana, police, hospital, restaurants (and it breaks them down by type if you want, ie deli, pizza, chinese, etc), and a TON more. In fact I've never been looking for a business that wasn't in the catalog. If you were need to go somewhere that isn't in the POI then you can type in the address and add it if you like. You can make a list of favorite points of interest and pull that up to quickly go to places you often visit, as if you really needed directions to get there :)
If I could make a suggestion for improvement, there is no way to download updates for map changes. I've used Microsoft streets and trips and you can download construction info to update the software. Lately there have been some new streets constructed around my home and they are not listed. In order to add new things to the map I have to wait for Garmin to release a new map set, which is not often (maybe yearly?) and is about $75 last I checked. The maps it has are modern but changes to streets that are made in the last few months aren't up to date in the Nuvi and there is no way to update them. I had the same problem with my Magellan and suspect that this is just how the GPS business works. None the less, I'd love to have a device that I could plug into a USB port and run an application to update all the stuff including the maps.
Customer Review: Garmin Nuvi vs. Garmin 2720
Summary: 5 Stars
My wife travels to the homes of several new clients every week, so a GPS was the perfect gift for her. After much research, I chose the Garmin 2720 over the Magellan 760. But I didn't know about Garmin Nuvi until after I bought the 2720. I was torn after reading favorable reviews of the Nuvi, so I bought a Nuvi as well, with the understanding that we would test both and return one to the store.
First of all, it is hard to go wrong with either, both are great products, and I got them both for about the same price.
2720 Advantages:
--Heavy duty construction. Waterproof.
--Very sharp, bright screen that is more like a mini computer monitor.
--Advanced GPS features.
Nuvi Advantages:
--Ultra compact, light, and portable. A brilliant design.
--Reports of better receiver sensitivity.
--Reports that it draws better routes.
--extra non-GPS features: MP3, picture viewer, audio books, language translater.
--can run on batteries and has a built in speaker
2720 best suited for:
--A motorcycle (it's waterproof)
--Traveling salesmen that would enter many destinations and have the GPS choose the best route between all of them. The Nuvi can handle only 1 via point.
--Mounted in a mini van/SUV for family vacations in rural areas. The 2720 gives you more control to plan your whole route. But the Nuvi would not be bad either.
--The Techie who will use the advanced GPS features.
Nuvi best suited for:
--Your wife. I'm sorry, but a woman will choose the Nuvi over the 2720 almost every time. It fits easily in their purse.
--Traveling by plane and using in a rental car. The Nuvi's ultra compact design makes this the obvious choice.
--People who would use the MP3 player, picture viewer, other Non-GPS features.
--People who travel in downtown areas, it will have fewer dropouts than the 2720.
We chose the Nuvi. The 2720 was nice, but when my wife took one look at the Nuvi her mind was made up. She wouldn't use the advanced GPS features on the 2720, but she liked the MP3 player, etc. on the Nuvi. She loved the compact size, and the ability to run it on batteries in her car without the power cable. The screen is not as bright as the 2720, but it's still very readable.
To see very detailed and technical reviews of all GPS receivers, see gpsinformation.net
UPDATED December 2007:
We've had this unit for almost two years now, and it still works great. In fact we bought a new Lexus with a built in Nav, and we still like the Nuvi better. It has better directions, an easier menu, and text to speech capability.
One thing to note, the touch screen on the NUVI will not scratch easily. Many people are concerned that they need to buy a screen protector. This is not necessary. We've never used a screen protector, and I can't find any noticable scratches on the screen. And I can't count all the times that we've dropped it, or it fell off the dashboard. It still looks almost new.