Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $91.00 You Save: $808.99 (90%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Awesome navigation system!
Summary: 5 Stars
I get lost everywhere I go. When I had to start traveling for work, I was horrified. The Nuvi took my mind off my worries because it helps me to get around just like I have a local tour guide in my rental car. Here are the positives about the Nuvi 370:
1 - Comes with North America (including Canada) and European maps - a HUGE plus if you travel to Europe a lot. You can update your maps by registering the product right away. I don't know what maps it came with, but I registered my product and then downloaded the 2008 maps for free.
2 - It recalculates directions right away when you deviate from the chosen route. I tested this at home and the Nuvi starts recalculating within seconds. I have seen other units take 5-6 minutes to realize you're off-route and recalculate. You can be way off track in 5-6 minutes, so I was happy to see the Nuvi recalculate so quickly.
3 - It comes with everything you need: carrying case, car mounts, car charger, home charger, USB cable for the computer, FM traffic receiver - you name it, it's in the box.
4 - You can look at the map or you can view the line-by-line directions - very nice for those of us who need to see the directions in writing.
5 - You can use the Nuvi for walking, biking, and driving. It also has different settings for taxi cabs and semi trucks.
6 - Extensive database of restaurants, attractions, gas stations, airports, parking garages, etc. When planning a trip, I can input my hotel, chosen restaurants, and even find close gas stations before I leave home. When I arrive at my rental car, I just have to turn on the Nuvi and select my destination and chosen detours.
7 - Beeps and provides verbal instruction in advance of your turn. Even tells you to stay left or right on the highway depending on where your next exit is located or when the highway will split.
The only problem I've had with the Nuvi is that it will not find a satellite signal from inside a parking garage. I had figured this prior to travel, so I had a general idea of which highway to take when I left the parking garage. Once outside the parking garage, the Nuvi picks up a signal right away and you're on the way to your destination!
I cannot say enough good things about this device - it's an absolute lifesaver!
Customer Review: One of man's Best invention
Summary: 5 Stars
It works as advertised.
PRO:
1) Very good GPS reception. I can have signal even in building. This is very good if u are travelling on foot. you can go in and out of shop without loosing signals. (u need to change to pedestrain mode)
2) Very good for Europe travel, Maps are detail enough. U can plan your trip from this country to that country and every attractions in between. Call Garmin to request for a USA & Europe CD to be installed in your PC and then sync all the planning into the GPS
3) Always give me the fastest way to where I want to go. I have seen reviews that this thing sometimes recommend routes that are longer. Well I thought so too. Try and compare it on your PC by comparing your method and GPS recommended method. I will say u will loose most of the time.
4) Screen readable even in sunlight.
5) Design is slim and nice. Good for pocket travel on foot.
6) Eliminates lots of quarrel with your partner when u are lost :) - priceless.
CONS:
1) Time taken for it to receive a signal plus the loading of the USA and Europe is slow. However if u coming out from a underground carpark, I suggest u switch on only when u are out of the underground carpark. If you on while in Underground carpark, it takes forever to get a signal even after u are out in the open.
2) sound quality is not good enough. Forget about using this as MP3 player. Although the voice navigation is loud enough but the sound crack when u put to highest volume. It sound as if the speaker is bursting.
3) Pronunciation of street names is terrible, I bet any 10 year old can pronounce better than it. But its fun anyway to hear such an intelligent device cannot pronounce simple street name.
Summary
I highly highly recommend it. This is one of those device u will never say u never use it. But one thing u need to be careful. Your driving habit will change from using common sense to find the way to just conveniently looking at the screen.
Customer Review: Extremely Satisfied
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first GPS I've owned so don't have anything to compare it to, but I didn't expect perfection. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the Garmin Nuvi 370 exceeded all my desires.
I registered it immediately as recommended by others. I turned it on. It downloaded the maps and I was up and running. The menus are easy to follow without a user guide. I feel it's really user friendly and doesn't require a lot of esoteric knowledge to use. The screen is suprisingly easy to see considering it's size, even in my car in the sunlight.
I had a lot of fun trying different settings like asking it to choose routes based on traffic or distance and seeing how they compared. When I deviated from a course it quickly recalculated and gave me new directions. Am I being overly sensitive or does the voice sound slightly disgusted when I passsed a recommended turn and it announced, "recalculating"? The American English voice was easy to understand. When I entered a brand new subdivision where roads were not available on the map the best it could tell me was to head east. However, that's better than any paper map can do.
I realize that I'm using it at home where I'm already familiar with the streets. I bought the Nuvi 370 because I travel to Europe a lot and can really use it there. I'll see how well it functions in a place I'm less familiar with in a few weeks. I love that it's so small and lightweight. I'll be able to carry it while walking without having some bulky piece of equipment weighing me down. However, I do see it as prime pickpocket target in Europe.
I think I found this item easier to use because I had no expectations based upon other GPS's owned and I did a lot of reading before the purchase. It certainly helped since I knew to go to the Garmin website and update the maps for free.
I don't expect the Nuvi 370 to meet every need I have, but I'm directionally challenged. After wandering around America and Europe for years anything has got to help. So far I'm extremely satisfied.
Customer Review: Great GPS and other utilities
Summary: 5 Stars
Last week we checked out our new Garmin nuvi 370 GPS for a 100-mile trip to a new destination and it worked amazingly well. We decided not to put the adhesive mount on the dashboard (came with warning that it is difficult to remove) until we found out if we liked it. So my wife just held it on her lap and it quickly and easily found the satellites and stayed locked on them even inside the car - so it doesn't really need to be mounted under the windshield. We already knew the best route to the general area and it took us there by that route and when we got to the general area it took us right to the desired location. While in the area we were able to search for closest and/or desired restaurants, gas stations, and shopping. The "text to voice" feature was worth the extra cost because it was helpful to know the street name of the next turn - spoken with at least 3 advance warnings. A required U-turn is called out as a left turn onto the same street that is being traveled on and it knows where U-turns are not allowed and takes us around the block with right turns. And, this little thing (smaller than a cigarette package) has many other travel features. I had already read through the instructions, but it's so simple that my wife figured it out as we were traveling without reading them and mostly without my prompts. This trans-Atlantic version will be extremely useful when we are traveling in Europe and the UK this summer.
Last night I easily linked up our cell phone to the Garmin muvi 370 using the Blue Tooth interface. It works great and displays the "calling list" to select a quick and easy dial-out number and even responds to the voice activated dialing better than the phone itself. This will be nice to have after July 1 when the new law will require "hands-free" calling on mobile phones while driving.
Customer Review: Great performing Nav system
Summary: 5 Stars
To those of you who may never have used a GPS navigation system, these things can be great stress reducers. I previously owned the Garmin C330 which I was happy with. The one problem routinely encountered with the 330 though was that the screen was quite difficult to see in bright light. The Nuvi screen is very easy to see in comparison. The maps included with my Nuvi were very up to date. The C330 sometimes would get lost due to new roads or re-routing of roads. The Nuvi hasn't got me lost yet.
The text to speech is a gimmick in my opinion, don't let that sell you. The mounting system is a suction cup system which works very well. The whole thing can be installed in a minute of so. It takes a couple of minutes for the maps to load and for the unit to find the satellites.
The detour function is a bit flawed; you can ask for a detour, and it will find one for you, but if you don't want to take the suggested detour, it will usually suggest the original route (kind of dumb). Garmin should find a way to detour a certain highway, or at least have more than one detour available.
The ability to use "via route" is very limited with this unit. You can input your final destination and one waypoint in between; that's it. This is a very simple system that is very easy to learn, so there isn't much in the way of functions that are likely to confuse newbies.
Watch the internet for good deals on these Nav units. The prices seem to go up and down quite a bit. For some reason, prices seem higher now (Oct. 2007) than they were six months ago.
This is a very worthwhile piece of equipment if you find car navigation stressful.
Highly recommended!