Garmin nuvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $99.98 You Save: $700.01 (88%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nuvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: One of the Best GPS units available today!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using the Nuvi 880 GPS for a couple of weeks now, and it is the best Garmin unit to date, and possibly the portable/handheld/car GPS available at this time. The Garmin Nuvi GPS units are probably the easiest to start using out of the box without reading any manuals.
The new line of Nuvi units have done away with the small flip-up antenna, opting for a internal antenna which is much nicer. This GPS is also VERY thin and can be carried in your jeans pocket (front pocket-without the leather case/protector) if you're traveling in another country. Because the 880 has done away with the external antenna, it also maintains the same thin dimensions for the length of the backside of the unit, finally losing that small bulge as on the back of the 670 (and other 600-series) Nuvi units.
The speech recognition is about 90% accurate, but this may be due to the higher amount of road noise in my car (and/or the air conditioner fan noise). When it's quiet, however, the voice recognition is surprisingly accurate.
The ability to have a user-changeable battery is featured on the 880. I can't tell you how many times I wish I had this feature with our Nuvi 670 on our trip to Italy when we were out all day on foot and the GPS battery became depleted, (though it did last for 5-6 hours). The only thing lacking is that Garmin should sell some sort of external battery charger for the extra batteries rather having to charge them in the unit itself.
Another reviewer mentioned that the Garmin doesn't have intelligent street recognition (such as with Google) to ask the user if a different spelling for a street/highway was intended when the unit doesn't return any results with the spelling it was given. This is not true, and perhaps that reviewer should have another read of the documentation to understand this. If you provide a partial text street or highway name to the Garmin it will return a list of possible matches. The Nuvi 880 works slightly different than previous Nuvi models in that the earlier models would provide an "active lookup", listing the possible matches as soon as the user had typed enough characters to determine a match. The 880, however, allows the user to provide (enter) the partial or full street/intersection AND THEN it will display a list of possible matches. This works a little more efficiently than the previous models because it allows the system to do a single fast search, rather than searching after each letter, and it allows the user to correct any typing mistakes before searching on them.
Another nice feature of the Garmin unit is that the virtual keyboard for spelling can be QWERTY style now.
The built in MP3 player is fun. For example if you have a music (or any MP3) that you want to hear via the car's stereo, you simply tune the FM radio to an unused station and configure the Garmin to output to the FM transmitter. Music and guidance prompts will be played via the car stereo. This is also nice for extremely noisy car environments if the Garmin's (loud) volume isn't enough, then the GPS prompts can be played via the car stereo. Other utilities on the 880 are very helpful, such as the unit and currency converters.
I've also tried the TomTom units, which I found to be slower in computing routes, and having far too many user configurable options. If you want to spend hours "customizing" all of the screen colors and every other aspect of your GPS, then maybe a TomTom would be a good choice for you. However, if you want an easy-to-use unit, the Garmin is a better choice.
The screen brightness can be set by the user, but 70-80% will suffice in all but the highest glare situations, and the large screen is very clear.
With ANY touch-screen device I always recommend purchasing clear screen protector sheets. These clear sheets stick via friction (no residue), and will help to greatly extend the life of your GPS or other product.
Lastly, another very nice feature on the 880 is the addition of MSN Direct which I renewed the subscription to a lifetime (guaranteed until 2012) extension for about $120 flat (there are other renewal options available). One of the best features of MSN Direct is updated traffic reports sent to your GPS. Even while not navigating a route, and simply viewing the map, a traffice "incident" icon will show on the display if a traffic event lies ahead in the direction you're traveling in case you want to have your GPS route you around the traffice. MSN Direct also features such things as a little icon for weather warnings on your GPS, full weather for your location, a selection to pop up a quick list of gas prices/station near your location, another selection to pop up a quick list of movie times listed by theater or movie title, news, stocks, local events. It is a very nice feature.
All in all this is one of the best portable GPS units available currently.
Customer Review: Does what it claims
Summary: 5 Stars
Bought this for my wife (a non-techie), knowing it had many more features than she'd use or care about, but I like the tech toys and knew with its portability that it would find its way in to my vehicle from time to time. Was a bit skeptical about the voice/word recognition/accuracy, but was happy to tap the screen if all else failed. Got the until JUST in time for an 800 mile trip by car, but too late to read even page 1 of the "how to" guide. So my wife and I took turns giving it a shake-out on the actual drive. Within 40 minutes we had exhausted all the menu's and pretty much knew how to use every feature - all by trial and error. There were 5 of us in the car and we all took turns asking it to find a different POI - mainly restaurants. No voice training or anything - this thing just "understood" about 95% of what was being said, even from the back seat. Amazing word recognition capabilities. Took a while to figure out how to get POI's to show up on the live map as we were driving along, but other than that it was smooth sailing, and one of those rare times when one is pleasantly surprised by a product that does just what it claims, and more importantly does the job we needed it to do. Another surprise - without activating anything (we didn't have time) we were surprised to get live high wind warnings for a portion of the drive along the Great Lakes where the weather really was bad. Nicely done. I'd recommend this unit to anyone who wants to be able to truly operate a high-end GPS unit totally hands free, and not have to repeat themselves over and over again to a machine. Garmin gets a double thumbs-up for the voice processing on this unit.Customer Review: Garmin works great...
Summary: 5 Stars
Recently purchased this product for present for fiance. No problems at all and the unit works wonderfully. Not all features have been tried yet, so the review is for basic performance of navigating. The voice recognition has not been tested and the MSN function has not been activated yet.
Pros: Directions are spot on. When taking a different route to the one Garmin calculates, the recalculations are quick and provide excellent directions on the fly. Maps are easy to see and read, and volume is more than enough to hear with music on in background.
Cons: The Garmin voice mispronounces some of the street names. It is more of a mumble than anything, but when using it this weekend, the unit pronounced the street we needed to turn on horribly and I was a bit confused. Looking at the map on the unit showed me the correct street.
Used the device to navigate into downtown Dallas for the opera this past weekend to an area I had never been to or driven to. We arrived at the opera house without any problems, and when I took a slightly different route to the one provided due to construction, we were provided with recalculated directions within seconds. I am eager to test the other functions on the unit, but I am very happy with this device and feel more confortable driving to areas I am unfamiliar with.
Customer Review: NUVI 880 Is State-of-the-Art
Summary: 5 Stars
If your looking for a full featured, hands-free operable GPS unit, this is the one to consider. Compared to other units, this Garmin unit far exceeded my requirements. The added MSN features such as searching for the cheapest gas, latest movies, closest theatres and movie time makes the NUVI 880 AN EXCEPTIONAL CHOICE! You can voice activate this NUVI while driving, allowing you to focus completely on driving and not on making selections on the GPS. Add the fully functional bluetooth feature and your listening to your GPS' responses through your car's stereo system.
Make sure that when purchasing such an expensive unit that you don't forego getting an extended warranty. I was skeptical purchasing this GPS unit from certain vendors on the internet since so many had a bad reputation with customers and the Better Business Bureau. Beware with gray market offers from unreliable vendors. Gray market GPS are not generally covered by the manufacture's warranty. Stick to reputable vendors such as AMAZON. I actually called them to ensure that I was not getting a gray market GPS and the service rep provide the information I needed to assure that I wasn't being scammed. I am truly happy with this unit and my expereince with all my AMAZON puchases have been above board. All items were receive in a timely manner and factory fresh.
Customer Review: Nuvi is great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had resisted getting a GPS because "I don't need one," but my wife ordered the Nuvi 880 for me for Christmas, and it is one of the best presents I have received. I will admit upfront that I use the British female voice, which is labeled "Emily" in the menu, and now we both talk quite easily about Emily as if she were a member of the family (one with a fantastic sense of direction!).
I have found it easy to use, with a bright and clear display and simple controls. The voice recognition feature works very well (as long as the radio isn't on very loud). We used the "alternate route" option when we were stuck on an unmoving I-95 in SC right after Christmas and received a very effective detour. We spent a week at Hilton Head Island and programmed in the various restaurants, golf courses, and stores we were going to, and Emily took us to all of them flawlessly.
Since returning to Miami I have found her routing to be somewhat point-to-point instead of the "back roads" that I tend to use from decades of driving experience here, making me wish she had some kind of "learning" feature when one overrides her proffered route several times. But that is a minor quibble about a really impressive piece of technology.
I recommend this GPS to anyone who wants to go top-of-the-line.