rdalcanto's Full Review: Garmin StreetPilot c330 Car GPS Receiver
I have used my new C330 for a couple of days and I think I have identified the good and the bad.
The Good: The screen, while it looked small in the store, is actually more than adequate in the car. It is bright, clear, and crisp. The touch screen works very well, and it is easy to enter text when saving locations or searching by city or name. The audio is also plenty loud on the highest setting (don't have to turn the radio down to hear it). The point of interest (POI) library is VERY good. One of the things I hated about using the yellow pages if you wanted to find a store, is that you have no idea what is close to you and what is not. With the C330, you select the category, such as auto parts, and it lists all the stores that are close to you in order from closest to farthest. Or, if you know the name of the store, you can search for that and it will show you all the stores in the chain, along with the distance to each. It also gives you the phone number. You can browse the map (where you can zoom and scroll) or just hit GO to start navigating to it. If you are hungry for Chinese food, you select Food, Chinese, and then it will find all the restaurants in your area. It remembers all your resent searches, so you can find them again quickly, or you can save them with any name you chose in your Favorites section. When you are navigating, if you get off route, it will recalculate very quickly. The 3D map view is cool, but the standard view is easier to follow when you have streets very close together at strange angles. Tracking and map seem to be extremely accurate. It zooms out automatically when you are far from the next turn, and zooms in as you get close. You can also zoom in and out using the touch screen. You can get all the info about your trip (how long you have been driving, speeds, etc.), and see detailed turn by turn written instructions if you want to know what it has planned for you. The mounting system is also excellent the suction cup is strong, and the unit clips in and out of the arm very easily. No power cord to hook up as it is part of the mount. Comes with separate charger for indoors as well as USB cable for future upgrades. Its a Garmin the company is not going anywhere and maps should continue to get better.
The Bad: You cant save multiple routes. However, that is not a big deal because it will keep all your recent searches very handy, and with very fast calculations, you can just select the next stop after you reach the first one. The audio instructions get tricky when the road bends right before or right after an intersection with streets at slight angles. Therefore, you need to navigate with the visual as well as the audio to not make a mistake. You cant tell it that a street has a no left turn sign if that fact is not in the map database. You have to drive past the turn and let it re-calculate another way to get to the destination (I doubt other companies offer this editing feature either).
I really like this unit. My brother is also in the market for a portable GPS and is buying the same one after trying mine. Highly recommended.
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