Background

Recently I spent about 3 weeks down on Long Island for my job.  Shortly after I arrived, I noticed flashes of light at some intersections which I quickly discerned to be red-light cameras.  And even though I'm not a chronic violator, it only takes one ticket to ruin your day.  Since I had overtime racking up on the job,  I decided to spend some of that on a new GPS that had the capability of providing warnings of these devices of law enforcement.  Plus, my original Nuvi maps were outdated, and it was going to cost me $90 each to update them.  I found the 1490LMT on sale at BJs for $150 and I picked up a pair (his and hers).

About the Product

This comes packaged like the other Garmin GPS units I have bought, with the device, a suction mount, a metal disk with an adhesive pad (if you don't have a smooth surface), a power cord (in this case with the FM traffic receiver), a short USB computer cord, and instructions.  I would not say this is over packaged, and most of it is recyclable.

The Nuvi 1490 LMT has a 5" touchscreen display that has more features that the 255W that it replaced, and the data is set up a bit differently.  But first you must connect it to your computer to register it before use.  It either comes with or installs during registration, numerous languages, voices, and maps.  To get started, you select "Tools", then "Settings" where you to change the way the unit works and presents information. You choose the language, and voice; you can even download free or moderately priced voices and other add-ons for the device.  Here you also select if you want the GPS to pick the fastest, or shortest route, and whether any obstructions such as tolls, ferry's, dirt roads, HOV lanes, or others should be avoided. 

One of the improvement's over the 255W is that it depicts the lane that you want to be in for the next turn.  I would say that the graphics on the back of the box led me to believe that this lane placement guidance would be shown in a more lifelike depiction.  When instead gray arrows depict non-desired lanes, and white arrows for the lane(s) you need to be in for that stretch of road at your next turn or waypoint.  This is helpful, but not perfect; more on that later.

If you are familiar with Garmin products, the rest of the menus are much the same.  The main screen has "Where To?", & "View Map" as large main selections, and "Phone", "Volume", and "Tools" as smaller selection at the bottom of the screen. THis particular model with the LMT suffix means that it comes with lifetime map updates and traffic support.  The lifetime map updates make this more than worth the cost of replacing an old unit which might require an update at ~$90 from Garmin. The free traffic update on the other hand is a bit of a misnomer.  There is no such thing as a free lunch.  And they get you here by displaying small adds or offers on the map while you are driving.  I haven't found a way to make them go away.

Once set up, you will use the "Where To?"  and "View Map" buttons most frequently, but it might be nice to have a user programmable menu on the main screen for a frequently accessed items that might be several menu selections deep.  Under "Where To" you can type in an address, which in this model the unit defaults to the state that you are currently located, which was not true of the 255W, which remembered the last state you entered.  The "Go Home" selection is self explanatory.  Points of Interest has been enhanced with the ability to search for places by name; a function that worked very well for us recently when looking for a Barnes and Knoble. On my trip to Long Island, I used the "Recently Found" selection toggling between the hotel, job site, and various favorite restaurants.  You can also program in favorites, and search for intersections if you like.  I personally don't use the volume control very often, and I have yet to embrace the whole bluetooth phenomenon, so I can't provide much insight into the "phone" menu item.

Depending on the amount of information that you chose to display and level of zoom, the 5" display provides a more than adequate view of upcoming roads and turnoffs.  I prefer to keep mine set to the 3d display that sort of scrolls the road toward you.  You can also display the map as a 2d format with either North up (which I believe would be very disorienting while driving, although that's how we use to read paper maps in the old days), or your direction of travel, which keeps your virtual car pointed up and the map rotates around as you travel.  You can choose to display a data window on the right side which provides information such as predicted time of arrival(which is pretty good, but does not account for any red-light cycle time), posted speed limit (for the current revision of the map), your speed (which turns red if you exceed the posted speed), heading.  If you approach or encounter a traffic backup, a warning is displayed on the left side of the screen which shows the reported delay, and your predicted arrival time is adjusted accordingly.

You can download custom points of interest (POI) (my favorite is www.poi-factory.com), and search for those.  But you can also turn on alerts that display and sound as you approach those POIs.  This requires a bit more programing effort and the use of a POI Uploader provided by Garmin.  I found that useful for the redlight camera warnings, but a download of these required a subscription payment.  I also downloaded railroad crossings, since there was one near Islandia NY that was the worst I've ever experienced, and not well marked (luckily I was in a rental van). 

So, How Well Did It Work?

It was pretty easy to register but it did take about 15 to 30 minutes to register and initialize.  Also, it had difficulty locating any satellites inside our house, whereas, inside a sardine can of a ferry crossing Long Island Sound it never missed a beat.  Go figure.  It does seem to take a bit longer to initially boot up compared to the 255W, but once synced up, this unit locates satellites quickly.  There are many more features on this one that I didn't have on the previous unit. I'm thrilled about the ability to search for POIs, as well as the alerts that are provided (you can set these to chime at a distance of your choosing within the POI loader).

The lane guidance can be ambiguous.  We were on a somewhat familiar 1 mile stretch of road where we needed to merge on to a highway on-ramp.  It showed 3 lanes, one of which was the on-ramp bearing right highlighted in white.  One half mile before that waypoint was a 3 lane stretch of road, with a right lane turn only lane, and two lanes proceeding up to my turnoff where it became 3 lanes again.  So you may need to pay attention (with GPS, I have all but stopped paying attention), lest you get caught in a situation that you didn't anticipate if you are in unfamiliar territory.

Also, the traffic alert function is not perfect.  I was recently on my way to work in the morning, and there had been an accident up ahead in our lane.  We slowed to a craw/stop and only after several minutes of that did an alert pop up that there was a 1 minute delay.  In that case, it was off by at least 5 to 10 minutes.  I don't quite know how the traffic alert system works.  But, I'm sure it will improve with time.  And granted, this occurred in NH, where I'm sure we are catching up with most of the technological advances made in the late 20th century.  Interestingly it did highlight a yellow band to the right of the driving lane suggesting that one might use the breakdown lane to get off at the next exit.  Interesting feature, again if you can trust it.


Recommendations

I paid $150 which was about $30 more for the 1490LMT than the 255W 2 years ago.  But I would say that it is head and shoulders above that older unit in performance and features.  And with lifetime map updates (for the useful life of the unit), I will be able to keep this unit for 5 or so years.  I'm very happy with this unit, and I am pleased to recommend it to my family, friends, and Epinions readers.

Recommended: Yes