Pros: best maps and routing, simple interface, easy to carry, pronounces streets
Cons: FM transmitter useless, MSN Direct not worth it
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended GPS from top manufacturer. With FM transmitter and MSN as the weak points, could have been just as happy with a 760 or 750 though.
jvolzer's Full Review: Garmin nüvi 780 Car GPS Receiver
I upgraded to the nuvi 780 from a Street Pilot 2620, and wow, what an improvement! This is a great little device that’s easy to carry with you when you travel and easy to use. Garmin has really honed in on ease-of-use in their interface. I’m much more the techno-person than my wife, but even she commented on how easy it was to just start using the device, with very little instruction. The interface and menus are similar to the other nuvi GPS units, which I’ve put in the hands of other family members, including grandparents, who were able to use them with ease. That speaks very loudly for a product when people can pick it up and just start using it, right off the bat.
Mounting the nuvi
The nuvi 780 comes with a windshield suction cup mount. It really works remarkably well. The mount had a cradle for the nuvi that’s attached to a ball mount to allow it to easily swivel. The power cord attaches to the mount, rather than the nuvi. This makes it easy to snap the GPS in and out without fooling with cords. Because the nuvi has a build-in battery, it’s not even necessary to have a cord hanging down all the time if your trip is short enough. Unfortunately, I found the battery life to be pretty poor. I don’t think we get the 5 hours it’s listed at and it doesn’t seem to keep a charge long when in storage. It seems that just a few days and it’s dead. I’ve not done specific testing, but it seems that on too many occasions I’ll grab it out of the console for a short trip and find it dead, even after having used it just a few days earlier while plugged in.
Another mount option is to apply a small plastic disc to the dash. One side has an adhesive pad. I’ve seen people recommend this for states where it’s illegal to mount it to the windshield, but I’d recommend this for other reasons. It’s much easier to reach the nuvi and it doesn’t block as much of the driver’s view when mounted to the dash. It looks cleaner when plugged in too, since you don’t see the cord dangling in the air. The suction cup mount will sick to the round disc just like it does to the windshield.
There's also a friction mount option, but it's not included, requiring a separate purchase. This is a "bean bag" mount that sits on your dash and has a flat spot for mounting the nuvi. I used one of these in the past and they are okay, although they will slide if you take a corner too hard or hit the brakes too hard. This might be nice if you didn't want to stick the disc to your dash.
Main Menu
The main menu consists of two main options, “Where To?” and “View Map”. There are also small icons for adjusting the volume (or switching to the FM transmitter) and one for the tools menu, where you can configure all of the various settings and preferences. A status bar at the top shows satellite signal strength, battery life, and a clock. It will also indicate if the unit is paired to a Bluetooth device. If it’s paired to a phone, there will also be a phone button to display dialing options.
The Where To? menu brings up all the various ways to set a destination: entering addresses, choosing from recently found places, choosing from a list of your favorites, finding locations from the points of interest database and more. The points of interest (POI) database includes restaurants, gas stations, shopping locations, parks, and more, and can be searched by type or by entering an exact name if you know what you’re looking for. Most locations will also display a phone number if you wish to dial ahead, and will even dial your phone for you if you have it paired via Bluetooth.
Maps and Routing
Garmin uses Navteq for their maps. Navteq provides maps for Google Maps and is considered by many to be one of the best. They also provide the POI database. But what really sets the nuvi 780 and other Garmin units apart is the combination of the map database with their route calculation engine. If you’ve surveyed many people with GPS devices, then you’ve probably run into people who have complained about some crazy route that their GPS wanted them to take some place when they knew there was a faster or better way. That can be due to a combination on the map data they use, as well as the way in which the manufacturer of the GPS has programmed it to make choices as to the best or fastest way to get to a destination. Garmin is known for being one of the best, and I can attest this after having used several Garmin units over the past few years. Very rarely do I get routed in some odd way. It’s actually funny sometimes when I do try to 2nd guess the suggested route and deviate to go my own way, only to find out later that the GPS route would have been better (perhaps because it took into account the need for a U-turn, left hand turn, one-way road, or something that I didn’t know about). Let’s face it, isn’t this the top reason for having a GPS in the first place?
You can set the nuvi 780 to one of three map views: North Up, Track Up (“up” on the map will always be the direction you’re facing, so a right hand turn will always be to the right, etc.), or 3D view. You can also set the level of map detail, with five levels. I usually leave mine on “most detail” but occasionally turn it down if I’m in an area where things are too crowded on the map.
Setting a Route:
Setting a route is quite easy. After entering your search using one of the various methods above, simply select the GO button and the nuvi will route from your current location to the destination. If you do this while already navigating an existing route, you’ll have the option of changing the destination to the newly found location, or adding it as a via-point to stop there on the way. My only complaint with adding it as a via point is that sometimes if you don’t pull into the exact location where it thinks the location should be, it will continue to try to route you there rather than moving on to the final destination. It’s not a big deal though, as I’ll usually just start a new “where to” session and choose the final destination again from the “recently found” list to create a new route (easier than going in and deleting the via point).
Navigating a Route:
Navigation couldn’t be easier. The nuvi will announce each turn as you go, so you’ll rarely have to look at the screen. When you do look at the screen, your current route will be highlighted in pink. Large, bold, white arrows will appear to show you which way to turn – very easy to see at a glance. The arrows will also indicate an appropriate angle for each turn, and not just a 90 degree angle each time (as with some GPS units I’ve seen).
Each turn is announced three times: once when you turn onto a new road, again as you get somewhat close to the next turn, and again when you’re right at the next turn. At any time you can have the nuvi announce the next turn by tapping the next turn button in the bottom right corner of the screen. The 780 will use text-to-speech to pronounce street names. It usually does a fairly good job. Note, however, that this only works when you’ve selected one of the computer-generated voices. The best voices, which are “real” voice recordings, rather than synthesized, do not pronounce street names and will simply announce the distance to the turn (i.e. “turn right in 500 feet”).
The screen will auto-zoom while driving. As you get closer to a turn, you’ll get a tighter view on the map. My old Street Pilot did this too, but didn’t do nearly as well of a job. As a result, I do far less manual zooming. Small + and – buttons on the screen are used for manual zoom. As with other buttons, they are somewhat transparent, so they don’t entirely block that part of the map. This makes for excellent use of screen space.
The bottom center of the screen contains a menu button. It can be pressed to return to the main menu, where an additional option will show for “stop” to end a route. You could also choose Where To? to search for another location to end the route or to add as a via point.
A green bar at the top of the screen will display the name of the next road to turn onto. Touching this bar will bring up a list of the turn-by-turn directions for the entire route.
One neat feature that Garmin carried over into the 780 from the Street Pilot is the ability to scroll the map by simply touching and dragging. The lower end nuvi models do not have this (although they do have directional arrows). It takes a moment to get used to because you have to touch a spot on the map that doesn’t represent a road. Touching any road will display that road name briefly in a little pop-up that disappears when you touch elsewhere. The same is true of other marked areas like parks or bodies of water.
Detours: There are not may options for detours. I’ve never really figured out how to tell it where you want to exit to avoid a section of road and how long you wish to stay off that section. I’ve had mixed success with just pressing the detour button when we were close to an Interstate exit and I knew there was some problem up ahead of it. There also doesn’t seem to be a way to set a road avoidance ahead of time. So if, for example, you knew there was construction between two exits on the Interstate, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to set the nuvi to avoid it. Although if you have a general idea where to get off and what direction to head, at least it will keep recalculating the fastest route once you do exit and will sometimes take you back to the main route a little further down the road.
Map Display
When not navigating a route and while viewing the map, the green bar at the top of the screen will display each street name as you approach. This can be useful at night when you know somewhat where you’re going, so you don’t enter a route, but you don’t know exactly where a street is that you need to turn onto. You can see the street names on the screen often before you can spot a street sign. I’ve read that this feature is actually missing from the newer 800 series nuvi units, which is a shame if it’s true.
Remember your spot!
Want to know how to get right back to the spot you’re sitting in right now? Simply set it as a favorite. The way to do this is one of the few things that are not exactly intuitive, because there’s no button labeled for this and you just have to know how, but once you know it, it’s not so bad. You can accomplish this by touching your vehicle icon on the screen. The save options then allow you to label the spot to add to your favorites list. I’ve used this when renting a car to help me get back to the rental car lot without the need to enter in the address. I’ve also used it to mark parking lots for trailheads. Other reasons abound.
The nuvi 780 also has a “last location” feature that might be called the “Where did I park the car?” feature. Silly. I guess if you’re the type that really does lose your car at the mall parking lot, you could let your nuvi help find it. The way it works is that when you snap the nuvi out of the mount without turning it off it will prompt you, asking if you want to remember that location. After selecting “yes” you can power it off, and carry it with you. Then when you leave the store and wish to find your car, power on your nuvi and go to the favorites list to look for “last location.”
Bluetooth
I’ve successfully paired the nuvi with several different phones, and found the process to be fairly simple. Once paired, you can use the nuvi as a hands-free device for your phone. A button for “phone” will appear on the main menu once paired.
With a paired phone, you’ll be prompted to accept a call when it comes in. If you accept, you’ll use the nuvi’s microphone and speaker as a hands-free speakerphone. The quality is pretty poor though unless sitting still in a parking lot. The nuvi’s speaker is not all that loud and callers complain of the poor sound. You can resolve some of this by using the built-in FM transmitter and running the sound through your car’s stereo, which makes it easier for you to hear, but callers then complain of a terrible echo (read more on the FM transmitter later). I gave up and stopped trying to use it in this way. Even if you don’t use it for the speakerphone though, you can still use it to dial your phone. This can be handy after finding a location in the POI that has a phone number because you can just tap the “dial” button. You’d then tap the phone icon, tap “phone options” and choose “transfer audio to phone”.
With some phones, the phone book and call history will transfer from the phone to the nuvi. The phone menu will then allow you to select from these lists for dialing. Don’t count on all phones transferring this information though. I had a Samsung A930 that was only two years old that would not do this.
There’s also a “voice dial” option on the phone menu. This will use you’re phone’s voice dial prompts and system when selected.
Toys and junk:
In addition to navigation, the nuvi includes some applications:
Picture Viewer: um, why? I can not think of any reason someone would want to look at photos on their GPS. It’s really not much bigger than the screen on a digital camera in the first place.
World Clock: well, okay. Will you really use it?
Currency Converter: on your GPS? Okay, maybe the global traveler will use it.
Language Guide: on a GPS? It’s only a sample anyhow.
MP3 Player: Okay, here’s one that might be useful. It will also tie in with audio books from Audible.com if you’re into that. You can set bookmarks while listening. The big problem is that you’re certainly not going to use the nuvi’s built-in speaker to listen to music, and the FM Transmitter is too weak to be of much use. So if you really want to use this, then you’ll need to run a cord to the headphone jack of the nuvi. This means an extra cord hanging from the nuvi and you’ll need car audio system with an auxiliary input jack (or use one of those cassette adapters if you still have a cassette player). I’ve not tried this, so I can’t report on the quality or practicality of this setup.
FM Transmitter: underpowered = useless
The nuvi 780 has a built-in FM transmitter. You can set the nuvi to send audio output through the transmitter, rather than through its built in speaker. By setting the nuvi and your car stereo to the same frequency, the audio will be heard through your stereo. This makes using the nuvi with your paired Bluetooth phone sound a lot better (for you, but not your caller). Unfortunately, the transmitter is underpowered. Virtually any radio signal at all will overpower the nuvi. This results in a continual hunt for an empty frequency. You might think this would be limited to urban areas with lots of stations, but this is not true. Even a distant station that is mostly static when tuned to is enough to interfere. I’ve read that Garmin claims they can’t increase the power due to FCC regulations, yet other reviewers have reported success with non-Garmin units with FM transmitters. We tried to use this to listen to MP3s on a recent trip. We tried many times over an 8 hour trip and I don’t think we ever had more than a 15 minute period until we had to hunt for a new frequency.
The other factor to consider with the FM Transmitter is that you can’t use your car stereo to listed to a CD, radio, or other source. If you want to listen to music, you’ll have to use nuvi’s MP3 player. The nuvi will mute the music to announce turns and such, or when taking a phone call from a paired phone.
MSN Direct:
The nuvi 780 uses the MSN Direct service for traffic. It also brings in other content: weather, gas prices, movie times, news, stocks, and local events. A subscription is required, but you get a free trial when you purchase.
First of all, some of this seems just plain silly. I mean, who really needs stock quotes on their GPS? And are you really going to use your GPS to read the news? C’mon, what a gimmick. And in my testing, and a few trips we’ve taken while we’ve had the service, there was never very much in the local events list. I guess gas prices might really catch people’s interest these days, but I pretty much know the best prices where I live, and when traveling, we can usually see them before we exit. But I guess I could see some use of this feature. So that really leaves traffic and weather. Weather is nice to have, but it’s not all that detailed anyhow.
The MSN Traffic feature does work, but it certainly has its limitations. First of all, the data is received through the MSN Direct receiver, which is actually integrated into the 12 volt power adapter. The data is stored in the receiver and it’s battery backed. Apparently it’s received via FM frequencies. There must not be much bandwidth there though, because it can take a couple of hours to receive all the data the first time you enter a new city/area with a feed. Well DUH, I could be all the way through a city before that! And that’s exactly what happened when we traveled. Tested in several cities (including Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville, and others) and on several trips I found that it was sort of hit-and-miss as to whether the traffic info was loaded by the time I got into the heavy traffic in the city. On one trip through Atlanta it didn’t load until I was on the opposite side, even though I had been through the city a few days earlier (it’s supposed to take less time if some data is already in memory). So I guess for someone who lives in that city and uses this for their daily commute, it might be better. But for someone who’s traveling on vacations and such, it’s not so hot.
The next issue with the traffic feed is that it was also hit-and-miss for us with the accuracy. For testing there were times when we’d trust the unit to re-route us around traffic and times when we didn’t, just to see what would happen. I’d give it a 50/50 rating in both cases. There were times we were glad we took a different route. In one instance, it put us back on the Interstate at a point where we could actually look back and see the jam-up behind us. Nice! Other times it warned of near stopped traffic (it uses colors to designate how severe the slow down is) and wanted to re-route, yet we drove straight through at full speed with no sign of a slow down anywhere and nothing on the radio indicating a recent clear up of a problem. Of course, none of this is the fault of the GPS device itself, but it just shows that MSN content has a way to go. I won’t subscribe now that the free trial is over.
Other comments and observations:
Case: I recommend getting a case so that you can remove it from the mount and store it in the console or glove compartment. The case will protect the screen. This will keep it out of direct sun light as well as make it less tempting for someone to break into your car. The case will also be necessary if you plan to take your nuvi with you when you travel.
Battery: The battery is not removable, so you won’t be able to replace it once it’s at end-of-life. The newer 800 series units have a replaceable battery. I did not find the battery to last as long as advertised (see comments near beginning)
Screen: The display is bright and beautiful. Even on a bright day, it’s more than adequate. I keep mine set at 70% brightness and it’s still fine. It will adjust the color scheme after sunset so that it’s not so bright (if set to auto color mode).
Trip log: the nuvi 780 has a feature called “trip log” that could be described as “the breadcrumb trail”. When turned on, it will leave a highlighted mark on the roads to show where you’ve been. This is useful when exploring a new area or neighborhood. However, the implementation in the older Street Pilot series units what much better in my opinion because it displayed a thin trail of dots beside the road. In the nuvi 780, however, the trail is shown by a bright turquoise highlight on the road, similar to the pink highlight that shows the current route. In fact, I’ve occasionally gotten the two confused when looking at the map. I prefer the more unobtrusive dotted trail from the Street Pilot.
Vehicle icons: you can choose different vehicle icons to represent your location on the map. Several come with the unit. Others can be downloaded and copied to the nuvi via USB cable.
Keyboard: There’s an option to set the keyboard to be in ABCD layout, or QWERTY layout. As someone who types a lot, the QWERTY layout was a fantastic option for me. The wide-screen layout makes it possible. The nuvi models with the squarish screens would not be able to accommodate this.
Avoidances: You can set the nuvi 780 to avoid U-Turns, Highways, Toll Roads, Carpool Lanes, Unpaved Roads and Ferries when calculating routes (and traffic, if MSN Direct is enabled)
Memory card and PC connection: The nuvi 780 can connect to your PC via a USB cable. It will appear as a removable drive and you can top files to it just like you would to a flash drive. You could use this, for example, to transfer MP3 files or vehicle icons you’ve downloaded. There’s also an SD card slot that can be used for your files.
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