The Bottom Line: This unit covers the basics well, if you can deal with the navigational quirks and poor map detail. The lack of included accessories is embarrassing for Garmin.
bobbyslav's Full Review: Garmin nuvi 205 Car GPS Receiver
***NOTE! - This review is for the Garmin Nuvi 205, not the 205W. When I wrote it, I did use the page for the correct model number, but for some reason Epinions moved it here.***
Perhaps my experience with the Nuvi 205 is a reflection of somewhat inflated expectations, but I must admit I was slightly disappointed. This is my third GPS, I still use my Bluetooth IOGear with my HP iPaq, and I briefly used another Garmin unit in the past, I don't remember the exact model number.
I chose this model because of generally favorable reviews and Garmin's reputation. My IOGear still works great, except because it is about 4 years old the maps are pretty dated and it's starting to show. Unfortunately there is zero support from IOGear. Since the Nuvi 205 is a very recent model I was hoping it will come with the latest maps, and of course Garmin is much better about future upgrade.
Now let's start from the beginning. My Nuvi 205 came in one of those ridiculous plastic boxes that require a chainsaw to open. After the 15 minute fight with the box I faced the first disappointment - there are hardly any accessories in the box. The unit came with the windshield mount, a car charger, and a plastic disc for mounting on the dash.
Right away this was a problem for me because my car's cigarette lighter doesn't work, so I couldn't charge the unit. Over the weekend we went on a trip to the beach, where I was finally able to test the GPS in my friend's car. I was willing to purchase the additional home charger or something, but after this trip I am not sure I still want this unit.
The other very important thing missing in the box is a USB cord. The power and PC sync both share the same mini-USB port, which is great, because I could've technically charged the GPS through my computer, but I don't have one of those cables. The instruction manual states that if you register the product within 60 days you qualify for one free map update. I read some people complaining that the update actually bricked their units, but since I had no USB cable I couldn't try it. Maybe I'll get one within the return period we'll see, I'll update if I do.
So lack of accessories aside, let's go on. The next thing on the to do list was mounting the GPS in the car. The bracket was easy enough to assemble and attach to the window, but the little disc absolutely refused to stick to the dashboard, despite all the claims of how supre strong the glue on the back was.
Once the unit was in place and plugged in, it turned its self on as soon as we started the car. The battery was completely discharged before that so I hadn't even had a chance to power it on before that. The initial set up was very brief, it just asked for a country, language, keyboard, and voice selection and that was it. It loaded the maps in about 20 seconds and by then it had already acquired the satellite signal as well.
Now let me walk you through the things I do like about this GPS:
1. The user interface is very simple and easy to use. The welcome screen has two large icons - Where to? and Show Map. On the bottom there are a few more less needed choices like settings and volume. The Where to selection offers the choices for entering destinations.
2. I like how easy it is to select a destination. You can do it by entering an address, intersection, city center, recently browsed, home location, or points of interest. My favorite part is that you don't have to know the exact name or spelling of the desired location, it's enough to enter a 3-4 letters and the GPS will show available suggestions. The points of interest are also cross referenced, so you don't have to worry about what category something is included under. For instance we were heading to Folly Beach and I wasn't sure if that would be under City, or national parks, or what. Luckily I didn't have to worry about it, since there are options to browse by category, or spell, which searches all categories.
3. The points of interests database is really rich, it is simply light years ahead of my IOGear and much more up-to-date.
4. Where am I function - this is awesome, tapping on the little car on the map (which represents your car) brings up a menu to select what you would like to see - either near by points of interest or the closest official address or intersection.
5. Screen brightness and prompts volume. The display is very bright and easy to see even in bright daylight. The volume at max is deafening, I turned it down to 50%, which was still pretty loud.
6. Accuracy. I am putting this low on my list for one reason - this GPS is much more accurate than my IOGear while showing the position of the car in motion, but unfortunately it was always off when reaching the final destination. It announced the arrival about 100 yards too soon every single time. This is generally not a problem with places that have large neon signs on top, but when trying to find a house number it would have been nice to take you a little closer to the actual address.
7. Speed limit indication. This is just a cute little detail that I found very thoughtful.
Generally though the accuracy, speed, plethora of POI, and ease of use are the strong points of this model. Oh, one more thing - on routes I was familiar with I thought that it usually didn't suggest the exact route I would have selected, but it wasn't bad, it seemed to always choose larger, more mainstream roads. The route options were quite standard - shortest distance, fastest time, avoid toll/bridges/u-turns, etc. I was very impressed by its estimated time of arrival predictions, they were within 1-2 minutes every time, and rarely changed more than 1-2 minutes throughout the trip.
Now here are the things I am not happy with:
1. The lack of accessories is a big problem for me. Since my car does not have a cigarette lighter I will have to rely on the battery and charging at home. The battery life wasn't very impressive, lasting about 2.5 hours. Charging took a long time and of course is interrupted every time the car is turned off. I think it's a sign of a particularly bad taste on Garmin's side to not include a $2 USB cable, I get seriously turned off by cheap-*** companies like that.
2. There were several usability issues that made me very frustrated:
a. The details on the maps are very light. Streets are represented by very fat lines, but their names are very rarely displayed at random.
b. The name of street that you are currently on is not displayed, unless it is a numbered highway, or the unit is just showing the map without navigating to anywhere. I consider this a huge problem.
c. The distance to the destination is not shown on the map. This is not a selectable option, by default the unit shows the destination to the next turn and the estimated time of arrival, but not the remaining distance. It might be just some OCD quirk that I have, but I felt very frustrated by not knowing how much longer was left from the trip. There is a way to find that out, but it requires digging several menus down and I wouldn't try doing it while driving.
d. I knew this one, but it was worse than I expected - I am talking about the generic direction - "Turn Left", etc. I knew this model did not have text-to-speech although I was hoping for a little more. My IOGear also lacks that feature, but at least it tells you the major roads like "follow the signs for 20 east". The Garmin only tells you left or right and that's it.
e. It doesn't seem to recognize "straight" as a possible course of action. Let's say that you are driving down a freeway which splits into two highways, one continues straight, the other goes to the left. Instead of instructing you to continue straight it tells you to turn or at best to "keep" left.
f. It only announces the position of the final destination once. While taking the last turn it will say "turn left, that in 1 mile destination on the right". Later on it will tell you that the destination is 500 feet away, or that you are arriving at the destination, but doesn't tell which side of the road it is on anymore. If you missed it the first time - too bad.
g. Micro SD expansion slot. Again a personal preferences, I would have been happier with a regular SD - cheaper, easier to find, less likely to lose.
h. It will not display the clock while navigating. Most cars have a clock, so no big deal, but what is the point of having a clock if you can't see it unless you are in the welcome screen? It's too bad, since the clock somehow set itself automatically. There is no calendar either, just some stupid world clock, which you also have to dig to find. The metric converter and the calculator are a little more useful. I am not planning on using the picture viewer.
i. It does not display the direction in which the car is moving (east, west, etc).
j. There is no QWERTY keyboard layout. Despite what the manual claims - which by the way is generic for a bunch of different models, and a lot of the information is inaccurate - there is only ABCD type keyboard.
k. No speed limit alert - to me this would have been a no-brainer - it already shows the speed limit, why not include an alert if you're exceding it?
Everything considered, this model is well balanced between good and bad, which I guess makes it completely average. Personally I don't think I can live with it's usability issues, but that's mainly because of my car's broken cigarette lighter. Besides that it does get the basics done well, I was honestly hoping for more from the leader in GPS navigation.
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