jag2112's Full Review: Garmin nuvi 660 Car GPS Receiver
I recently wrote a review on the Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS system which is one of the best consumer GPS units on the market. One of the biggest hurdles facing the 660, however, is the steep price (in excess of $700 as of this writing). Though I happen to love my 660, I recently had the opportunity to road-test the smaller yet nearly-equally powered Nuvi 360 GPS which has a lot to offer in a smaller (and cheaper) package.
The first thing you'll notice about the Nuvi 360 is its gorgeous, extremely brightly back-lit display. Sporting a 2.8 X 2.1 inch diagonal QVGA TFT screen with 320 x 240 pixels, the images the 360 displays are crystal clear, sharp and very visible even in direct sunlight. The entire unit measures a mere 3.87" W x 2.91" H x 0.87" D, which means the footprint is almost entirely made up of its touch-screen. Like other Garmin Nuvi products, there are no external controls like you might find on other GPS units. All functions, save for the power button, are controlled via the touch-sensitive screen. This works exceptionally well as Garmin's very intuitive menus are a breeze to work through.
As was the case with the Nuvi 660, I found myself only consulting the cd-based manual once or twice as a reference, though I am a little disappointed in the manual as it's somewhat sparse of content and not completely clear on some functions. Regardless, I was able to quickly and efficiently navigate through the Nuvi 360's menu system to get the unit up and running in a matter of minutes.
The Nuvi 360 comes with some nice features that other GPS systems lack. First, the 360, unlike its 350 sibling, is BlueTooth compatible which allows for handsfree calling through the unit (with a compatible wireless phone). While I haven’t tested this feature, I had read many reviews which suggest this feature works acceptably well. The Nuvi 360 also comes with an MP3 player and photo-slide viewer. Are these requirements for a GPS system? Not really, but the 360 is more of a Travel Companion rather than a mere GPS unit, hence the added niceities. Further, the added bonuses on the Nuvi 360 do not jeopardize the GPS functionalities of the unit.
And it is the GPS functionality that has made Garmin famous. As with the 660, the Nuvi 360 uses a SiRF star III chipset which allows you to easily lock onto satellites, even in tough situations like city streets masked by skyscrapers or even indoors. The unit employs a flip up antenna which is acceptable but can also be easily blocked depending on where you mount the unit. The unit also comes pre-loaded with millions of POI's (Points of Interest) so you'll always be able to find 'something' when traveling with the Nuvi 360.
The preloaded maps on the Nuvi come from NAVTEQ which is renowned for having the best maps available for GPS units and online mapping sites. The logic employed by the unit for calculation directions and travel times seems to be on par with other units as well as mapping sites such as Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. My only concern here is that, while in use, the unit doesn’t respond quickly enough when I bypass a suggested route. This can be an issue if you’re traveling at highway speeds, miss an exit and need to know what to do next. You could find yourself past the next exit before the unit recalculates the new directions. I found this ‘delay’ to be the case with the other units in the Nuvi series (i.e. the 660), and only really noticed the delay when I had the chance to road-test a Magellan Roadmate unit. The Magellan would re-calculate a route within seconds of missing a turn. But this is a somewhat minor quibble and shouldn’t really impact its real functionality.
Another aspect of the Nuvi 360 which I found very useful were the audio naming of streets. Most other units will announce something like “Make your next right turn in 100 yards”. The Nuvi 360 (actually, all Nuvi models), however, will announce "Make your next right turn on Main Street in 100 yards." Night and day difference in functionality with that feature. Unfortunately, the digitized speech is a little too ‘electronic’ for my tastes. While you have a selection of different voices to choose from, none are quite as natural sounding as I would have expected from Garmin.
The overly digitized voice is one slight downside to the unit, as is the fact that there isn’t an external volume control button (its available through a menu screen). Another quirk that I found annoying is the fact that the on-screen 'keyboard' used for entering in search criteria or addresses isn't laid out in the common "QWERTY" format, but the non-standard "ABCDEF" format. How difficult could it be to offer both options?
While the Nuvi 360 doesn't sport the gorgeous wide-screen display of the 660 line, it does come with a more reasonable price (the low to mid $500 range). But if screen size is important, you can shell out about $200 more for the 660 (which does come with a few more features as well). Of course, the battery life, as would be expected, is better on the 360 line (4 to 8 hours versus 3 to 7 hours on the 660). Of course screen brightness and full GPS satellite have the biggest impact on battery life, so your experience may vary.
The Nuvi line is unquestionably one of the finest, most advanced portable / personal GPS lines available today. Despite some quirks and some high prices, there units are clearly worth the money.
Below is a list of specifications for the unit.
Thanks, as always, for reading and Happy Holidays.
-John
Nuvi 360 Specifications
• Receiver: high-sensitivity WAAS-capable GPS receiver by SiRF
• Display: 2.8 x 2.1 inch, 320 x 240 pixels; 64,000 color bright QVGA transflective anti-glare TFT with touch screen
• Unit dimensions: 3.87" W x 2.91" H x 0.87" D
• Weight: 5.1 oz.
• Battery life: 4 to 8 hours
• Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling
• Includes Garmin Lock™, an anti-theft feature
• Voice announces streets by name
• Preloaded maps for all of North America or Europe
• Fingertip touch-screen interface
• Look up addresses and points of interest
• Choose 2D or 3D map perspective
• Upload custom POIs, including alerts for speed zones and safety cams
• Built in Travel Kit includes MP3 player with sample MPs, audio books, picture viewer, world clock, currency and measurement converters, calculator and more
• Add optional software such as Travel and Language Guides to personalize nüvi
• SD memory card expansion slot
• USB interface for loading data
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