Rock Solid GPS for the Road!
Written: Jan 14 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small, Great Screen, one wire, excellent remote control, great bean-bag mounting system, accurate.
Cons: takes a minute or two to locate satelites. should come w/ a bigger CF card.
The Bottom Line: Bottom line on this device is easy: The 2610 is one of those devices you look up one day and ask yourself - how did i ever live w/o this?
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| rwetsel's Full Review: Garmin StreetPilot 2610 Car GPS Receiver |
** Before I walked into BestBuy and purchased the Garmin 2610, I spent a few weeks researching after-market GPS devices for use in my new Land Rover, including the Garmin StreetPilot III, the Magellan 500 and 700, among others. **
I'm that guy who has no sense of direction and gets lost just about everywhere he goes. I usually have to drive to a place several times before I adequately remember how to get there and back w/o concentrating so hard my head starts to hurt... I had to find a good after-market GPS!
I wanted something fairly small, lightweight, and with few loose cables that I could move from car to car (in case i ever wanted to let my wife use it, friends or family borrow it, etc.).
I wanted to make sure it would work well everywhere I went (what good is GPS location/navigation if it's pooped out when you're lost???), and that the maps were as up-to-date as possible (especially for my state).
I wanted to make sure it came with a remote so i could set it out of convenient arms reach on my dash and still be able to operate it conveniently.
This is where the Garmin comes in... What a great little device. The unit itself is smaller than most others out there (including the Magellan 500/700). The screen is bright and clear - and automatically adjusts for day and/or night viewing (changing background colors from yellow to black). There is only ONE wire running from the unit (to the 12v adapter/cigarette lighter). This really helps the entire package look nice and clean in your car (if you do a little easy hiding of the wire it can even look professionally installed).
One thing I especially appreciated about the Garmin is it comes with several different "mounts" - a small plastic foot that can be sticky-taped to your dash, and an impressive "bean bag" style mount that you can set on the dash. I use the bean bag mount exclusively and i love it - it's weighted and sized just enough so that the unit doesn't move around when i'm driving - and looks good too.
The operations of the unit are top-notch overall. The directions are first-rate - often the exact route i would choose (i had a lot of fun having it direct me to and from places i know in the first few days). You can have the voice prompt you in several languages - i happen to prefer the british female (i do drive a land rover after all!). I do have one complaint about day-to-day operations - it sometimes takes the 2610 up to a minute or 2 to grab an initial satellite signal - this can be a bit annoying as you drive around sort of in the direction you want to go hoping it will kick in soon so you don't have to stop and wait for directions. but overall this isn't too big a problem - sometimes i'll turn my car on a minute or 2 before i leave just to ensure it's ready to guide me when i sit down. It's also important to note that when it does find a satellite i rarely have drop-outs in my area - and it will usually find sat's even in overcast whether (had it running no problem in a snow storm last week!!)
The user interface is very well designed in most cases. It's sometimes difficult to enter addresses - just because Garmin separates the street number and street name into 2 different fields (so you enter 4437 in one box, and Village Dr. in the second box)... but overall this is a very ticky-tack complaint.
The stuff that's on the screen is incredible - small transparent panes display direction, speed, time until next turn, distance until next turn, direction and name of next turn - etc. at a glance i can get everything i need to get around with next to no stress or worry - even if i have the radio blasting and can't hear the voice prompts!
I've had the unit for over a month now, and there is only one place that i couldn't find in the database - Advance Auto Parts - not sure why it's been there for years. but generally i have the best of luck with the maps - i find what i'm looking for in the database and when i get there it's still there :)
I'd suggest to anyone to establish as many "waypoints" as possible. "Waypoints" are Garmin's stored locations - locations you often go to or leave from. I use my waypoints most of all - so you can always get home from wherever you are in a few clicks, etc. It's easiest to use your PC to type in these waypoints (as many as you can think of) before you upload the maps to the unit...
PS the unit comes with a 128mb cf card that will hold several states of detailed information - i'm able to get VA, WVA, DC, etc. on one card...
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rwetsel
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Member: Rod Wetsel
Location: Fairfax, VA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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