Review of my new Garmin Nuvi 760

Best Purchase I made all year.
If you’ve been shopping for a GPS units you’ll know how tough a decision it can be.  While I don’t do a lot of driving I picked up a Garmin Nuvi 760 mainly for my wife to use. I love having a GPS in the car but nothing is perfect and like many units the Nuvi just took a little education.

Click to shop for Garmin Nuvi 760
 Now $249.99 (Half of what I paid last summer)

While most reviewers tell you to forget the options I went all out with the MP3 player, Bluetooth and even FM traffic/weather. It was more expensive but I really wanted to get something that provided hands free cell phone use and I’m very happy I did. Having a SD card slot was also a must.

First the bad news. My unit came with a specific car charger which is required for the real-time traffic service. It was a pure piece of crap that required assembly although no instructions were included. Even after I figured it out, it wouldn’t stay together so I’ve ordered a real car charger and will pass on the real-time traffic service.

FM Receiver Car Charger

Update: Garmin support didn’t understand why it was in pieces until we realized black piece above was broken and they sent me a new one immediately. I was very impressed with their tech support (Joshua K) who even took the time to make a video with his cell phone on how to put it together.  Needless to say I’m very happy with this level of support.

Update: (11/2008) My daughter had a problem with her 11 month old Garmin unit. She contacted customer support and they replaced it, no muss, no fuss.

At first Battery life was also a disappointment.  Garmin’s online chart claims up to 5 hours but my battery warning comes up after two hours of just sitting on my desk. The kind folks at Garmin did have a simple explanation.  I should turn off Bluetooth and reduce the screen brightness which I admit was set much higher than the default. I had the screen up to 80%.  By turning it down to a still very visible 30% my battery now exceeds 5 hours even with Bluetooth enabled.

I’ve read a number of reviews from folks complaining about the accuracy of GPS units. I’ve discovered this can happen with the Nuvi as well but only when it first boots up.  The Nuvi remembers the last location you were at and until it finds enough satellites, it can have you driving through a field. The directions for driving around my small upstate village has a few issues but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a map update.

Points of Interest work very well on the Garmin.  You can input where to go with very few touches. I love that the list of points in any category are automatically sorted by distance. The information was really good although they did include a restaurant that burned down 8 years ago.

The hands free Bluetooth was one of the reasons I chose the Nuvi 760 and I’m impressed. Once you pair up your cell phone it’s automatically detected and you’ll see a phone icon on the screen.  This is essential if I expect my wife to use it. Points of interest are automatically included as an address book for the phone so making calls is easier than any phone I’ve had. I’m actually considering using the Nuvi as my phone interface inside my house as well.

Ultimately, I’m very happy with the 760. (Thanks Steve) The screen is extremely easy to read and interface requires minimal touch. Even if I already know my way, having the arrival time feature is a great plus. Thanks to friends on Twitter I’ve also found a great site to compare GPS units. If you’d like more info on any unit check out http://www.gpsreview.net/

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