GPS Receivers Item ID: #539Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with TrafficProduct Information:
Item DescriptionItem Reviews5 Responses to “Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic” |
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I purchased the Garmin nuvi 275T for a car trip through Croatia and Slovenia in May 2010. I’m technically proficient and downloaded the latest firmware and map updates to City Navigator® Europe NT just before departure. The Garmin website states that there is full coverage of both countries.
Navigation in Croatia and Slovenia is especially challenging because Slavic names are complicated, the roads often change names, street names have various spellings and perhaps only 10-20% of the intersections are marked, often viewable only if you are on foot as the markings may be in stone on a building or occasionally on the pavement.
Botton line: Did not work at all in Split (0 out of 12); worked, but not very well, in Opatija, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Bled.
Pros:
1. We were able to locate satellites everywhere, although it required emailing tech support from Dubrovnik and doing a master reset, which was easy. Sometimes I would have to authorize “continue trying” but within 5 minutes it would always find a satellite.
2. You could see the streets approaching so you knew your turnoff, even if you didn’t know the street pronunciation.
Cons:
1. Map coverage is not complete, despite what the Garmin website says. The city of Split, Croatia (Croatia’s second largest city) may be an extreme example because it has many small streets that are not on Garmin’s map (the Garmin map is provided by Navteq). I estimate that at least 50% of the small hotels and restaurants in Split are on unmapped streets. In contrast Google maps uses a different map provider and has all of the streets. That means (1) Garmin can’t find your destination and (2) if you go down an unmapped street Garmin doesn’t know how to get you out until it sees you on a mapped street.
2. Points of interest for hotels and restaurants are very limited to only a few majors, so entering the address (if it is mapped) is then required.
3. We would carefully follow Garmin’s instructions, which are both verbal and graphic (you see the turn approaching on the map), but then we would hear “recalculating”, meaning that we made a mistake.
4. When things got really frustrating, I would try to identify our location on a printed map but due to the small screen size and low resolution we would see one street name, but rarely an intersecting street name, making it impossible to get a fix. Zooming out to get a very rough fix, such as how many kilometers from the coast or major freeway would take perhaps 20 “zoom out’s”.
5. Even when Garmin knew the destination, it would often choose the worst route, one that was blocked off or a wrong-way street. I also noticed that in the U.S. doing a test drive near my home before leaving. It would frequently take us off the major roads onto a series of narrow alleys. In comparison the Google map showed that we could have stuck with the major roads without a problem.
7. If you make even a single character mistake in an address, you have re-enter the entire address over again rather than fix the one character.
8. If you want to go to a particular restaurant, Garmin Points of Interest offer you a choice of restaurants by type of food, not by restaurant name.
9. Garmin doesn’t tell you how far away a destination is, so you can drive many kilometers before you realize Garmin is taking you to the wrong address. In Trogir we had a restaurant name but not its address, but we knew we were close. We got lucky when we saw it listed in Garmin. After driving a couple kilometers we realized Garmin had another restaurant in mind far away.
10. This device includes two pre-loaded maps (US and Europe), which you are supposed to update for free within 60 days of getting the Garmin, but the update is free for only one of the two maps.
i am happy with this gps. not many gps’s have USA and europe and thats why i bought this model.
havent tried it in europe but im sure it would work fine over there. amazing how accurate the different accents and voices sound. i dont need any more bells or whistles on a gps and i like the small size. just make sure the free map update is for either USA or Europe not both.
+ small size, easy to use product.
- It is not as slim and nice as other brands I saw tough.
- allows to update only one map although it contains Us and Europe.
- I would consider a larger size screen to see better next time. This product does not have lane assistance and I consider that would also be helpful.
I bought this for a two week trip to Italy. It was only a little more expensive than buying the data base for one of my current but out of date GPS units. I didn’t have high expectations and even these were not met. I consistently got routed the wrong way and the unit would recalculate. Numerous roundabouts weren’t on it. It would tell me to turn right when it actually meant the second right. the road would curve to the left or right with a road entering from the side. It wanted me to take the side road but didn’t say a word. Then I’d have to figure out a way to get back on course. Towards the end I navigated by road sign and used it as a general guide to when to expect turns. It did get me to a shopping center one rainy day but had no clue how to get me back on the highway. I’ve used it back in the USA and have been more happy with it. On a recent trip to North Carolina it got me there and back and I used POI several times with great success. It is a pretty amazing device considering it is the size of a deck of cards and holds millions of POI.
I bought this solely for multiple business trips to Germany and France where I needed to do a lot of driving. It was the lowest priced unit that had both European and North American maps included. It came with one free map upgrade (I didn’t try to call and get both), so I upgraded the European maps upon receipt of the unit. Quick summary, just buy it, worked great and saved me from getting lost quite a few times, plus I was able to explore and use it much more effectively than a map to find suitable new routes and detours when needed. I’ve only used it once in the USA, and it performed fine, I just don’t really need a GPS where I live. In France I found that it very precisely located traffic cameras, and the speed limit warnings on screen were very useful along with current vehicle speed. I noticed once or twice (in 500 miles) new construction that didn’t agree with the maps (even though they were 2011 updates), but nothing that caused any problems. It would be nice if the maps included toll booths, such as a warning that a toll booth is ahead… but that is only a minor issue. The unit I bought included FM traffic updates, and this seemed to work automatically in Germany and the severity of the delay and the time delay is displayed. It seemed to work well, but I haven’t noticed it working anywhere else (since it probably only works in large urban areas) I’ve not tried this feature in the USA. I found it very convenient to pre-program using google maps all my hotels and way points, so I could just bring them up quickly as favorites… saves a lot of typing. There is a lot it can do that I haven’t even explored. A bargain.