The first thing you notice when you unpack the Nüvi are it's small dimensions. It's comparable to a deck of playing cards. The device is also very light and and has a nice design. In other words: a real gadget. Also in the box there's a good-looking imitation-leather case, in which the Nüvi can be carried. To be able to fit the Nüvi to the windshield of your car, it's shipped with a suction cup mount. Unfortunately, the 300 does not seem to be shipped with a power adapter for in-home use. So there will be no charging of this unit inside the house, unless you count the charging possibility though the USB port of your computer. A 220 volts adapter is shipped with the more expensive models 300 deluxe and the 350.
The maps of the 300 are limited to the local area in which the unit is purchased. We had a Dutch model, so it was shipped with the Benelux maps. The 300 deluxe model also ships with a CD-ROM which contains detailed maps of Western-Europe. The high-end 350 model comes with the Western-European maps already installed onto the device.
Ease-of-use
The device is more than just pretty to look at though. After switching it on, it immediately becomes clear that also a lot of thought has gone into the ease-of-use of the device. The nice screen measures 8,9 cm (3,5 inch) diagonally and can be easily operated with the touch-sensitive screen. There's only one button on the device: the on/off button. All the other functions are operated via the screen.The on-screen buttons are of a very large format, so also very easy to use by persons who have larger fingers than average. A subtle bleep notifies of the fact the the device has understood the given command. Navigating is really extremely easy with the Nüvi. Just click the "Where to?" button and enter the destination, that's it. This destination may be an address, but also a Point Of Interest.
Navigating is really extremely easy with the Nüvi.
The route reproduction on the screen is ok, but less clear than we have seen in some competing products. More in particular, it is shown from a larger height. Because of this, more details from the surroundings are shown, and that may distract from the route that is driven.On top of the screen, the next instruction is shown in a typically American fashion: eg. 'South on Naussaudocks' or 'Southeast on city docks'. This clearly shows that Garmin is an American company, because route instructions like this are not very common around here. Fortunately, the spoken instructions are very clear, also to us Europeans. Commands like 'in 200 metres, turn left' can hardly be misunderstood.
The battery autonomy is very good! Official specifications state six hours. In practice it was a bit less than that (as always), but nothing out of the ordinary or to get concerned about. Also, in case you only use the mp3 player option, you can use the device twice as long on one battery charge. Very nice!
Then...?
Click to enlarge...
De Garmin Nüvi in de praktijk.
The screen layout while navigating is very clear. On the bottom right, the amount of metres to the next turn are displayed. Tapping this makes the unit repeat the last said vocal command. On the bottom left, the estimated time of arrival is shown. Tapping this pops up an info screen, which shows a lot of details about the driven trip. Eg. the average speed, the maximum speed, the total amount of time you've already been driving, etc...
The more expensive Nüvi 350 is also capable of text-to-speech, which enables this device to mention the street names into the spoken instructions. The 300 does not have this function, but nonetheless also performs admirably when it comes to navigating us to the correct destination.
Automatic dimmer
Those who often drive at night will appreciate the night view of the Nüvi. During the day, the route is shown with a clear white background, and at night the backlight of the unit dims and a dark blue background colour is chosen. The Nüvi automatically switches between day and night view, but this can be manually overrided.
Plotting a route around traffic-jams is not possible with the Nuvi 300, but it does have a connection for an optional TMC receiver: the Garmin GTM 10 TMC FM. That very same receiver also connects to the 350 without a problem.These new devices are sold by Garmin as 'travel companions'. They are much more than just a 'simple' navigational system and contain several other funtions which might come in handy for all globetrotters. Eg. they also play mp3 music files and audiobooks by the American company Audible. Photo files (.jpg) can also be displayed.
The Nüvi reserves 200 MB of it's internal memory for storing forementioned files, but apart from that it can also read them from an SD-card. This is also true for the 350, but that unit has 650 MB of internal memory available for this. Then, there's also the unit's world clock, and a (currency) converter/calculator. But especially the tourist extra's are striking.
Tourist extras
Nüvi screen examples. That is the option you have to tap to run the trial version of the language guide which translates words or sentences for you. Translations are possible from and to English, German, Italian, Portugese, Spanish and French. As already mentioned, the more expensive 350 model has a text-to-speech option, which can also be used for this language guide. Translated words can be spoken out loud, so the Nüvi user then also immediately knows how to pronounce them. Of course, because the 300 lacks the text-to-speech option this isn't possible with the 300.The completely language guide costs 95 euro (£ 65). The trial version only translates a limited amount of words and sentences, but the overall impression of this guide, which was created by Oxford University Press, is very good. The sentences are subdevided into different categories like 'food and drink', 'entertainment', 'accomodation' en 'transport'. In the categorie 'food and drink' eg. you'll find sentenced like 'are french fries included?' and 'two draught beers, please'.
Then there the included trial version of the travel guide by Marco Polo publishing. This travel guide is not an 'e-book' with long stories about the history of a certain town. Its more of an improved version of the POI's we all know and which all recent naviagtional systems use. You can search for interesting spots in different categories. Examples of those categories are 'travel & transportation', 'food/restaurants' and 'sightseeing'. Interesting spots in cities are described in this guide, accompanied by a photo. Next to the text there's a button which says 'Go!' Tapping that button navigates you to the selected spot.
The travel guides are very handy, but also pricey. The complete travel guide for Europe costs 195 euro (£ 135). You can also purchase travel guides per region for 95 euro (£ 65) a piece.
. Mybe I have been spoilt by the TomTom maps which are crisp and clear it was not the case for the nuvi maps. What I did really like about the nuvi was the nice size and all the rest that went with it, put TomTom mapping software on the nuvi and it would be one hell of a gps system. ( I was so discusted with the navigaition side of things that I sent it back.) By the way it was the nuvi 360 that I had and thought all gps systems would be much of a muchness now I will never moan about TomTom again.
so now I don't even have to look at the thing. That should be implemented by all sat nav devices, after all, it nows what speed your travelling at, it displays it on the screen. Me thinks copyright might have something to do with it.
and a fully functioning unit.
