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Nice, but integrated maps and Nuvi's intelligence still problematic
I had a Garmin 760, which was fine. The 880 is an even better gadget. But the Nuvi is still no smarter than it was; just more tricks to it. First, the base maps still seem to be at least three years old, even if you buy this year's maps. My iPhone is much more useful in finding places of business than my Nuvi. Second, the Nuvi software does not have any sort of "smart" road name recognition as you type. For example, if the map calls Interstate 35 N IH-35, you had better darn well type it in just like that. This is problematic manly because the nomenclature varies from place to place. For example, I-70 might be W IH-70 in Denver, but "Interstate 70 West" in another town. The Nuvi is not smart enough to give you options. You must go to manual map mode to see how the road is named on the Nuvi, and then try again. Or better yet, plug in your destination via the PC-based mapping software. Go to Google Maps if you want a sample of how this "smart" feature should work.excellent gps, but expensive
Have been using this for about a week since the day after it came out. Long time Garmin customer, and have loved the Street Pilot series. Overall this is a great product. The voice recognition is excellent, with almost no errors if the radio is off. I do miss the remote that my street pilot came with, but as I get more used to the VR, I think that will go away. The MSN features are good, with the best one (in my mind) being the ability to send map points directly to your Nuvi without connecting it to your computer. You do this via Live Search maps, not as good as Google maps, but not bad at all. You can move waypoints from Google maps, but you have to physically connect the unit to the computer. Given the price I had hoped the GPS unit would find satellites immediately on starting (like the built in unit in my wife's Honda). However (like the street pilot) it take about 20-30 seconds if the car has been turned off for a while. Mapping software seems great, I haven't gotten any directions that didn't make sense. Did not come with any software for the computer, as the Street Pilots did, which I am somewhat surprised about. Maybe Garmin is phasing out MapSource now that everyone is using Google maps? Not sure. Overall excellent, but then again, given that it is basically the most expensive GPS out there, it should be. If it was even 200 dollars cheaper, I would give it 5 starts, but given the value, I would bump it down to 4.The Garmin Nuvi 880 - An Incredible GPS
The Garmin Nuvi 880 is an awesome GPS unit. I've tried many in the past, and nothing comes close to the Garmin 880. Voice recognition works flawlessly. I'm definitely going to keep the MSN Direct subscription after the free 3 month grace period. Never need to touch the screen while driving. Hands-free everything! Directions, iPhone dialing with bluetooth, traffic, weather, restaurants, movie theaters and much more. The price tag puts it at the top of the GPS $$ ladder, but it's worth every penny.Keyword : nuvi
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Which GPS System? has personally tested and evaluated all of the leading GPS systems so to give you an easy and simple recommendation of which ones you should choose.
The nüvi 880 is one of Which GPS System?'s top picks with the following review:
The good: The Garmin Nuvi 880 crams in a number of features, including text-to-speech functionality, MSN Direct services, and Bluetooth, into a compact design. The portable navigation system offers the best and most accurate speech recognition capabilities we've seen to date.
The bad: The Nuvi 880 is expensive, and route calculations can be sluggish.
The bottom line: As we've come to expect from the Nuvi line, the Garmin Nuvi 880 offers an impressive feature list and solid performance, but it's the accurate speech recognition that really pushes the Nuvi 880 over the edge and makes it one of the best GPS we've tested to date.
For more top picks and reviews, please visit http://www.whichgpssystem.com.
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