Garmin StreetPilot c330 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $249.00 You Save: $300.99 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $29.98 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin StreetPilot c330 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Garmin, the ONLY name in GPS!
Summary: 4 Stars
This GPS unit has been a lifesaver. Just days after I purchased the unit, I had several job interviews in Spokane and Seattle, two cities I have never visited. This handy little unit took me right to the office doors in both cities without any major problems. The interface is SO simple to use that it was almost TOO easy!
I only have a few minor complaints. My only complaints are:
- The unit had a hard time finding a couple fairly obscure addresses in a newer (5 years old) part of town (google maps and live.local also couldn't find these addresses, and the unit got me close enough to find it on my own)
- The unit will not let you easily take a scenic route of your own choosing; it kept telling me to turn around and go back the way i came. It was annoying to me, so I finally turned the thing off, since I didn't need it for a few miles.
- It does not have all the close gas stations to the interstate. I was dangerously low on gas once, and the GPS was telling me that I had to go back 20 miles to the closest gas station, or drive 40 miles more. I went with my instinct and 2 miles later I found a huge, well established truck stop that met all my fueling needs.
- The unit was REALLY confusing at some really weird intersections in downtown with one way streets (the intersection was a 6 point intersection with only one way streets on each intersection). I ended up going around the block (the unit recalculated the route quickly and efficiently) and arrived with only a small detour.
- Lastly, once I arrived to my hometown, I noticed that the unit was taking me home the "short" way that has 15 stoplights, instead of my favorite (also a major thoroughfare that only adds 1/2 mile) way home with only 2 lights. You need to use your intellect and plan ahead if you really want to find the most efficient routes.
These things being said, this unit is AWESOME! I loved having a know-it-all driving companion that had my exact routes programed in, and with a little common sense you can work around the ever-so-small deficiencies that this unit has! This GPS is a lifesaver, and at these prices it is a steal!
Customer Review: If you travel, don't travel without!
Summary: 5 Stars
We should not have waited to purchase our Garmin C330 GPS. After several road trips this year that were frustrated by poor maps, lousy directions, and just bad navigation the C330 has dramatically improved our travels. The C330 was out of the box and ready to use in under one minute. It easily and clearly communicates directions and routes to you. Best of all it is SO easy to use. My wife, who isn't a technology fan, was able to quickly and easily program the C330 without me having to walk her through it. Its a snap!
The C330 does have a few drawbacks, but I emphasize a FEW.
The glare during the daytime can be bad.
It doesn't like U-turns. The C330 has yet to tell me to do a U-turn, instead preferring to route you around in a box pattern. Sometimes its just easier to turn around and have it re-calculate.
It can take several minutes sometimes to find itself when you first turn it on. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but sometimes its really fast, sometimes its really slow. If you start it up and then start moving it seems to take longer. Not a big deal most of the time.
Its accurate about 90% of the time. The most common error I've found is the block numbers being off on streets. This seems to be more common on residential streets where it may tell you the location is several blocks away from the actual one. The second most common error is streets that don't go all the way through or portions of streets that are missing. Again this is more common in rural and residential areas. Lastly some of the points of interest are old/incorrect/new. In largers cities this is rare, however in a smaller city that we live in almost 25% of the POIs are wrong.
The C330 also prefers major roads and will not take obvious cut-throughs down residential streets. Not a major problem as long as you end up in the right place!
Don't get me wrong, the few problems are far outwieghed by the MANY great things this little device does. If you travel anywhere out of familiar territory then don't leave home without the Garmin C330!
Customer Review: Best value for vehicle GPS
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked one of these up at a Black Friday sale for about one hundred thirty bucks. Best buy in a GPS I could find, and it is a great GPS. The maps are slightly out of date as other reviewers have indicated, but you can't go wrong for the price!
Pros:
Easy to use - Intuitive
Quick to acquire satellites
Clear Screen
Quick to calculate routes
Quick to re-calculate route after a missed turn
Cons:
Point of Interest (POI) database is out of date by a couple years
No Latitude, Longitude, or Elevation is displayable (nice for nerds like myself)
Bottom Line: Most other GPS units cost two to three times as much. This is a great deal if you can find one for less than one hundred fifty. If you go more than that you might consider something with more features. At this price point almost everyone can have a GPS if they want.
Overall the route calculations seem accurate, although it isn't aware of signals like lights and stop signs, so it doesn't always route you the best way. If I miss a turn, it usually has recalculated my route within a second or so. All the buttons on the touchscreen are easy to use, and it rarely registers something incorrectly. The menus all make sense with the exception of getting to the "dashboard" display, you have to click on the speed from the "map view." Remember that any GPS might not give you the best route for an area you know well, but this gives a good enough route to get you to your destination.
Satellites have usually been acquired by the time I get my seatbelt on and am ready to go, and it even was able to acquire a respectable signal inside my house.
I would buy one again given the choice. I am not disappointed with the 3.5" screen either, at first I thought I needed a 4+" screen, but after using this one I am perfectly happy.
To download custom points of interest you need to download software from Garmin, and it compatible with Mac and PC. The software included only works with PC, no Mac software is included, but is available for download.
Customer Review: Great product, But Some Quirks...
Summary: 5 Stars
I was looking for an entry level GPS unit for my car and I have a Garmin wrist GPS unit I use when jogging to keep track of pace and distance run. That unit has worked quite well so I thought I'd look at Garmin products for the car. I also work for a civil engineering firm that has used GPS technology for a while now, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of preformance from units in general. That said, I have been quite plesently suprised by how easy and how well the c330 has worked. It really is very easy to set up and operate. Like all GPS it has quirks and everyone should remember that physical conditions (tall buildings and trees, sun spots, bridge walls) can hinder reception and thus preformance. And the unit can route you in some strange paths. It will take you where you want to go, but there may be a better way there. You do need to get used to its defination of "turn", though. When you have a multiple choice for left turns at a single intersection, the voice command simply directs you to "turn left"; you need to look at the on-screen map to figure out which "left" you should take. And when traveling through Wyoming I was driving on a section of interstate that was under construction. The unit kept directing me to "turn right" and get back on the road; apparently the mad data did not correct for the new roadway. I assume a future download will correct such problems, but I can't speak directly about that issue being resolved. Needless to say, it seems the unit can be fooled by real world conditions that do not match what it's digital mapping describes. Those points made, the unit is very good and, except for an ocassional sluggishness when recalculating after a wrong turn, it operates like a charm. I even used it once while on a trip to San Francisco by putting it in my pants pocket, operating in battery mode, and let it direct my wife and I as we walked to a restaurant for breakfast! I highly recommend the unit. The screen size is fine for me, but I can see where some prefer a larger screen. Other than that, I think the unit would work for just about anyone, especially for the price!Customer Review: Does what it says, but I like my old eMap better
Summary: 3 Stars
So far, the unit has selected workable routes for me with one exception that involved dirt roads. To be fair, the dirt road thing was before I had adjusted the settings in the unit to my preferences. I do not think this will happen again. It works fine, is very easy to use and the interface is pretty intuitive. So why do I like my 8 year old Garmin eMap better? (The eMap has a little monchrome screen and only a beep to let me know I need to turn.)
As I said above, the routes the C330 chooses are workable, but they are not the best routes (or at least not the ones I would choose). For instance, when given a choice between two 2-lane state highways, the unit always seems to think the shorter route is quicker, even if it goes through a lot more towns along the way. Other times it seems willing to route me down some pretty rural roads to save a few miles. That's OK if I'm sightseeing, but not on a dark and stormy night. It's not that the routes it chooses are wrong, they're just not the ones I would choose if I were looking at a map. This would be OK if there were a way to override the automatic route, but there isn't. On my old eMap, I have to either enter the route one via point at a time or use Garmin's MapQuest software to generate the route on a computer, adjust it to my preferences, and download it to the GPS. It's a little cumbersome, but the control it gives me is a huge benefit, especially if I'm planning a long trip and there are a number of specific stops I want to make along the way. (You could use the C330 to direct you along one point at a time, but then you'd be monkeying with it a lot during the trip and that's worse than a little extra work up front.)
If you're planning to use your GPS to go from the airport to a hotel, this type of unit is probably fine. If you plan on using it for longer trips, I would really recommend that you get a unit that gives you a way to exert some control over your route. For me, this is a big enough issue that I will keep using my old eMap instead of the much more modern and easier to see C330.