Garmin nüvi 260 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 260 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: A Fine Tool for Traveling
Summary: 4 Stars
The Garmin 260 is a useful feature-rich GPS device without all those marginally useful features that do little more than jack-up the price.
I have a friend who has a more expensive Garmin and I was impressed with what I saw while riding around with him in his vehicles. GPS technology has really come of age over the last decade since I last owned a GPS device.
This unit locks on to the the requisite number of satellites in short order and the maps are quite accurate. One drawback is that sometimes the unit will direct you in some weird routes, but on the whole it will get you where you need to go when you don't have a clue yourself. The main thing to remember is that you can't disconnect your brain when using it.
Even when I'm just driving around town going places I'm familiar with, I like to have the unit on, because it tells me exactly where I am and lists the cross streets as I approach them. Sometimes when I'm lost in my own thoughts, it's nice to just look at the device to determine exactly where I am on my route.
The unit provides a wealth of information at a glance, including direction, speed, maximum speed, elapsed time (moving and not moving), estimated time of arrival, miles traveled, miles to go, coordinates, and elevation. Of course, the turn-by-turn directions and the text-to-speech features are what this device and others like it are really known for.
The points of interest feature is very useful I have found, not only while I'm driving, but for planning my errands. It's like having a compact yellow pages. Of course, it's not comprehensive, but it is a good, quick resource.
I bought this unit after spending hours on Amazon researching the various models. I bought my unit at WalMart just as I was leaving for a long trip during which I was going to traverse Dallas/Fort Worth, which is one of the most challenging drives I've ever experienced. Even though I was skeptical of the route offered by the device, it got me through the Dallas/Fort Worth maze of freeways better than I have ever done it before. That alone made the unit worth the price.
The Garmin 260 wasn't the exact unit I wanted, but it was the closest that WalMart had, so I went with it. I could have saved a significant amount if I had planned my trip a little better and purchased my unit from Amazon in advance, but as I said, I feel I got my money's worth.
I had wanted to get one of the wide units, but now that I have this one and realize that it is plenty legible and easily fits into the front pocket of my jeans, I'm more than pleased with it.
I felt that the unit should have come with a USB connector, since in order to upgrade the unit and even to register the device, it must be connected to a computer.
The instruction manual is the very model of minimalism, but being a gadget freak, I enjoyed teaching myself how to navigate the software. Regardless, it is true that you can get this thing mounted and plugged in in short order and be on your way, even if you are only marginally competent in its use.
I don't think that an AC adapter is necessary, although I might buy one later. It runs fine plugged into one of the DC outlets in the car and it seems to me that it charged even while I was using it. During my trip, power was never an issue. I have a battery jumper that I plug the unit into at home, so I don't have to plug in while driving around town.
I think that the Garmin 260 is a fine instrument for use while traveling or just puttering around town. It has some quirks, but a sentient driver should have no problem dealing with them. The 260 has just the features I like, without a bunch that I'd never use.
The 2009 map upgrade was free of charge, by the way.
It's a keeper, for sure.
Customer Review: Excellent GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I previously owned the Garmin C330. This was a good GPS unit but sort of large. I didn't mind the lack of voice announcements for street names until I got into the city where some streets may only be 100 feet apart. I often took the wrong turn during these situations but the Garmin did a reasonably good job of recalculating my new route to my destination. I owned the C330 for about a year but it got stolen in an airport when I took my eyes off of it for a minute. This was my opportunity to get a Nuvi.
I researched the various models and believe that the Garmin Nuvi 260 offered the best price for the features that I desired. I didn't need a Bluetooth device or an MP3 player that plays through a tiny speaker.
Pros:
1. The receiver sensitivity of the Garmin Nuvi 260 is greatly improved over the C330.
2. The size is perfect for my jacket pocket or a ladies' pocketbook. Be sure to buy a case in order to protect the unit. I found a nice one at Radio Shack for $3. This unit will stay in my pocket at the airport; I won't have to watch it.
3. The street name announcement is a wonderful feature, especially when streets are close together.
4. Map details are better than on the C330.
5. The dashboard base is smaller and easier to put in your carryon baggage than was the previous base for the C330.
6. I have found that some routes have changed when using the Nuvi 260. Most have improved.
7. I have found that the stored list of restaurants, parks, etc. has improved. It's not comprehensive and somewhat out of date but certainly better.
8. I have not had any problems with either Garmin unit but I have contacted customer service with technical questions. I found them to be courteous and helpful. They, also, voluntarily mailed information at no cost to me. This included a map CD-ROM.
Cons:
1. The speaker points to the rear of the unit. This causes a somewhat muffled voice to reach the driver after echoing from the windshield.
2. Some spoken street names are difficult to understand and sometimes slurred. You still have the option to look at the screen and read the street name but this takes your eyes off of the road.
3. The unit only allows one via point. It would be nicer to have more.
4. You don't get the "ding" announcement when you reach your turn. The C330 had this optional feature. You may now look for the street sign unless it is night or you have a New York City taxi driver on your bumper.
5. The unit doesn't always tell you the side of the street where your destination is located. It does say that you are arriving so you get the opportunity to look all around for the building. I'm glad that streets only have two sides so that I select the wrong side only about 90% of the time when this happens.
6. Sometimes, the map update rate appears a little slow when zoomed-in. This makes the maps appear to jump onto the screen. The C330 didn't do this but it had less detail. Maybe that's the tradeoff?
7. Be prepared to play with the Menu structure as the manual is very "thin." In fact, it is almost non-existent.
Overall, however, this is an excellent unit and I highly recommend it. The price is excellent and it provides great value, especially for those of us who get lost and never stop to ask directions. This means almost every man that I know. I plug in my destinations before I leave for a trip. I arrive, get my rental car, plug in the GPS, select my destination, press "Go" and fight the traffic until I arrive. Just imagine, no more MapQuest maps that were wrong most of the time and no more driving while reading a list of directions that won't get you to your final destination. That leaves both hands free for your cellphone and coffee. Happy traveling!
Customer Review: Nice, but fails way too often.
Summary: 1 Stars
Yesterday I used my Nuvi for the first time to location 4 different places. It failed at various levels on 3 of those locations, and succeeded on the forth.
PROBLEM 1: I tried to enter a street address "Saint Johns Bluff Rd S" but as soon as I typed the "Rd" the Nuvi "helpfully" popped up the selections it thought I meant. The selection list had one item: the north version of the road. If you try to go back from the helpful selection list to continue entering what YOU want to enter you'll find that the field has been emptied. I was not able to enter my location and had to call for directions. BTW: This location has been in existance for years.
PROBLEM 2: I tried to find "Dave & Buster's", a popular attraction in this city but it was not in the database! I manually entered the address, and it accepted the address, but it took me to the wrong place. It dumped me off about a half mile away. Again, I had to call for directions.
PROBLEM 3: I tried to find a location on the street "A1A S" but as soon as I entered the "S" the Nuvi suggested that I meant "A1A Scenic and Historic". It would not let me enter what I meant, only what it thought I meant! Forced to accept Nuvi's suggestion, I compared the place it wanted to take me to a map someone else printed from MapQuest. They differed, and MapQuest was right. MapQuest actually accepted what the user entered. Imagine that!
It also gave me problems today.
- It lost satellite reception and didn't get it back until I rebooted.
- I followed someone to their house and the roads in this section of the town just didn't exist on Nuvi's map. I rebooted and viola! The roads appeared.
- I've found the database of known lodging and food places to be extremely limited; it often has minor things in a region but not major things.
- It has entries in its database containing characters that you cannot enter. For example, I played around searching for "Dave & Buster's" in other cities. In another city it find the location if I enter "Dave", but not "Dave and" because "and" is technically not in the name "Dave & Buster's". The Nuvi does not provide a way to enter the "&" character so it's impossible to enter the name! The Nuvi ought to be smart enough to match "&" with "And".
- A friend told me to head towards a specific intersection. I entered the information into the intersection search feature (Spelling the names of the roads properly) and it could not find them.
Another problem I noticed on day one is that the new offramp on the interstate that I often use to go home is not in the database. It's a year old! Why isn't it in there?
And I tried to use Garmin's website for help. First, I tried to update the software using the webbased tool but it failed without any feedback. I used an app-based tool and that worked. I played around with the same input as in those problems mentioned above and even with all the updates the same (or similar) errors occurred. I tried to post a complaint to their customer service department and the website failed to accept it! It told me to fill in the required fields marked with an asterisk. EVERY FIELD WAS SET!
I've had it. This tool is going back tomorrow, but sadly this is the state of computer technology today. No one even cares to make electronic devices that work anymore. So long as it technically works well enough to satisfy the legal requirements imposed by marketing's promises then that's all the better electronics are made.
Customer Review: This is a light and excellent unit for GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I would say there is no perfect GPS unit in the market, but this definitely is one of the best.
If you were a nuvi owner like me, a previous owner of a nuvi 350 GPS, you will know that nuvi is very easy to operate. You do not need any thick manual to study how to use the unit, just get it out the box, turn it on, and play it around, then you are ready to go. This is a nuvi, so, yes, it is easy to use. As a trade off, some advanced routing functions are not included in this unit, for example, you can not add many via points to one route.
Basically, Nuvi 260 is a Nuvi 250 with Text to Speech, so even you can not find many reviews for Nuvi 260, actually you can just search those for Nuvi 200 or 250. Nuvi 260 is also a nuvi 350 after some weight loss which means some functions such as MP3 player will miss in this unit. The box comes with the unit contains less accessories than the one for 350 too. You will not have USB cable,leather case, and AC charger. However, in other hand, the 260 has more improvement. What I like most is the screen brightness which is really fantastic compared to the nuvi350. It is highly readable even directly under the sun light. The view angle of this screen is also much wider than that of the 350. Both the driver and the front seat passenger can read the screen easily if you place the unit in the middle. While my experience with 350 is that you need adjust the unit to a right angle so that the reflection from the screen will not bother the driver from reading the screen. Another sweet part is the internal antenna which makes the unit more sleek than the 350.
The mount is still easy to assemble, easy to adjust, compact. Unfortunately Garmin changed the mount slightly from the design of 350.For the nuvi 350 the power cord connects to the mount and then the mount feeds power to the Nuvi, but in the 260, the power cord connects directly to the device. So in order to disassemble your 260, you need disconnect both the power cable and the mount which is not as convenient as the case for 350.
My unit has a Bravo sensor instead of the SIRF III sensor in 350. Both are boasted as the high sensitivity sensor. After testing it for several trips and in my home. I found that the Bravo has better signal receipt ability than the SIRF III. I can easily get full bars signal before my computer desk with Bravo, but with 350, I can only receive signal near to the window. Somehow I feel that the SIRF III has better accuracy although the difference is subtle. Like I said, no GPS is perfect, so neither does the sensor.
Overall, I like the 260 very much. Garmin has the best navigation engine and algorithm in the industry, so you do not need doubt its navigation performance at all. Furthermore, this is the cheapest Garmin nuvi with text to speech. If you like Text to speech and do not need other fancy functions like bluetooth, mp3 etc, this one is definitely the best choice for you. Otherwise, if you do not care the text to speech function, you may consider nuvi 250 or nuvi 200(no Canada map) which are cheaper.
Updated(Dec. 8,2007)
For those who do not like the window mount, I strongly suggest you check out this friction mount:
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Portable-Friction-StreetPilot-010-10908-00/dp/B000LRMS66
I purchased it with my nuvi 260 and it works great!
Customer Review: Don' t over spend on a GPS. This one is all you'll need.
Summary: 4 Stars
Two years ago, I had to purchase a GPS because of some extensive traveling I'd be doing in the Los Angeles region. Since I don't know the area and am basically directionally challenged (I get lost), a GPS was the way to go. I initially picked up a Magellan unit because all my friends had one and I have regretted this move ever since. The Magellan was hard to use, maps were inaccurate, and it was often incorrect in giving instructions.
Enter the Nuvi 260. It's amazing what you get in this GPS. What would have cost easily $800 and up only a couple of years ago is now available at under $300. The Nuvi is a breeze to use and the text-to-voice feature is really cool. Instead of the "right turn in 2.1 miles" sort of thing, it actually speaks the upcoming freeway exits/streets out loud. It also has a truck load of points of interest in the little box and you can pre-plan your trip by selecting which places you want to go before hand and enter them as your favorites.
Its got a nice lock out feature that you can use by entering a four number code. The device automatically unlocks if you set an "unlock" location. Go to this point, and it unlocks for you in case you forget your code. This is also a nice feature to protect your data and your home location if the unit ever gets lost or stolen.
The GPS is pretty bright in the daytime but washes out, just like other GPS units, in direct sunlight. It's got an automatic night time feature in which the LCD display switches over to a different color scheme and brightness level to accommodate for night driving. Added to this, you can load photos as start up screens and swap out the little car icon on your map for other downloadable ones. I picked the moose for mine.
The LCD map screen can be seen in 3D or 2D mode and is easy to navigate around. The display gives you various info such as time traveled, average speed, time to arrival and a host of other features at just the touch of the screen.
The unit is portable, which means you can disconnect it from the car AC adapter and carry it around with you for walking around town. I was going to buy the AC wall adapter to charge the unit up when it wasn't in the car, but what they don't tell you is that you can just charge up the Nuvi via a USB cable. Just plug it into your computer while you're working, and your Nuvi will be fully charged in a few hours. You'll save yourself the $20 or so in buying that AC wall charger.
The big negative of this unit, which doesn't even have anything really to do with the GPS device, is the horrible manual and Garmin website. If you're not computer savvy or don't understand electronic device very well, you'll miss out on a lot of what this GPS can do for you. If it weren't for the laughably poor Garmin website and the very sparse manual, the Nuvi 260 would have gotten a five star rating.
But seeing that not everyone is computer knowledgeable, Garmin has done a great disservice to its customers by not providing adequate instructions on their units and a website that barely passes in being helpful.