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: Great. It's just what you need in a portable GPS unit. No useless features.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Nuvi 260 is a Nuvi 250 with the addition of text-to-speech (speaks actual names). Other than the text-to-speech (TTS) feature, the units are identical in appearance and operation.
Why did I buy this?
1)Many GPS models have features not needed for navigating (such as an MP3 player or Bluetooth). The 260 only has what I really think is necessary in a portable GPS. It's sleek (fits comfortably in your pocket), easily transportable, has preloaded maps with a tremendous database, and a fast processor which calculates and recalculates routes in seconds. Eliminating unnecessary features reduces the cost, plus makes it easier to use.
2)The touchscreen interface in the Nuvi 260 is so intuitive, many people can skip the short instruction book altogether. Ten minutes of just "playing around with the unit" after taking it out of the box is all you will need to be navigating. That's the mark of a great design.
3)Unlike the flip-up antenna found in Garmin's 300 series, the 200 series has an internal antenna...a big plus. (One less thing to break.) In addition, the screen in the 200 series units is significantly brighter and sharper than Garmin's older 300 series.
4)Speaking street names is a tremendous asset. Units that don't have TTS only say "In 500 feet exit right". That forces you to glance at the screen to see what street/exit/etc you need to navigate to. A unit with TTS says " In 500 feet take exit 52, on right, to Route 80 West". You keep your eyes on the road with this feature. So besides the convenience, TTS is a safety feature that is worth the extra dollars.
What do I dislike about the Nuvi 260?
1)I am not a fan of the windshield suction mount. In many reviews people have said that the mount is not reliable in the long term. It randomly falls off (this happened to me a few times). On a hot day the suction cup can soften and is reluctant to come off at all, or it leaves a telltale ring on the windshield. That's not good. (As an aside, there has been a significant increase in the thefts of portable GPS devices from cars...even when the devices were not in plain view. Police have stated that thieves assumed there was a GPS unit hidden in the car if a residual ring from the suction cup was seen on the windshield.) Save yourself from the inevitable and buy the beanbag dash mount.
2) The information in the database and maps can be a few years old. This problem is seen in ALL brands of GPS units, not just Garmin. There are millions of points of interest and roads to keep track of. It changes by the day. By the time the final product makes it to market, some of it is already outdated. But, for over 99% of the time, it is correct and it finds what I looking for. Until the manufacturers figure out a way to update their databases and maps in real time, this is what we have.
Once you think about what the really important features are in a portable GPS unit, you will realize that the Garmin Nuvi 260 is a wise choice.
Customer Review: Nice - But difficult to program far away locations.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had the Garmin Nuvi 260 for about ten days now. I've used it locally in the Chicago area going to places I really didn't need it but brought it along so I could take alternate routes than what it was telling me. It recalculated the changes fine. Programing the 260 is another thing. Very hard. Typing in a city - it will automatically enter a different city in another state. If you hit the back button your taken back to the first screen only to have to start all over again.
It be nice if you could type in a whole address on one line, but it asks for a address, then the street name. Some street names will pop up automatically, such as, First Place - but you may want First Street instead.
The 15 page instruction book tells you nothing about how to navigate around the menu's, nor how to program anything. They expect cutomer to automatically know this stuff upon purchase...There is no fine detail explained. Just basic stuff. "Search" is a joke, it takes for ever for it to search for a name. I typed in Disney World and the hour glass icon rotated and drained for 20 minutes searching for Disney World -It couldn't find Diney World! C'Mon, The most heavily visited place in the USA........ Finally I shut it off. I got tired of waiting.
No matter how clean a surface is the suction cup mount falls down in less than 4 minutes. It took a long time to register the unit. There was some problems with passwords and usernames, plus I had to sign up for some other kind of BS Browser. Nothing is easy..
Well, I lucked out in that my Motorola cellphone charger will charge the GPS and the Canon camera's USB cable was able to download the updates for the GPS. I did end up buying the Garmin AC charger a few days later. Both cord are 5 volts so there is no harm using the cellphone charger. I wish the plug in for the charger was on the side of the unit or in the front. Its on the back. It would make routing the cord around the car a bit easier.
The 3.5" screen is pretty easy to see while driving. I prefer the square screen over the 4.3" rectangle screen on the 260w. You can zoom in and out on the driving screen so it will show more or less street names as the come up while driving. Why does Garmin position the Speaker so the sound comes out the back of the unit?? It be much better if the sound came out the front. It's hard to hear if the radio is up and the windows are down. I had no trouble receiving signals with the GPS fastened under the big overhang on my dash. It worked fine on the center console too. There is a depression in front of my Heater / AC control panel, and I can prop the GPS up in front of it and the angle for viewing it is just fine.. The angle is such that it won't tip on a hard take off either.....Sound gets muffled when I set the GPS in front of the Heater /AC control.
If no destinations have been programmed in and your driving along, the screen shows what ever route your taking.
Customer Review: Great GPS!
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this device for a long road trip and now I can't imagine driving to an unfamiliar area without it! If you are just looking for a GPS that works at a great price, this is it. It includes what I believe is the most important feature in a GPS, text-to-speech. With text-to-speech, it leaves out any uncertainty that you may have while driving and making an upcoming turn. And that takes away a lot of the stress that you would normally experience when you miss a turn.
The device itself is very simple. I went with this standard format rather than with the widescreen version (260W) because I didn't see any benefit to having it wider. They both use the same navigation engine except one is simply wider (and more expensive). To use the Nuvi, all you have to do is type in the address that you are going to and hit Go! If you are going on a road trip, I recommend saving your destinations as Favorites to have quick access to them.
Performance-wise, the Nuvi 260 lead me to my destination without a hitch. Only a few times did I noticed that it would try to lead me to a route that is less than optimal. But I think it's because the Nuvi will always try to make sure that your destination ends up on the right hand side of your car. This is a great feature because I never have to worry about making any left turns on busy streets and hold up traffic. You can set up avoidances in the device such as U-turns and Tolls so that you're never led down these paths.
A few negatives that I've experienced is that sometimes the GPS will try to recalculate your route when you are on an onramp loop. It gets annoying when this happens because it constantly says, "recalculating" since it thinks that you might be heading in the wrong direction. Another thing is that it takes a while to get a satellite signal when you start it up. Not obscenely long, mind you, but enough to notice when you're in a hurry. Finally, the Nuvi only comes with a car adapter, so out of the box you can't charge it when you're at home. You'll either need to purchase the optional AC adapter or have a USB cord handy to charge it with your computer to do this.
If you want more bells and whistles such as bluetooth or traffic reports, then this is not for you. But if you just want a simple to use GPS that just takes you to where you want to go, the Nuvi 260 is an excellent purchase. You will not be unhappy with it.
Oh one more thing. Make sure to register your Nuvi and download the 2009 Map update if it doesn't already have it. When I registered my 260, I wasn't offered the map update for free, so I called their customer service and they shipped me a dvd without any hassle. Make sure you have your current receipt handy to email or fax to them as proof of purchase. You'll need a USB cord to connect this to your computer though, which it does not come with. Luckily for me I have a PS3 and just used the USB cord that comes with that.
Customer Review: Not quite perfect, but a great navigation aid
Summary: 4 Stars
My first GPS, purchased for a 2-week vacation trip to an unfamiliar area. Found this to be extremely helpful, interface in general well developed and easy to use, 3 1/2 inch display was plenty, though if the wider display provides some of the additional controls discussed below, would be better. Plenty large map display for use, easy to read most of the time, clear voice instructions.
Greatest aid - instructions like "in one half mile take exit 130, on left, to U.S. route 28, then turn right." Giving detailed instructions for how to get through complex unfamiliar interchanges avoids lots of u-turns and 10-to-30-minute delays doubling back to get in the right place, and provides instant notice that you've taken the wrong turn if you do happen to.
Very useful to have the big database of points of interest - could find an ATM or place to eat, buy groceries easily near current location or destination.
I recommend the friction mount Garmin Portable Friction Dashboard Mount for Nüvi Series and StreetPilot C5XX Series GPS Navigators (C530, C550 and C580). This mount worked very well, easiest way to remove the unit and mount when you want to.
Recommended, in spite of the shortcomings listed below.
Missing:
(1) Can't program multiple waypoints for trips where you're visiting lots of places not in a quickest route to the end point, so doesn't estimate trip time accurately until the last waypoint is entered, 3/4 of the way through the trip. Workaround is to select each new waypoint one a time after you have reached the last one. This is easy if you've already set up the points in your favorites, BUT not having your travel time estimate right is a pain.
(2) Takes 5 clicks to mute the voice and get back to the map - needs a mute toggle for when you are off the route it wants you to take and you know and intend it.
(3) Some addresses aren't placed right, such as when a highway is also a named road and then splits off from the named road - addresses on the named road were bunched up at the join point.
(4) Need a zoom to trip, zoom to destination.
(5) Can't seem to understand addresses unless it's in an incorporated city - have to enter city name first. Had lots of trouble trying to enter addresses, had to go to a map to find the location then enter it as a location rather than by address.
(6) I can't find a way to exclude a link from a route or the data base. Can exclude all ferries and toll roads for example, but not specific ones, so have to get around this by programming a way point, but that's limited as discussed above.
(7) Search ignores spaces in its database, so makes some things hard to find (search for "REI," for example, turned up things that had a word ending in "RE" and the next word started with "I")
Customer Review: Not worth the money
Summary: 2 Stars
My first GPS unit was a TomTom One and I really liked it. Not everything about it was perfect, but it was very easy to use. Well, it got stolen and my brother happen to be moving overseas so he gave me his Garmin Nuvi 260.
In my opinion, it's not very intuitive. I recently used it on a trip cross country. I would program in our destination, let the device program our route which was pretty much I-40 west the entire way, and look to see our approximate arrival time. Instead of leaving the device plugged in because it already had a full battery charge, I would shut off the device. After a few hours of driving, I'd turn the device back on to find out how much further we had to travel and it would lose the programmed destination every time even though the battery still showed a full charge. So I'd either have to leave the device on or reprogram the destination each and every time. My TomTom One would keep the route stored until I cleared it out. 1 star
A lot of the times it was pretty quick to pick up satellites and pinpoint our location. It would also process routes pretty quickly as well. There were a few occasion where the device knew where we were but had no idea in which direction I was driving so the little car just sort of looked lost. 4 stars
Ease of use or intuitiveness. If you've never had a GPS unit before, I suppose this one would be very easy to learn and use. However, having owned a TomTom in the past, TomTom's ease of use and intuitiveness are head and shoulders above this unit. I can't speak for other Garmin's because this is the only one I've owned. 3 stars
Battery life. I left this on at one point and got what I thought was a decent amount of time out of the battery. I can't remember the exact length of time, but I think it was somewhere around a couple of hours. For a portable device, if you turn it off to save juice then turn it back on, your destination will be lost....or at least it was on mine.
Yes...I've done all the updates that are available.
Overall, I'm glad I didn't spend my own money on this unit. There have been several times while using it to navigate through LA that I've wanted to throw it out the window. Even though I follow its directions, in some cases after each turn it will say "recalculating". What?!?!? It gets us from point A to point B pretty accurately. One thing I do love is the fact that it tells you whether your address destination is on the right or the left side of the road....something my TomTom did not do.
I don't think I'd recommend this to a friend as I'm sure there are better units out there in the same price range.