Garmin nüvi 265/265T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 265/265T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Customer Review: Good GPS for the money
Summary: 4 Stars
This GPS hooks up well with my iPhone 4 for making and receiving phone calls. The GPS is also usually very accurate. I do have one complaint. Living in a huge city like San Diego where we have lots of freeways intersecting and lots of interchanges connecting, sometimes the GPS cannot keep up with the road. There have been times where I have had to guess which direction to go because the GPS hadn't caught up with the road yet. That is simply because the interchanges and freeways swerve and change so quickly that they are sometimes split seconds apart. This is very frustrating when I guess incorrectly and then the next thing I hear is: "recalculating" and it directs me to get off the freeway and get back on going the other way. That really is irritating. Also sometimes is tells me to go the wrong direction on a particular freeway. For example it will say, stay left on I8W/E. Ok, so I can't possibly stay on both I8 East and I8 West, but it hasn't figured out which one I'm supposed to be on yet because it is not that far along yet. So I bear left which keeps me heading toward Interstate 8, and I'm OK because I don't have to pick a direction just yet but then it comes time to either pick a direction on I8 or stay heading str8 on 115 for example and the GPS will just say, stay left on I8W/E. And so at that point, I have to guess again, because it isn't giving me the correct direction on I8 to go. So if you live in a big city, just be weary that it may not keep up with your freeway driving if you have many freeways that come together all at once.Customer Review: Almost got us killed, added 2 hours to trip.
Summary: 1 Stars
I used the Garmin for the first time last weekend for a trip from Knoxville to Asheville--a trip I make several times a year. It was a test run for the Garmin. On the way over when we got to Hot Springs it wanted us to turn right. I went left anyway through Marshall--it's not a bad road, fairly straight and well kept and will get you to Asheville in about 45 minutes. On the way back from Asheville, I took the turn the Garmin told me to take onto Leicester Highway. We were about half way up this curvy mountain when I started to realize this was not a shorter way to the Marshall route. The Garmin took us over two mountains (the snow has not melted there yet) with some of the windiest roads I've done in a while. Then as we finally approached Hot Springs (wouldn't have known but there was a road sign.) It wanted us to turn left away from Hot Springs and go over Max Patch (a 4200 foot mountain with a gravel road that goes down the other side completely covered with snow.) We would never have made it, but we turned back and found our own way back to Hot Springs and then used the usual route home.
The Garmin route added 1 1/2 hours to the 2 1/2 hour trip because we could only go 10-15 mile per hour up the mountain road it sent us up. Do not trust this machine, if I could return it I would, but I got it from [...] through Amazon and I am a couple of days past the point where I can send it back. I am really upset with this machine.
Customer Review: Easy to use and extremely helpful
Summary: 4 Stars
The major reason I bought this version of Garmin's Nuvi as an upgrade over my older Nuvi was the free traffic feature (previous versions required a yearly fee). In general, I've found the traffic feature to be reasonably accurate although not all the time. Having used the unit for almost a year now, I would guess there have been less than a handful of occasions when it didn't tell me about traffic ahead of time.
One of the features I like most of the Garmin GPS units over other makers is the "text to speech". I prefer hearing the name of the street rather than just "turn left in 400 feet". There have been a few times when the unit's directions weren't an exact match for the road signs; however, those cases are few and far between. The interface is a little more user-friendly than my previous Nuvi, with better access to some features like the volume.
Another extremely useful feature included here but not in my previous unit is the ability to use it while walking around the streets (not only in the car). The small size makes for an easy fit in your pocket; however, since this didn't come with a case, I had to use the soft leather case which came with my previous unit. The estimated time to destination is fairly accurate within a few minutes. Overall, I would definitely recommend this unit to anyone looking for a GPS. I don't know how I ever got anywhere before getting these Garmin Nuvis.
Customer Review: Volume level is a deal-breaker
Summary: 2 Stars
I tried three of these units and they all have the same fatal flaw - the volume level and clarity of the directions is not sufficient. One unit was worse than the others, but none of them were clear and loud enough.
At highway speeds, or if anyone is talking in the car or if the radio is on beyond very, very low settings, it's just too hard to hear the directions clearly. And struggling to understand directions kind of undermines the whole purpose of having a gps. You want to be able to relax and just focus on driving.
My Tomtom was stolen and so I tried Garmin. I like everything about it as good or better than the Tomtom except for one thing: the volume and clarity of the verbal directions. The Tomtom has a much larger speaker in the back, apparently that's the reason. It may also have a stronger amplifier, but I'm not sure. I considered getting a more expensive Garmin model that will hook up to your car speakers through an fm radio connection, but I didn't want to sacrifice the use of my radio while driving.
I called Garmin customer service today and the guy I spoke to told me that he hears this complaint pretty frequently and that they pass it along to corporate, but he hasn't heard whether they plan to address it in newer models or not.
It's a shame. While everything else is very good, this one problem renders it unacceptable in my opinion.
Customer Review: Good features, but bad reception
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased the nüvi 265T about three weeks ago. It's a well made unit with excellent features. I particularly like having the FM traffic receiver since I end up driving into downtown Chicago at least once a week for work. When satellite reception is good, this unit is nearly flawless.
Unfortunately satellite reception is only good about 50% of the time. At home, in my driveway, the unit consistently shows me being 2-3 houses down from where I actually live. On the interstate it occasionally shows that I'm driving on side roads several hundred yards away and ends up constantly updating the map and giving me directions to the nearest entrance ramp. In residential neighborhoods even just a few trees will frequently cause it to lose all reception. Even in the middle of a clear sunny day, while on a state highway with no obstructions on any side for several hundred yards (no hills, buildings, or trees) I'll sometimes lose reception.
Now I know GPS systems aren't perfect and keeping a lock can be difficult in cities. But my wife's LG cellphone with a GPS app on it works perfectly under the same conditions where I'm having problems. So does my Samsumng phone with a GPS app installed in it. I've heard this same complaint from other Garmin users that I've spoken to, so I doubt it's an issue with my unit. Too bad there's no way to add an external antenna...