Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Customer Review: More than satisfactory!
Summary: 4 Stars
What a great device! I've owned mine for a couple weeks now, and have run it through it's paces.
I purchased my nuvi 265W shortly before moving across the country to a big-city that I was completely unfamiliar with. I wanted to have a sure way to navigate from hotel to hotel as I moved from MD to NV, and a way to get around town once I reached Las Vegas. I have had adequate time to try out all the different features on this unit in driving conditions ranging from long-distance interstate to local city driving.
First, the good. What a champ! No need to purchase any extra mounts, the windshield mount that comes with this device works GREAT. This GPS unit itself performs marvelously as well. The wide screen is wonderful, I'm very glad I decided to go with the extra real estate. And for a mid-range unit the 265W is a great balance between price and functionality. The unit updates very frequently, so no jerky movement, and the auto-zoom while navigating a planned route is great. The touch screen has a small learning-curve, really nothing to be upset about. The user interface is intuitive, though it took me a little while to get used to the lay-out. Volume is more than adequate, which is a big deal to me. I drive an older pick-up truck and the noise insulation isn't anywhere near as good as newer cars. I could hear the progressive instructions just fine! The battery life is great! I could go a whole day of driving without having to worry about it, though after several hours on the road (8-10), with the device on the entire time, I needed to plug it in the next day. The lifetime traffic that comes with it is *invaluable* for city driving! It automatically updates your arrival time and delay time due to traffic, and, if the traffic is really bad - it will re-route you automatically! Since I work down-town and live on the other side of the city, this feature was really important to me. To my surprise, it get the traffic updates in *seconds* of powering on and will re-route very quickly. It's important to note, however, that the antenna for the the traffic updates (FM reciever) is in the power cord. As a result, the device *must* be plugged in for traffic updates. The traffic updates are add-supported. I was leery of this at first, but was happy to see that the adds are very small text-only adds that appear at the top of your screen for a few moments after turning on the device. Thats it! No pesky adds while driving, or even worse, radio-type adds. Blue-tooth integration with modern cell phones works well. When saving addresses, you have the option of saving phone numbers in the unit as well. If your phone is synced up, you can call that address while on your way - hands free!
Which leads me to the not-so-great. Unfortunately, as with all speaker-phone type devices, the call quality varies. Since the cab of my pick-up is fairly loud, the microphone picks up a lot of ambient noise. I'd imagine if I owned a quieter vehicle, this wouldn't be such a problem. I can hear the other end just fine though!
As for the other features, pictures, music, etc - I didn't really bother. I think it's neat that you can take a picture of an address and load it into the memory using an SD card, but this wasn't really a big deal to me.
All in all, a great purchase - definitely glad I got it. If only for the traffic avoidance and blue-tooth integration alone, this is a great buy. Only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because it does not have any ambient-noise-cancelling technology built in, rendering that feature un-usable for me. But hey, when I get a newer car - I'll be able to use it!
Customer Review: Great GPS for money
Summary: 4 Stars
Got the 265WT in October 2009 after having used other Garmin products (260, 205) from friends or relatives. Elected to get this model as I didn't desire to have all the whistles and bells associated with the pricier models. Ease of use was great, especially since I had some experience with other Garmin units. The interface isn't intuitively obvious for a first time user but is easy to pick up after it has been used for a trip or two. I preferred the wider version, and it fits in my pocket as easily as the 3.5 inch versions I had used before. The display is easy to see but with the sun your back, there is some glare and the screen is hard to see, but any GPS would have that problem. I did like the night view, which the unit switches to automatically.
The maps worked great and the scale changes automatically as you approach intersections or turns. I down loaded the map update but would have preferred to wait until I had used the unit for several months, but the free update was set to expire at the end of December 2009. The 265 comes with detailed maps for North America (US including HI and AK, Canada, and Puerto Rico). However, I found that it did show maps of the major highways in countries in other parts of the world (ex. Europe) but not with the same details it has for the N America maps.
The traffic icon comes on when there is traffic on your route, but I never had to take an alternate route around traffic, so I can't say how well that works. You do need to have the power cord connected to the unit since the traffic antenna is in the cord itself. The cord itself is an expensive option if you don't get a unit that has the traffic feature included. The 265WT was just a bit more than the units without the traffic feature included, so I elected to buy the 265. The cord is a bit bulky but not so much as to interfere with driving. Often, I use the unit without the cord in battery mode. When the cord isn't attached, you don't receive traffic information. I do like the idea that traffic warnings are free for the life of the unit, in case I do find myself using this feature a lot.
The unit has blue tooth built in but since my car has blue tooth already, I haven't had a chance to test that feature, although I wanted that in the unit for those times when I am not using my own vehicle.
The best feature I like is the text to speech when the street names are spoken while you are driving. I saves you having to look at the unit and you can focus on the road. The only drawback is that the unit pronounces the names of the streets exactly as they are abbreviated on the screen, so you have to listen carefully in case the spelling of the street is unusual or shortened. One thing I would like to see is the total distance to your destination displayed as well as the distance to the next turn. After you input your destination, the display show the distance to the next turn, and the estimated time you arrive at your destination. The time is surprisingly accurate and updates continuously as you drive.
The search feature is especially nice when you are in an area you don't know and you want to find a restaurant or store. I found a few good places to eat that I would not have even considered looking for when using this feature. Definitely work trying when you decide to buy a GPS.
Overall, I am quite happy with the way this unit performs. I didn't want all extras that could cause problems that some of the more costly units came with, and was in the market for a mid-level unit that was reliable and easy to use. I would gladly recommend this unit to anyone in the market for a GPS.
Customer Review: Map database seriously sucks - and more
Summary: 3 Stars
Map database seriously sucks... among other things.
I bought this Garmin Nuvi 265WT because the Garmin I had just bought died the first day in service. Amazon took it back with no fuss - like that.
Every few years I get a new one for the car and the old one goes into backup. I do not spend to update the databases, which I think is a waste of money.
I rate this a C.
I own six GPS units, so it is not like I fell off the turnip truck yesterday. BTDT, got the T shirt.
THE PROS...
It has some. Nice size, good screen, like the voice directions, like the traffic alerts. In fact, I recommend you get a unit with the alerts. The adds to fund them are not "in your face" and the information is useful.
The alerts not on a real time basis. I have been sitting in a serious traffic jam and the GPS only showed little red overlays scattered up the freeway. Reality here? Then suddenly it changed to solid red for the next ten miles. That was accurate. However, with the alerts you have information you never had before and most of the time it works out.
Voice chips work. Nice to have.
You have a lot of choices. I found the British male - call him Basil - with his BBC drawl was the easiest to understand. Plus I am learning English. Basil speaks of "slip roads" vs. "on ramps."
Basil has extra syllables when you need them - such as in "Martin". It is not "Mar tin", it is "mar AH tin." What he does to "Sammamish" is a delight to hear.
THE CONS...
The GPS is not a good navigator.
If you let this unit navigate unsupervised, be prepared to find yourself out in boonies on a rural road when you could be making time on the freeway. Even when set to Speed it loves to get you off the freeway and onto surface streets because that is the direct line route.
I suggest you inspect every route top to bottom before doing it. See where you are going today. Once in Oregon it wanted to get me off the freeway nine miles ahead of the Costco I was heading for instead of coming up to the closest point of approach and going from there. When I had it set in the American male voice, we called it Byway Bob, because with Bob navigating, you were going to see a lot of scenic byways.
Data base really sucks.
Garmin would love to sell you a service that updates your database several times a year or more. From what I have seen in this database in a new unit - don't waste your money. It appears to have been recent when they signed the Peace of Westphalia. I have been all over the west this summer with the unit and found...
@ There is no city library in Moscow, ID, home of the University of Idaho.
Right! In reality there is, but I had to hit the Chamber of Commerce to find it.
@ There is no city library in Redding, CA.
Right! Actually there is a large, modern one.
@ The Mercer Lid park over I-90 on Mercer Island, WA does not exist.
Right! It covers all lanes of the freeway for over a half mile. Think someone would have noticed it. It has been there for years.
The list goes on and on. Just be aware that the issue database is years out of date in some areas and wondrously incomplete in others. (Don't get me started on the accuracy of the maps that come with the Garmin 60CSx - a superb unit, BTW.)
Customer Review: Highly recommended
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm giving this 4 stars because it's a great unit, but not perfect. My main complaint is the lack of an audio out jack. Particularly for hands-free calling, it would be great to be able to plug the nuvi into the aux input of my car stereo. That's not a deal breaker, though, as the volume on the unit is loud enough, even to cut through when I'm listening to music. Pretty much everything else about the 265WT is 5 stars. When I first received this, I tested it out along my regular routes, and quickly discovered just how accurately and effortlessly it performs. One of the things I tried right away was diverging from the nuvi's recommended route. When I was researching GPS units, I noted that frequent complaints with many models were the scolding "missed turn" commands and difficulty re-routing. Not so with the nuvi. It simply says "re-routing", then does it - instantly and automatically. In fact, no matter how many "wrong turns" you make, it never breaks stride, just keeps the destination in sight and quickly adjusts to get you there. And it's really smart. For example, if you're traveling along a freeway and exit before the recommendation, for the first several blocks the nuvi will give you directions to loop back to the freeway, assuming that you've simply taken the wrong exit by mistake. But if you continue on local streets, it will quickly realize that you're not returning to the freeway, and adjust your route accordingly. The FM traffic really works, too. My evening commute takes me along a stretch of freeway, exiting onto local streets as I near home. One evening the nuvi recommended an exit onto locals that was about 3 miles before the exit I would normally take. As a test, I decided to "shake off" the nuvi's recommendation and continue on the freeway. Well, less than a mile after the recommended exit, traffic thickened and slowed to about 10mph. Should have listened to the nuvi. Not sure if you even need a GPS navigator? If you live in a large metro area, you'll find that the 265WT is indispensable. I live in a 13-county metro, and frequently travel to distant destinations in unfamiliar areas. Before I got the nuvi, I'd go to MapQuest and print out directions. That worked ok, assuming that I had access to a computer before starting my trip. But even then, I was constantly looking at my printed directions, getting distracted and taking my eyes off the road. And the "map" that was included with such directions was really just a vague suggestion of the general route. Real-time turn-by-turn directions along a detailed map mounted to my dash - how did I ever get by without that? And the "go home" function! Here's a scenario: your nephew is in town, staying with friends in a distant suburb. You have him over for dinner, and along about 11pm you drive him back to his friends' place. He guides you there - "turn right here", "take a left at that gas station" - until you arrive at the destination, buried deep within the twisting, turning streets of a typical American suburb. Now you need to get home. We've all been there, right? And unless your brain is more of a sponge than mine, you probably struggled to re-trace the route. With the nuvi, you simply touch "go home", and in no time at all you're cozy in bed. One more thing to note: Garmin offers a lifetime map update program, and you should purchase it. The cost is $90, but when I registered my nuvi online Garmin offered me 10% off, so it cost me $81. If you're considering buying the 265WT, just factor that into the purchase price. Lifetime map updates are pretty much essential as, needless to say, your GPS will only be as accurate as the maps it's working with.Customer Review: Good unit for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
Spent a weekend reviewing various GPS devices to replace my less than 1 year old Mio C320 (avoid these like the plague) that had its battery die about 4 months after purchase. Went back and forth along the entire line of Garmin devices, and finally settled on this one for the blue tooth and traffic, neither of which I'll probably hardly ever use, but nice to have when I want them.
I was disappointed with the map, the "new" 2009 one, because I have some streets in my neighborhood that have been around for over four years and they're not to be found on this unit. Even the piece of junk cheap Mio had these streets.
But that's about the only downside there is to it, the only reason I haven't given it 5 stars.
Having been used to the MIO, and the horrible refresh rate, it is a pleasant change to see smooth scrolling as my vehicle moves. The ability to change the car icon is nice, especially with the plethora of icons available on the garmin website.
Accuracy is very good as well, and even in turns the unit isn't so laggy that it becomes annoying. And also unlike what I was used to with the MIO, when I come to a stop at the intersection, the map doesn't start rotating randomly on me.
Speaker is about as I expected, won't hear much over a loud stereo but crank it up enough you can at least hear it if you keep the music down a bit.
The option to easily download voices is also appreciated.
It did well with my testing of going point to point, following the instructions, and for the most part you're given the instructions in plenty of time. only once or twice did it not tell me "turn right on such and such" until I was about 20 feet from the street, but that was when I was coming up on stop signs and had slowed down, so it may be compensating for the speed factor.
Recalculation notice is a bit annoying, my MIO would say it once, sometimes this says it three times before it starts to display the alternate route.
Still has about 900MB free on the internal memory for additional voices, icons, maps, and such, and with the SD slot there's plenty of room to grow.
I have a Verizon XV6900 phone with Windows Mobile 6.1, and while the bluetooth paired well and it can see the phone status, battery power, signal, even dialed and missed call lists, it never does get the phonebook. it gets a random entry and that's it - so whenever I turn it on, I have just one user to select from, and it's different each time. Still haven't tracked that one down yet. But every other bluetooth option worked just fine.
I'm not a fan of the very thick double power cable for it though, and it would be doubly annoying (no pun intended) if I were mounting this somewhere higher up on the window to have that double cable dangling down.
I can see how the ads would get annoying sometimes (the free traffic is because it is advertising driven) but you don't get them at all if you turn off the traffic feature, and since most of my driving isn't around times that traffic is a concern, i can just leave it for when I really have a use for it.
Good response to finger input, and while the unit is overall much better quality than the MIO, I really do miss the MIO's ability to have an info pane down the last third of the screen and the map on the first two thirds of it when desired. But there's some of that info available in the data bubbles on the bottom and top so I'll survive.
Overall happy with the unit, it works well and was worth the cost.