Garmin nuvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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Our Price: $25.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nuvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: IT DIED ON ME...after four months.
Summary: 3 Stars
I was using my nuvi for approximately 5 months now. Before I bought it, I read all the reviews, looked up all other GPS systems and decided, that being directionally challenged, I needed one to tell me not just where to turn but what street I'm turning into. What other reviewers said was right, such as it gives a longer route than other GPS systems(tested it on the road side by side with a magellan and tomtom), frozed up once or twice(no biggie), battery doesn't last quite as long, it goes from two green bars immediately to none. But then I knew to charge it in my car once it goes down to two bars. Overall I was pretty satisfied. It is small, sleek and I didn't mind longer routes as long as it took me where I needed to go. It gave me the confidence to drive by myself to places I have never been to.
Except for this weekend. I was in the middle of the beltway going to baltimore when it suddenly just died on me while giving me directions. The screen just went crazy, turned gray and that was it! I pulled to the side and tried to fix it. There were still four bars in the battery before it died and plugging in the car charger still didn't help. It just wouldn't turn back on. IT WAS DEAD. I didn't know where I was and ended up on the phone with my friend for 45 minutes while she gave me turn by turn directions on how to get back to her place! Horror. Once I got home I used the electrical charger unit but it still wouldn't turn on.
I called Amazon the next day and, boy, did I realize my mistake. I've always loved Amazon but now I know never to buy electrical units from them ever again. Amazons' customer service told me they can do nothing to help me as they only exchange or refund within 30days of purchase even if the product is a manufacturers defect. I called garmin and had to wait on the phone for 30 to 45 minutes (can't wait to see the cellphone bill) and once I finally got someone she had to transfer me to another technical dept and I was again on hold for another 35mins! Oh, I also sent garmin two emails with my problem and phone number to reach me and I'm still waiting for a reply.
Well, today I got lucky and got to speak to someone at garmin. I told him what happened, and said that I already tried turning it back on with the car charger, electrical outlet charger and still the screen is gray. Garmin person gave me a bright suggestion. He told me to go home and charge it through my computer (charger comes with the box) and if it works, well, then it works. And if not, email them the unit's serial number and a statement of my problem and they'll tell me how to send it back to them and expect a wait of 7 to 10 days while they fix it.
Well, this is the thing, if the unit DOES turn back on once I charge it through my computer, does that mean that's the only way to charge my nuvi from now on? What if I'm in the middle of nowhere and need to charge?
For those of you who are planning to buy from Amazon and Garmin...DO NOT.
First of all, do not buy this from Amazon! If I had bought my nuvi at a store, I could have returned it for another one. That's what Garmin first told me to do. Go back to the store since it's only been four months and have them replace it since it's a manufacturing defect. You also get to talk(persuade) someone immediately at the store. Amazon does not give you that service. SO, DO NOT BUY THIS FROM AMAZON.
Now, it's true, the unit was great when it was working(couple of friends still have theirs,bought from stores) but once the unit fails, it would be very hard to receive help from garmin to fix or return it, and expect none from Amazon. 4 months ago, I paid close to $500 for my nuvi but now I think it has gone down to 389. I still think its a pretty steep price and for that we all deserve better service. I read a review wherein this guy said that the service from Garmin was great. I don't remember how long ago that review was but I suggest not to take the chance.
Look at other brand products, magellan has similar features to the nuvi (though not as pretty). Tomtom is good and some even have voice and street turn directions, as well, but it might cost more. However, if you are decided on a nuvi, buy from a store and buy the warranty from the store! That way you'll enjoy the longer route and occasional freezes knowing you'll be getting a hassle free replacement. Hope this helps.
Customer Review: Garmin nuvi 350c - almost 5 stars
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this item on sale last weekend (May 2008). On the plus side, it works quite well. I had almost purchased a lower-end unit a few weeks ago, but the retail chain selling the device was out that day. I came back home, and read reviews on [...] to find that the other unit did not announce street names, it would tell you where to turn, but did not name the street.
This unit provides excellent voice-announced instructions. You do not actually have to look at the unit to navigate. The voice instructions will serve well in most circumstances. The only times that I have found that I actually need to look at the unit are when I did not hear the instructions due to road noise.
I have been using Google Maps to plot routes before trips for a couple of years, so that is my benchmark for a navigation tool. I have tested the nuvi 350c in my home neighborhood, and have found that it is 'good enough' compared to my own knowledge of local navigation, and Google Maps. Basically, it does not always choose the most efficient route to a destination. In fact, if I used the nuvi to navigate from HOME to the closest BLOCKBUSTER to my home, it will choose a route that is .2 miles longer than the ideal route. BUT, if I navigate back from the BLOCKBUSTER to my home, it actually does chose the most efficient route. Go figure.
That said, if I was in an unfamiliar neighborhood, I have every reason to believe that the nuvi 350c would get me where I need to go, and whether the route was .2 miles longer than the ideal route would not be an issue at all.
As has been noted in prior posts, the nuvi 350c is not easy to update. I am a pretty experienced technical person, and I cannot imagine my parents, or even my brothers getting the nuvi 350c updated after an initial purchase. The process of connecting the nuvi to a PC and properly connected to XP was not at all easy. In the end, a reboot was required to get it to work. Getting a firmware update on the Garmin website was very inefficient. Once I had all of the updates that Garmin recommended for my unit, the entire process showed complete. BUT my maps were still at least two years out of date. I had to search the Garmin website for the map update. Finding the map updates was even more difficult than finding the firmware and software updates, and then Garmin was unclear as to whether the map update would be no-charge. I found that kind of hostile. Of course, the update was free, but if I had waited for a couple of months to do the update, it would not have been.
For the average user in a neighborhood that is less than 10 years old, the nuvi 350c is almost useless right out of the box, especially if builders are still putting up house in new subdivisions, and stores are still being built in your neighborhood. You absolutely have to update your map database in order for the unit to be useful, and you need to be at least somewhat technical to update your map database.
In addition, the 2009 mapping database still does not include a number of schools and businesses in my community. I would have to estimate that it does not include most of the elementary schools and middle schools in our neighborhood, most of which have been in place for 5 years, some of which have been in place for 10 years. It also does not include a number of retail stores and grocery stores. It does include stores that I cannot comprehend including in the database. To be honest, after searching for stores in the unit, I cannot comprehend their logic of what stores to include and not include in a 20 mile radius of my home.
Despite these shortcomings, I am very happy with the unit. My own rating for the unit would be 5-stars, but I'm not writing this review for myself. If I punch in an address, it will navigate me to the destination with clear spoken instructions. I find the display to be quite readable. After using this unit, I understand the value of the wider screen displays, but I am not willing to pay extra money for the wide displays. It came with a FULL set of chargers, including wall plug, automobile, and USB charging connectors. It includes what seems to be a very nice auto mounting kit.
On a final note, I am not impressed with the battery life so far. But since I intend to use it in a car most of the time, I do not expect that to be a problem.
Customer Review: This gizmo can save your marriage
Summary: 5 Stars
There's a certain kind of argument among married couples. It begins, "Honey, I think that was our turn." Having a GPS (any GPS) completely eliminates that discussion, and you'll be amazed at how much stress it takes out of travel.
We've taken the Nuvi on two major trips, as well as a few minor ones. Before I tell you about the Nuvi specifically, let me convince you why Yes, you really should buy a GPS, and why it might be time to upgrade from an older model.
Our first trip was a business trip to the Bay Area. We rented a car, and commuted to our temporary workplace about 5 miles away. If we didn't have a GPS, we would have had to get directions and drive back-and-forth the same way, because we couldn't guess where another street would take us. With the GPS, we could explore alternate routes on a whim. When someone recommended a restaurant hidden in the back of an obscure strip mall, we could find it without difficulty or google maps. And "where's the closest gas station?" was a no-brainer.
A few weeks ago, a family emergency required that we drop everything and head to central Missouri from Phoenix. The airfare cost was outrageous, so we hopped in the car, armed only with a GPS and a cell phone, for a 2800 mile round trip. We could tell the GPS to "find the shortest route" or "find the fastest route" (which in this case were only an hour different). Rather than stick to the Interstate, we let the GPS choose, and it took us along the old Santa Fe trail. I would never, *never* have contemplated that route without its guidance, and I'd never have wended my way through the shortcut through Tucumcari NM on my own. Then I could settle down to "drive 315 miles on Hwy 54" with the reassurance of the GPS' built-in answer to "How much further before we have to turn?" Hotel searches required only a few button pushes ("Hey, there's one coming up at the exit in 8 miles") and the GPS took us right to the door. There is simply no way that I could have felt confident in doing such a trip without a GPS.
We bought a Garmin four or five years ago, a then slightly-older model. We took it on several trips, including one to Europe. It was time to replace the older Garmin with a new GPS when the map upgrade cost began to approach the cost of a new unit. After reading lots of reviews for various brands and models, and debating the features we needed, I'm really glad we chose this one.
* It's fast. If we missed a turn, the older model could take so long to recalculate that we could miss the alternate route before the GPS caught up. This one is near-immediate.
* The maps cover the entire continent. Because of memory limitations, our older model required that we download maps in chunks, and if we traveled any distance, that meant we *had* to bring a laptop along.
* The user interface is vastly improved. I can easily say that it's wonderful. It's very easy to read the screen in almost any light, and at sunset the Nuvi automatically switches to backlighting. The female voice that announces your turn ("in .5 mile, turn right onto Main Street") can be easily heard, and the Nuvi's sense of when to make that announcement is impeccably timed. (The only annoyance/amusement is that when you do go off route -- say, to stop at a gas station -- its announcement, "ReCALCulating!" sounds ever so exasperated with you.)
* Programming it is blissfully easy. I never looked at the instructions.
* The maps are surprisingly accurate, even in rural areas. It can occasionally screw up in minor ways, such as telling you a destination is on the left when it's on the right, so you do have to look. But overall it's extremely impressive.
My one complaint is minor. On a long trip, you have one major waypoint ("Mom's house"). The Nuvi lets you create an interrim waypoint, which in our case let us convince the GPS that we wanted to drive back via Colorado Springs. But if you want to add a second waypoint along the way (say a hotel in Wichita, too), you'll discover that you can have only one. That's unlikely to be a problem for most people, but I can imagine a few scenarios in which it'd be irritating.
The Garmin Nuvi is simply great equipment. The price is reasonable, the setup is simple, and the usability top notch. I highly recommend it.
Customer Review: Not much not to like
Summary: 4 Stars
This is such a handy device, and is so well executed, that you would be hard-pressed not to love it. The first thing I noticed about the Nuvi was its incredibly small size and weight. I could not believe how light it was. I literally expected it to have at least twice the heft when I went to pick it up the first time - it was like picking up a deck of cards, but lighter.
The antenna is a flap that is raised from the back, maybe about the size of a matchbook. When raised the Nuvi immediately starts locking in on satellites, when lowered, the unit knows you are through navigating for a while. Intuitive and effective. One amazing thing - I found that it easily achieved a good signal lock indoors, which was startling to me given that every other unit I have tested did not do well at all indoors.
Navigation on the Nuvi is, as everyone has already suggested, very good, fast, intuitive, and imperfect. It's no different from Garmin's other offerings in that regard. Some buildings and businesses that you would expect to be shown as POIs are not there, but most are. I do feel that Garmin should do a better job of keeping the POIs updated. I also agree with other reviewers that when a route is less than ideal, you should be able to correct it permanently so that it does not re-suggest it ever time. How complicated could it be to have the unit learn your favorite routes? Multiple intermediate waypoints would also be very nice. One seems like a fairly severe limitation.
The screen clarity is good, but I understand that an antiglare screen protector is made which really improves the clarity. I will probably be researching and buying one, as direct sun does make the screen very hard to read.
I also noticed a problem with my unit that I did not see anyone else complaining about. Sometimes it does not lock on to any signal. Once it goes into this mode of searching for, but not locking in, for over a minute it just never finds anything. The only way I have found to correct this is to push the small reset button under the antenna. Once reset, it quickly reboots and finds satellites without any further issues, until the next time. Luckily the resets are very fast, but I don't see anyone else complaining about having to reset, so not sure if it's just my unit.
Also, there are several different voice prompters, in many different languages. Some of these are capable of reading street names and some are not. My experience is that the unit does a so-so job pronouncing things. I know it would be hard to do everthing perfectly, but pronouncing "O'Brien" as "oh-breen" seems a bit lame. Also, if a street name does not fully display on the top of the screen due to its long length, the voice will pronounce only the portion that is displayed. It also botches numbers on addresses. "14372 Main Street" comes out as "fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy-two Main Street." I would have thought the software could be made to interpret addresses the way we actually say them rather than pronouncing them as though they were integers.
Sometimes Nuvi should provide a bit more notice of upcoming turns. The first notice is at about the right time, say .2 to .3 of a mile at highway speeds, which is fine. But the final notice is just a hair late, for example when you are making a left turn, the final prompt should be where the left turn lane first becomes available, not at the actual intersection. If I were working on the next software version, I would add about 6 to 8 seconds of lead time to correct that.
I have focused on the negatives only to point out the imperfections. Overall, the device is a joy to operate. The battery life is good. The menus are very intuitive. The accuracy is very high. Even the dashboard mount earns my praise. I did a lot of research on the Nuvi, comparing it in excruciating detail to the latest Tom Tom 910, the Magellan Roadmate 800, etceteras. I feel it's the best out there if ultimate portability is important to you.
I just ordered the Nuvi 360 and it should be in on Monday. If it's as good as I believe it will be, I will be writing a five-star review on that within about a week. Stay tuned.
Customer Review: Highly intuitive and easy to use - but slow performance on yellow pages/points of interest
Summary: 4 Stars
I have a detailed review as to read below, but If you have already used a couple of GPS units and wanting to know why you want to buy this GPS - here is one really nice feature for which you really want to buy this (apart from all the other nice features on this GPS detailed below): Let us say you were travelling from your friends place to your home and you want to find a pharmacy on the way - this the only GPS which I have found which will let you do that. Each and every GPS will allow you to look for a business, let us say a pharmacy near to your current location, but none of them will help you find a business on your current route without having to deviate 10 or 20 miles to reach it.
This I have found to be the most helpful feature in this GPS which I have used extensively on all my trips - for restaurants, starbucks, gas stations... you name it.
When you get your hands on this unit, the first thing you notice is that this unit is very easy to use and highly intuitive.
If you are on the internet and if you have google maps, it kind of feels like that
- You can look for a particular address
- look up for a business either by category or name, you can put your finger on the screen drag the screen across - top/bottom/left/right, you can zoom in/zoom out by clicking on the transparent +/- sign on the screen.
- Save a current location
... and lots of other cool features
To highlight a few + and - about this GPS:
Good stuff
+ Accurate mapping and route calculation
+ Locate either by an absolute Address or by an intersection of roads
+ Locate a business near the current location, on your current route, or even near a different address/city !!
+ Guides you based on street names and it is pretty close in pronouncing the street names, but sometimes it does fumble. Like for example ML King Blvd is guided as 'ML King' or as 'Milking Blvd' ... :)
+ Quick and very good in getting the signal - I travel a lot and it usually takes no more than a minute to be up and running when I fly from one city to another.
+ A good POI database (Points of interest)/ Yellow pages - get used to the GPS terminology ! Well, when I say that the POI database is good, it is always a good habit to call the business before you go there. Example, if you locate a thai restaurant which is about 4 miles from your current location, before you hit the 'Go' button on the GPS, call them on the phone number listed and check with them if the business still exists and if they are open now
+ Know your current location either on the map or by exact lattitude/longitude and altitude - this will help you when you are stuck in emergencies
+ MP3 player with SD card slot - Do not assume that it is a dumb box, even if you are playing music on the GPS unit, the music temporarily shuts off whenever there are map/guidance instructions. Cannot view videos, but you can hear to music and view pictures
+ Screen displays Time to destination, distance for next turn, 3-D view of the street are standard features which you find in any GPS unit
+ Settings to avoid freeways, toll ways, unpaved roads ...
+ Screen switches to night mode to get a cleaner display during the night
+ Easy to access power button doubles as a volume/brightness control
+ Car mount, car power supply, normal 110v power supply and a neat case all included at no cost, unlike other gadget manufacturers who want an extra bit of money for everything, the cable to interface to your computer is not included, but it can be easily found in any Radio shack/Frys electronics ..
Needs to improve
- Mapping performance is good, but performance is slow when searching for point of interest/yellow pages
- Touch screen is a bit crazy, a few times it goes into clicking the 'U' button no matter which button you press - so you need to keep configuring the touch screen very often
- Garmin needs to provide maps and POI update/Yellow pages update free of cost/nominal costs, not like the high costs they have today