Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech
Customer Review: Excellent performer - experience of a novice
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first GPS unit and I am pleasantly surprised. After I received the Nuvi 360 I updated the software and maps to the current versions. The process (really the maps) took some time, but was completed without any problem.
I am just back from a visit to New York City and New Jersey, the unit worked flawlessly and performed beyond my expectations. I experienced no problems with the loss of satellites while driving between the tall buildings in Manhattan. The 360's navigation accuracy is surprising. I was impressed as it even continued to navigate and give directions while in the Holland and other tunnels (without satellites). It was great to be reminded of what to do when you get out at the other end of the tunnel. (I assume it is storing the information in memory before you enter into the tunnel)
As a novice I had my preconceived ideas of GPS, i.e. only useful to get to a destination. The other functions I considered unnecessary if not useless. Was I wrong? In addition to getting me to where I wanted to be very satisfactorily, I will share my experience with some of the other functions:
* Shortcuts - I am glad I have read the manual before the time. I used the suggested "shortcuts" all the time.
* The speaker volume was adequate and I had it for the most part at about ¾ of its capacity.
* The trip information page is interesting, but it is not essential. Nonetheless, as it is there, why not?
* Trip and preview page - Used it often to get a better understanding of what was ahead. It is an essential function.
* Next turn page - Used it often to get a better view of what is coming and to confirm instructions. It is an essential function.
* Text to speech - I under estimated its value. It is very helpful, especially in a city like NY, to have the street names spoken. That way I could listen and concentrate and keep my eyes on the road and traffic around me. Based on my experience it is essential and I will not consider a model without this capability.
* After using it I appreciate how well the "Go to" has been designed. The POI information is not only convenient, I found it very useful. For instance, to refill the rental before I dropped it at the airport I could locate a gas station near the airport, enter it as a "via point" and get to the drop off area in the least amount of time. The battle to look for a gas station near the airport is now of the past and I will always use this function in the future.
* Bluetooth - A function I considered unnecessary. Yet, I used it all the time.
* MP3, Audio Books, FM, etc. I have not used it and still consider it gimmicks. However, it may just be that I will change my mind again once I have.
As I am traveling often and, hence, am renting cars, it must be convenient to carry the Nuvi with me. Therefore, the "size of a set of cards" of the smaller screen Nuvi 360 is very convenient. I never found the screen uncomfortable or too small. I don't know what the bigger screen Nuvis are like; however, as I am going to have it with me ALL THE TIME in the future, I prefer the smaller format.
I also bought the Nuvi "Portable Friction Mount Part Number: 010-10908-00". What a useful and innovative product. It is an excellent accessory and I have no intention to ever install the suction cup mount that comes standard. If you travel in many different cars this is a must have.
In summary, I have no experience with other GPS systems (Magellan, TomTom, etc.) or Nuvi models, but am very satisfied with the 360. In fact, it will in the future always travel with me. The only question I have is: How did I in the past get along without one?
An update - after more experience
In the past few weeks I had the opportunity to test the Nuvi 360 in different locations. I flew to Nashville, TN to visit the Center Hill dam and looked at property around the Old Hickory Lake including Henderson. I then flew to Florida where I visited the Tampa/St Petersburg/Clearwater areas on the Gulf coast, Ocala, Orlando inland and the Merit Island/Cocoa Beach areas on the east coast. From Tampa I flew to San Francisco to visit Oakland and Concord.
In summary the Nuvi 360 performed spectacular at all locations. Having read many of the reviews I gave particular attention to some of the criticisms. Here are my experiences:
* I never had a problem with satellite reception, nor did I have to wait "long" for it to connect on startup. (Some reviews mentions 10 minutes. I don't know their locations, but it never happened to me.)
* The Nuvi was always accurate and took me straight to my destinations.
* The POI information was very handy, accurate and useful. I used it all the time to get to my hotel, find a gas station and to decide where to eat. The data base is really good.
* However, once you have a detour/"via point" programmed, it is not easy to change it. It happened a few times that I had a gas station in as a "via point" on my way to my hotel. Later I decided to go eat first and then go for gas, or to go directly to my destination to fill up later. I had to "stop"/cancel the whole trip, lose the destination, and reprogram it from the start. Garmin customer support says there is no other way. However, I would love to know if there is anyone who has a workaround for this limitation.
* I added a 4 GB SDHC memory card to use the Nuvi as a MP3 player. It works well and is a benefit. Although I am not a music fanatic it allows me to download interesting programs and discussions to listen to while driving. It makes the long trips more bearable. Having the Nuvi coordinating the interaction between my cell phone (blue tooth), MP3 and driving directions is very convenient. I have to confess that I changed my opinion and, although not essential, I am very glad that the MP3 feature is available on the Nuvi 360.
* I added a "dubbing" or MP3 stereo connection cable to my standard travelling accessories. Playing through the car's radio improves the sound significantly on long trips (and for use as a MP3 player). For short trips, in my opinion, the Nuvi's sound is good enough and not worth the effort. I added to my car rental "profile" that my rental car should have a MP3 accessory connection on its radio.
* I tried to create a GPX waypoint and saved it on the SD memory card. Unfortunately, Garmin's information on this topic is very flimsy. Although I succeeded I am not comfortable that I did it right or on how to edit and manage the file I created. I wish they could post better instructions on their website.
* Talking about Garmin, apparently the current software for the 360 is version 4.7 and not 4.6 as stated on the Garmin website. I received an e-mail from Garmin Technical Support stating that version 4.6 is the current update for the 660, but the update for the 360 is 4.7.
* The arrival estimates (ETA) of the Nuvi were amazingly accurate. When I was able to maintain the speed limits I consistently arrived at my destination on the time estimated by the Nuvi when I started the trip. Of course, if I had traffic delays it adjusted the ETA accordingly.
* I have the Nuvi on "Shortest Time" as criteria to calculate the route. It seems that it considers the speed limits on various possible roads and logically puts one on a route where the allowable speed limits are higher (Although it is a longer route the higher speed limits should in theory get you to your destination sooner.). Consequently, it will select main streets rather than smaller and sometimes "better" backstreets. I developed a workaround for this issue that works for me. If I steer to the route that I know from experience is a "better" route it will assume that I made a wrong turn and will automatically recalculate and direct me back to the "less desirable" mathematically faster route. However, if I hit "Recalculate" it will reprogram and as a rule put me on the "better" backstreet route I know. Only once did I have to hit "Recalculate" twice before it established the route that I know from experience to be the "best" route. Personally I think that is pretty good and I have confidence to trust the Nuvi when I am at unfamiliar locations. I don't know what the results will be if one chooses "Shortest Distance" as the calculating criteria. As I have confidence in and am satisfied with the current results I will leave it on shortest time and just hit "Recalculate" if I suspect that, or want to check if there is a better route.
* Usually the rental car company is situated in a parking garage at the airport. If one, while in the parking garage, program the Nuvi to your destination it will unsuccessfully attempt to find satellites. Should you not get out of the facility into the open fast enough it will ask if you are under cover. An irritation I encountered is that if you dare to say "yes" it turns off the antenna and will not turn it on again automatically to find the satellites when you actually get into the open. One has to reboot the unit and reprogram the route over again. That can be dangerous if, on exit from the parking garage, you find yourself in traffic at a strange location. My workaround for the moment is to not turn it on until I am in a position where it can find satellites. However, I will keep on testing potential workarounds as I consider it important to have the route programmed and ready before I start driving.
* Another problem I experienced was on arrival in San Francisco from Tampa. On leaving the rental car facility at San Francisco airport the Nuvi (recognizing that the satellites locations were not as it calculated) asked if I was hundreds of miles away from my previous location. I said yes and it cleverly and expeditiously established my new location. However, when I "spelled" my city to go to as Concord it would find every city with the name Concord in almost every other State but the one in California. I repeated the process a few times with the same result. After a few minutes, somehow, suddenly, there Concord, CA was offered.
In summary and after hours and many miles of use at many different locations, I must still give it the highest rating. I am very satisfied and can recommend it strongly. For a person who travels a lot, the Nuvi 360 GPS is one of the best innovations you can have. The very high ratings of so many users are for a good reason.
Customer Review: Great with a few minor complaints
Summary: 4 Stars
I have bought two 360's, one for my wife and one for me and will buy a third (as a replacement), so I'm a fan and I would recommend a Nuvi over any other competing product hands down. However, that doesn't mean there aren't issues:
A few plusses and minuses:
ON THE PLUS SIDE
1) There is no better product on the market for GPS and the rest of them are toys by comparison. The interface is so wonderful that it's the GPS equivalent of the iPhone. There are minor issues but they're not worth discussing. I could write pages on how wonderful the interface is, but everyone else has done the product justice already.
2) The 360 is the size to buy unless you are vision impaired. It is small and thin and light and you can stick it in a pocket.
3) Maybe it's silly but I really like the audio book and mp3 feature. I use it constantly.
4) The Europe software is awesome. Travelling with a Nuvi in Europe is unbelievably less stressful. I've covered every country and it's wonderful. I would ask that they buy some database of tourist attractions because I ended up programming most of my own. And yes, eastern europe is twitchy and limited but it's still much better than paper maps. I used it all over Moscow and St Petersburgh and it was fine.
5) The usb charging is wonderful and some phones like smartphones share charging plugs limiting the number of cords you have to carry. The clamps, and connectors are well designed, and easy to work with. THe use of SD cards for map data rather than relying on PC connections is great. The abilty to store mp3's and audiobooks on SD cards is useful. I carry a set of SD cards and this means I dont need to carry a separate unit while travelling.
ON THE MINUS SIDE
1) The web site is awful, uninformative, and customer-unfriendly. The mandatory registration is awful to use, and confusing. In the support area, they clearly want to protect themselves from customers rather than explaining clearly what they can and cannot do for customers. They make it far too hard to contact them. Whoever does their web site thinks far too much like they are talking to their distributor channel and is entirely ignorant of their customers. For example, they bundle all customers and products together and treat them the same even though the products, while having similar functions are for very different customers with different skill levels.
2) The product is fairly fragile. It is complicated technology, and it is not housed in protective shells, and breaks easily. I have broken the screen on one by dropping it on a (thinly) carpeted floor in a restaurant, and broken the audio output plug on another unit simply by keeping the earphones plugged in and wrapping the cord around the unit. There are too many reports of gps antenna problems as well. So the units are reasonably fragile given their intended purpose and their fairly high price tag.
3) Given their fragility their customer service is in the obvious position of having customers who break the unit try to blame the product, and the company is trying to evade responsibility for when the product fails during reasonable use. This is why customers are often unhappy with product support: because the product is actually fragile, the company will not say that the product is fragile, and then must dance with customers to find out if they can reasonably replace it or not. Instead, they should simply be honest with customers using the reason that it is advanced technology that is fragile, or they should change the housing and antenna and connectors so that they are less fragile. Anyway, that's the problem with support. THey don't want to talk to you. They have a reason why they don't talk to you - they're afraid to. They are not sophisticated in how they manage customers either on their web site or via the phone, and they are that way because they have too much channel influcence and not enough consumer orientation. They should hire a new VP of customer service from a major brand like Nike or Apple. (No I don't have any inside knowledge, I simply run one of the country's larger consultancies on such things).
4) The satellite reception and triangulation is still wanting and sometimes frustrating. The reception in cities, where it is actually hardest to navigate, and where you have the least reaction time as a driver is terrible. In New York, San Francisco, Chicago and even Pittsburgh, you can wait for ten minutes or more before the unit acquires sattelites and can give you directions, even if you seek out an open space like a small park. I stood in the shopping district in Chicago waving the unit in the air for twenty minutes acting like Verizon's "can you hear me now?" character trying to acquire sattelites so I could find the restaurant for my next meeting. Since this is NOT anywhere as bad a problem if you leave the unit running as it is if you turn it off and on again, there is a problem with the approach they're using. This is also a problem at airports, where you've rented a car and have to throw the unit up on the dashboard or hold it out a window for ten minutes waiting for it to acquire satellites before you can put it somewhere more visible and use it. As a person who is busy travelling, thats an issue. Unfortunately, the way around the problem is to leave it on all the time which the battery won't tolerate. I don't know where they're getting their batter life estimates from but if you use the thing much, the battery burns down in more like two or three hours than what's advertised. And there isn't a switch to kill the video in order to preserve battery life. (And no, don't add yet another button combination to the power button. It's like tapping out morse code as it is.)
5) The speaker is weak and distorts too easily. I end up driving with an earphone almost all the time. There is a tradeoff here in engineering terms, because if you make it much louder it's a power drain. While they've put Bluetooth in the unit, it's pointless because you can't hear the other person, the speaker distorts too easily at low volume (which is a bad product decision because better speakers are available), despite the fact that the microphone does work reasonably well. I have a Jaguar, a Porche and a Ferrari. They represent the full range of internal sound levels. The Jaguar is almost perfectly quiet, but the audio is still underpowered in that environment. (I won't even talk about how pointless it is in the Ferrari.) The unit's speaker is on the back, facing away from you. So if you hold the thing, or lay it down on cloth like a seat, you have to turn it up, which then puts the speaker into distortion mode. This product design choice relies on relection to improve the sound quality, and I undestand preserving the front of the device for screen only. But just putting a better speaker inside and facing it forward or even downward would be a better answer. "We have the technology" to make a seventies pop culture reference.
6) Response time given the weakness of the antenna is a problem. It looks like they wrote the software without changing the lead time on directions to reflect the driver's speed and frequency of turns. Driving around the UK for example, with the twisting little roads is difficult because unit does not give you notice in time for the turns. Once you get down to a lower number of sattelites, especially in London, the thing becomes effectively useless. Nothing is more annoying than having the cutely accented narrator tell you to turn right fourty feet after you've passed the turn.
7) The voice software isn't smart enough to recognize "St Albans Street" as "Saint Albans Street". It needs to smarten up regarding common abbreviations.
8) The foreign language software, for phrases and such, is so bad that it would be better not to include it. Really. It's terrible. And it is totally unsuited for the user interface. I mean, who has twenty minutes to look up how to ask for lunch?
So, whomever is in charge of the software for the product should get a promotion and bonuses. Whoever is in charge of product engineering, purchasing and manufacturing should get a talking to, and should work harder. Whoever is in charge of customer service should get demoted. Whoever is charge of the web site should be fired, and with predudice. I wonder, that since this sequence of problems is the OPPOSITE of what is difficult in product development, how this can happen in a company unless it's a senior management problem in the first place. Customer service is easy to get right. Software is almost impossible. Engineering is something the Japanese usually get right day in and day out, but American companies can't seem to: American engineers are too often rewarded for being cunning, and not for being wise, and that is the feeling I get when using the product. Hardware development tried to be cunning not wise.
And I also get the feeling that the executive management is unwisely cheap and still does not realize how great a product they have on their hands, and what to do about it. As it stands, a competitor with brains could improve on the software and engineering. So why not take advantage of the one thing that a competitor cannot so easily steal: the loyalty of customers who truly depend on the product, by making customer service the company's core competency?
Customer Review: The Best GPS IS
Summary: 4 Stars
Have been testing several GPS Units. I will not go in to the TOM TOM's too much as it is a good product but not as 'user friendly' and quite a bit more expensive then others.
Magellan or Garmin you ask?
Magellan would win if not for such poor customer service. As with any electronic's, good customer support is a must. Garmin wins hands down in that area which is what tips the scale in the final vote.
Both are excellent. I have tested several models of both. The low end models are similar to the upper end, except as you go up you get more features and more POI's. So, I will stick with the mid to upper end as it covers the lower models as well.
I do like the Magellan User Interface better then the Garmin, although both are quite user friendly and either can be figured out right out of the box, without the need of a manual.
Some have said the Garmin does not have split-screen mode. Not true. While magellans is better as it comes on automatically at every turn, I simply tap on the garmin, bottom right brings up the split screen. You do have to tap back, unlike the Magellan which is all auto....the garmin to go back to full-screen. So Garmin does have this feature, although magellans is better.
Magellan in full screen mode tells you the name of the road you are on at the bottom and the name of your next turn on the top. Very Nice! The Garmin only tells you your next turn, not the road you are on. This can be solved by going to a different screen that spells out your route road by road rather then seeing the map...which is fine. I may even like the LIST ROUTE better then the MAP ROUTE. Most use the map route obviously, but it can be distracting just like looking at any paper map would be. If I want to go from here to there I have no problem not looking at a cluttered map(you can adjust how much clutter/detail is on the map...but it is still a map) and instead seeing a nice colorfill list of simply the road names and distance to each and distance you'll be on each. As you make each turn it scrolls the road you just left off the screen and the road you are now on appears at the top with upcoming roads below. You can toggle up or down to see what roads you WERE on and which roads you WILL be on. In fact, I probably used that interface 60% of the time as I just found it too easy.
No multi-point Routing on the garmins is a bit baffling. Why would ANY GPS unit not have multi-point routing? It is one of the most used features in navigation, especially commercially. On the garmin, to do multi-point routing is a few more steps and minutes. Rather then set up one route with your 1 - 500 stops along the route, on the garmin you would simply set a route for each of the stops. So, if you have 5 stops to make, on magellan you set one route with each stop. On the garmin you set 5 routes. One for each stop.
Magellan gives you better choices as far as routing preferances and the intelli-spell function is terrific.
The bluetooth was better on the garmin. Magellans was OK but the garmin was far superior in that area. Excellent feature. Didnt like Magellans but garmins was great. It paired easily with every phone I had. It instantly took all the info off the phone. The speaker and voice was great. The voice dialing worked flawlessly unless I had the tunes turned up too high. When talking I could almost whisper and the other party could here me fine. Very loud, which is good for noisy situations, but under normal conditions you'll want to turn the volume way down. The bluetooth on the garmin was absolutely excellent..many features that actually work...easy to figure out and amazing how quckly it "turned in to whichever phone" I selcted to pair it with..it read everyting..not just addresses...but your call lists, Text messages, pics.....whatever was on your phone you'll have it on the garmin....
Both have interesting 'extras', such as mp3 player, audiobooks and etc.....depends on your taste as to which you will prefer.
The WHERE AM I NOW is great on the magellan. 1 tap and it gives you ALL info as to where you are. The garmin merely gives you the lat and long. coordinates which is pretty useless to most people. The magellan will give you the exact same lat and long coordinates, as well as street name, closest intersection and from there you can ask it for closest phone, or anything....
Both give decent voice directions. Cant say I liked either one better. I did like the fact the magellan gives you a bit more warning as to an upcoming turn. Enough warning so you will not zip past the turn. The garmins tell you plenty soon enough as to your next turn, but if you then space out you wont hear another alert until you are very close to having to make the turn and on a couple of occassions I missed a turn with the garmins because when it said to turn I was going to fast to slam on the brakes and make the turn. This shouldnt be too much of a problem as long as you are paying attention, as you should be when driving.
Both were put thru RIGOROUS "Re-Routing" tests. The magellan when first turned on picks up the sats pretty quick. The garmin takes longer. But when first starting the unit does it really matter if one takes 9 seconds and one takes 16 seconds? Nope! What does matter is holding the Sat signal and quickly re-routing after a missed turn. Both units did well. A strong enough signal on both so that it really doesnt matter where it is...on your lap...anywhere you want it...and it will hold the signal just fine. Both recaculate well after a missed turn. Although as with all GPS units, the routes and recalculations may be different. What matters is that both will get you where you need to be, albeit by different routes. I never had either unit take me far out of the way when recalculating after a missed turn and both recalculated pretty quickly and after I rigorously kept missing turns on purpose doing everything I could to "trick them up"..."freeze them" and etc....and both worked very well....no freezing issues on either and both just kept re-routing me after every missed turn, again albeit by different routes.
Far better battery life on the garmin. On average I was getting 8 - 10 hours on the fully charged garmin to about 4 on the magellan.
Both units are very small (either the 3.5" or the 4.5") and easily portable and as I said above, the signal is so good on both you truly can stick it anywhere you want. I myself do not like it on the windshield or the dash and both units can easily be put elsewhere.
The garmin truly is a "personal assistant". Navigation and so much more. As is the magellan.
Some complained they didnt like the fact the garmin had to be toggled to a different screen to change the volume. Nope. Tap the on/off button and up pops the volume and brightness control.
Was hoping to expand more on some other subjects but must run for now. I will try to update this later.
However, the end result is this. Both units worked fine. neither malfunctioned (2 or 3 models of both magellan and garmin) and both did what they were supposed to. I did like some of the features on the magellan better, except for the bluetooth which was awesome on the garmin, and I guess if magellan had better customer service then I would likely go with the magellan unless the bluetooth was that important in which case I would go with the garmin. In the end though...although I did like some of the features on the magellan better, the garmin is still a wonderful product and since I have no intention of going thru the outsourced to India NIGHTMARE that is called "Magellan Customer Service", The Garmin Wins. I know I have a great quality product that does OH SO VERY MUCH and does it all very well (I have been using the garmin as my blutooth connection/mp3 player and much much more at my office desk rather then my wireless ear thingy and PDA.....IT's AWESOME and you can turn the GPS OFF to get many, many hours on the battery, although it does come with car charger, in home ac charger and usb, which magellan doesnt) and IF there is a problem, I know Garmin will be a breeze and to me that is a key....IF something does go wrong it will be a nightmare with magellan as compared to garmin.
Both units are great. Some better features on the magellan, but the excellent blueooth and customer service will earn Garmin my $$'s over the magellan. The nuvi 360 or 660 are great for the $$'s.
Feel free to contact me if you have detailed questions about GPS Units.
Customer Review: Lives up to its promise - update 6/26/09
Summary: 5 Stars
Update (6/26/09): A week ago, my Nuvi was stolen out of my vehicle (I know, my bad; all I had to do was take it with me, but it was a momentary lapse of reason). I replaced it with a Nuvi 885T. I can tell you that the new 885T is better in every way than the 360, which stands to reason. Nice job by Garmin continuing to update and improve their units. Noteable changes include elimination of flip-up antenna (internal now), much more advance warning of upcoming turns, real-view of on/off ramps at confusing highway junctions, posting of speed limit, with actual speed noted right next to that (VERY handy!), and of course the latest map version, 2009. If you want the best bang for the buck I still heartily recommend the Nuvi 360. But for the very best available right now, the 885T is now the device of choice.
Previous to this, I had the Nuvi 350, which is also an excellent device. Since the function is identical in nearly every regard to the 350, there is little point in covering the basics in much depth, but it's worth re-stating some of them. I will go into great detail on the Bluetooth functionality below.
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.
Navigation on the Nuvi is very good, fast, and intuitive. It's no different from many of 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. One thing I would suggest: when a route is less than ideal, Garmin should allow you to correct it permanently so that it does not re-suggest the non-preferred route each time.
I had a problem with my old Nuvi 350 that I have not observed on the new 360. Sometimes the 350 would not lock onto the satellite signal. Once it went into this mode of searching for, but not locking in, for over a minute it just never found anything. The only way I found to correct this was to push the small reset button under the antenna. I notice that another reviewer found that his new 360 had the same problem. This must be a bug in some Nuvi units that would be worth following up with Garmin on. I can tell you that my 360 NEVER has required a reboot, and I've been using it continuously.
I did not test the MP3 functionality beyond verifying that it plays back the songs that are pre-loaded for demo purposes. I didn't care about this feature; I'm very happy with my iPod for song management and playback. I can verify that you would not want to use the Nuvi's internal speaker for song playback, though. It's good enough to use as a speakerphone and for voice prompts, but it's not a hi-fi.
Now, for the fun part: Bluetooth functionality. I have been using it with my BlackBerry 8700c with excellent results so far. I had no problems with the initial discovery and mating process. The interface is robust. What happens is that once your phone has made the connection with the 360, a phone icon appears on the Nuvi. You can now use the 360 to call ANY POI directly from the screen! This is truly amazing; you are now walking around with the yellow pages in the palm of your hand, sortable by your current location, or any other location you choose. I just find the Point of Interest, and touch the phone number of that POI, and the phone starts dialing it. The sound comes out through the speaker of the Nuvi, and conversations have been natural so far. It's working like an absolute charm, and this single feature moves the device beyond anything else available right now.
When you select the phone icon from the main screen, several phone-related icons appear. From the phone screen, you can make a call manually, access your address book, call a POI, etceteras. The manual dial function works fine from the touchscreen. The really cool news: Nuvi automatically downloads your phone's address book to its database when it makes the initial Bluetooth link. So, if your phone supports this functionality, you can use it for all dialing functions, since the display is so much nicer than most phones, and the touchscreen works really well. You can always break the BT connection once you get the number dialed if you want a private, non-speakerphoned conversation. I have done that many times already. Once your call ends, the connection to the Nuvi is reestablished automatically. One word of warning: BlackBerry does not support sending its addresses to the Nuvi, so I was unable to test the download feature, but this does not surprise me given BlackBerry's security obsession. I am confident that it would work fine with other supported phones.
Overall, the device is a joy to operate. The battery life is good, although I would not call it excellent. The menus are very intuitive. The accuracy is very high. Even the windshield 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. The 350 was a great unit, the 360's Bluetooth functionality makes it even better, and worth the extra money for me.
UPDATE (7/28/06): I just returned from a 4 day trip to Banff, Canada during which I logged another 20 hours of driving. The unit continues to perform perfectly, including comprehensive POIs in the Banff/Lake Louise area. I also discovered an amazing feature I had not noticed before. I was unfamiliar with the Lake Louise area and had three hungry kids in the car. I pressed Where To, then Restaurants, and the list appeared, in order of proximity to my moving vehicle. Each listing showed the distance to that restaurant, with a little arrow next to it showing the exact direction to that restaurant. I just left it on this page and drove around, following the arrows, which moved as I did, until I found a restaurant that looked good. What an amazing device. I also have nothing but praise for the window mount. Seems like a small thing, but it's so solid and well-designed I had to make special mention of it. It has a lever to easily create a large suction force, the ball joints are very solid, and the method of attachment to the Nuvi is just extremely well designed.
Update (9/2/06): I have now owned the Nuvi 360 for about two months. It continues to exceed my expectations in terms of reliability and accuracy. So many nice touches that you don't notice right away but that are executed so well. The auto brightness level, for example, is perfect. The night mode changes the color scheme and the background goes black, highlighting the roads well and keeping the light emissions at a pleasant level, where the day mode would have been too bright. Everyone I demo it for wants one. My next step: buy stock in Garmin?
Update (9/14/07): The unit continues to operate flawlessly. I have now bought this machine for several employees of my company, each of whom love it. I also followed through on my impulse to buy Garmin stock, which has more than doubled since then! I now also own a Nuvi 660; it's fantastic. However, with the wider screen it's a bit bulkier to carry around, so my wife and I trade them back and forth depending on what we are doing. I still say that the 360 is the best bang for the buck if you want the Bluetooth functionality, and the 350, which is now selling for only $370, is every ounce as good if you don't care about the Bluetooth.
One other point - I now drive a BMW 545i with integrated GPS. I bought the car used but I know that the option costs a bundle. I never use it because the Nuvi is so much more user friendly and fast. So for anyone out there who is trying to decide if they should spring for a very expensive integrated GPS system in their new car, here's one vote to save yourself the money and get the Nuvi. It's easier to use and you get to carry it around with you to boot!
Customer Review: Go With Garmin
Summary: 5 Stars
There are LOTS of different considerations to make when choosing a GPS, and they can radically alter the cost. Screen size, included maps, expansion slots, touch screen, battery life, bluetooth support, etc. Touch screen is mandatory, and most all new units have this. That said, I am here to tell you what the most important factor, aside from touch screen, is - software. It's all about the software more than even the size of the screen. That's why it's gotta be Garmin.
Garmin has the best software around. My unit came with Maps 2008 (the latest version). Those that have older Garmins can purchase the 2008 maps from Garmin rather than buying a new unit. The software is easy to use, intuitive, upgradeable, and pretty accurate. Of course, there are always going to be places that it has difficulty finding and construction that it has difficulty routing through. *I* have difficulty following detour signs around ROAD CLOSED areas (miss one lousy sign, and it's off to Albaquerque). It's never going to be perfect, but Garmin's definately the best out there.
The nuvi 360 has some slick features. The 360's map covers all of North America. For those of us with close access to Canada, this is massively useful. It covers Mexico, too, as anyone that can picture "North America" in their head would guess (it's not the one with Brazil). The nuvi 370 includes Europe as well for a little extra money.
The GPS routes the information, shows the path on the map, and starts telling you which way to go using whatever voice/language you choose. I like Australian Karen, and there are quite a few other choices like Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, Portugese (several types), Polish, Russian, Slovak, Thai, Swedish, British, French, Canadian, French Canadian, etc. There's more than I listed there. Not all of them have choices for different voices.
Planning/Entering a route is simple as eating pie. You key in the information with the touch screen. It's geobase is good enough that usually putting in 4 to 6 characters of the steet/city name pops up a list of only two or three locations that could possibly match (kind of like autocomplete in the internet browser). That's nice when typing it all in by hand. You can save the location as a "Favorite" for easy access later.
The GPS also has a listing of food, attractions, fuel, lodging, shopping, parking, community, cities, hospitals, transit, and auto services. You can select from a list of pre-defined locations. The unit is capable of loading lists from the internet (like National Parks, etc), and that does require some Internet saavy and computer software installation to get going. I simply followed the instructions and I was off and running. What's already in there is pretty good, though.
What's nice is that it has the ability to connect to a cell phone via bluetooth (must be supported by the cell phone). I followed my phones instructions for connecting to a bluetooth device, and I was off and running again. You can call a place by bringing it up and touching the phone number. Great for restaurant call aheads or immediate lodging needs as we all know not everything goes as planned. I suppose this is a good a time as any to mention that you can use the GPS to answer your bluetooth phone calls, handsfree, once it's connected. It has built in speakers and a microphone for this.
It's possible to view your location on the map without entering a route at all. This doesn't seem useful at first, but let me explain what's too cool about it. My very first time out I charged the unit, threw it in the car, and took off (clueless as how to operate it). It showed my location on the map and direction I was headed and my relative speed (which is neat until you realize that there's a similar contraption IN YOUR DASHBOARD). However, at the very top of the screen, it listed the next cross street I was coming to! It even showed the rinky dink streets that have names but look like they just go into a mall or housing complex or nowhere at all. Hey, now that's useful. I've driven through DC housing complexes and small town backwoods horse paths (I did attend Ohio U) where I couldn't find street names (they were stricken from all the books, but that doesn't cover geobases, oddly). Also great for rainy/snowy weather driving.
Geocaching fans will be happy to know that you can route by coordinates. Just grab some gear, plug in some long floating point numbers, and off you go. It has several format choices if you prefer some OTHER system (like British National Grid). The internet also offers downloadable POI (points of interest) for geocaching.
The unit has a "Travel Package" which includes an mp3 player, an audio book reader, an image viewer, a currency converter, a world clock, a measurement converter, and a few other "demo" items. I like the mp3 player for the car as I don't have one already, but it's great to have along for geocaching or storing family pictures. Those that like audio books in the car will be pleased as well. There's about 1GB of storage on the device (the maps and programs take up about 1GB of space). Not too shabby.
I get great battery life out of my unit. Not using bluetooth certainly increases battery life, but I'd say at least four hours before I need to charge it. It comes with a mounting kit, ac charger, USB connection device (and charger), and car charger. The mouting kit and car charger allow the unit to have continuous power, so battery life becomes meaningless. Installation was snap together intuitive. I mounted my unit in partially in front of the temperature gauge on the left side of my car's instrument panel. It's slightly shaded, easily viewable/touchable (since I look down to check my speed/fuel constantly, anyway). I can still see my temperature gauge if I try. I bought a static cling screen protector off of Ebay to shield the screen from my grubby fingers, but that's really all that I needed. You might want a sturdier case to store the unit, but the one that comes with is acceptible. The unit takes SD cards, just in case its current features aren't enough. Put songs, pictures, audio books, travel guides, etc on an SD card and swap things around.
"Off and running" is what the Garmin experience is all about for me. I have the direction sense of a cucumber, and I consider the unit to be my second brain (others may consider it to be my first). I always have to plan ahead with Streets and Trips or Google maps to figure out where I am going, and I print a proximity map or two just in case I get lost. It's a pain for me and anyone else that needs something immediately. I've gained a freedom others had naturally. Now if I want to travel, I can just up and go (running is optional).