Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech
by Garmin
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech
Customer Review: Just what I was looking for
Summary: 5 Stars
I had only used a GPS unit twice before purchasing the Nuvi 360. Prior to this we did all of our navigation using online mapping services (Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest) by doing the legwork in advance and printing our directions. I wanted something that could accomplish the same purpose, but do it while out in the car. We've found the Nuvi to be at least as accurate as any of those online services.
The POI database is sufficient. You have to keep in mind that an Internet search is searching a live, real-time database that is constantly being updated. The POI DB in any GPS is an archive. It is also limited by the parameters by which it was created. It is not a live Google search, but more like a big Google search that was done when the POI DB was created and then saved to the unit.
I have found the user interface (UI) to be extremely intuitive. Most of the features can be figured out by just tinkering with it. Even the most technologically challenged individuals (ie- my wife) will have an easy time using the Nuvi. You cannot hurt it by tinkering with the UI. Even if someone got a bunch of settings all messed up and couldn't "fix" it there's a reset button on the back. Press it and start over. It's really that simple... except for the Garmin lock. Don't forget your password or you are in deep doo-doo. In that situation you'd have to actually send the unit back to Garmin to be unlocked.
Pros
- Bright, easy-to-read display
- Very fast recalculate (~2-3 sec typical)
- Very substantial POI database
- TTS voice is easy to understand. Not perfect, but it's a microchip for Pete's sake. Give her a break. My personal preference is British English. She seems to sound the most natural.
- Bluetooth works perfectly (Moto E815)
- Windshield suction mount works flawlessly. Way better than the Magellan.
- Car power supply is integrated into the Windshield mount so when you set the Nuvi in the mount it is automatically connected to the car's power. Very nice!
- Too many really nice User Interface features to mention here but it is quite possibly the most intuitive electronic device I've ever used.
- Voice directions continue to function even if you are "browsing" a menu option while it is navigating. This is awesome b/c you don't risk missing a vital command while "tinkering"
- If you don't follow its instructions this one doesn't keep trying to just get you to u-turn and get back on the original path. It will actually re-route you based on current position and trajectory. If you've never used a GSP that will only try to U-turn you then you may have no idea what a big deal this is.
- Bluetooth allows me to find a POI and touch the "Call" button on-screen and it dials the establishment on my cell automatically. I love that!
- Includes: Windshield Mount, USB Comm/Charge cable, A/C Wall Charger, Auto Cig. Charger and a nice leather carry case.
Cons
- Cannot navigate to a City, ST like Google Maps can do for time estimates or to just get you into town. It requires an actual address.
- Would like to see regular POI DB updates via the Web.
- Being my 1st GPS I really don't have anything to compare it to but I have not had a single issue with it so far.
I whole-heartedly recommend this product to anyone!!!
UPDATE
I've been using this unit now for about 2 years (Nov 2007) and it has performed flawlessly for me. One must understand that when you are constantly making detailed comparisons between a dynamic world and a static database there WILL BE discrepancies.
I like the fact that it seems to be quite intelligent in it's approach to route recalculations most of the time. Like older, and cheaper, units it doesn't simply try to put you back on it's original course. When you miss a turn it dictated to you, either intentionally because you chose to, or inadvertently because you missed a turn, it recalculates the route as if it were doing it for the 1st time from that location and so chooses what it considers the best route between where you are now and where you want to go.
If I were doing it over now the only thing I'd change is to get the unit with the FM transmitter for mp3 playback through the radio and the 4.3" screen. Only because bigger is better. ;-)
UPDATE - - - CUSTOMER SERVICE REVIEW
My windshield mount cracked. It still worked perfectly but I knew that it wasn't going to last forever. I called Garmin's Customer Service and spoke with #####. She was awesome. Even though I'd had the unit for more than 12 months at that time she still sent me a brand new windshield mount with no question. That's the kind of customer service that will keep me coming back! Thanks ##### and Thanks Garmin!!!
Customer Review: Does the Job
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the Nuvi 360 a couple of months ago after experiencing another auto GPS (Magellan) in a Hertz rental and finding it invaluable for navigating an unfamiliar city in high-speed traffic. Overall, I am highly satisfied. Battery life is about 3.5 hours realtime (Garmin claims longer, but what mfr doesn't?), and the cigarette-lighter transformer works fine. Satellite acquisition is reasonably quick, and you can enter a destination before it acquires, which is handy because you don't have to wait for acquisition before you start driving. There's a safety feature that prevents you from playing with the data entry portions of the UI while underway, which is user over-rideable: that's a good thing if you have a passenger who's actually operating the Nuvi, but it's not something you should do if you're the driver. The screen is quite legible, and more than big enough to be readable at auto distances and under varying light conditions, even by someone whose eyesight isn't what it once was. It auto-adjusts for night driving, too, which turns out to be a nice feature.
One entertaining discovery was that the various 'voices' that are included are not just accents, but localizations: when one chooses 'Emily,' the English voice, "B.R. 1" ("Business Route 1") becomes "British Rail 1", and "St." becomes "Saint" instead of "Street" in some cases. The most annoying voice feature is that the voices are not optimized for the kind of language used for giving directions. This is most noticeable around the pronunciation of major route numbers; for example, I-495 is "Eye Four Hundred Ninety Five," not "Interstate Four Nine Five". If the device can translate "St." into "Street", what's so hard about "I-XXX"? And if it can recognize "495" as "four hundred ninety five", surely it also recognizes the individual numbers?
The Nuvi ships with a reasonably complete database of hotels, gas stations, and restaurants, along with stubs to some other databases for which you will have to pay (a great deal) extra. I don't see the need for anything beyond what comes standard, but if you're someone who wants to load up your GPS with data, be aware that the competitors all appear to offer more data included with their devices than does Garmin (though I can't speak to any differences in quality)--and that add-in databases from all vendors are proprietary and extremely expensive. You can easily spend more than the price of the device loading it up. Note that, although Garmin sells a Canadian database, the built-in (U.S.) one has worked fine for trips to Vancouver and Toronto. I didn't buy the 'traffic report' feature, so I can't comment on its value except to say that if it's governed by the same databases used by the Internet traffic sites, it's only going to be useful if you spend most of your time driving in one of the relatively few areas they cover.
One minor peeve is the windshield suction mount, which works fine in terms of attaching to the windshield (and even to smooth parts of my dash), but which is structured in a way that limits the angles at which you can position the Nuvi. Eventually, I could find only one location (bottom corner of windshield near driver's door) where I could see the screen easily without blocking the view. That's actually a really good location for viewing without interfering with your driving vision, but it makes reaching to touch the display while driving riskier, because you have to move your whole body, which can cause you to turn the steering wheel by accident (see below for an example). I don't see any reason why the mount design couldn't accommodate any angle of display.
I only have one real complaint, but it's a safety issue so it's not trivial: to find out what your next turn will be in advance of the voice alert (i.e., left or right), you have to tap one small spot on the screen, which distracts your attention from the road and is therefore unsafe. The Magellan in the Hertz rental always showed you the direction of your next turn very clearly in a corner display, which is important when you're in fast, heavy, multi-lane traffic and needing to plan to shift left or right well in advance of the turn. Of course, that's also a situation where having to take your eyes off the road and hand off the steering wheel is even more risky. I'm not sure if this is a UI difference or if it's because the Magellan in the Hertz was a built-in model with a larger display; if the Nuvi-size Magellan has the same "next turn display" feature as its big sibling, and if I had known, it would have been enough for me to prefer it to the Nuvi.
Despite the two issues above, I'm extremely satisfied with the device. I rank it with Tivo as something I never would have thought I wanted until I actually tried it (I'm well above-average in terms of finding my way around), but that you would now have to wrestle me to take away.
Customer Review: Almost perfect - a marriage saver - 4½ stars in 2007, 3 in 2010
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought Christmas 2006, Reviewed in 2007,
RE-reviewed a few days before 1/1/2010 (skip to bottom paragraphs)
This is definately a wonderful tool, functionally complete with only a few trivial improvements to make it nearly PERFECT. For reference I will compare it to the TomTom One with Bluetooth, which has almost exactly the same dimensions and feature set. I used the Tomtom One for a week until it failed to distinguish between 3 oblique right turns.
Notable differences include
1. Garmin Nuvi 360 announces streets by NAME, so that when looking at a funny intersection with two oblique right turns (like spokes in a wheel)
a. Garmin says, "turn right on Street X" while
b. Tom Tom says,"turn right and then stay right"
This feature makes the Garmin so very much better than the TomTom even though the TomTom seems to be more user friendly with less compromises.
You can stop reading this now and buy the 350/360 ...
2. Garmin has A-Z keypad, but
TomTom let's you toggle between A-Z keyboard OR QWERTY keyboard
(I really wish Garmin had Qwerty)
3. Pocket size?
A. The Garmin has a fold up antenna, but TomTom's is internal.
This means you can put TomTom in your shirt pocket as you walk or hike,
but Garmin will not fit, otherwise they have the same dimensions
B. On the other hand, when Garmin's antenna is closed, GPS is off, perhaps saving battery, letting it still function as a map and a yellow pages. Garmin says their battery life is longer, I can't say yet.
4. TomTom has a screen that shows relative satellite position, signal strength and coverage. How cool, but with that info, now what?
5. Bluetooth (not on 350 but on 360) works fine even on the emasculated Verizon phones. TomTom does too. You can not use VZ's "say a command" feature.
6. 'Yellow' pages ...(not "Yellow" but "Business Directory")
When stationary Garmin lists the results of your search in order of closest proximity indicated by 1.2 mi NE, 1.9 mi SW, 2.2 mi NW. But these compass indicators turn to relative arrows, up, down, left, and at 45 degree angles. This is another marriage saver. My wife wanted to visit 3 'ethnic' [oops: those with region-specific ingredients unavailable locally] shopping centers in Los Angeles, a town so very foreign to me. The Garmin found them so quickly and painlessly that my wife's hate of the $550 [2006] purchase turned to joy. We have named this Nuvi 360 "Wife #2"... the worst thing it has ever said to me is "recalculating..." ... just a patiently the 7th time as the first time.
I highly recommend that whatever you choose that you ALWAYs take 5-10 minutes no matter what kind of hurry you're in, to park and run through your trip on the map first, understand the major junctions BEFORE turning the key. These things do MAKE MISTAKES, and always will make mistakes because
A. obsolete maps and mispelled street and business names are provided by 3rd parties, ...these require YOU to think.
B. Overcast, overgrown and canopied roads can distort satellite line of sight
C. Freeways with numbered exits are renumbered, exits added,
When new, it's a good idea to see how it handles a familiar route.
In my case, each day as I left work, both Garmin and TomTom told me to take a non-existant right turn over a near-vertical canyon wall.
This gave me a great feeling of superiority since I knew better, but what would happen when out of town in the dark? Therefore do not relinquish your mind to the machine...it's no substitute for human intellect.
Conclusion:
**NUVI** 350/360 is hands down the best [in 2006] ONLY because of the ability to speak the NAMES of each street... with just a few humorous and perplexing mispronunciations... (Wateridge becomes Wait-idge) and compression of words, swallowing some final syllables...it cost $550 on Amazon in Dec 06.
2010 UPDATE - look to pay 50% of 2006 price for 200% more features. Look for free or reduced map updates: Garmin's updates rival the price of a NEW device with MORE features. Traffic accessories or subscriptions may be free on competitors' units.
ESPECIALLY consider those with voice activated input INSTEAD of touch screen typing.
This 2006 review is obsolete to prefer modern Garmins over Tomtoms without a side by side comparison. Plus there are many new competitors on the market. Updated maps cost $140 for the US or $9.95 for individual cities. Japanese, Dutch and other European languages are now available. Caveat Emptor.
To Garmin: include a "most recent 3" choices on each of your drop down lists to avoid repetitive wasted fat fingered typing.
Customer Review: Bad out of the box, Horrible customer service.
Summary: 1 Stars
We researched these very closely before deciding on the Garmin 360.
We were majorly disappointed. Ours not only didn't hold the bluetooth connection, it failed at the basics. We contacted Garmin. After nearly an hour on hold we were told to try downloading an update for the firmware, another for the bluetooth function, and yet another for the map. Overall we spent over 4 hours on-line with the updates. The map alone took over 2 hours even though we have a high-speed connection.
The unit then started to work - sort of. We took it on a trip to Washington DC. There it often took 15 minutes or longer to find satellites on a clear day. I even tried holding the unit out the window while parked.
We tried using it to find restaurants on two occassions. It's updated map took us to two office buildings instead. Later we tried to use it to find a Walmart that was in Alexandria VA. There we found another office building where the Walmart was supposed to be. Clearly the updated maps have issues.
The bluetooth problem got worse, connecting then disconnecting every few seconds. We gave up and turned the bluetooth feature off. The volume on the speakerphone was so low when it did work that you couldn't use it while driving anyway. Road noise made it impossible to hear what the other party was saying even with the volume up full.
We tried it around our home town and it often would tell us to turn right verbally when the map showed a left turn. We hope the unit we got was defective, at least we hope it's our particular unit and not typical of Garmin's product. Reading the other reviews, we're not so sure.
We contacted Garmin again and arranged for a replacement. Just getting a response took a couple of days. We're still waiting for the replacement unit to arrive. I just found out it takes Garmin 10 to 14 business days to process returns on their end. Add shipping time in both directions and you can wait nearly a month for a replacement. One of the three customer service reps I spoke to recommended returning new Garmin products to place where you bought them rather than dealing with warranty service. I have a better solution. Buy another brand.
When we contacted customer service via email they asked us for the same information we had already provided in their on-line form in order to get a return authorization. We then had to send the bad one back at our own expense. A little warning here. Garmin doesn't tell you, but for some reason returns sent via the post office takes an extra 10 days to get there. That's what one customer service rep claimed at least. They want you to use UPS or Fedex instead.
It's bad enough when the quality control is not the best, but if you are unfortunate enough to get a lemon, don't expect too much in the way of customer service. We have now dealt with three agents. One honestly seemed to want to help, but left out information that would have sped up getting a replacement. Another seemed to do everything in her power to slow the process down. The third actualy was a bit hostile and lectured me about my choice of a shipping method and my choice of vendor instead of trying to help solve the problem on their end. The third actually refused to allow me to speak to a supervisor.
I'm sure Garmin once made a good product. I'm also sure that their customer service may have been good at one time. For anyone considering them now I'd like to make some suggestions:
1. Buy local from a vendor that will take it back if you get one that is bad out of the box. Maybe pressure from the retailers will force them to resolve issues at the factory.
2. Don't attempt any upgrades. It could void the warranty and you'll be stuck dealing with their crappy service. If you're buying a new unit it should work out of the box without having to go on-line for updates.
3. If a model is in short supply it might be a danger signal. They might be having manufacturing issues causing the shortage. My guess is that with the 360 you will soon see thouands of reconditioned units on sale due to the large percentage of defective units. Two of the reps I spoke to told me that 360 replacement units are in very short supply. I did ask if I could upgrade to a different model and was told that I could not.
Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Should you buy a Garmin 360?
Summary: 5 Stars
Click off of this review and go to another one because when I get excited I don't know when to stop writing. Do I love this little sweetie? Let me count the ways. But first understand that I was so concerned about making a mistake (since I am new to GPS things)that I actually read all eight hundred and some reviews on this and hundreds on other brands and models. I would say that I (retired) spent a good ten hours research on this. After realizing that the sheer number of people who took the time to comment and the high accolades they gave the 360 overall, it was apparant that I needed to buy one and take the chance.
First of all, I googled the thing and they took me to Amazon to get the best buy. Amazon is most often the best buy on small electronics for me. Then, I went to eBay and found they could do no better. For Amazon got and filled the order and I nearly got the thing delivered on my porch before I hit the send botton for the order, lol.
I opened the box that was huge because of all the protective packing, and found the little baby, already charged and raring to tell me where to go. I will admit that I ran to my car and took some trips around my area (gas is so cheap) and though it took a couple of funny ways to get to where I wanted to go, it was obviously the fastest way and that is how the default setting is on the baby.
After supper, I did the right thing and went to the instruction manual (on CD) and then went to the Garmin support site and upgraded all the software that I would need. Yes, it took a little while to decide what I wanted to do but that is part of the learning process. Since I wanted to
use my Bluetooth cell phone in the car thru the 360, I upgraded that part of the software.
Then I left my new bride watching TV and I took my toy to bed to learn how to use it. The next day, I downloaded two wonderful business books into the Audible Book Player. Garmin gives you a site to go to in order to get two free books. You have to sign up and then cancel, of course but that is no biggie. I then downloaded about a hundred of my favorite photographs of my family, my dogs, my deceased wife, my new wife, and my friends. At the age of 69, I am going back to work and will be away from home and this will really be nice to look at, and while the music is playing. I now need to learn to download some of my terrible karaoke songs on the mp3 player. By the way, some folks complained about the speaker quality on this sweetheart. Give me a break, the quality is absolutely terrific when you consider the speakers are about one inch diameter. What do they want, egg in thier beer? Anyway, the 360 has a stereo mini jack for ear buds, for the folks who must hear better than this old man.
Next, I will admit that I did need a couple of hours to get the Bluetooth phone of mine to talk to the baby. Well, now it won't shut it. I was in the basement and listening to a book when the thing stopped playing and a call came in. I was too far away for it to work but I was impressed that it tried to work. Another thing that blows me away is that the 360 (also known as "baby, sweetie, etc.)" is that when one is driving and listening to the MP3 playing music and a call comes in, or, the sweet little Aussie inside the thing wants to tell you to be prepared to turn, it changes to the call or the GPS gal telling giving you instuctions. OMG.
Today I took it to my bike trail, where I cycle 17 miles a day, and then set the navigation setting to "Off Road" and told it the name of the town ahead. It showed the old train track, AND the nearby roads. This thing is so wonderful, I oughta send another $229.
Finally, and this finished it for me, I was playing with the thing on the trail while biking and it suddenly warned me that what I was doing was dangerous. I don't remember how it was worried, but it cracked me up.
So while I would like to write for hours on this, I must leave you time to read others. But, unless your wife is the jealous kind that will get upset when you get all mushy from hearing the sweet Aussie woman in the thing, get one. But until you examine every possible setting and used it a few days, don't get negative on it. Most of all, do the update, (free) of the software, and learn to recognize the three icons on the right side of the "home" screen. They are, a wrench, a speaker, and a phone. Hope this helps. Jim