Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Mostly a disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
I wrote a much larger and more comprehensive review, but Amazon somehow dedicded not to publish it. Let's try again.
I rate the device as two stars for the following reasons:
- The navigation functionality of the device is by far the best feature. (go figure) For the most part, it works well, reads street names correctly, and has generally good ideas about navigation. This is where my likes for this device end.
- The device, either when it gets lost or when you make a wrong turn seems to quickly recalculate a new navigation plan. The problem is, it makes impractical turn requests, such as turning in 100 feet when you are driving at 40 MPH! Of course, you miss that turn having not had the chance to cross 4 lanes of traffic in such little time and at that speed, it recalculates again, and the cycle repeats. Eventually you pull over or simply turn the thing off.
- The device gets lost, a lot. It frequently puts me on Main St instead of Elm (I live in Dallas, TX), or thinks I'm traveling north/south when I'm actually driving east/west. And, then the recalculation cycle begins, etc, etc.
- The device takes forever to find the satilites and seems to loose them easily within Dallas proper. It seems to take a lot longer on the high precision mode, but in low precision mode the device is so in accurate it can think I'm blocks away from where I actually am an the navigation becomes absolutely worthless. It works better in the suburbs.
- The Nuvi 680 has an annoying penchant for recommending you drive against traffic on one way streets the wrong way, in particular Continental ave in downtown Dallas. Ignoring the device's request to endanger myself and break the law, this, of course, begins the never ending recalculation cycle mentioned above.
- Unless set to "shortest path", the Nuvi will *always* direct you to a navigation involving expressways, even if it's miles out of your way. In Dallas, this is almost never the "fastest way" as we have many major surface streets that offer "green wave" stoplights and are better for navigation, in particular during busy weekday hours. Set to Shortest Path, the Nuvi does much, much better, but will recommend side streets with tons of stop signs and turns instead of a reasonable compromise of using a major avenue like Ross, Gaston or Live Oak that are only a block or two out of the way. I can only imagine the device has the same failures in other cities if it's this bad in Dallas.
- I bought the device to help me avoid traffic. Using the MSN direct and following the device's advice, I've been jammed in more bad traffic than I ever did before I owned it. Mid day last week, the Nuvi recommended 635 between the Tollway and 75. Now, anyone that's been in Dallas for 2 months knows this is a stupid move -- take Forrest instead. Well, no traffic problems were shown, so I took the Nuvi's advice and promptly sat on the roadway for 20 minutes. This is unacceptable that a decade-old piece of knowledge about the city isn't in the database. $10 says next month when I'm in Boston it routes me right through the big dig.
- The MP3 Player is a travesty. First, it will only play classical and jazz CDs that have a "low level". Pop CDs play very, very distorted. The output level to the FM transmitter is also very low, so you will find yourself *cranking* your radio to hear anything. Don't switch stations if you like your ears!
- The FM Transmitter is really weak. My antenna is only about 3 ft from where I mount the Nuvi, but the reception is noisy, has interference, is waaaaay less in level than other radio stations (I know that's unavoidable to some extent) and sounds so bad I just can't stand to use it. This is a real disappointment in the device.
My recommendation is to purchase a basic navigation system without the frills and MSN direct, which mostly don't work in a satisfactory manner, and save yourself the extra money.
Customer Review: Very Impressive with some caveats (updated)
Summary: 4 Stars
The latest Garmin is very impressive. However, I don't like the fact that finding some of the accessories is so challenging. For example, I purchased this GPS because I was taking a trip to California. Unfortunately, the laws in California prevent you from attaching the Nuvi directly to the windshild, so you've got to purchase a separate accessory, which I did, the Garmin Portable Friction Mount. It works great in terms of not sliding around the dash. I was on San Francisco streets and if it was going to fly off - it would have, but it was rock steady. The problem is that I didn't know that you need more than just the friction mount. There is another accessory that goes between the Nuvi and the friction mount. Because I found out about the California law just before I left, I had no time to figure out what that extra part is - so I just used a series of rubber bands to affix it to the Friction Mount base.
It would have been easy for Garmin to spell this out, but I could find no information to let me know which part to purchase to go with the "Universal" Friction Mount or even that you needed an extra part. I still don't know what that part is. The rubber bands worked OK, but it's lame.
As far as the MSN Direct, it works pretty well for the Weather & Traffic, and it does let you know about some movie theaters - not even close to a complete list - at least not in the NYC area, and then the gas prices.... At one point, when my rental car gas indicator was on E, I thought No problem - I've got the Nuvi. Well, it took me to a non-existant gas station, which was harrowing considering I was about to run out of gas and didn't know the area. It gave me a ghost gas station two different times and locations. So I'm on the fence about renewing. Also, I know of some local stations that have better gas prices that don't even show up on MSN, so it hasn't got a complete list of stations/prices.
Even though, I purchased this right after it came out - it has come down in price over $160 since I purchased it less than a month ago - I am happy that I bought it. It was invaluable in getting me around S.F. and the Wine country. But, I could have been just as happy with the 660 had I known about the hiccups with MSN Direct. So, I learned that I can't totally trust the MSN, but it does still give some information. It also would have been better if you could download the MSN info without having to plug it into the car cigarette lighter.
A big plus is the Bluetooth. It's invaluable - the only way to make phone calls in the car - it couldn't be easier, and a great connection. Of course, you get that with some of the previous versions of the Nuvi.
All told, the 660 would have been the better purchase for me. You could take a chance that the MSN will get better in accuracy on the 680, now that the price has come down so much from when I purchased it - it might be worth the extra $.
UPDATE:
Since I first posted this review in May, Garmin wised up. The only Garmin Portable Friction Mount I could find when I purchased mine, does not go with the 680. At least not without 2 parts. From what I can glean from other reviewers, I could purchase another item to go with what I already have, but my total cost for both would be over $50.
Garmin now has the correct Friction Mount in the accessories section for the 680 on their website. List price: $40.00 (#010-10908)- Amazon price: $28 (at this point).
Don't be fooled by the CUSTOMERS WHO BOUGHT THIS ITEM ALSO BOUGHT section on Amazon.
Check the Garmin website to be sure.
Customer Review: Good GPS Unit, needs some polishing
Summary: 3 Stars
Like many other people reviewing this unit, I thought that this is the best GPS unit out there. Now don't get me wrong, this is a very good GPS unit and works well, but there are a few features that could use a bit of polishing.
As a car unit, this GPS works well. The screen is wide and has a decent resolution and contrast levels. This makes it easy to read at most times while driving. The touch screen also works well; it is not calibrated so sensitively so that the slightest brush would invoke a menu, nor is it calibrated so that you need to poke a hole through the screen to get it to work. The menu options are laid out quite well, once you get the hang where certain options are located. Most of the time when entering in information about where to go to, the nuvi will only need a few letters to figure out where you're going. However there is one caveat during this process. The nuvi has the ability to search its database according to the whole name or parts of the keywords. This process while nice, doesn't always work when you're beyond a certain range. For example, in New York City while mapping a route to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and History, the nuvi could not locate the museum. I entered in Metropolitan Museum thinking that it would find it, the nuvi did not. When I reduced the keywords to museum, it still did not find it. Only when I entered the entire name did it find the museum. Later on when I was within 15 miles of the museum, I did a search for the museum again, this time it found it quickly. Strange if you ask me.
Although the nuvi seems like a portable unit that can be used in the car or in your pocket, it's more at home in the car. The unit, far from being big, isn't all that small either. It also isn't heavy, lighter than my cell phone. However it definitely will not fit in your shirt or pant pocket and activating the GPS receiver requires you to flip up the antenna. While not a bother to flip up the receiver, it adds extra dimensions to the unit. In addition, sometimes it takes a while for the receiver to lock on to the satellites. In Atlanta, the GPS unit works fine, picking up the satellites within a minute or less. In places like New York City, more often than not I could not acquire a satellite lock. The average time it took to lock on to a satellite was 5 minutes or longer. While 5 minutes might not be much sitting in a Starbucks, it is an eternity when you're lost. Sometimes on the highway, especially on the New Jersey Turnpike, the unit said to turn left or right, even though the road is straight with no exits. This probably has more to do with the maps loaded in the unit rather than the unit itself.
So it seems like I'm ripping the nuvi for its shortcomings, but there are good points to it too. When you miss a turn or go the wrong way, the unit will quickly recalculate your next route. The mp3 player functionality is an added extra, however this drains the already short battery life. The photo album is more of a gimmick, but if you're traveling around and want to show people pictures, this definitely helps to reduce extra electronics that you would need to carry on. As an all in one travel assistant, the nuvi probably succeeds in being a good GPS unit. Being the best of the GPS units leaves much to be desired. The 2-D maps can be interacted with, allowing you to drag the map to a certain location. So there are a few good points about this unit. It is a very good unit, but if you're looking for a personal GPS unit that you would carry in your pocket and expect a fast response time to lock on to the satellites, look somewhere else.
Customer Review: High hopes, mediocre results...
Summary: 2 Stars
I've been using gps since 2003 when I purchased my first Garmin unit, the GPS V. It was limited in memory and the serial cable was tedious for downloads. Then I wait listed for the Streetpilot 2610. It was expensive but wow what a great GPS. It was big and bulky but had loads of features, more then I could ever use. Some of my favorite features included preference choices, you could rank Major Highways, Secondary road and local roads to avoid the types of roads you didn't want to travel. I travel frequently and travel long distances for play, I race motorcycles and the local track is 300 miles away, second closest is 500 miles and I travel as many as 1100 miles each way. I liked that when spelling out a name of a hotel or restaurant the unit would search for the closest location first and then continue to find further away places. I liked the ability to create a route and loved the ability to map out routes on the computer and make changes and download the routes to the unit.
The size of the Nuvi and MSN direct were enough to get me moved over to the 680 unit and I was very excited, I contacted MSN direct to ensure my area was covered by their service. I assumed based on the price I would be gaining all these great features and not be giving up the features I had come to love.(I received one of the first units well before any reviews had been written)
Upon receiving the unit I quickly realized many of the features I came to love were GONE and many of the new features did not work or work well and the worst thing was most of the mapping preferences had been removed and last there wasn't any computer routing capabilities, well there wasn't any routing ability at all.
MSN Direct- even though I'm in a covered area in Northern New Jersey, it does not get coverage most of the time. I drive to NYC every day and I do get coverage when I get a mile of two from the city, WAY WAY too late to help me. DOESN'T WORK
Bluetooth - No friends or workers will allow me to talk to them on the speaker phone because the quality is so bad. USELESS
FM Modulator - I use a Sat radio so this feature does not work.
So now most of the new features either don't work or don't work due to my setup. That is OK because as long as the unit works better at generating directions, I'm fine with MSN being a work in progress.
Interface is extremely easy to use, I'll say that but it has been dummy'ed down so much that many of the great features I had grown to love on my 2610 are not present on the 680.
Shortest time works OK on short distance travel but on long distance travel the mapping is a joke. The unit is constantly trying to take you off major highways for secondary roads and local roads. Most of the secondary roads are infested with traffic lights or take you through the heart of a city where traffic and stop signs are found all over the place. I rarely if ever make my destination anywhere close to the ETA shown in the begining of the trip, even when speeding and not hitting traffic.
Road preferences that were present on the 2610 are GONE
Routing- GONE
Computer program for designing directions - GONE
These critical key features missing on the 680 are a huge disappointment. Garmin service has been fantastic and have agreed to take back the unit. I'm upgrading to a Magellan Maestro 3250 unit. This unit has the ability to choose multi mapping settings, routing, tap on a road to avoid the road and is smaller then the Nuvi. Hoping this will be the unit for me.
Customer Review: Garmin Garbage
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought the Nuvi 680 expecting a significant step up from my few years old Mio C310X. Let's jump to the one positive thing about the Nuvi, it uses Navteq maps. Now on to the reasons I find it unacceptable. The suction mount will not stay fastened to the windshield. I tried everything, cleaning first, dry install, wet install, and so on. It stays perhaps an hour, then it falls off. The 680 has a flip up antenna; great except that when the antenna is down it turns the gps off. Dumb. So you can't really put the unit in your pocket and use it when walking around town. My Mio gets great reception without needing such a silly protruding antenna. The unit is slow to start up when powered on, and then you have to tap an annoying "I agree" button before it will go to work. There is virtually no useful customization available in the software. Either Garmin decided this would be a GPS for dummies or they created this dumbed down design to cut down on customer service calls. My 5 year old Garmin GPSmap 60cx has far more customization capability than this thing. Why would one need that? Well, for example, with Garmin's design, your speed is not displayed on the map when you are in navigate mode. You see time to destination instead. Curiously, speed is displayed when you are in map mode, not navigating to anything. This is stupid. I always want to see my speed. I can easily configure the 60cs or Mio to do this, but not this "sophisticated" Nuvi. Another thing, the instructions say you can search for a city by postal code, but it does not work. Any attempt to enter a zip code just brings up Search All. The MSN direct antenna is built into the power cord, which is very bulky.
So how does the routing work? Not very well. Going from Newport News, VA to a business near the VA Beach Expressway took us through the I-64 tunnel. I thought that strange because the tunnel and I-64 past it was showing a lot of red on the MSN Direct traffic, and the other way around via I-664 is only about 10-15 min longer. The Nuvi is suppose to take traffic into account when it calculates the route. I decided to trust it, and found myself in stopped traffic 2 miles before the tunnel that would have taken at least an hour to get through. I managed to bail out at the downtown Hampton exit. Okay I thought, I'll let the Nuvi get us back to I-664 and we'll go that way. I used the touch screen to locate a point on I-664 South of Hampton, , verified the little tag that came up did say "I-664 S", and pushed Go. The route was calculated, and it was clearly wrong. It was taking us in the wrong direction to a ramp for I-664 North, directly opposite of what I asked for. It was no help at all. The MSN traffic is disappointing because the traffic highlighting is not displayed on the Garmin map. You have to switch to a separate MSN map. How dumb is that? As we went along I-664 we ran into a couple of moderate backups. Neither was called out by MSN. The places it did show are the predictable rush hour backups one experiences every day in the Norfolk area. I did not see a whole lot of value add. I used the unit to check for gas stations. It found a bunch, listed prices and distance, but the name of many stations were listed as "unknown". What good is that? Map zooming is frustrating. The switch from 2D to 3D view is clumsy, and the zoom level is never correct.
I summary, I found this Nuvi to be a clueless design that has not been thoroughly tested and does not deliver on its promises. I am looking forward to returning it for a refund.