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: My 3rd Garmin in a month, and I'm still missing that Nuvi 650
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently received a 650 as a gift. It was a beautiful device. I then decided to get more bells and whistles and got a nuvi 750. Big mistake. The 750 was buggy so I returned it, too many updates to it, etc. POI's were missing. I then decided to return the 650 and get my wife and myself the Nuvi 680. It's has the same beautiful screen as the 650, all the POI names show up, parks, golf courses etc. However, the 680 bluetooth for some reason is not compatible with the bluetooth on my Treo 755p (Sprint). I did get it to work but it freezes my phone the first 2 attempts, then works on the 3rd attempt. My wife has a Blackberry Pearl-8100, from t-mobile, which is on the compatibility list but the Nuvi 680 never finds it or recognizes it at all, go figure. The phone that shouldn't work now does, the phone that should work never has. MSN Direct is typical Microsoft bloatware and undelivered promises. It takes days to receive any data, then looses it if you turn your 680 off for 2 days or more. Microsoft hasn't done anything right since Office '03 or XP. They are all talk and don't really deliver much of anything. MSN Direct gives me movie times for Oakland and SF, 45 miles away, but has never found the AMC-15 exactly 1 mile from my house! Explain that. Gas prices usually show up with no gas station name and no address. Very useful. Traffic reporting is another joke, I won't even get into that. It does give weather info, but I could get that every 12 minutes on my local AM CBS news station. I'm giving it 4 stars only because I love the screen, the color and sharpness of the text and the great job it does as a GPS unit, displaying POI names, etc. It's a great GPS but does everything else rather poorly, and MSN Direct is not free forever after the free trial. I should have stuck with the nice, simple Nuvi 650. Get one at the big box store online while you still can for $299. I got the 680 in their store for $399, it was recently $479 (and still is online). If I weren't so tired returning and buying these things I would just go back to the Nuvi 650. It doesn't require any updates and works great. Also, remember this. I have found that with the bluetooth feature, as simple as bluetooth should be, still continues to be a pain, either crashing my phone or not finding another phone at all. These companies sometimes offer more than they can realistically deliver, but overall the 680 is a nice machine that would be better if it were not for the bluetooth problems and the MSN Direct. I should have known to stay away from anything that Microsoft was involved in. If you want a GPS device without too many gimmicks get the Nuvi 650, or a 6XX series without the MP3 player.
After using a couple of months, I found a new problem. When using the bluetooth feature with my Palm Treo phone, I notice old address book data on my Nuvi. It's like it brings in the very first address book it ever synced with my phone. I have deleted numbers, corrected typos on my phone, but the Nuvi 680 still shows the old data and numbers. I called Garmin and they say it's coming from my phone, but it's not possible because I completely erased everything on my phone (phone software update). I believe the Garmin has a hidden file somewhere that stores phonebook data and it is not updating. My phone had a major firmware update that wiped out everything, so how did the Garmin find an address book that was wiped clean from my cell phone?
Customer Review: A look at the Bluetooth on the Garmin Nuvi 680
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been lot's of reviews regarding the GPS side of the Garmin Nuvi 680. Here's my review of the Bluetooth features:
With California banning the holding of a cellphone to your ear while driving, you're stuck with either a headset, a hands free Bluetooth unit, or using your phone's built-in speaker. I don't want to try and put on a headset in time to catch a call or try to hear the speakerphone over all the road noise. Plus the Bluetooth hands free sets are currently overpriced in my opinion.
This is where the Nuvi 680 shines.
When a call comes in, the Nuvi 680 shows the number. And even better, it will show the name I've assigned it in my contacts. A simple press of the touch screen and you're talking hands free. I use the FM transmitter to beam the conversation over a radio station so I can hear over the outside noise. It also handles a second call coming in (like the flash option on your home phone) so you can switch between callers easily.
You can also use the on-screen dial pad to place calls. If you're on a call that requires the pressing of an extension number, the dial pad screen works for that too.
But Garmin didn't stop there.
When you use the points of interest (POI) to find a place (restaurants, hotels, stores, etc.) and there's a phone number for that place, you can call it just by hitting the phone icon on the screen. I've used this feature many times to get things like movie times, place food orders, and see when a store is closing. I found this feature very handy when I'm traveling.
Another feature I liked is how my contact list from my cell phone shows up on the screen. This is a nice feature as I don't have to re-type them into the unit. Simply press the 'Phone Book' icon on the screen to access the phone numbers on your cell phone.
The Nuvi 680 also supports voice dial tags. It will use the voice tags that you created on your cell phone. This could be a mixed bag depending your cell phone's voice tag quality. I use Microsoft's Voice Command 1.6 which has the ability to simply say the phone number I want to dial. This is handy when I can't press the individual numbers to dial out. My only complaint is the screen doesn't show what's happening until the call starts. This can be a problem if the cell phone misinterpreted the voice tag and starts dialing the wrong number.
There are other options on the Nuvi 680 like a quick call home button. I also like the Call History button as it shows calls I've missed, dialed, or received. Again this information is gathered from your cell phone so it's always available whether the Nuvi was being used or not.
The Nuvi 680 can also handle text messaging if you're phone supports Bluetooth 2.0 too. I could not test this feature as my phone doesn't support bluetooth 2. I currently have the Cingular 8125. It's a little old but you can't beat the battery life compared to other smart phones!
Overall I've been very pleased the phone options on the Garmin Nuvi 680. I don't have to use a headset! Plus having the phone conversation beamed to the radio for increased loudness is great. While Bluetooth Hands free systems are nice, the high price you pay for one can be applied to the Nuvi 680. You'll get far more features than a simple speaker attached to your sun visor.
Customer Review: Disappointed by Garmin
Summary: 2 Stars
I chose the Nuvi 680 over other comparable devices based on the Garmin reputation. I should have known better. This product consistently gets me lost and comes up with head-scratching routes for me to take. The only options I have to tweak the route calculation settings are faster or shorter route. You can't adjust the sensitivity for freeways or surface streets, etc. I assume the faster route gathers traffic info from the MSN Direct receiver but since the receiver does not appear to accurately receive updated traffic data unless it is always plugged in to an outlet (even when you are nowhere near your car or gps unit) it is not surprising the faster routes seem pretty slow. The short route option is simply zig zagging through streets to reach your destination since driving diagonally toward your destination is usually not an option.
Now back to the MSN Direct receiver. If you do not keep your MSN Direct receiver plugged in and draining your car battery, it will take about 45 minutes to sync up. By then you will have already reached your destination.
One of the reasons for purchasing this product was the 1 year free MSN Direct subscription. What a joke this feature is. While driving on the freeways of Los Angeles (the 10 or 101) it often gives me flash flood warnings. OK. Or it directs me to a freeway route and the traffic data is actually correct--there is traffic! Thanks for suggesting this route.
The navigation through the menus is not the best either. Though the menus are simple, you often have to hit the back button several times before returning to the main screen. There isn't a main screen button. This can be distracting when you are driving. :P
Also, the map displays all freeways as RED. Hmm, that's a good color for freeways. Makes me think all freeways are heavily congested all the time. Even in LA that is not always true. If you are going to put traffic data on a map, better make it straightforward. Green for no traffic, yellow for moderate traffic, and red for bumper to bumper. It would be nice to show the sections of freeway with traffic as well, like Google maps. Instead, the nuvi 680 only displays a little sign that represents traffic and only for your immediate location. Yeah, I can see that there is traffic right in front of my front windshield but where does it end and where is there no traffic? Let me reiterate the traffic sign only shows up when you are already in the thick of it. You can't look at a bird's eye view of an area and see where the freeways are congested. This is where I pull out the iphone and check Google maps.
The only reason I am giving this unit 2 stars is for the physical design and bluetooth phone feature. Though, the speaker is horrendous for a $400 piece of equipment (think iphone).
Perhaps if I had no experience with a GPS unit I would have given this unit 3 stars. Perhaps if I lived under a rock and never used Google maps with traffic I would have given this unit 3 stars. The fact is, I also have an outdated unit from Lowrance. At least the Lowrance always gave me good directions with an easy to use interface. I never regretted buying the Lowrance. Can't say the same for the Nuvi 680. I curse it every time I get lost BECAUSE of it.
Customer Review: nuvi 680 great, mapping software is not
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought a Garmin Nuvi 680 quite a while ago. Prices have plummeted since then, and probably will continue. This is a great device, and has helped me many times. We even took it on a trip to Baltimore and Philly (we're in SoCal), and it is totally portable when you buy a beanbag (friction) mount. It took us to every historical site, and even to the local Baltimore McDonalds (you can take it on walks, by setting the Pedestrian mode, and it will route you even the wrong way on one-way streets, since you're walking). It did its best to figure out the bizarre maze of streets in older sections. It knew the layout of Valley Forge and Fort McHenry. It took me right to my mother's birthplace in Washington D.C., and Babe Ruth's birthplace in Baltimore. The Marine Memorial at Arlington is hard to find, but it found it. I would have never found half of these places without it. It even knew where every alley was, and called them "alley".
The 4.2" touchscreen is great, and the text-to-speech very clear. It interfaced via Bluetooth to my cell phone effortlessly, and downloaded the address book automatically. Makes a great hands-free device. In simulation mode you can tell it to go cross-country, and it will start out on its trip, and just keep going (until it runs out of power because it's sitting on the bed, not plugged into the car).
I have one criticism, and it's a big one. Garmin doesn't really care about you after the sale. I fell for the Garmin email that told me to update my mapping software "today!" No mention that within a week their distributors would be selling it for $15 less than their $70 price. When I got the software and loaded it, I found that this "2009 Update" added next to nothing. A Marine Air Station which had been leveled, and turned into a major shopping center over two years ago, was still listed as the air base. Major streets which had been extended through there were not shown. A local shopping center which has been here for five years is not shown, even though other, smaller shopping centers are. Garmin's only comment to this was that they depend on the same source of mapping information as everyone else. I though these companies had people keeping their software up-to-date, and that you could keep updating your maps for much less, if not free. So much for their industry leadership. If I find that something I need to find is not on my Garmin, I'll be checking out Tom Tom and others to see if they can do better. Hopefully they try harder.
I agree with the reviewer who liked the Garmin friction (bean bag) mount. That and the car power adapter/MSN receiver work well (even if every time there is a drop of rain, MSN lists a flash flood alert in the OC). But the mount did slip off my dash several times, and so I fashioned a simple little metal hook and attached it to the mount, and that hooks into a defroster vent to keep it from sliding. Easy to do.
I love "Miss Garmin" (as we call her), even if she does sound a bit put out when she is "recalculating" (when you don't follow her directions to the letter). She won't let you get lost, even if some times she takes you in strange directions.
Customer Review: Good but not great navigation, traffic feature meh
Summary: 4 Stars
I upgraded from a c330 streetpilot model after the 2008 maps were released on the 680. I live and work in NW Atlanta where there is alot of traffic, and was intrigued by the traffic feature. I also wanted a handsfree bluetooth speaker for calls in the car.
Navigation- 4/5-noticable improvements with the upgraded maps, however still somewhat lacking for areas with frequent construction (i.e. Atlanta). The Garmin has difficulty with large shopping malls and strips with long paved roads leading away from an intersection. Example is a Costco that has been present for a few years listed on the map as being right off a large street; this is not true however, as the store is situated a quarter mile up the road among several other stores/resturants. It also occasionally recommends long routes instead of simply turning at an intersection; this typically happened on 4-lane streets/state highways. Unit doesn't have a feature letting you program a favorite route. Points of interest not very reliable for shops less than two years old or been closed within the past two years. For locations that are not experiencing rapid urban sprawl it is very reliable.
Bluetooth-5/5-required a firmware update to my treo 650, however afterwards worked flawlessly. You can dial and receive calls through the GPS. Much safer than fumbling with the phone.
MP3-5/5-works fine as a podcast or MP3 player through the built-in speaker or FM transmitter to your car stereo.
Traffic-2/5-most disappointing part. The feature is limited strictly to the basic interstate highways. That's not too bad except the time estimates are also way off in my opinion. As an example the unit displayed road construction causing an estimated 1 min delay with the highway listed in green (green for light, yellow medium, red heavy) so I decided not to detour. This resulted in 15 minutes of sitting in stop and go traffic for 3 miles. Another major goof is the lack of traffic coverage for I-575, a major 6 lane highway in NW Atlanta used by thousands of commuters but not covered. Forget traffic coverage of major secondary roads used as alternates for commuters. So your stuck being unable to compare the traffic conditions to let you pick your poison each day. I guess it's better than nothing and would be useful if there was a major accident, however in its current form it is minimally useful in avoiding stop and go traffic. Take the 6 months additional discounted MSN service for $10 when you first sign up and pass on the lifetime service as it is tied to the unit and not the owner.
My suggestion to Garmin for future updates is for the unit to display two routes whenever you select a location. This should be incoporated with the traffic function which needs to include at least major side roads used by morning/afternoon commutes. It gets annoying when I select a route to work and the unit every single time picks the same route that goes through the heart of traffic which I always ignore. Better yet how about the unit remembering and updating trip times based on time and day of the week? You could at least teach the unit of how silly some of its suggested routes are in real life.