Garmin nuvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nuvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Best there is for a handheld
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently bought an 880 having using a 660 for the last 1.5 years. I have owned 5 Garmins, 3 Lowrances, a Magellen, and have borrowed several of the latest TomTom's on occassion and I can say that, without a doubt, this is the most complete and easy to use hand held/portable navigator I've ever used. Let me explain....
Capability
Garmin packs an amazing amount of capability into this device - Routes, amazing POI search capabilities, a HUGE database of POI's, extensive customization options, beautiful, easy to read display, decent battery life for use when walking, an array of charging methods (will even charge via USB from your computer) MSN, and many more. No other portable navigator has the breadth of features of the 880. It's truly the "top of the line". For this I give it a 5+
Ease of Use
Thte Nuvi OS in general is quite easy to use. It was the first ever GPS navigator that my wife, who is not into gadgets, could use with absolutely no instructions. In fact, it's so easy to use she WANTS to use it. Same goes for my father-in-law who is completely technology challenged. He learned how to use it with only about 5 minutes of basic instruction. As easy to use as it is, you still get access to advanced features and the "ease of use" doesn't get in your way. Once you learn some of the "shortcuts" (like holding down a "back" button to go all the way back to the main menu in one press) it becomes even easier to use. Without a doubt this is the easiest to use of all portable navigators I've used (which is quite a few). I give ease of use a "5".
Searching
Searching for POI's on the Nuvi continues to be quite good. However, I'd like to see some improvements to the categories. For instance, it's amazing that all Nuvi's don't have a category for RV related POI's like "RV Resorts", "RV supplies", etc. You have to search by spelling for "RV" which also returns things like "Joe's Soft SeRVe Ice Cream". A nice improvement on the 880 is the capability to skip putting in the city when searching for an address. Over all the search functions are the best I've seen on a portable GPS navigator but because there are some small and basic improvements I give searching a 4.5 rather than a 5.
Maps
The maps are "good enough" for the most part on the 880 and the other Nuiv's however, having used quite a few other navigators I have a few gripes.
1. My overall biggest complaint is WHY doesn't Garmin have a more frequent update capability for their maps? They know how to do this stuff because their aviation products have it where you can subscribe to updates every 28 days. Other manufacturers are no better but Garmin has the know how (in partnership with Jeppesen). We should be able to get incremental updates rather than waiting for 1-2 years for a complete map database update. This is a huge issue.
2. Accuracy. The maps Garmin uses (which they buy from Navtek) are "acceptable" but in my travels I find annoying errors. For instance, I'm currently staying with my son at a USAF base. The Navtek maps are mostly accurate for the base (missing one of the entry gates) and surrounding areas but when I ask the 880 to take me somewhere off the base it tries to route me straight through a 10 foot tall barbed wire fence rather than through the main gates. This is a map problem not a GPS software problem.
3. POI's display. The 880 and the other Nuvi's give you the option of displaying POI's on the map page but they don't show all of them for some reason. This is not a map problem but rather they way Garmin has choosen to display the maps. If I tell it to display all POI's on the map then it should do it.
4. Map Detail. My aviation Garmin units have very detailed maps which include lots of detail on unpaved roads and associated POI's and when you use them in automotive mode you get to see this detail. My cheap, difficult to use and unreliable, Lowrance 350 shows a lot of this as well. This is very useful for off-roading. To get this for the Nuvi's you have to buy Garmins Topographical maps.
Overall, I give the maps on the 880 (and other Nuvi's) a "4". The maps are probably good enough for 90% of owners but could be improved in my opinion.
Voice Recognition
To be succinct, the voice recognition is AWESOME. It works incredibly well even in the high noise of my Jeep Wrangle. It is nearly flawless. I'll caution that I do not have any sort of accent though and I have no idea how it behaves if you do not speak "standard" english. Of course it would be great if it was just like "Hal" on 2001 A Space Odessey where you can just talk to it conversationally but that capability is still a few years away because of the computing power required. The 880 only responds to specific commands but it works amazingly well. Give that I understand the state of the technology, the only improvment I'd like to see is the ability to optionally turn off the voice prompting. For example, when you select a POI to navigate to, it takes you to a screen which requires you to say "Yes" to begin navigation but before you can say "Yes" you have to wait for the GPS to say, "Say Yes to navigate to this location" (or something like that). Once you are familiar with the unit you don't need those prompts and you can use it much more quickly without them. Overall, I give the voice recognition a 5 given the current state of technology.
Summary
The 880 is an AWESOME unit. The initial price is rather high compared to other navigators but it most certainly will come down. I tend to wait for the first price drop on such things these days but I found the 880 so compelling, capable, and desirable I bought it only a few weeks after it was released at only a slight discount and have no remorse. I feel the 880 is the absolute best consumer handheld/portable GPS automotive navigator available today - bar none. I give it a pragmatic and objective 4 only because of the Map issues I noted however I will say you can't do better than the 880 at this point in time and relative to all other units on the market it is definitely a "5+".
Customer Review: Not perfect, but the best one out there
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a "GPS buff", having had a GPS for flying since '97 and one for driving since '02, and have had several for various functions (flying, hiking, driving) since then. While not perfect, this is the best one I have seen for driving, and in my opinion it is the best one out there. Here are the strengths and weaknesses I have experienced.
Strengths:
- Locks onto the GPS signal like a bulldog. My old GPS would occasionally lose the satellite signal on cloudy days or while driving on a tree-lined road. With this one, I can leave the GPS sitting on the floor of the car turned on (while not in use) and it will still get and hold a signal.
- Very sharp, high resolution screen. Easy to read at night or in daylight.
- Intuitive user interface. Everything makes sense.
- Very thin and light. This makes it easier to store and transport, and it can sit closer to the window without bumping against it.
- The traffic, weather, and cheapest gas price features are great. I live outside Boston, and the traffic updates are wonderful.
- Great battery life. When traveling, I will put it into a carrying case I purchased, and not even bother bringing along the power cord. I don't bother taking it out of the case -- just wedge the whole thing between the windshield and the dashboard -- and it works great with no setup effort.
- The Bluetooth remote allows you to command the GPS without using your hands or taking your eyes off the road. It works almost flawlessly, with excellent voice recognition.
- Optimizes routes with multiple destinations. If you need to go two (or three, or four...) places, it will calculate the most efficient route to go all of those places. I would imagine delivery drivers love it.
- The 880 speaks the street names (for example, "In 500 feet, turn right on Adams Street"). The spoken street name really help you figure out where to turn when you have roads very close together.
- Always shows you your next turn in text at the top of the screen. Also, an icon on the left of the screen tells you the current speed limit. Getting a text version of your entire route (like MapQuest) is one finger push away.
Weaknesses:
- The default nighttime brightness setting is a bit too bright. You can modify the brightness, of course, but this affects the daytime brightness as well.
- The built-in speaker volume would be better if it went louder. Could be an issue with the windows rolled down. Would be an issue in a convertible.
- Down in the "Settings", you choose whether you want the 880 to calculate your various routes using "Faster Time" or "Shorter Distance". It then calculates all of your routes using whatever setting you have chosen (the factory-default is "Faster Time"). My experience has been that there are some times when I am better off using "Faster Time", and other times when "Shorter Distance" makes sense. Heck, sometimes it makes sense to look at both and then make a decision, or to go part of the route "Faster" and part of the route "Shorter". My old Garmin GPS gave the Faster / Shorter option each time you chose a destination...very handy. On the new Garmin this function is buried away and thus difficult to change.
- It has a Detour function, but previous generation Garmins gave you more control over the Detour...you could tell it to choose a detour for the next mile, five miles, ten miles, etc. On the new Garmin you can choose a Detour, but have much less control over the duration of the detour.
- No buttons! This is a nitpick, but the only button or switch on the whole unit is the power switch, everything else is accessed through the touchscreen menu system. This makes for a nice clean design, but I preferred the old design that had a few buttons that gave you access to key features. For example, if I held down a button, it would pull up a list of recent routes I had chosen. If I double-clicked that button, it would ask me if I want directions back to Home. Now I have to use the menus to do these two (and all other) things. The menu system is very nice, but I think Garmin chose form over function in some cases.
One last thing. Regardless of what GPS you get, consider buying an optional dashboard "Bean Bag" mount. Most GPS come with either a "suction cup" mount which attaches the GPS to the glass, or an adhesive mount that attaches the GPS to the dashboard. They both work great, but they are difficult to attach (so most people leave them up all the time) and the window mount leaves a mark on the window. Portable GPS units are the stolen from cars more than any other item these days...you definitely do not want to leave them up when your car is unattended, and thieves roam parking lots looking for the GPS or the tell-tale mark left from the window mount. With a bean bag mount (the bean bag has a soft rubbery underside that holds it firmly in place so it does not slide around) you just place the unit on top of your dashboard when you are using it, and then put it out of sight on the floor or in the glove compartment when you leave the car. It is easy to use, out of sight when not in use, and does not leave tell-tale marks.
I hope this helps!
Customer Review: One of the Best GPS units available today!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using the Nuvi 880 GPS for a couple of weeks now, and it is the best Garmin unit to date, and possibly the portable/handheld/car GPS available at this time. The Garmin Nuvi GPS units are probably the easiest to start using out of the box without reading any manuals.
The new line of Nuvi units have done away with the small flip-up antenna, opting for a internal antenna which is much nicer. This GPS is also VERY thin and can be carried in your jeans pocket (front pocket-without the leather case/protector) if you're traveling in another country. Because the 880 has done away with the external antenna, it also maintains the same thin dimensions for the length of the backside of the unit, finally losing that small bulge as on the back of the 670 (and other 600-series) Nuvi units.
The speech recognition is about 90% accurate, but this may be due to the higher amount of road noise in my car (and/or the air conditioner fan noise). When it's quiet, however, the voice recognition is surprisingly accurate.
The ability to have a user-changeable battery is featured on the 880. I can't tell you how many times I wish I had this feature with our Nuvi 670 on our trip to Italy when we were out all day on foot and the GPS battery became depleted, (though it did last for 5-6 hours). The only thing lacking is that Garmin should sell some sort of external battery charger for the extra batteries rather having to charge them in the unit itself.
Another reviewer mentioned that the Garmin doesn't have intelligent street recognition (such as with Google) to ask the user if a different spelling for a street/highway was intended when the unit doesn't return any results with the spelling it was given. This is not true, and perhaps that reviewer should have another read of the documentation to understand this. If you provide a partial text street or highway name to the Garmin it will return a list of possible matches. The Nuvi 880 works slightly different than previous Nuvi models in that the earlier models would provide an "active lookup", listing the possible matches as soon as the user had typed enough characters to determine a match. The 880, however, allows the user to provide (enter) the partial or full street/intersection AND THEN it will display a list of possible matches. This works a little more efficiently than the previous models because it allows the system to do a single fast search, rather than searching after each letter, and it allows the user to correct any typing mistakes before searching on them.
Another nice feature of the Garmin unit is that the virtual keyboard for spelling can be QWERTY style now.
The built in MP3 player is fun. For example if you have a music (or any MP3) that you want to hear via the car's stereo, you simply tune the FM radio to an unused station and configure the Garmin to output to the FM transmitter. Music and guidance prompts will be played via the car stereo. This is also nice for extremely noisy car environments if the Garmin's (loud) volume isn't enough, then the GPS prompts can be played via the car stereo. Other utilities on the 880 are very helpful, such as the unit and currency converters.
I've also tried the TomTom units, which I found to be slower in computing routes, and having far too many user configurable options. If you want to spend hours "customizing" all of the screen colors and every other aspect of your GPS, then maybe a TomTom would be a good choice for you. However, if you want an easy-to-use unit, the Garmin is a better choice.
The screen brightness can be set by the user, but 70-80% will suffice in all but the highest glare situations, and the large screen is very clear.
With ANY touch-screen device I always recommend purchasing clear screen protector sheets. These clear sheets stick via friction (no residue), and will help to greatly extend the life of your GPS or other product.
Lastly, another very nice feature on the 880 is the addition of MSN Direct which I renewed the subscription to a lifetime (guaranteed until 2012) extension for about $120 flat (there are other renewal options available). One of the best features of MSN Direct is updated traffic reports sent to your GPS. Even while not navigating a route, and simply viewing the map, a traffice "incident" icon will show on the display if a traffic event lies ahead in the direction you're traveling in case you want to have your GPS route you around the traffice. MSN Direct also features such things as a little icon for weather warnings on your GPS, full weather for your location, a selection to pop up a quick list of gas prices/station near your location, another selection to pop up a quick list of movie times listed by theater or movie title, news, stocks, local events. It is a very nice feature.
All in all this is one of the best portable GPS units available currently.
Customer Review: Nuvi 880
Summary: 4 Stars
Garmin nüvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
This is my first GPS and overall, am enjoying it and have found it to be a great tool, especially in metro areas. I enjoy the features of MSN Direct as well. I purchased this unit in mid-July directly from Amazon. I tend to like more fully featured units as I appreciate technology. I was willing to pay more for this unit (versus the 850 for example) to try out the extra features.
I used the unit locally (smaller city west of Grand Rapids, MI) for a week or so before I took it out of state to Virginia for a family trip so that I would gain a decent understanding of its abilities and features by seeing how it would route me to work and other known points before trying it in a larger, unknown metro area. The unit was a real help, even within the Norfolk Naval Base.
Some frustrations:
Unit needed to be "reset" twice already. Once it simply locked up and the other, although it recognized and added the remote, it would not allow it to function. I followed all the instructions, new remote battery - no help. Reseting (removed GPS battery) cleared both issues.
Internal speakers are difficult to hear and people on the receiving end mention the clarity of my voice is not all that great thru the bluetooth connection. This is true even with no radio, no fan motor, no passengers talking, etc) Like another reviewer, I am also hard of hearing and found that using the FM option does not help much for a variety of reasons. Have to really turn up the volume on the radio to even hear the nuvi and quality was not consistent. Thank you for the tip of plugging into the AUX jack, which I have on my 2008 CRV - I will definitely try that. One thing that has helped with the sound issue it that, after experimenting a bit, I am able to locate the unit on my windshield next to and at the same level as the rearview mirror. This gets the unit as close to me as possible and gives me a clear line of sight. One learning point - on some cars, the "dot patterns" on the windshield around the rearview mirror on some cars are printed on the inside surface which the suction mount will not stick to - so you have to position the unit lower and farther away. On my car, I eventually found out that the dots are within the glass which allowed me to better position the unit as mentioned above.
WebUpdater - I am a Mac user and had to spend quite a bit of time getting the software to recognize/find my unit. I tried using a Dell laptop as well but got the same result except that it kept telling me that I might have to change an interface setting (somewhere/somehow) to "Garmin" or "Host" which I was not anxious to experiment with. Garmin does tell you that you might have to update the software on older models (which I did not expect the brand new 880 to be !!!) before WebUpdater will work. Unfortunately, they don't tell you your options for doing such - you have to nose around. After several hours, I was able to find and get thru a back door by going thru the "Additional Software" section on the Garmin website and found a link specific to the 880 to update the software. Once I updated the software to version 3.00 (from 2.50 as received), I connected my nuvi back to my Mac and everything now works fine. Better instructions would have saved hours here.
I am also a little surprised on how long it takes for the unit to find a sat signal. Not sure of other brands performance in this area though.
Not sure if any make or model would do better but when in situations where one turn or instruction needs to be followed quickly with another instruction (to turn again in a short distance or stay left for example), I found that the unit would sometimes be giving the second instruction after I already had to execute the move. Other times, traveling the same route, it gave both instructions right up front so that you knew that you had to pay extra attention.
Note to Judy - I also experienced the same "unit already registered" problem. There are multiple codes in the battery compartment of the unit that are "8 or 9 characters long". I got the same message using one number and then was successful using the number directly under the barcode. You think that maybe they could be a little more specific in the instructions on where to find the right code ???!!!
Overall a very helpful unit and would recommend to anyone. The 850 might be the better and less expensive choice for most.
Customer Review: Don't buy this for the voice recognition
Summary: 3 Stars
I recently bought a Nuvi 850 for the only one of our three cars that doesn't have a factory nav system and for rental cars. I am pretty well spoiled by factory system integration but I figured that the aftermarket portable crowd may have figured out how to make a decent product at this point. And they have. Decent, not great.
First, the primary value of a nav system comes from the basics. Maps, routing engine, receiver, a well designed user interface, and a great screen. Garmin does a great job with these basics. And you get all this basic goodness in even their lower end widescreen Nuvi models like the 260W or 760.
But, when it comes to some other stuff well, they have some work left to do.
Volume - the Nuvi 850 is barely audible at max volume with moderate road noise. I was hoping the front mounted speakers on the Nuvi 800's would be an improvement. They're not! The FM transmitter meanwhile is a pain in the butt if you're moving (why else would you need a nav unit). As you move, a previously clear FM channel may become occupied resulting in constant fiddling with the radio and Nuvi.
Voice Recognition - it's a great concept and the 850 does pretty well but you need a very quiet environment. Doesn't sound like a moving car does it? Even in the house, with a TV at low volume 15 feet away, the unit becomes confused about what it's "hearing". Mute the TV, and tell the kids to shut up and it really does a pretty good job. Entering addresses via voice is just so much better than tedious typing. My opinion of the professional reviewers who rave about the Nuvi 800's voice recognition has slipped quite a few notches. It ain't that great.
Garmin Features - the "Where Am I" and "Where's My Car" features are great ideas and well implemented. But again, both of these are available on the much cheaper 700 series of Nuvi's.
Battery - the 800 series has the first user replaceable battery on a Nuvi. For about $30 you can carry a spare. Nice.
So, is limited voice recognition and a replaceable battery worth the $300 premium over a 700 series Nuvi? Only you can answer that. Although very disappointed with the voice recognition accuracy and low volume, I'm keeping my Nuvi 850. The voice recognition still saves me from typing and a spare battery means I don't have to carry a power cord for most trips. I'll just enter my destination using voice comands in the office, hotel, restaurant, or at home before I head out. The VR remote can live in my briefcase. Less clutter for the cabin.