Garmin nüvi 885/885T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Speech Recognition
by Garmin
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: GarminBrand: Garmin
Edition: Electronics
Format: CD
Model: 010-00577-30
Publisher: Garmin
Studio: Garmin
Music Label: Garmin
Product features:
- Sleek, ultra-slim design fits in a pocket; High-sensitivity GPS receiver for fast satellite lock
- Pre-loaded with City Navigator NT maps for North America, including more than 6 million points of interest
- Speech recognition allow you to speak menu options and keep your eyes on the road; Bluetooth-ready for hands-free use of compatible phones
- Features text to speech for spoken directions with real street names, MP3 player, photo viewer, multi-destination routing, "Where am I?" and "Where's my car?"
- NOTE: Model number on the box is 885T because the traffic receiver is included; however, the model number on the device itself is 885 as the "T" in 885T refers to the additional component
- Visit Garmin.com to get the latest firmware updates for your nüvi to keep it current and performing at its best.
- Garmin 4.3-Inch Premium Carrying Case with Flap
- Garmin nüvi Accessory Travel Pack
- Garmin AC Charger and International Adapter Set
- Garmin 4.3-Inch Carrying Case
- Garmin 12-Volt Adapter Cable
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 885/885T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Speech Recognition
Customer Review: A good unit but far from excellent
Summary: 3 Stars
I write this review based on my experiences on Garmin 885T, 780, 765T, C320, TomTom 930T, and Mio C310. I purchased different units to compare their performance and their traffic services. I returned those units which freeze me up during navigation and sold those which work fine. I travel very frequently between Central New Jersey (close to NYC) and North Virginia (close to Washington, DC). So I have extensive experience on GPS for the areas of NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC.
I score the unit for the following aspects which I think most important to all. I give 5 stars for each aspect if it performs the best among all GPS I have used--5 star does not mean it is perfect--a machine is far from perfect--but means it is the best among all.
1. Navigation/Route calculation (3.5 to 4.0 out of 5.0): All GPS can direct me to the destination (destination accuracy is a different issue, see below). However, Garmin 7xx and 885T tends to lead me off highway and go back again for no reason. Garmin as well as Mio tends to underestimate the traffic light delay and may route you to local routes which will take double time (see traffic section below). It is a little bit missleading in Garmin's original estimation of distance (probably straight line distance) before it calculates the real path. TomTom 930T clearly performs better job than Garmin 885T in terms of arrival time.
2. Destination Accuracy and POI system (4.5/5.0): Garmin make mistakes, too, but far less than other GPS and their POI system is the best among all. For example, it is very difficult to locate a Chinese restaurant from TomTom but Garmin has detailed category of food (Chinese food is a different category of Asian food). TomTom does not tell destination on which side of the road, but Garmin always does. It is a little bit slow when searching POIs in compare to all my other GPS units (I deduct 0.5 for this reason). Another small complain is lack of features of address corrections. TomTom can correct an address so that later on you will not be bothered with wrong address. It also allows TomTom to correct address mistakes for their further map update.
Update after 1.5 year of use: An example of arrival time: I have a journey with 70miles on NJTPK and 5miles local. NJTPK speed limit is 65mile/hour and local is 50m/h, 35m/h and 25m/h, plus two toll stations, three exits, plus one stop sign. Garmin 885T reported a trip time of 1hour, meaning I have to speed 10m/h over the limit to arrive on time. Similar thing happens in another trip where I have 120miles to finish and Garmin tells me that I will arrive in 1hour 43min, which is 4 m/h above the speed limit.
3. Traffic (3.0/5.0): Well, traffic. Traffic is the most difficult issue for GPS without being actively connected to the internet, I guess. 885T uses MSN and it gives you some nice (but not useful) features such as gas price, weather, local news, etc. If you have long trip, the problem is that MSN Traffic is local (unlike other FM) traffic service, meaning you won't be able to know that there is a traffic in Philadelphia when you are in NYC area. After you are already committed on NJ TPK, you probably have little choice change to another path. On the other hand, it may not be an issue for most who use GPS mainly for local and it is always questionable that if the traffic will be cleared (or worsened) an hour later. TomTom traffic seems to be better for my area and for my trip. It shows a traffic icon list on right hand of screen as well as slow traffic display on navigation screen. The icon tells info such as 1min at Phil and 3min at I-95 tunnel. It is your choice to watch how those traffic pattern changes and if you want to take I-895 instead of I-895. One complain for TomTom 930T: why not put the antenna with the power cord as Garmin does? A separate attenuate is very inconvenient.
One recommendations: >90% of chance, unless you called someone who can help to confirm traffic online, stay in highway, especially in rush hours. In Navigation Menu, do "NOT AVOID TRAFFIC".--Just call your wife that you are going to be late, say for 30min from Garmin.
A Unique Traffic Experience:
Here is a unique experience regarding to traffic explains the limitation of MSN traffic. I met a horrible traffic on Nov. 8, 2009 on my way from VA to NJ. The jam started from Baltimore all the way to the DEL Memorial Bridge (70miles). Of course I did not know all that when I was on road. (I heard one day later that in MD on I-95 north bound a truck with liquid oxygen tanks got accident with other vehicles). Plus two lanes shut down at I-95 in Delaware.)
I had my Garmin 885T with me.
First, when I was passing by Baltimore, 885T reported a "17min" to "20min" delay (it fluctuated). I did not pay attention to the yellow icon until I hit the traffic and it was too late. Had I TomTom with me, I would be able to easily tell the slow traffic on navigation screen before I jumped into it. It is too late. It takes me about an hour before I am able to reach the next exit. I called my friends to confirm this traffic is real (>50% chance the traffic from MSN is inaccurate) and decide to take the local path.
Second, after I got off the highway, I checked my MSN, and I could tell from the map that traffic finished around Exit 77, So I entered the I-95 again around Exit 80. I was wrong. The I-95 is still seriously jammed. Anyway, before Millard Tydings Memorial Bridge, there is nothing I can do but to follow the traffic.
Third, my GPS told me after the booth the traffic was clear---all my route was green. It was wrong. This time, MSN did not know that there are two lanes closed. After jammed for an hour, it is still shows green. I had to call my friend again. Surprisingly, yahoo map reported no traffic in this region, but Google maps shows a dark line on my route--serious traffic. Again, I missed the first exit of I-95 within Delaware, and I had no choice but to stay in the traffic.
After struggling for more than 4 hours, I was able to finish traffic region and enter the boundary of NJ. In additional to all the headache, I have two GPS freeze-ups and I have to remove the battery to reboot. I changed the display detail from MOST back to Normal, and it seems helps a little bit.
Additional: The gas price is not very useful for me.
a. First, the distance of the closest station is probably based on straight line distance. When I drive on a road along a river, there are several stations on the other side of the river, and Garmin puts those stations at the very beginning of the list. I have to go through a long detour to reach any of them.
b. Second, I could not find many Gulf stations nearby, and many Sunoco stations are also missing.
c. The new TomTom 940live (not available in US) and maybe 740 live has a very very nice feature: gas price along your route--I am very reluctant to get off highway just to fill gas. This is one of those things: less means more.
4. Software stability (2.5/5.0): It is not unusual that the unit freezes,locks up or reboots for no reason, so does 780 and 765T (probably more often). I never see this before for Garmin C320, TomTom 930T, and Mio C310. It only happens to Garmi 885T, 780 and 765T. I returned 765T for this reason and will return 885T for the same reason. It makes me very frustrated when I am driving at 74mph and have to pull over your car to remove the battery. It may be due to software/operating system bugs. It can hardly let me make a complete trip from NY to DC.
Update 1: I updated software and maps soon after I purchase the unit. This is the freeze-up in one week:
twice in my trip from VA to NJ
twice afterworth
once in my trip from NJ to VA
twice at weekend
five times in my trip from VA to NJ. MP3 stops playing one of the songs and unit freezes up. I deleted that song.
2 automatic restarting this morning.
Bottom line: if you want to have a robust unit, go for Garmin 660 or earlier model. The software in 7xx and 8xx are very buggy, even after Garmin released software fix---you can not fix a ship with a million holes, I guess.
Update 2: I exchanged for another new 885T. This time I upgrade the software immediately before it corrupted any data and it seems that the replacement does not freeze me up this time for two days.
Update 3: It seems that my 2nd Garmin 885T is working fine for one week with short time usage. I am not sure how and if the software in the first 885T is corrupted. I did not upgrade the software immediately and probably the buggy old software has memory leak and cause serious problem. Anyway, I change the score from 1.0 to 3.0 to reflect the truth.
Update 4: For the replacement unit the first 230mile trip w/o using voice recognition and little bluetooth phone is fine. The second trip, the unit lost voice twice and I tried to reboot the unit without removing the battery but it does not help. Then I have to do what I used to do for the first unit: pull over my car, remove the battery and reset the unit. The first time losing of voice is after a 30min bluetooth phone call, then the unit reboot twice by itself, and after reboot, there is no voice. The second time is when I tried to use a speed dial (one number dial) and it was not successful, then the unit lost voice.
Update 5: The 2nd unit reboot every one or two days or several times within one long trip. Also, it lost voice for several times and freezes for a few times, all happens in the first month.
Update 6: after two month, i got used to the reboot and lockup and always prepare to remove the battery. It seems to happen more often when using bluetooth, mp3 and voice recognition in a long trip.
Update 7: with the display details setting of MOST, the system seems to be slower and causes more freeze-up.
I also lost voice once for Garmin 780 for some unknown reasons.
5. Screen and body quality (3.0/5.0): not as good as its early model (660 and C320), not comparable to TomTom 930T at all. Looks like cheap plastic (it is cheap plastic). I also noticed many Magellan GPS have better build quality.
6. Sound quality (3.0/5.0): volume is low, very low, hardly to be heard when driving in rain or high wind. Someone seems to be able to modify the volume to make it louder. The poor speaker (orders of magnitude worse than C320) and lousy FM transmitter makes the MP3/audio player useless.
7. FM transmitter (3.0/5.0): Weak, again, too weak, probably only better than none. Do not depends on it. It seems that TomTom 930T is much stronger--probably due to the external antenna?
8. Bluetooth (4.0/5.0): works fine with my Nokia N85. However, it is hardly to be useful with the poor speaker and poor FM transmitter. It happens to me once that when I disconnect a phone call, I suddenly lost voice from my GPS and I have to reset the unit. Not sure why this happens.
To solve 6 & 7 and make 8 working better, one may want to purchase an external FM transmitter ($8) and bypass the build-in FM transmitter and speaker. Some of the external FM transmitter have multiple bands which allows you easily switch among frequencies--which is important for DC/Baltimore area where you can hardly find a vacant frequency on I-95.
9. User interface (4.5/5.0): not as good as TomToms but OK. The display (text or menu) languages are less than 765T and 780 for some reason. One complain to Garmin: TomTom has a "done" button to go back to navigation page, can Garmin do the same thing instead of clicking 5 times back back back back back to main menu and view map? However, there seems an easy solution: voice recognition, which can direct me back to main menu or navigation map directly.
10. Sensitive to locations (4.0/5.0): OK but seems not as fast as 765T and TomTom 930T. Maybe also slower than C320. You will find it is very often the display is not updated after you make the turn. It becomes a problem when I drive on a way with dense junctions and it mislead me a couple of times.
11. MP3 and Audio book (5.0/5.0): with an external FM transmitter they work well.
12. Lane assistant (3.5/5.0): better than none, but most of the time, you will find none. Only becomes active in DC-Baltimore highway to me. TomTom seems to have a better lane assistant, the lane assistant does not disappear before you finish the turn---Garmin only show a picture then over.
13. Voice Recognition (5.0/5.0): I did not try it on my first unit. I will say it works pretty well on my second unit. I have thought the unit needs some training, but actually not. It messes up "volume" with "weather" sometimes, but most of the time, it is pretty good. Very nice feature. The only exception is that when I drive in heavy rain or high wind, where the noises is very loud on wind shield and the unit could not tell.
Personally, I give 1-4 the highest weight, and 6-8 are also important to me, and 13 is a big plus to overcome some of the problems.
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