I am planning on getting a portable GPS unit. I do not want a in-dash unit because I have 3 cars and need to alternate between all the time so it makes more sense getting a portable one.

My question is I want one that is not overally bulky and cheap quality, more importantly ease of use. There are so many brands out there and they all vary in price. Units such as Garmin and Tom Tom. I would like to know if anyone has any experience with some.

Garmin 650 will be on sale at Costco but the only thing is they don't have FM traffic avoidance but most of Tom Tom at a less expensive price has that. I don't thiik the Garmin can play media files either. Any suggestions?

I've trued the LG and I hate it. They are so dumb that it takes you to one place from another using the shortest role but all city streets. I want something that is smart.

thanks.

 

The nuvi has a decent interface.

 

Garmin is the way to go man..user friendly and straight forward. the Garmin nuvi 350 was on sale for 300 at my work [circuit city] for black friday/saturday. small/text to speech/mp3 capable/jpeg viewer/real time traffic alerts. way better than tomtom imo! we even had the c340 goin for 200..

 

I bought the Garmin 650 from the Costco deal. I'm loving it as it helped me out a few times. This is a nice unit, the screen is very clear and crisp. The touchscreen is perfect and the text to speech is very helpful. I also like the looks of it, very simple, except the antenna can get in the way. I got the friction mount from amazon since suction is illegal here in CA. It works great but doesn't give me a lot of room to work with since our impreza dashes are kinda small. The screen is big enough to view without any problems, though it might be too big to carry around compared to the 350. I try to take it out of the car as much as possible but the thing with the leather case can get bulky. The GPS all together is very easy to use.

The bad part about this unit is ..no bluetooth for those who want it, no FM transmitter, although there is a seperate traffic receiver you have to buy if you want the traffic avoidance thing. You have to subscribe to that service. There is also no QWERTY keyboard. The POI (point of interest like stores and restaurants) is pretty good, except I couldn't find a Office Depot in a small town near my school and a REI in Sacramento, but that's not a big deal. You also can only input one point to go to. You can't plan out a trip by inputting multiple points before hand. You can put them in favorites and select them as you go, but you can't put it as one long trip. one last thing about the gps..i think it might have to do with the map software but some routes don't make sense or takes me around. Sometimes the routing can be weird, but i still love my gps.

the 650 doesn't come with the leather carrying case or the friction mount. It does come with an adhesive disk that i hear is almost impossible to take off. It also does not come with a ac charger, just a usb and car charger.

 

I love my Magellan 3050t, with traffic. Really good one.

 

I got the C340 and it's great if you don't mind nav. only w/o the mp3. Bulkier than the Nuvi 350 but works great. You also have to get a seperate FM transmitter but for $200 it was a steal.

 

TOMTOM GO720
text to speech
mp3 capabilities, with fm modulator built in
bluetooths heandsfree calling (reads your text messages also)
real time traffic and wheather ( via bluetooth or traffic receiver)
ipod control

bsetbuy is selling it for $399 this week till saturday

 

i bought a tomtom ONE XL...

get the newer S model with text to speech.

then join www.tomtomforums.com when you get it...

 

you want something with all the hidden dirt roads updated on it, some dont mark NF roads

 

the gf has a garmin 650, and it's pretty awesome. very user friendly. Plus the 660 is on sale at best buy for like 400. iono if it's still going, but worth a look.

 

tom tom bass pro shop.com for $119? i just heard it on TV haha. regular $250 if that helps at all. weird i heard it just 30 seconds ago.

 

Because everyone who owns a Subaru drives on hidden dirt roads, so that must be a selling point.

I've heard nothing, but good things about Garmins, BTW. I've only heard a negative review from one person about TomTom, but I think it was the person who used it was more of the problem than the navigation system itself. If you're on a budget, Mio's maps are pretty good. They had quite a buzz last year with the C310X models on Black Friday. Can anyone shed some light on the new Navigon brand that just came out? They had commercials for these and they had fancy 3D maps that look like an FPS and crap.

 

I have an Alpine Blackbird and it has helped me quite a few times.

 

Magellan 4250 or 3250

 

i work at office depot i can let you swoop my employee id # and get 10% off