Customer Reviews

Garmin nuvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

I gave the Garmin Nuvi 880 4 stars because, for me, it really does what I want and need. I have run into a few minor glitches that are NOT the 880's problem, but a Garmin issue.

First, the pros:

1. It gets me just about anywhere I want to go. Look, I don't care if I know a shortcut, but the Nuvi 880 doesn't. I really don't need it when navigating to places I am familiar with. But, in unfamiliar places it does a real nice job of getting me to my destination.

2. The voice activated system is great. I have used it for around a month now, and I am having few problems with it.

3. The MSN Direct has really been a nice feature. On trips to the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas it "kicked in" automatically to warn us of severe traffic situations ahead, and closed roads. I have used it to find movies and show times, as well as weather reports.

4. I am hard of hearing and use hearing aids, so I like using the connection from the Nuvi to my AUX port on my radio. I can easily hear everything the Nuvi is telling me.

5. I used it in pedestrian mode once. It worked really well. I bought a fanny pack to take it with me when I leave the car. However, it actually fits in the pocket of cargo pants.

6. I use the bluetooth feature all the time. It was absolutely no effort to sync with my phone.

7. On a recent trip I was using the "Where Am I" mode a lot. It has an elevation feature built into it. We were traveling high mountain roads and we used the Nuvi to get the elevation. It was all in fun.

Now, the Cons:

1A. I don't know why Garmin leaves every house on my street off it's maps. The street AND street name appear, BUT try putting in an address of any house on my street, and it chooses another street in the neighborhood instead. My wife has had a Garmin 300 series for a couple of years and has the same problem. She tried updating the software, but nothing changes. How many other locations are missing?

1B. Just for fun I was going to navigate to our Credit Union. The Nuvi wanted to send me to where the Credit Union Used to be located. This could be an updating issue, but the Credit Union moved around 4 years ago. This bothers me because I don't know how many potential places I could navigate to are actually in a different location, and have been for years.

2. The voice system is great. I have no real issues with it. However, it has a hard time understanding your commands if there is too much noise. Road noise is not the problem. It happens only when others are talking at the same time you are trying to give it commands. Also, my a/c was too loud once.

3. The MSN Direct is a nice feature. I would like to see it expanded into more areas. You have to be in the few service areas it has in order to receive the info. However, I know the service areas are expanding all the time. My one "BIG" complaint is the updating of this service. I used it the other day to find a movie and the times it would be playing. I should have called ahead because the movie was NOT playing at the two theaters I went to. This is no big deal because I called a third place I found. I used to Nuvi to give me the theater's phone number!

4.I tried using the FM transmitter to have a wireless hookup to my car's radio. I have had no success with it. But, the AUX port works fine.

5. As for pedestrian mode! Well, I would like to see some type of mode indicator on the main map. Why? It's no big deal, but I forgot to put the mode back from pedestrian to automobile when we in Las Vegas. On the day we left everything on the Nuvi seemed really messed up. It was telling us we wouldn't get home until some rediculous time, and it would stop telling us as we drove down the road that it was recalculating the route. It thought we were walking home (about 800 miles). My fault, and it will never happen again.

6. Bluetooth. My cell phone syncs with the Nuvi 880. But not entirely. The only thing it will let me do is make and receive calls. Not a real problem. However, my wife sync'd her phone up and got just about all of her phone's features such as address book, texting, etc. I don't text, but I would like to use my address book.

Not much to complain about. I found the Nuvi 880 to be very useful for me. I don't consider it to be an expensive toy. I really do benefit from the features it has. One more thing to consider:
I have recently (Last Year) been diagnosed with an eye condition called Macular Pucker. It does not lead to blindness, but straight lines aren't exactly straight anymore. It could clear itself up on it's own, or maybe surgery is in the future. I can read road signs, menus, and other printed material, but it is frustraing as small print letters can "run" into each other sometimes. The hands frre, voice activated Nuvi 880 allows me to bypass most of the looking at small print and typing in of names and addresses. For this feature alone it was worth every penny.

4/9/2009
Just thought I would share my experiences since last summer. The same minor issues are still there, but the Garmin is working just fine. Always getting me to m y destination, phone calls are being made and received just fine, and no major problems to report. I have used it all over the state of California without a hitch.
One of the things I have to say about this entire experience is I have learned to understand the gps instructions better. For example when it says to "stay left and continue right" It makes sense because some freeway intersections are complicated, and you don't really get it until you've experienced it. It is the small things that take a little getting used to that make the difference. As a consequence, I have rounded the learning curve. However, it did NOT take me 6 moths to accomplish this. The learning took a lot less time. I'm just updating my comments so anyone who might read them will know that I am still using the Garmin 880, and still enjoying it. I would update my rating to 5 stars because the price has really dropped so, I think it is a good bargain, and the little quirky things about gps's in general seem to disappear as the cost goes down. Also, I really like the MSN traffic alerts, and all the features that go along with it.

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+".

Have been using this for about a week since the day after it came out. Long time Garmin customer, and have loved the Street Pilot series.
Overall this is a great product. The voice recognition is excellent, with almost no errors if the radio is off. I do miss the remote that my street pilot came with, but as I get more used to the VR, I think that will go away.
The MSN features are good, with the best one (in my mind) being the ability to send map points directly to your Nuvi without connecting it to your computer. You do this via Live Search maps, not as good as Google maps, but not bad at all. You can move waypoints from Google maps, but you have to physically connect the unit to the computer.
Given the price I had hoped the GPS unit would find satellites immediately on starting (like the built in unit in my wife's Honda). However (like the street pilot) it take about 20-30 seconds if the car has been turned off for a while.
Mapping software seems great, I haven't gotten any directions that didn't make sense.
Did not come with any software for the computer, as the Street Pilots did, which I am somewhat surprised about. Maybe Garmin is phasing out MapSource now that everyone is using Google maps? Not sure.
Overall excellent, but then again, given that it is basically the most expensive GPS out there, it should be.
If it was even 200 dollars cheaper, I would give it 5 starts, but given the value, I would bump it down to 4.

I had a Garmin 760, which was fine. The 880 is an even better gadget. But the Nuvi is still no smarter than it was; just more tricks to it. First, the base maps still seem to be at least three years old, even if you buy this year's maps. My iPhone is much more useful in finding places of business than my Nuvi. Second, the Nuvi software does not have any sort of "smart" road name recognition as you type. For example, if the map calls Interstate 35 N IH-35, you had better darn well type it in just like that. This is problematic manly because the nomenclature varies from place to place. For example, I-70 might be W IH-70 in Denver, but "Interstate 70 West" in another town. The Nuvi is not smart enough to give you options. You must go to manual map mode to see how the road is named on the Nuvi, and then try again. Or better yet, plug in your destination via the PC-based mapping software. Go to Google Maps if you want a sample of how this "smart" feature should work.

The Garmin Nuvi 880 is an awesome GPS unit. I've tried many in the past, and nothing comes close to the Garmin 880. Voice recognition works flawlessly. I'm definitely going to keep the MSN Direct subscription after the free 3 month grace period. Never need to touch the screen while driving. Hands-free everything! Directions, iPhone dialing with bluetooth, traffic, weather, restaurants, movie theaters and much more. The price tag puts it at the top of the GPS $$ ladder, but it's worth every penny.

The Nuvi 880 is the 1st GPS that I have purchased. So please take this review with a grain of salt. I do have a couple of wouldda been nices:

*) A pause button - it definitely doesn't like you stopping for gas (but I don't think any of them do)

*) From what I'm told the Truck route option is gone. I have an F250 with passenger plates, sometimes I tow a 20' trailer.

*) Ability to input by street name "routes to avoid" vs. trying to "click" on the road.

*) Takes wicked long to "find" satellites - for some reason I expected it to be faster.

Voice recognition is excellent with the radio off - it seems to "guess" correctly 90 - 95% of the time when you sort of tell it something that's not on the screen.

I've taken 4 or 5 trips that are over 200 miles from my home and think that overall it's a very solid GPS. If it were cheaper and had some of the little things I outlined above I would have given it a 5.

I'm hooked on Nav systems. I really got it for my RAV4 to replace a NUV 660 which I liked very much. I have (had) built-in Navs on several cars. The latest is a Lexus 460L. The Lexus is reported to have one of the very best Nav systems. It is very good. But in many respects, the NUVI 880 is better. The voice recognition is vastly superior. There seems to be more POIs. Destinations to remote areas are superior in the 880.

I'm planning a trip to Ohio next week in the Lexus and will be taking the 880 with me and use it in conjunction with the Lexus Nav. For one thing, unlike the Lexus, the 880 will take me to the exact address of an out-of-the-way place. And the other advantage is that the 880 shows the current highway speed limit as well as the current speed of the car--good speed control.

And it's great to find the cheapest gas, curent weather, stock quotes, the current news, and 'where am I", with immediate access to police and hospitals.

I love the 880; give it a 5 star+.Garmin nüvi 880 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

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.

I have had a Garmin 2610 since 2004. I decided to buy this unit for my wife. We both could not get the system to understand the numbers we were speaking for the address and I had to hand type them in. It was also hit and miss on names and other voice recognition tasks. I have a 2007 Highlander Hybrid so the car is quiet.

Also, something as simple as the MPH does not show up when using the route feature. The MPH is there when you aren't routing but not there when you are routing. The posted speed of the street is shown on the screen but not the speed you are traveling. Huh?

Garmin won't update the system with this feature even though they added the ability to choose what shows up on the screen in their newer line of GPS'like the 7x5. Yes that is right, even though this model is only 5 months old, they consider it an old model.


I talked to their customer service several times and they told me that it wouldn't get fixed in the 880 but was fixed in the 7x5 series which doesn't have voice recognition. Seems a bit expensive if you can't have all you had in an old Garmin model, 2610, plus the extras of the 880.

I give it a low rating because Garmin has become a company with too many products and no longer listen to their customers. Consumer Reports says its the best so I wondering if they actually used it under real conditions and was tested by someone that had a GPS before.