Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 265W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (without Traffic)

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The last GPS I got I couldn't even figure out how to turn on...they have really come a long way as far as ease-of-use. This one...opened the box, easily assembled it onto the base with no directions, plugged it in, turned it on (okay, I had to go to directions for that, but they are very clear), followed all the steps (very intuitive - it walks you through it) and there I was - it had me pinpointed to my exact position in the parking lot - wow. So I plugged in an address, and yes, I'm old-school - I was shocked with this relatively inexpensive machine started TAlKING to me, nice voice too - very clear directions, tells you exactly how far to go before turning. This is the new model, which is why I got it, but it seems to have all the best features discussed in reviews of older models (I read a lot of reviews). Again, I'm not proficient in technology (my 11 year old niece has to help me with my phone and forget an I-Pod) but from my point of view this has all that a typical driver would need - I even think my even less-technically proficient parents would like it and I plan to try it out on them.

Update after a week: The screen shows several things I hadn't noticed, like your speed, the speed limit for the road you are on (some roads, not all roads), the expected time that you will get to the destination, the direction (North, South, East, West) and how far it is in miles. It's not distracting, as these notations are on the perimeter. The voice directions are very good, a warning prior to coming to a turn and then a 'turn left on ____ St.' when you get there and how far it is, as in 'turn left in point-three miles'. And it tells you which side of the street (left or right) your final destination is on, which is very helpful on a busy street.

Also nice is the 'Map' feature: It's simply a map of where you are, showing an automobile icon that moves as you go along...it shows landmarks, street names along with the speed limit and your speed so you don't have to look down at the speedometer and guess if you're going the speed limit and what it is. This can be used even when you don't have a destination plugged in. Plus, the machine saves addresses so you just have to tap on an address from a list of places you've been, instead of retyping it. It also saves the cities, so you can pull it down from a menu instead of typing it in...so I would consider it generally 'user-friendly'.

I got the portable Garmin Friction Mount to hold it in place (it's a beanbag type thing) which is really great, as you can easily stow it on the floor so no one decides to 'borrow it' if they see it on the dashboard. Overall, couldn't be more pleased...this one doesn't have 'traffic alerts', so if you want 'traffic' there is another Garmin model that would be more suitable.

I was amazed at how intuitive and easy it is to use. While traveling to a city in another state I was confronted with a train stopped and blocking the crossing in front of me, blocking my planned route. With confidence in the Garmin I turned around and took another route. It guided me street-by-street and turn-by-turn. I got to my appointment on time. The display is clear, even in bright sunlight. The voice is pleasant, and clearly loud enough to be easily heard.

The only problem I had was in assembling the mount. It requires a really hard push to install the ball socket of the mount into the base. Don't be afraid to break it, as I was at first try. It's designed to close tolerances, to maintain the friction necessary, to hold the Garmin display firmly in position.

Pushing a wide, and easy to access button at the base of the suction cup mount allows you to remove the display and power cord for storage elsewhere when not in use. This is a great security and convenience feature. It has a remote mountable push button remote control that activates and deactivates the voice control feature.

A very useful accessory that is not included is a DC/AC adapter. This device has on one end a male AC plug that plugs into your home duplex AC wall outlet and on the other end a female DC car socket. This adapter will allow you to keep your Garmin's battery fully charged. The battery discharges in about two weeks, with no usage, showing no indicator bars on the battery charge indicator.

The Garmin does contain a USB plug that will allow you to charge the battery via your computer. This works OK, but,it puts an unwanted load on my computer USB power supply. My old cell phone 400 ma rated DC output adapter fully charges the Garmin in under 2 hours. Garmin offers a 1000 ma rated adaptor, as an accessory, for under $20.00.

Bought this item initially for my wife when she has to make trips to Houston. After reading the reviews and deciding our particular needs I chose the nuvi 265 wt . I owned an older Garmin (deluxe IV ) and to be honest I was somewhat disappointed with it and my wife couldn't stand it . It was the sheer number of positive reviews that made me choose a Garmin again. WOW !! this thing is awesome . Took it on a trip to San Antonio and was amazed by it . VERY simple to setup , VERY easy to use . The hardest part was trusting it to direct me accurately due to the experiences with the prior Garmin navigator. It never missed a turn . And with the "points of interest" feature , changing our agenda or adding a stop was a breeze. Also the WT features a traffic information update that informs you with live traffic information ( time delay ) if there is a report along the route your on . Press two buttons and the nuvi will give you a detour option . Miss a turn due to traffic or other mishap and it will automatically recalculate your route from where you are going to get you back on track . The best part is my wife really likes it and even gave it a nickname . Definitely would buy again .

This is my third Garmin GPS product, and I am very disappointed.

While most of it behaves as expected, it would appear that Bluetooth functionality was not properly tested.

About one connection in four fails, and I have to re-connect. Not what I want for a hands-free speakerphone.

If I attempt to do anything with the GPS shortly after the Bluetooth connection, the device will freeze, requiring a hard reboot in order to work.

Every time the Bluetooth connects, the GPS lowers the volume.

Call mic quality is very poor, and not very useful for conversations.

Don't buy this product; get one of the cheaper GPS units without Bluetooth instead.

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Also, Garmin has done a very poor job of updating their maps. 4-5 year old road changes are not reflected in the latest maps, and their built-in business directory is full of errors.

Men are infamous for NOT asking directions. This device makes it possible to uphold that reputation and STILL get there. I'm computer literate, but circa 1990. I wouldn't know a blue tooth if it bit me so I probably will never use this GPS to it's maximum. But I do know that I could just turn it on and in my first outing off the beaten path it directed me to a dirt road I never would have found on my own using detailed local maps.

I bought this for my wife but she is out of luck; besides, she doesn't mind asking directions.

Of course it was delivered on time, in perfect condition by Amazon

We recently got this GPS because a sudden and difficult trip demanded we have one, and we could not find the power cord for our current one, a Nokia. It was easy to say we'd eventually find that power cord, but wouldn't it be nice to have one GPS for each car?

So having had the dinky Nokia, I have some basis for comparison. The Garmin is far superior in two ways- it is fast to find the satellite signal, and the maps it came with were good and current. It is a little more helpful too - it tells you which side of the road your destination is on so if you're in an unfamiliar area you know where to look. Less important, but additionally, the voices are much better than our old Nokia, less robotic, and less likely to muddle up a complex street name. The Garmin was also easy to use right out of the box. It gives you sufficient heads-up time on turns and exits and advises you on where they will be, left or right. But...

There are a few things about this unit that I find highly annoying. On start up, the screen displays an irritating legal disclaimer saying you shouldn't diddle with it while driving as it is unsafe, and you take responsibility for anything that might happen when you use it. I'd be ok with this if it happened the first time I used it, but it happens every time you turn it on.

Another issue is that it just plumb drops the signal. Yes, it is fast to find it when you're starting out on a trip, but it doesn't seem to hold that signal. I was on a test run in a suburban area where there was presumably little interference when it made this noise I'd not yet heard, but knew meant bad things, and looked down to see it admitting it had lost the signal. The Nokia had never done this. The Garmin was purchased to help get me to a remote location in the middle of nowhere, and this incident was not confidence building. It did, in fact, lose signal several times during my mountainous trip to God's country. Worse yet is that when it loses the signal, you have to hit "OK" on the screen to unlock the warning for it to proceed again. You're moving, so you just want it to get on with re-finding the signal, it shouldn't have to ask permission! What was that about not diddling with it while driving?

I've also found that it picks some bizarre routes. Using it around town to get used to it, I found it was choosing streets that would indeed work, but there were other streets more major that it might have better selected.

One of its worst "habits" is its inability to differentiate direction when you are moving in a small area, like if you have to do a turn-around, or are in a gas station on a corner, re-entering traffic and it "thinks" you're on the road perpendicular to the one you are on. It doesn't know where you are til you're moving some distance, and sometimes that distance is more than you'd like. I have exited just such a corner gas station and been urging it "Come on, come on, you can do it" while the screen view is spinning around cluelessly and it's showing an inaccurate picture while giving directions that don't suit where you are. I understand that satellites are far away and to expect pinpoint accuracy is unrealistic, but if the device doesn't "know", it shouldn't "act" like it does, spouting off directions that do not apply to your location. (Equally goofily, the Nokia's default position when it didn't know what was up was to randomly tell you to "Make a U turn" - it was senseless but consistent so you knew it was just buying time til it figured things out.)

I'm detailing these complaints because only you know what matters to you. Every GPS has its quirks that can get on your nerves. Overall, this one's easy to learn and gets you where you're going with some burps on the way. The lingering negative? The Nokia was about half the price and despite my hopes, the Garmin is not twice as good.

This was the first unit I have ever purchased, I used all the feed back here to decide what unit I needed. I could not be more pleased with its ease of operation and all of its capabilites. Have tested it several times and had no issues at all I would recomend this to anyone who has had no experience with one,its a winner. I am sure there are many more units that are good and cost much more, but for this price I can't see how you could top this one. Really satisfied with my choice, thanks also to all of you who have given great feed back for us to look over, it really helped when making a first time purchase. As always great Amazon service as well.

I bought this GPS before our Boston vacation and I am very pleased with it. The graphics are easy to read. The display is very user friendly and simple. Set up was also easy. It made driving around Boston much manageable. I was impressed that it did not lose satellite communication when driving thru Boston tunnels. We only had one small glitch in locating our hotel. I am not sure why it did not map it correctly, but it was about a block off. Normally, not a big deal unless you have never been there before and in heavy traffic. Overall, it is a very quality product and a good value.

So, I have been holding off for years waiting till prices come down, and bugs worked out.
Everyone said Garmin was the one to have. So, I took the plunge. When I received it from Amazon, first thing I
did was upgrade the firmware and maps.

Now it's time for some road tests, so I took it to work with me one morning.
My office is a 30 minute drive, about 12 miles.
The unit consistantly told me to turn in the exact opposit dirrection untill I reached a certain intersection, then
it directed me correctly from there until I reached my office.

I take the same route home, but the unit wants to take me a different route which is way out of the way, but would get
me there. My normal way is much more direct (less gas, faster), and I do have it programed for "fastest" way.

Going to my brother's place is an hour drive on the freeway, I decided to see how the unit would perform on highway
travel.
It was way off!! it consistantly wanted me to turn in the opposit direction. It gave me some really screwed up directions
untill I was a few miles from my destination. Then it seemed to know where I was going!!

I have all the latest maps loaded on the unit, but it's a good thing these were only tests, because this thing would have had
me drive god knows how long to get to my destination, and in the case of getting to my office, I would have gotten totally
LOST since it was directing me in the exact opposit direction.

All I can say is, if you are lost, but only a few miles from where you want to be, this thing will most likely get you there,
but dont count on it.
For trips over 10 miles, you better have a real map if you do not know the roads.

Untill I can contact Garmin to complain about my problem (cant comment yet on their customer service) my opinion of the product
is not good.

I suspect this unit may work better in some areas and not so good in others, depending on the quality of the maps of that area.
So, if you live in Prince Georges, Howard or Montgomery counties in Maryland, this thing will get you lost big time, unless there
is a patch that Garmin can fix.

At this point, I can not recommend this unit. So far, it has proved its self to be next to worthless.

If a call to Garmin turns out to fix my problems, I will up-date this review, but for now, this was money wasted :(

EDIT UPDATE:
I now understand what is happening. The unit is operating correctly. It is taking me the same route (avoiding highways) as Google
Map.
When it is telling me to turn in the opposit direction, like when going to work (as explained in the review) it's trying to get me to turn around
since I can not make a U turn on that road.
Also, when looking at the Google map, I can see that the Garmin is indeed taking me the shortest route.
I noticed that my way is longer, and did not even realize that there is a better way. The route the Garmin is taking me (exactly the same as
the Google Map directions) is almost a straight line to my destination!!

Now that I understand all this, it makes perfect sense, and the Garmin directions will not only save me time, it also allows me to avoid
a road I hate to drive on.

I have changed my rating to 4 stars. The reason it does not get 5 stars is because of the "where am I" locator!

It does not know my house number (correct street) and gives my present location several blocks away!! So, I wait until I get to a road it knows,
out of my neighborhood, then it's fine from there.

Next week, I will try the Garmin (and Google) suggested route to work, which is great, because I was not even aware I could go that way.

So, I take back what I said in my original review, I do like this unit, and I think I can trust it now to take me where I want to go.

Wow, GPS has come a long way in the last 5 years. This is a GREAT little unit for the price. Also, the maps are very current after you do the update after registering...I live in a very new area in Las Vegas and my address was always a challenge for any gps provider. This took me right there in the direction a local would drive. The ONLY reason I did not give it five stars is because it seems you cannot mute the persons voice on the directions...so, if you are using the bluetooth and talking to someone, the periodic directions are obnoxious. Maybe the higher end models allow for this. But, all that said, really great unit. Also, in my 2002 Subaru Outbook the ambient noise does make it hard to sometime hear the other person talking even with the volume cranked up.