Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 2360LMT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic & Map Updates

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(71)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I bought the Garmin as a gift for my wife and was thrilled about the lifetime updates for traffic and maps.

Setup and navigation is good. We like the big screen and the way the information is provided.

The lifetime map updates sounds like a great feature. Maps can be updated four times a year and the access using the web page was easy. But I have to wonder what Garmin considers "useful life" of the device. But even if they are only available for three years, then it is still cheaper than buying the maps.

The conditions of lifetime traffic updates are definitely not what I expected and the reason that I am thinking of returning the device. The ads that finance the lifetime traffic pop up on the screen and disrupt the navigation. This is obnoxious! This should be mentioned in the product description! I couldn't even find information about the ad financed traffic on the Garmin web page!

(Edited on 1/3/12 with comparison of Garmin versus an Android phone [see page 6 of comments])
(Review updated on Sept. 12th 2011 with summary of changes at the bottom of this review; Garmin software updated verson 3.30.)

>> I've written a rather long review for the 2360LMT, so these first 5 paragraphs are
a quick summary. Note that Amazon has lumped the various 2350 & 2370 models into the
same bucket of reviews, which have slightly different features.

>> 1 ** THE UNIT WORKS AS INTENDED and is great with basic navigation, but there are
some rough spots with some of the bonus features, and sparse documentation. Build
quality is typical of older Garmin units -- solid, not particularly svelte. The touch
screen is fine for entering letters and tapping the "OK" button, but the "drag"
function when scrolling the map around with my fingertip is inconsistent and requires
heavier than normal finger pressure.

>> 2 ** VOICE RECOGNITION works very well, but it's slow on the uptake and not
perfect -- so expect to repeat yourself often. At each step it guides you with a voice
prompt, or you can turn voice prompts off and follow prompts on the screen for faster
entries. Speaking street addresses is surprisingly accurate; voice-navigating the menu
not so smooth.

>> 3 ** THE JUNCTION VIEW screen has been "fixed" with the latest device software: it
displays representations of freeway junctions and off-ramps side-by-side with the map
to help pick the proper lane. The LANE ASSIST function can be a help, but
simultaneously may lead to confusion at complicated freeway junctions. ROUTE
RECALCULATIONS could be faster, but processor speed and animation overall is fast and
smooth.

>> 4 ** DISPLAY is adequately bright except in very bright sunlight, and the screen is
just reflective enough to pose viewing issues unless adjusted precisely. VOLUME is more
than adequate, and can be adjusted/muted by voice command. The TRAFFIC feature seems to
work OK, though not as good as Google traffic on my BlackBerry, and it doesn't make it
clear when my route is being re-drawn due to an accident or congestion. ADVERTISEMENTS
seem to have been eliminated with the latest software updates. (And just like that, as
of 10/20/11, the ads are back! No idea what happened -- didn't update the unit software
or do anything out of the ordinary. *sigh*)

>> 5 ** OVERALL, I recommend this unit. Despite the frustrations I detail below, it
offers the most usable features, with little fluff, for a very good price. Don't expect
perfection, but do expect a very capable GPS with consistent lifetime traffic and a
voice recognition system that makes **some** data entry / navigation tasks easier than
on touch-screen nav units.

>> So with that summary out of the way, on with my review...

I've used a narrow-screen Garmin 200 for the past few years, as well as Google Maps on my BlackBerry Storm. I hesitated purchasing a new GPS because between the two of those devices, I was pretty well covered to get anywhere I needed to go.

But the 2360LMT came along and I couldn't ignore the list of "extra" features it packed in for the price. And let's face it: A cell phone is great for finding stuff, but not actually navigating while driving, and the old nuvi 200 lacked voice recognition, which I considered a significant safety compromise as well as an input hassle.

Initial power-on / boot-up went smoothly with just a couple of "Accept" screens and reminders to register the product with Garmin. No additional setup steps were required, though it took a few minutes for my initial position fix to be calculated. After that, position fix occurs imperceptibly, even when I power the unit on in a city miles away from where I turned it off. However, boot-up takes about 35 seconds to where the device is ready to receive input, and that feels like an eternity when I want to get navigating.

Build Quality & Screen: the 2360LMT isn't "razor thin" like some of the recent, more expensive Garmin lineup. It's not much thinner than my old 200. The screen is reasonably bright, decent resolution, and wide. Brightness can be adjusted with voice commands while driving. If I have sunlight shining on a light colored shirt, the screen tends to reflect that back at me, but can be minimized with very precisely adjusting the tilt of the unit. The animation is smooth, less jerky than my old unit, and the zoom level "flies in" and out depending on vehicle speed & location relative to upcoming turns. It's a very fluid presentation, and Garmin has nicely tweaked the auto-zoom settings in their latest software updates.

One gig on the animation is in an instance when the unit expects me to turn left, but I choose to continue straight ahead, the map follows the predicted route through the turn, then recognizes I've continued straight, so quickly corrects back. If I were at a complex 6-way intersection or round-about in a residential neighborhood, this feature might mistakenly lead me to think that I had turned to the correct street, and I'd prefer it to not use this predictive positioning feature.

The display colors darken automatically at dusk and, surprisingly, darken when I enter the long Caldecott tunnel near my home, even though the tunnel itself isn't depicted on the map. The daytime backlight brightness is stored independently of the nighttime brightness, so when I set it at 100% at noon and 10% at night, it stores both of those settings.

Portrait Mode: the unit has an orientation sensor, so can be used in portrait mode, which is a nice change on long, straight stretches of freeway to "see" off in the distance. The unit takes advantage of portrait mode by automatically zooming back the display a notch, and adjusting the viewing angle at which it looks ahead, to maximize the view towards the horizon. However, for navigating around town where I'm making turns, I prefer the standard landscape mode, where side streets are more readily visible.

Touch Screen Sensitivity: not so hot. Finger taps register fine, but scrolling/"dragging" the map around, for instance on the "show traffic" overview map display, is frustratingly slow. It requires a unusually heavy finger press, not at all like my old nuvi 200. The map doesn't always move, or moves in the wrong direction, or "snaps back" to its previous location when I lift my finger.

Voice Recognition: pretty impressive, yet frustrating. Thankfully, this feature has prevented me from having to use the touch screen much. I say "Voice Command" and the unit pops up a list of commands I can say, such as "find address" or "search by name." I say "Pegasus" and (on the second try; 1st try got me "Recruiters") it confirms, "1. Pegasus?" I say "yes" or "one" and it searches and quickly finds "Pegasus Cycle Works" in Danville. I say "Navigate!" and it plots a route. Very clean.

Likewise, I say "find address" and it asks, "what city in California?" I say "Hayward" and after multiple tries getting that one right (kept wanting to send me to Orange and Onida), it asks for the house number. I don't have to draw out "Four... Two... Six... Eight" and wait for each digit; no, I say "forty-two sixty-eight" and it throws the whole address up on the screen pretty quickly. Again, very clean, and almost always accurate. Alternatively, I can say "spell city" and then spell it out, letter by letter. However, unlike with the typed-in entries, using voice commands I've found no way to skip the city and go straight to the street address.

The downsides? Besides having trouble recognizing some names, there are some other rough spots: When each prompt is spoken -- for instance, "*Boing* What city in California?" I have to pause a beat before I speak the city (there is a "lips" icon in the upper right corner; it turns red when the unit is speaking to me or processing my verbal command, then turns green when it's ready to listen for my command, which takes about a second after it finishes its question). I'd prefer the *Boing* come at the end of the prompt, as soon as it's ready to listen. Alternatively, the volume can be muted to turn off voice prompts, or, as Amazon member maffeo pointed out in the comments to this review, there is an "expert mode" (Tools > Voice Commands > Wrench Icon) that turns off voice prompts (on-screen prompts only). Either method makes voice entry of addresses much faster, accurate and less frustrating.

Using the Favorites list is not well integrated with the Voice Commands. Creating new Favorites from an address entered via voice requires me to back out to the menu, click on "Recently Found", select the location/address, navigate to it, click on the navigation screen to display the overhead map, then select the sidebar menu to bring up the Save prompt. Not intuitive at all, and requires me to begin navigation TWICE to a destination just in order to save it as a favorite. This process could be much more refined to make it easier to program favorites into the unit while killing time.

Also, selecting a Favorite destination from the list using voice commands requires me to scroll through the list, two Favorites at a time (or, if I'm in portrait view, six Favorites at a time), until the destination appears. The Favorites are sorted in order of closest proximity, so when I want directions to Auntie Ginger's house 35 miles away in San Jose, it'll be at the bottom of the list, and I have to scroll down to her entry -- on screen at a time -- before I can select it. This is majorly annoying: if the GPS can find every Home Depot within the bay area with a simple voice command, it should be able to pick out "Ginger" from a list of 1000 favorites! Grrrr... Meanwhile, I'm have to option to access Favorites via the touch menu, where I can simply type "G I N..." and "Aunt Ginger's" quickly pops up as an option.

Lastly, Voice Command recognizes commands over steady background road noise, but doesn't seem to tolerate commands when I've got the radio louder than a whisper, or when I'm accelerating (presumably because of the changing pitch of the background noise?).

Lane Assist: A collection of lane guidance arrows neatly tucked in the upper left corner of the display. A two lane exit on a 5 lane freeway will be represented with five 'up' arrows, with the two right-most arrows bolded. A nice feature, but with problems: For instance, if two off-ramps are closely spaced, the lane assist arrows only take into account the exit I'm navigating towards. So if there's an extra exit-only lane for the first off-ramp, the Lane Assist may indicate that I could be in that lane, causing me to exit early. If a 2-lane freeway exit is to be followed by a left turn, the GPS will still tell me it's okay to be in the right exit lane, which may only turn right. On city streets with double turn lanes, chances are Lane Assist won't know they're both there and only show a single arrow. If it does, it doesn't indicate which lane to be in to prepare for a subsequent left or right turn (such as when a turn is followed almost immediately by another turn). Lastly, with the unit oriented in portrait mode, if the freeway has more than four lanes, everything after the first three are summarily "cut off" and replaced with ellipses (...).

Junction View: beginning from about .8 miles from a freeway junction or exit, this static pictogram is displayed to approximate what the freeway interchange looks like, providing assistance in choosing a lane. With the current software, and with the device oriented in traditional Landscape view, Garmin eliminated a problem that removed all data (including the all important distance remaining countdown) from the screen. The display enters a "split screen" mode that shows the moving map, the distance remaining data, and the Junction View. With the old software, Junction View was only displayed for a few seconds -- barely enough time to digest the info -- but with the software update, it stays displayed until the junction is reached.

Voice Quality: oh, so good. The speech synthesizer has a slight warble and is unmistakably "computery," but is very articulate and tends to pronounce difficult names well enough. From time to time, it does clip some complicated pronunciations, or put emphasis on the wrong syllable. Volume is very good; not at all difficult to hear, even with the radio on. Volume can be easily adjusted with voice commands while driving.

Route Recalculations: needs improvement; I swear my 200 was faster! I've thrown a few wrong turns at the 2360 and it catches them quickly, but often takes so long to spit out a new route that I'm already past the next turn, which spurs another recalc. Others have speculated this is due to the ecoroute and/or NuRoute, and that turning these off will speed recalculation times.

Speed Limits, Cameras & EcoRoute: neat gimmicks, but still gimmicks! The map usually displays the current speed limit in the lower right corner, next to current speed -- which appears in red if it's too fast (though the readout in red numbers doesn't "pop" and easily go unnoticed). I usually drive with the volume muted, but I believe there's an audible warning (a pleasant chime tone) to go along with overspeed, however it's either inconsistent or sometimes I must not be hearing it. If speed limit data isn't available, a '+' sign appears that can be pressed; the screen changes to one where the speed limit can be entered manually. Speed limits through a local school zone were almost exactly matched to the physical locations of the signs. This, of course, is dependent on the data available, and at other locations the speeds haven't matched up correctly. Intersections initiate a double-chime if a red light camera is nearby; however, this is annoying when I receive a double-chime on the freeway when there's an intersection off on a side street with a camera.

EcoRoute goes one further and, when activated, critiques items such as acceleration, braking and speed, and assigns a score. You'll need to input your vehicle's city and highway fuel economy and the current price per gallon to enable this feature, which gives some routing alternatives, too. A small "current (instantaneous) score" icon then appears on the main map display so that I can challenge myself to save some gas, however hitting a perfect 99% is as easy as driving the speed limit, so any sins committed due to hard acceleration, speeding or lots of brake tapping can be nearly instantly forgiven, making this instantaneous display of questionable value. I'd rather have it display a score for the current trip or for the day, just to give me a longer term objective to strive for.

Where Am I: this is kind of a neat function. When pressed, it provides a one-screen readout of your GPS coordinates, elevation, nearest address and intersection, and buttons to "SAVE" to Favorites, or locate nearby gas, police or hospitals. Seems valuable on a couple of different levels. However, if you park in front of business and select "Where Am I" and then "Save", it will guesstimate an address on the right hand side of the steet, and thereafter always say "Arriving at Business, on Right" even if it's on the left -- I've found no way to change this. I also am unable to use this feature to correct an incorrect address without the unit changing the location of where it "thinks" it should be. So my home, for instance, is depicted three houses away from where is actually is (when I enter the correct street address), OR I can use "Where Am I" to log the exact location of my home, but then an incorrect address is stored.

Traffic: In the SF Bay area, most of the highways have coverage. Garmin has a coverage map on their website. Traffic data is received through a module integrated into the power cord, and if the GPS is running on battery, you'll receive no traffic data. The traffic alert screen pulls up a list of highway incidents in the area, even if there are no delays. Or, you can drill down a level in the menu and see just the delays along the planned route. Unfortunately, this requires a bit of tapping on the touchscreen, and there are no voice commands I'm aware of to delve into any of these traffic sub-menus.

On a recent trip home, for no obvious reason, the unit tried to route me via a slightly out-of-the-way freeway. I drove to my preferred freeway, so it tried to re-route me onto yet another out-of-the-way freeway! It wasn't until I ignored the GPS and merged on to MY preferred freeway that the "traffic" icon lit up red, indicating a delay on this route. On the other hand, another recent drive home directed me to stay on the freeway one exit further than it normally navigates to, yet at the same time gave me a traffic warning for that particular stretch of freeway. Weird and inconsistent.

I'd love for Garmin to provide some sort of integration with smartphones, because the traffic data I receive on my BlackBerry's Google Maps application is so much more realistic than the smattering of incidents the nuvi receives from Navteq.

Multiple routes: After I select my ultimate destination, I can add additional destinations in reverse sequential order. However, there's a bug. If I'm picking my son up from day care, then heading home, I'll enter "Home" first, then "Day Care." But, say I'm now leaving day care and get a phone call to pick up something from the grocery store. I search for nearby grocery stores, pick one and add it to my route, and get directions. Upon arriving at the store, the GPS will try to route me back to day care before directing me home. Odd. Definitely a bug, and an annoying one at that.

Alternately, I can dig a little in the menu and choose the "Trip Planner" function, which lets me pick my destinations more rapidly (saving route calculations until the end). This tool also allows me to set desired arrival times to the destinations, presumably to alarm me when to leave. It also allows trips to be named and saved. The drawback? Once I'm driving a "Trip" I can't modify it. If I interrupt navigation and search for coffee near by, it doesn't allow me to "Add to Current Route" as is normally an available option; instead, it automatically cancels my "Trip" navigation and selects the coffee shop as my new ultimate destination. And I've found no way to resume the "Trip" without starting from the beginning.

Other Gee-Whiz: When powering the unit down, a summary screen displays listing total miles and cost of the trip based on fuel consumption estimates. Neato, and puts a new perspective on what it's costing me to drive somewhere, even though it's only really a rough estimate of fuel costs (not total vehicle ownership costs -- that would be a shocker!!!).

Mounting and Power: The suction cup mount has a power adapter built in to it, so if you're the type who leaves the cup & clip mounted at all times, you simply detach your GPS from the mount and that's it! Or, alternatively, you can plug the power cord directly in to the unit. Note, however, that the power cord is a fat beast of a cord, thicker than the one that goes to my vacuum cleaner. Certainly makes me wish these units have better battery life. Like my older Garmin, this sits on my dashboard, mounted to a Gilsson Non-Skid Beanbag Dashboard Mount

Documentation: nil. There was a "Quick Start Manual" in the box, which should be enough for an intuitive GPS, but as you've read, this unit has many, many advanced features to explore and their operation (and the system's logic behind them) is anything but second nature.

On-Screen Advertisements: Initially, ads popped up near destinations or at stoplights. Lots of complaints about this here in the reviews. But with recent Garmin software updates, my unit is no longer displaying ads. I can't say for sure when this change happened, as the ads never bothered me too much. But of late, they're definitely not popping up.

Up to now, I counted the small screen of my old 200 as an attribute. Who needs a huge screen just to navigate streets and highways? Plus, small screens are easier to tuck away in the center console. But the wide, high res screen on the 2360LMT is proving to be so useful for displaying lots of data and nice images, with room for finger-worthy buttons and easily readable data. I certainly am appreciating the bigger display.

Despite the list of frustrations I've expressed, I'm pleased with this unit and find it a worthy update to my very capable, map-current nuvi 200. As a basic navigation device, it is excellent. But Garmin is attempting to market this as a "driving companion," something that will be on all the time, not just when driving someplace new. And from that perspective, it has some neat ideas built into it, but it needs a bit of improvement in function, voice integration, polish, and documentation (especially documentation!).

Looking forward to never paying for map updates again! Mine came loaded with CN North American NT 2011.31 and NavTEQ "Lifetime Subscription" traffic.

>> Below are two updates I posted after my original review. Some of the comments I make in these two updates I have also incorporated into the body of my main review.

(Update 5/17/11) After about 5 months of daily use, I'm hot and cold on this unit and even considering dropping it to three stars -- again, as strictly a GPS, it's super, but as a tool for daily driving, it has some problems and a lot of untapped potential.
- I updated to the latest map and firmware. The process was SLOW on a USB port, over an hour do download, decompress and install all the updates.
- The newest firmware has increased the boot time by 10 seconds. It now takes 35 SECONDS from power-on to "Agree to Terms" screen. This is an incredibly long time in the grand scheme, in that I can start my car, put my seatbelt on, and drive three or four residential blocks in that period of time. This delay SEVERELY IMPACTS my desire to use this unit on a routine basis, as it's stored in my center console and is mounted to a bean bag dash mount that I store out-of-sight on my passenger-side floor.
- The Predicted Destination feature is extremely unreliable. Some, it gets right often, and then it's great. Most times, it doesn't work at all, or shows the wrong destination an an entirely oddball time. Example: I leave for work in the same 20 minute window on the same five days every week, yet it regularly predicts I'm going to work when I pull up to my house on the flip side of the clock, and almost never when I'm actually getting in the car to leave for work.
- The Predicted Destination is stubborn. If it thinks I'm going to some address North, and I ignore it an get on the freeway headed South, it sticks with that original anticipated destination for a long ways, then finally gives up.
- The inability to sort through Favorites by name continues to frustrate me, and makes it unnecessarily time consuming to pick stored destinations farther away (due to all the required scrolling through the list of Favorites).
- Battery life is inconsistent, and definitely less than three hours. Mine is plugged in almost always (in order to take advantage of the traffic receiver integrated with the power cord), but there are occasions when I run with it unplugged and I get roughly 2 hours, though sometimes much shorter.
- Voice Command responsiveness hasn't improved with use: sometimes it's fairly accurate, other times I repeat myself often at various voice levels before giving up and reverting to touch screen. A real mixed bag.
- Just try and voice navigate to a nearby Lowe's. Touch screen? No problem. Voice? I've tried a dozen different pronunciation variations of "Lowe's" and it won't find it.
- Traffic has been very good and very bad. A number of times, it has rerouted me into much worse traffic. Generally, though, it's handy. And ETAs are generally very accurate, though it does tend to come up with some funky street routings rather than sticking with the freeway.

My list of "dislikes" / complaints and suggestions has gone in to Garmin's customer service, but based on past communications with this company, I don't expect much. I sincerely believe Garmin put minimal effort into this unit to bring us something economical and slightly slimmer than the previous generation, with valuable but not fully developed features tacked on. I hope I hope I hope Garmin sees fit to address the lack of voice system integration into the base software (rather than added on) via a firmware update. But I'm more inclined Garmin is just coasting along with this unit and not really interested in developing it further.

(Update: 9/12/11 - software v3.30 installed) -- Garmin has posted about a half-dozen software updates to this unit, in addition to the regular map updates. Here are a few worthwhile (worth mentioning, that is) changes:

1. Garmin has separated their "Web Updater" (device software) and "Lifetime Updater" (map updates), so now I have two pieces of Garmin software installed on my PC. The new Lifetime Updater software is supposed to download map updates automatically, then inform me when they're ready to install. Web Updater works as before -- I must manually run the program to check for updates (or look on the Garmin website). Some problems installing these using Google Chrome; had to revert to Internet Explorer to get to the Active X permissions box.

2. On-screen ads seem to be gone! Yay! (...AND they're back as of 10/20/11. )

3. Device boot time has swung back to 35 seconds. Boo!

4. "Junction View" has been revised: In landscape mode, it's now split screen (side-by-side) with the map display, and stays visible all the way to the junction. It now pops up a picture for upcoming off-ramps, too (was previously for major freeway interchanges).

What's funky is Garmin has done an overhaul on the Junction View artwork. It's nearly photo-realistic now, featuring a clouded sky with gradient lighting, lamp posts, freeway overpasses that cross over the junction / off-ramp being depicted, center divider walls... all very real looking but in most cases not a good representation of what you'll actually be seeing. And in this effort, they "scrunched" the letters on depictions of the overhead signage, making them a little more difficult to read.

As best I can tell, none of the other criticisms I've leveled against this GPS have been addressed, namely the lack of integration of the voice menu vs. the touch menu.

I like everything about this unit better than my old GPS units EXCEPT......
This one has advertizements and cupon offers that pop up in the middle of the screen and it appears that the only way to get them off so that you can see the map fully is to manually change the screen. If it werent for the commercials, this unit would rate 5 stars.

Overall, this is a big improvement over my 855T and even cheaper so I'm basically happy. I've been using it less than a week but here are some initial observations:

Pros:
- Voice input has improved a lot. It seems less sensitive to background noise. The steering wheel button that starts input on my old 855 is now replaced with an activation word of the user's choosing. Activation has been flawless for me.
- Portrait mode has quickly become my favorite way to navigate. Besides giving more visibility to the route ahead, it also splits into 2 screens to allow Junction View to not override the map like it does in standard mode.
- Very fast at establishing its position. It also knows the orientation of the vehicle from the get go.
- Voice control over the Bluetooth hands-free phone is so cool that I've disconnected my car's Bluetooth system even though my car has bigger speakers. My car doesn't have voice command and it doesn't let me dial while driving, so this Garmin solves both problems. My only complaint is lack of a voice speed dial of most commonly used phone numbers. It automatically imported my entire iPhone address book of over 3000 contacts. That's cool for touchscreen search, but impossibly unwieldy for doing voice-calling-by-name.
- Lots of new gimmicky secondary features such as an expanded Eco driving analysis.

Cons:
- In portrait mode, the unit is very unattractive. It merely uses the old base design, so the product label turns sideways and the cable protrudes from the left.
- Touchscreen is no worse than before but it is hardly a multi-touch device like an iPhone. It is way too slow and clumsy for that.
- Unlike some other traffic systems that feature lifetime activation, this one uses the advertising-supported model. The promos aren't too bad though and there are some good deals offered to drivers. This model has the traffic antenna as a wort in the cable that sits high on your dashboard as opposed to a larger plug that sits far away at your cigarette lighter. Some people think this is uglier.
- Routing calculation and re-routing calculation is slow. Slower than the 855 for sure and sometimes painfully slow when the device is hung.
- Which brings me to my final complaint - It hangs a lot and suddenly snaps out of it after some random amount of time. The rating really ought to be lower for this reason alone but I assume that a firmware update can fix it eventually.

I've had my 2360LMT for a few weeks now and am generally happy with the directions it provides and most of the features. What I am not happy with is that there is no way to turn off the advertising "offers" that clutter the screen without turning off the traffic information completely. I see another reviewer has pointed out that the traffic information is apparantly paid for by these ads but I wish that had been stated somewhere in all the product information both here and on the Garmin website. I might have still ordered this model but I might also have opted for one where I purchased a traffic subscription as I did with my old Garmin 760. When they told me this model came with lifetime maps and traffic I assumed it was like what I was familiar with on my 760. Right now I feel like I've paid Garmin a lot of money to have someone peddle their wares to me. It's as annoying as purchasing a movie on DVD and then having to sit through ads before being allowed to watch the movie. I've turned off the traffic to kill the ads so I've ended up paying for something I am now not going to use. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Just received the unit. Was not able to register and update maps. Garmin Communicator software just hangs with no effect. I spent 2 hours troubleshooting with no result. This issue is well described by a number of people online with no resolution from Garmin against all OS systems. On top of that my unit came with maps for just 49 lower states and no Canada and else. I found some references online re some batches having wrong map base loaded. My take is Garmin really cut all quality control to increase profits. My unit is going back and Garmin can buy it back itself and troubleshoot it or not on its own time and dime. Unit itself is decent but the user experience is not.

I've owned nothing but Garmin GPS units for over 12 years and when I needed a new one I bought this unit. I've never been so disappointed and angry in my life!

Be aware that in order to use the traffic updating YOU MUST allow yourself to be spammed with advertising and coupons that pop up on the screen. Not just anywhere on the screen either. Right in the exact center thereby blocking the view of the map. The spam doesn't disappear until the car starts moving again. Hence, you get spammed every time the car stops. Currently the only way to disable the advertising spam is to shut off traffic updating which kind of defeats the purpose.

I hate this unit and I've sent the feedback to Garmin that this unit is being returned and there won't be another Garmin in my house until they stop this sort of thing.

Got my new Garmin GPS and to say the least I am very disappointed.

Pro's
- Fast loading of maps
- Quick satellite pick up
- Quick recalculations if you get off your route
- Nice display with good graphics

Con's
- You need a computer to register the unit (not in the product description) . If you don't register it the instruction say they will cut you off from MAP updates
- When you do register it you need a certain computer configuration or it won't work. Garmin also loads lots of stuff onto your computer in a very unusual manor (they put items in the startup tray but they are not in the startup folder)
- The download of maps is 6.6 Gigabytes - It took 7 hours
- Their web site says I need a software update, I did the update twice and it still says I need an update
- While using the unit commercials come up on the screen (not in the product description

This is a temporary review to make note that the nuvi 2370lt has not yet been released by Garmin. Unfortunately, some associate sellers are taking advantage of this fact and gaming the system, suggesting they have it in stock but it takes 3 to 5 weeks for delivery. Moreover, the price they are offering this at is now above what Garmin is suggesting as the retail price.

No one has this item in stock and it is a deceptive falsehood for any company to suggest they do have it in stock, thus undermining the trust we give to Amazon and other sellers who choose this site to offer good products and services.

I am very disappointed in the 2350LMT and have returned it.

Background: I am an experienced GPS user and have had two previous Garmin units. Before that I used an external GPS with my notebook PC.

I currently have a Nuvi 750 which I liked very much. But it was getting older and needed a map update, so I decided to buy the 2350LMT after going through Garmin's configurator. But I had to wait months for it to ship.

I got the unit yesterday, and first proceeded to migrate my Favorites and Routes. I called Garmin tech support to help, and surprise they answered on the first ring and the same on every one of the half dozen calls I made yesterday. Points to Garmin on fixing their tech support that used to make us wait 30 minutes.

My Favorites copied fine, but not my Routes. I called back and they told me that the technique used to store routes was different and that they could not be copied. Since my old unit only allowed 10 routes anyhow, I didn't think it would be a big deal to re-create them.

But the 2350 does not have Routes in the old sense, even though the Garmin website indicates that this unit allows 100 Routes. It does have Trip Planner, but I found out after experimenting that this is not the same as Routes. All it allows you to do is to specify the places you want to stop at during a trip, but will not guide you through the Vias as the older Route software would. You basically have to manually select your next destination each time you get to a Via. Obviously, somebody missed the point here big-time.

After many calls to support, I finally was told that they are aware of this issue and plan to fix it in some unspecified future firmware update.

My other main problem was with the screen touch sensitivity and multi-touch. I have two multi-touch devices (iPad and HTC Inspire cellphone) and both work beautifully in selecting and zooming on the screen. But the 2350 would only detect a fingernail touch and not just the tip of a finger. And attempting a two finger zoom was terrible and the screen display often jumped somewhere else that I was pointing.

I tried this on another unit at the local store, with the same issues.

So, a big disappointment overall, and back it goes.