Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 750 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Portable Dashboard Mount Included

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The other Amazon listing of the 750 was removed, along with dozens of reviews. I will try and summarize the pros and cons and issues people had mentioned.

When turned on, the unit takes around a minute to load the maps. Solution - turn the unit on when you exit your house. It will be ready by the time you hook it up and start your car. Some had complained it took a long time to acquire the satelite, I have not experienced that.
I suspect that was a problem with the older firmware and has been corrected.

The manual is on line, not in the box. Not all the features are intuitive so its worth reading the manual. There are small things you might miss otherwise - such as converting the type pad to QUERY, or how to block toll roads, etc. The unit is rather easy to use, so its not like you will miss all that much if you don't read the manual.

The voice is clear and easily loud enough to hear. I also tried it out on the car speakers via the FM transmitter and it worked fine. (My antenna is in the rear, the GPS on the dashboard).

The calculated routes work though not always "the best" as there may be slighly shorter routes using some side streets.

- Driving to Ikea bypassing the toll roads it missed a short cut on routes 1/9 that would have saved a couple of minutes - not a big deal.

- driving locally it wanted to put me on faster main streets rather than side roads even though the route was longer and would have hit 1 or more stop lights. I know the local streets and my way would have saved a couple of minutes. Still - thats not a big deal. I dont care about a couple of minutes if I am lost - just want to get where I am going in a reasonable amount of time.


What I want out of a GPS is:
1 - if I get lost I have "someone" helping me get to where I need to go, even if its a few minutes longer
2 - if I make a wrong turn - I want to know ASAP

I usually first look at the route via Mapquest or Google maps. You can transfer your destination from your PC to your GPS The point is added as a favorite. You can not download a planned route, just individual favorite stopping points.
*BUT - what you can do is create a route out of these saved intermedaite points, to optimize your route. Lets say you want to go form A to B but don't like the plotted route. Download 1 or more points from mapquest/google maps and set those as intermediate points. A -> C -> B


You have the ability to block a road. I haven't used it but I read in other reviews that it blocks the entire stretch of road, as opposed to redirecting you to the next exit. That is a negative that makes this feature less useful.


The maps can be zoomed in and out for various levels of detail. Obviously you should not do that while driving, but its very useful if you pull over. The screen could be bigger to see more of the maps, but then it would cost more, so its ok as is.

I needed to go to an elementary school on town, and I only knew the approxiamte location. The POI (Points of Interest) showed a little picture of a school bus in the area - guess what that was ? :-)
But the elementary school near me wasn't shown. Not really a problem as usually one has an exact stree address.

One small gripe -
I found the magenta road route covered up the POI in one mode. It would be better to have them "on top of" the selected route. If you are driving and get hungry and pull over to look at the POI - Restaurants - its hard to see them with the magenta route on top. You can stop the route, but then you must reenter it. Probably not a big deal, (it will be in the recently selected list), but annoying since it would have been easier to have the POI on top of the route. Maybe someday this will be fixed with a firmware download.


The map is functional, though you have to zoom in and out a bit if you want to study different parts of the route in detail. (its better to first study where you wnat to go with mapquest/google maps). Since you move the map by dragging different parts you need to zoom out then in. Of course if you first plot the course with mapqust you will have a good idea of the route. I don't really need the "bread crumb" option of showing how much of your route you have covered.

By pressing the turn and other boxes you get a more detailed listing of the route. This is of use if you want to review the route, but in all honesty I just look at the plotted route and compare it to mapquest.

The car moves across the map in very small jumps (like a sixteenth of an inch). This doesnt bother me, although others have said other brands (TomTom 730) are smoother.

When I first got the unit in December 2008 it lagged (it was slow in detecting wrong turns, and in announcing turns). Once I hooked it up to the PC and updated the firmware it was much improved. It no longer lags, and if you miss a turn you will hear "recalculating" in a much shorter period of tiem, based on how far you are form the correct raod. Still not as fast as the TomTom (from what I have read) but still improved.

All in all the 750 does all I need it to do. For the price (right here on Amazon) its the best value I've seen.

PS - Some of the complaints I read in the earlier reviews are unfounded.
Such as:
- you can change the type pad from ABCD to QWERTY
- you can see all the turns by pressing some of the text areas on the display
- you can go to the top level of the menu by holding down the menu key



Dec 23/2009 update
I have used it for a year.
Some small complaints
1 - when I turn it on, it does take a while to acquire the satelite, which can be annoying if one forgets to turn it on inside teh house. It can delay your truip 1-2 minutes. Not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.
2 - For some reason if I dont have it plugegd into the car power jack I can't get it to acquire the satelite. This would be annoying if I wanted to take the GPS with me to find the cars location in a parking lot.
3 - You do need to clean the suction cup occasionally , else it can fall off the windshield. This has happened several times.

The main gripe is the selected route may not be optimal. The GPS always tries to put me on a road with stop lights (Route 22 in New jersey) instead of route 78. I think it must look at the posted speed limit and not take into account the stop lights. What I do sometimes is use map quest or google maps to come up with way points (intermediate locations) to force it to select a certain route. Care must be chosen becaus eif you put them off teh main route it will mess up your directions after that point (trying to reroutse you back). You will need to reenter your route. This is a minor annoyance, and can be countered by plotting your route with map quest or google maps.

If you rely on the GPS as your main guide for directions you will get to where you are going, but the route may well not be optimal. But if you are lost, it will get you to your destination, which is its main purpose. All GPSs suffer from this.

So the best way to use a GPS is first plot your route, print out your map quest directions, and bring along your GPS in case you get lost (such as returning home at night after a kids soccer game in an unfamiliar town).

I find it helpful as a backup, but am a little disappointed when using it as my primary guide (instead of Map Quest)

I will start this review by stating that I am a professional navigator, a perfectionist, and a tightwad. I have been retired for a number of years and finally decided to get a GPS for the car. I bought Garmin because I have used their commercial units for deep sea navigation and have always been happy with them. I spent a lot of time comparing the various units and opted for the Nuvi 750. I don't need Bluetooth or the traffic routing. I really don't care about using a gps as an MP3 player or putting photo's on it either. The 750 was so close in price to the various other wide screen units with fewer features that I figured it was the way to go. I also really wanted the FM transmitter since I am hearing impaired and read in other reviews that the speakers were tinny sounding and not very audible. So, here are a few things to consider before buying this brand and particular unit. I hope you find the following helpful, and that it makes your selection process a little easier.

pro-ish:

1) Support, support, and again support. A product is only as good as the support that comes with it, and Garmin gets an A+ from me. I sent an email to Garmin with a question and got an answer within one day. When I called Garmin to ask a few more questions , I got a human operator immediately. This tech rep was based in the U.S. and was able to answer all of my questions fully and clearly. I was impressed. The support alone would cause me to buy a Garmin. (A friend of mine has a Tomtom, and he is having a hard time reaching anyone for help with his unit.)

2) The FM transmitter is a nice feature, but really isn't worth bothering with. If you use it, you will a) have to listen to static hiss, b) have it fade in and out, c) have to change stations as your location changes, and d) won't be able to listen to the radio or your tapes/cd's. If you want more volume than the Nuvi speaker puts out, just buy an inexpensive portable travel speaker and plug it into the Nuvi headphone jack. The FM transmitter is a great idea, just not that practicable.

3) The Nuvi speaker. I would prefer more volume, but the speaker is perfectly adequate for the job as it is. My wife can hear the directions just fine, and I can make out most of what it says, even with my hearing impairment. There is really no need to listen over the radio or use an external speaker.

4) I have gotten a few odd routings, but Mapquest gave me the exact same directions. I think it is just a matter of personal preferences. You get used to driving on certain roads, and that's that. Update: I wanted to check just how much longer the Garmin route was compared with my usual way of driving to the library. I knew Garmin was longer. I would have bet money that my way was better. Garmin routing shaved off .6 miles and 1.5 minutes off my route. That was for a 4 mile trip. I am humbled!

5) The unit arrived just three days after I placed my order with Amazon, even though I had it sent with free shipping. It should have taken 5-9 business days. Maybe because Christmas was so close?

6) I really didn't want to wait till the next day to try using the GPS. So, it's 11 pm and I am standing out on the front lawn expecting to be there for up to a half hour while the unit initialized. That process took less than 10 minutes. I really should have timed it. When I came back into my house, I didn't lose satellite reception. That was a surprise.

7) The unit did come with the latest maps and firmware. When I went to the Garmin web site, I didn't need to download anything.

8) I have had no problem getting a satellite lock. By the time the maps load, the unit is ready to navigate.

9) I deliberately missed a few turns, wanting to see how fast a new route was calculated. Rerouting occurred before traveling more than 100 feet. There is adequate time to adjust and make your next turn on your new route.

10) Being able to switch mode from automobile to bike to pedestrian to off road is a fantastic capability.

11) I love the way the screen adjusts itself automatically at sunset.

12) The routing with multiple stops is an excellent feature.


Con-ish:

1) A case should have been included with the unit. It didn't have to be a great case, but it should have been there. I found that my old hand held calculator case is just about a perfect fit. It's just enough protection so that I don't have to worry about scratches when I carry it in my pocket.

2) Should have included an AC adapter. I bought one when I bought the GPS. Way overpriced. Still, glad to have it.

3) No instruction book. They can include a 50 page booklet with instructions in 10 languages on how not to cause myself grievous bodily harm with a lithium ion battery , but can't include a full instruction booklet? The quick start guide is a waste of paper. They should have gone with the complete manual. I did call them up, and they are sending a full manual to me.


Conclusion:

The only way a person like me could get the perfect GPS is to design one myself. That being said, the Nuvi 750 is the next best thing. The price is right, the functions are excellent, it looks and feels substantial, and it works like a charm. I would highly recommend Garmin and in particular the Nuvi 750 to anyone interested in buying a GPS. By the way, I bought the air vent mount and am very pleased with the way it fits the vents. Much better than mounting on the window in my opinion.

I've used lots of GPS devices over the years - handheld, for hiking, boating, flying; built in in various boats and aircraft.....but I never had one in the car. I always thought they were a bit of a ... toy.

When I got the Garmin Nuvi 750 I was surprised: First, there was no manual to speak of (the garmin 530 aircraft GPS manual is many hundreds of pages). Then, at how intuitive the device is to use. Finally, I started using it - and was able to find destinations pre-programmed into it (post offices in towns I was just visiting, etc).

I've had it two weeks, including a thousand-plus mile drive across N. America (in 3 states, a province and two countries) and wouldn't want to be without it. Forget about maps or map books, this is the thing to have.

The friction dashboard mount is a very highly recommended piece of equipment too. It keeps the Nuvi exactly where you want it on the dash and allows quick removal for storage.

My nuvi 750 was very easy to use. The onscreen routing is very clear and giving street names to turn on was also very helpful; however, the speaker does not always pronounce the street names correctly. In the US, the directions were very good; however in Canada, it kept telling me to stay in the collector lane for over 30 miles while the express lane was moving well. At Pearson Airport, to return a rental car, the map seems to be outdated (wrong street names and non-existent streets). Call to Garmin said they will check with their vendor but not much can be done to update my unit if they do find a problem.

Just opened it up out of the box for xmas. tested it out while going to a friends house. works great! i really have no need for all the extra things such as mp3, and picture viewer but I guess it's better than not having those things. The FM transmitter is a cool option. The selling point is the points of interest menu. It's like having a portable google maps...It will find anything in the area (ATMS, banks, gas, food, lodging, government offices, entertainment, bars, casinos..etc!) Also a great feature was just searching for a place. I typed in Olive Garden and it found 3 of them..one of them which i had no idea existed til the nuvi showed me. I am really impressed..but that could be just because I have never used a GPS before and have not really had many other experiences with anyone else's GPS. But as far as I can tell it works great. Does not take long to load up and the satellite singal is always 100% (i live in cali). Overall as a GPS navigation system I could not ask for more!

This is a wonderful device. I got this one, upgrading from my 6-month-old Nuvi 260.

This one has eliminated most of the "complaints" about the 260 - and most of those complaints were pretty nit-picky because the 260 was so great.

One complaint was the way the charging cord attaches to the unit. In the 750, the cord attaches to the mounting bracket (not directly to the device) and it does come out sideways and in a direction convenient for left-hand-drive cars.

The 750 now has a QWERTY input option which addresses the other picky complaint about the 260 which was that the keyboard was in ABCD order.

Technical support remains a great asset for Garmin - much better, more responsive, friendlier, and more helpful than Magellan.

This is a SUPERB unit.

The only down sides are that the sound is a bit tinny (since I don't play MP3s or use blue-tooth, that doesn't matter to me), and although the suction cup holder works well on windshields, attaching to windshields is illegal in CA and MN and most vehicles don't have place in the cabin smooth enough to attach a suction cup. This is a problem with ALL suction cup holders. I highly recommend you consider purchasing this product ARKON GN033 Cup Holder Mount since virtually every vehicle you use will have a cup holder.

This is an awsome GPS. It updates quickly and I have not been able to trick it by going off course. POI is really cool, it's EZ to input adresses and you really do not need a manual (you will have to download a complete manual, comes with the quickstart version). Recieves well in the car house, big display and the mount works well.(I did think I would use the friction mount but the windshield mount is nice). Highly recomended, Updated the maps and program online with no trouble. I will not subscribe to the fm trafic thingie and I have no plans to make calls via blue tooth/gps so I dont have to waist $ on features I'll never use. Well designed, I do wish it came with a case but I usually have my own ideas on storage anyway.I use pda screen protectors to keep the screen pretty for years to come. Garmin is highly rated, this unit lives up to there reputation.

I have a job that requires me to drive to multiple locations often outside of my hometown. In order to make my life a little more comfortable (i.e. being able to find somewhere to get something to eat or drink in an unfamiliar town), I got a GPS. I got the Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator, thinking that I could input a number of waypoints, or addresses, and thus make a route. This wasn't the case, so I sadly had to return it and get the Garmin nüvi 750 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator. Here is a comparison:

DISPLAY
The look of the 255 is awesome. The icons are clean and stylish, and I liked how turn indications were pictured instead of written out. I also found the current speed display to be helpful, as I found that you actually look at the unit more than you expect to. It is very navigable and easy to use without instructions.
In contrast, the 750's display is less bright and the look of it is way more basic. It has text for Left and Right instead of a little turning signal (as pictured above).
The 750's touch screen is much more sensitive. However, it's hard to see in the afternoon sun.

ROUTING
The routing features of the two also differed. The 255 routed me more efficiently (I've been using them both for the first times in a largely unfamiliar area but where I do know some ways to get around). However, the 750 picked up on my preferred roads to drive on and changed accordingly. I expect GPSs to be somewhat limited in the abilities that are kinda nit-picky, like indicating whether an address is on the left or the right. I think you can easily look at mailboxes yourself and figure that out. BUT some people find this feature important so I'll comment on it.
The 255 was so inaccurate in neighborhoods as far as the location of a house (left or right side and which end of the street) that I tuned it out after turning onto the street. Sometimes it even had the street ends completely swapped. So it's not helpful in this way.
Surprisingly, the 750 is pretty accurate in this area. If it didn't always get the exact location of the address right (maybe 200-300 ft off) it DID know which side of the road it was on.

SATELLITE PERFORMANCE AND OVERALL SPEED
The 255 was much quicker that the 750 to lock onto the satellite when powered on.
The 255 was incredibly fast at re-routing me. If I missed a road, it recalculated in time for me to take the very next one only a few feet away and get back without annoying U-Turns.
The 750 is slower at recalculating. I find myself turning around in a lot of driveways to get back on the original route because it's just too slow to give me a new road to take. I end up passing it and then it tells me!
The map display as the car moves along is much faster in the 255 as well, so accurate that you can trust it for a turn even if the road names are a wrong in real life.

QUIRKS
The 255 is plenty loud. I used it on 80%.
The 750 is on full blast in my fairly quiet car and it's pretty tough to hear. I want to find another unit and return it because this is a pretty big issue.
The 750 takes a long time to "load maps" at initial power up each day. Sometimes I switch is back off and on really quickly and voilà, it's ready to go. Annoying if nothing else.
One day the 750 just quite talking to me for a couple hours. Not too bad since the voices are worse than the 255, but annoying. It randomly started back again hours later (and yes, I did power down and back up, to no avail). I hope this won't be an ongoing problem.

A comment on the 750's multidestination routing feature. I programmed 41 points into a route one day. Great, except if you miss a road! Instead of re-routing you to the via point you were trying to get to, all those points disappear and it "recalculates" and takes you to the next point. I missed about 20 points one day because of this, and you can't do anything about it because the routes disappear once you pass them.
**If anyone has a fix for this, please post it because I may have to keep this unit... another option looks like a Magellan but they seem limited to only a few via points**

Hope someone finds this helpful. If anyone knows a Magellan or something around $200 that would fix all these problems I have with the 750, do tell :)

EDIT: There are apparently multiple types of volume and ways to adjust it on the 750. I had only adjusted the volume in the settings section. Later I found a volume control option on the main menu page (Where To and View Map page). I turned it up and now the 750 is plenty loud!

I just bought the Nuvi 750 and I love it. The only other experience I have with GPS navigation is in my husband's Honda. It is an in dash system. I decided that I wanted a portable system for my car. The Nuvi is easy to use and the screen is bright and colorful. The voice is easy to understand and it even has different choices of cars or other markers to show where you are on the map.

I did read one review on another Nuvi that said that a setting called Avoidances needed to be changed and then the directions got better and this turned out to be true. You can avoid things like traffic, dirt roads, carpool lanes, and many other things. It comes with a bunch of these selected. I just unchecked some and it works better. Changing any setting is incredibly easy, though (and I'm not super patient with tech stuff).

Anyway, I highly recommend this product to anyone who wants a portable GPS system.

Its a good product for the price of around $200. It stays connected to satellites and is user friendly. The only problem is routing will sometimes drop one of the via points. Like any electronics it appears to be a glitch, however i'm probably not familiar enough with the system to make a final judgement on that issue. Good product for the money!