Customer Reviews

Garmin GPS V Map 2.2-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Garmin has really done a great job with this product. I have had my GPS V for about two months and found it to be very accurate, usually within 15 feet in my car and walking around the neighborhood. In the best conditions with WAAS enabled, I have seen the estimated error drop to only 8 feet. It's ideal for someone who wants to know where they are going or how to get there on the road or on the trail. I can quickly enter an address, select goto, and just follow the directions on screen to get me to my destination. Its just big enough to see its digital map from the dash board but still compact enough for hiking. The auto routing is very good and easy to use. It beeps just before the turn and shows a large arrow to point me in the right direction along with a count down in feet as you approach the turn. You can't get lost when this thing is on. I have used other, very expensive DVD based systems such as the one sold with the Acura TL, which is nice due to the large color screen and voice prompts, but this will do just about everything that system does for (...)less. The metro guide shows hundreds of restaurants (in Los Angeles), car repair, ATMs, post offices, you name it - it probably has it - including the brand new Subway Sandwich place a few blocks away from me. Another nice improvement over the Garmin III is the road lock feature. The V shows your position on the road even if GPS calculates your positions slighty off the road. I originally purchased a III plus and found that the unit sometimes showed my position slightly off the freeway which was annoying and I returned the unit. The V always shows me on the correct road. I can even tell which side of the freeway I'm on. The only small complaint I have is that I wish it did have more memory as I am limited to storing the Los Angeles & Orange County street level detail areas. Not a big deal, but if I go on a trip, I will have to download the areas I will be traveling to and delete, say, Orange County. Overall, I think this unit is very cool. There is'nt anything on the market in a compact size, that can do what it does. My recommendation: Buy the GPS V if you want the ultimate in compact GPS navigation for your car, the trail or lake, and then buy some Garmin stock.

I chose the GPS V over the eTrex Vista and Magellan's new Meridian Gold. Ultimately, for me, the decision came down to flexibility. In my research, it appeared to me that choosing between GPS units for the most part involved making "tradeoffs" between features you really need versus those that you don't absolutely need but would be really nice to have. I found that the GPS V offered the most features in my price range without having to make as many of those dreaded tradeoffs. For me, I wanted a GPS unit that felt equally at ease in a boat as in a car, and a unit that was portable enough to occasionally hit the hiking trails. Although all three of the models I mentioned above met my basic criteria, only the GPS V offers automatic turn-by-turn routing, and since car use would likely be its primary function for me, the decision became relatively easy.

After using the unit for several days now, I can happily report that this unit is as good as advertised. Quality construction. Feels solid. Very readable screen despite its diminutive size thanks to its relatively high resolution. Excellent backlighting for use at night. The included cigarette lighter adapter, PC data cable, and City Select CD-ROM are really nice extras (the other models I was considering would have required a separate purchase of downloadable detailed maps).

The automatic routing works great and has been able to reliably steer me to every single location I've punched in, without a hitch, including a few addresses that were "off the beaten path" a bit.

A few minor complaints. First, the lack of expandable memory (for downloading more detailed maps) is a real negative. Although the 19MB internal memory is adequate for most general use, you are forced to limit your downloaded maps to just those that you absolutely need. But 19MB should be adequate for most users. For instance, I have downloaded City Select maps to my GPS V covering an area stretching from as far west as Tuscaloosa, Alabama to as far east as Charleston, South Carolina with all areas in between, including Atlanta, Macon, Augusta, Charlotte, and Columbia. But these maps stretch the memory capacity just about to its limits (note that the Atlanta area alone, however, takes up roughly a third of the memory due to its relatively large geographic area and large number of streets and POI's).

Second, the lack of a USB interface to the PC. The included serial interface is painfully slow. It took about 40 minutes to download the above mentioned maps to the GPS V from my PC.

All in all, if you're looking for flexibility, then in my opinion you need look no further. I would have given this product 5 stars if it had not been for the lack of an expandable memory card. But unless you're a "power user," the internal memory should be adequate for most users.

The Garmin GPS V is a great unit, the operating system is very easy to use and master. High quality feel and construction make it seem worth the money; also, the included accessories (cigarette lighter adapter, and both temporary & permanent dash mount options--the latter being an awesome tilt/swivel unit) are first rate and leave nothing to be desired. However, if you live outside a major metropolitan area there are some distinct limitations to the street mapping software.

Be sure you understand that BOTH the GPS unit you are buying AND the Garmin CD-Rom software have to be "auto routing" capable in order to use this feature. Also, each different CD-Rom can only be asked to search for and "FIND" certain things, whether you are using it on the PC or on the GPS V. Here's the breakdown as I understand it now:

CitySelect: Comes with unit, is "auto routing" capable, great for metro areas--but almost no detail away from major roads/interstates. FINDS Points of Interest, Adressess, Intersections, Waypoints, Cities and Exits (all being near major city/road/highway).

Roads & Recreation: NOT "auto routing" capable. Tons of small town/county road detail, and lots of things show up on the map like boat ramps, camp sites, parks, schools etc., but the only feature it can search for and FIND are cities. This doesn't make any sense to me, and seems like a major letdown.

MetroGuide USA: Appears to be the best parts of both worlds, can FIND most all things mentioned above, and has good detail down to county road level. Also "auto routes" from point to point. I have ordered it, but haven't really used it yet.

Lastly, each CD Rom can be installed to your PC, and selected areas from each CD mentioned above can be downloaded to the GPS V; once there you can select/deselect which one(s) you want to utilize. THEY DON'T "OVERLAY" each other and add increasing detail, they are based on a hierarchy and exclude each other: 1) CitySelect, 2)MetroGuide, 3)Roads&Recreation in that order.

Overall it is an awesome piece of equipment, and for me worth the price. The mapping software needs some more improvement to really take full advantage of the GPS V capability.

The Garmin GPS V is far more accurate than the GPS III. Did a 300 mile trip a day after it arrived and only once did the arrowhead icon deviate briefly from the highway display. My main message is this: if you bought the US Roads and Recreation CD for your GPS III, keep it. The City Select CD that comes with the GPS V is fine for a very limited number of larger cities, but it's skimpy in the boondocks. I'm a biker. US Roads and Recreation has good city maps for towns like Sturgis and Spearfish, South Dakota. They're not even listed in the City Select CD. Plus, the level of detail between small towns is far greater on US R&R, while City Select misses a lot of side roads.

I bought this product as an upgrade from my GPS III+ mainly for the address-address route finding capabilities and I have not been disappointed.

The build quality of the unit (and the III+) is excellent, with rugged keyboard and sturdy feeling case. I have seen concerns with the antenna mounting but have not found the same concerns myself.

The speed of the general processing appears slightly faster than the old III+ and the display is certainly much crisper due to the higher resolution. For those new to the product, the display is clear and back lighting is bright. The addition of the car 12V adapter included with the product is a welcome addition when using backlighting.

The sensitivity of the unit remains very similar to the old III+ but the accuracy seems (subjectively) a touch better. For those new to GPS, it is unlikely that the unit will work indoors. In the car, I find that I need to place the unit on the car dashboard at least until it has locked on to the available satellites.

The real bonus for me is the new point to point navigation feature which allows me to enter address, waypoints or points of interest (uploaded from the included map software) and let the unit navigate me to that point. I find that I normally enter the name of the restuarant/place I am going to rather than the address although both can easily be entered.

The route navigation has been excellent so far although I have found the map data to be slightly inaccurate in small ways. For example, my office building block is misplaced by one block. Not a big deal but it would be a little confusing if I were new to the area and navigating for real.

One area I have found small problems is with closely spaced navigation points where the unit has to quickly move from 'turn left 50 yards' to 'turn right 40 yards' etc. The unit seems a little slow to react in these situations, particularly the map display. Often the direction text appears immediately whereas the map takes a good number of seconds to redraw (once or twice it has locked up for nearly a minute at this point). I have reported this to Garmin and am awaiting as response.

The quality of the direction text is normally extremely accurate, being able to distinguish between ramps, spurs and other attributes on the road.

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This is the second Garmin GPS that I own. Just like my old GPS III, the new one is worth every penny. The physical demission of GPS V is almost identical to its predecessor GPS III. However, GPS V's screen resolution is noticeable higher and the backlit light works better at night. GPS V also comes with more accessories; include a cigarette lighter adapter and a dashboard mounting kit with both permanent and temporary adhesive disks.
The main features of GPS V are: satellite navigation with street level maps (CitySelect CD downloadable to GPS unit), a built-in nationwide base map, present-location-to-address routing function with automatic off-route recalculation (NEW features), saved waypoints, tracks and routes. The CitySelect maps are extremely accurate and updated. Once I could not find a new road in my neighborhood with Microsoft Streets & Trips but found it on GPS V! The automatically routing function is the main reason for my upgrade to GPS V. There are three kinds of routing calculations: by shortest distance, fastest routes or off-road. I have used "shortest-distance" on almost all occasions and very pleased with the results. I did find one glitch while using "Map Page" with automatically routing enabled: the "Map Page" would freeze for more than 30 seconds upon a turn is being completed by following (or not following) the "Next Turn Page." Map redraw can be done manually by pressing the zoom-in or zoom-out key, or you can just wait patiently until the map redraws by itself. This glitch is particularly annoying in the situation, which you are totally dependent on GPS V to prompt you with driving directions. I already upgraded the software on my unit to version 2.02 (release date11/14/2001), however the problem still persists.
To enter an address for automatic routing is straightforward - you can use the rocker keypad directly on GPS unit or use saved waypoints from the CitySelect desktop software. You can also select a waypoint from a dynamically generated POI (Point of interest) list on the GPS. NOTE: You can only find the street addresses on GPS unit if you have downloaded the CitySelect maps of that region.
The bottom line: it's an amazing little device that has so many features. It will help you big time in finding addresses or point-of-interests in unfamiliar neighborhoods. It's great fun to use. However, it's not a substitute for conventional methods of trip planning, i.e. maps and driving directions. And at last, do drive carefully when you are using GPS V in a car - it can distract you.

The GPS works well and sets up pretty easy. But you have to havd an Internet connection, and preferably a high speed one to get it up and running.

Two obvious flaws:

Whats with the Serial connection? Garmin hasn't heard of USB Ports? Moving maps around takes 20 - 30 minutes to download, only do it before you go to bed.

Also, when 48mg chips are available for less than $... why is the unit limited to 20mg memory? There really is no reason for this unit to have 50% of the United States available on it as opposed to a half a state which is all you get with the unexpandable memory available with the unit.

Other wise the unit is really pretty good. Small size makes it easy to carry, and the cigerette adapter lets you run it in a car and not worry about the battery. Also, the unit can see satelites even when its on the front seat.

Im a real estate appraiser in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and I do alot of driving to different addresses. I bought the GPS V to help me so I do not have to flip through maps as I drive to a new address. I have been so amazed by how accurate this gps is i can not recommened it enough. I just put in an address and it calculates, fast, shortest or offroad routes and does so in less than 30 seconds. I then just follow the directions and it gives a beep and arrow and street name to turn before I reach the street and then again as I have reached the turn. If im in an area im not familure with and want something to eat, oil change, grocery store, you name it, i just put the name in the "find it" area and it tells me the nearest location and how to get there, distance, eta, even my elevation, time of day, direction im heading. There is even a pong game on the GPS V, lol. You will not go wrong with the GPS V and I saved at least $45 just on tax (...). Now to get the parks and recreation maps and head to the colorado rockies in the spring.

It's difficult to find a product that performs as advertised, but this one actually does what it claims and does it well. I purchased a Street Pilot previously and was so disappointed with it that I barely used it. The difference is the unit's ability to give you turn by turn directions to your destination. If you've ever rented a Hertz car with the NeverLost system, this is very similar. You have the ability to find your destination by way of a street address, intersection, or "Points of Interest". Points of interest could be anything from a restaurant (narrowed by type of food served), service stations, parks, etc.

The 19 megs of memory is easily big enough to hold any city's street base and then some. One word of caution: have the unit route you down some familiar roads before you use it in unfamiliar territory so you can learn things like how soon it beeps before an upcoming turn, where to look on the screen for the information you need, etc. It will help reduce some of the frustration for when you really ARE lost!

I have been waiting for a GPS systems that has the right combination of portability, usefulness for street navigation, and price, and as far as I'm concerned, the Garmin GPS V is close to perfect. I have been using it regularly for the past month in the Boston area, and the map function, route calculations, ETA calculations, etc. are outstanding. Mastering the keystrokes for wayfinding takes an hour at the most, and I found the Internet-based system for getting keycode access to map database to be very straight-forward. Some people may not like the fact that the screen is not in color, or the screen size/fonts are too small. For me, the grey-scale display is perfectly fine (and the lighting at night is exceptional). As for screen size - this is what allows the device to be adaptable to anything beyond the car - i.e. biking, hiking, climbing, etc.. Honestly - this is one of the most practical and useful outcomes of [the money] that I have had in many years.