Customer Reviews

Garmin StreetPilot 2820 5.6-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

(EDIT 12-19-2006: If you're looking at the 2820, unless you drive a motorcycle I strongly recommend the StreetPilot c550 which I've also reviewed. Read this review and then compare it to the c550.)

This is the second Garmin product I've purchased, the first being a StreetPilot C320 for my mother which I've also used extensively. (I've reviewed the C320 also. Most of the good things I pointed out in that review also apply here, so read that one if you want more details than what I give here.) This one was purchased for myself and my wife to use in our new car. (New toys! Hooray!)

The unit itself is pretty solid, measuring about the size of an oversized Stephen King novel, weighing about a pound and having a large widescreen-format touchscreen with four (backlit) rubberized buttons to the right of the screen. A power switch is on the right side, ports for microphone-in and audio-out are on the left side, and a mini USB port is on the back. The screen and buttons automatically adjust their brightness depending on the ambient light (the more light there is the brighter they get), but you can override the brightness levels manually.

One big disappointment was the lack of a built-in microphone and speaker, although Garmin includes a wired microphone that is surprisingly sensitive. Considering that both a microphone and the GPS would need to be within line of sight of the driver it doesn't make sense that Garmin didn't integrate the microphone right into the unit. The speaker is even more unusual; it's actually attached to the plug that goes into the cigarette lighter. So if your car has an awkwardly positioned cigarette lighter you'll find the audio coming out from an unusual angle. The fact that my mother's C320 (which cost less than half) has a built-in speaker while the 2820 does not is a further disappointment.

The unit truly is a plug-and-play affair. Setup is this: Take the unit, the power cord, and the mounting base (more on that in a moment) out of the box. Position the unit on your car's dashboard. Plug in the power cord to your car's cigarette lighter outlet. Turn on the unit. That's it -- done and ready to go. Provided you've got a reasonably clear view of the sky it'll take about 10-15 seconds for the GPS to locate itself, after which you'll have full functionality.

Installation caveats: As with all GPS systems you'll need to position the GPS in an area where it can get a clear view of the sky as the antenna is internal. (External antennas are available.) Garmin includes a weighted "pad" with a high-friction base that securely holds the unit onto the dash. They also provide a means of "permanently" mounting the unit onto the dash via an adhesive disc. I used the weighted pad and have no problems with it.

For gadget geeks like me, you'll want to connect the unit to your Windows PC (via USB) and download Garmin's WebUpdater application. This will update the software in the unit. Mine required about 15-20 updates, including a multitude of voice updates as well as a couple of "system" updates. I therefore strongly recommend you download and use Garmin's WebUpdater (which, incidentally, works on all Garmin products with USB interfaces).

So, how does it work? Garmin's interface is very smooth and polished. It's not perfect and you will sometimes find yourself getting lost in the multitide of menus and functions, but for most of your navigation needs you'll never notice this. You'll be using perhaps 15% of the menus 90% of the time and that 15% is very easy to work with. The navigation process is clear, concise and accurate. As an experiment I went through the same intersection several times and the 2820 announced the upcoming turn at virtually the same exact point, so it's definitely got some accurate positioning happening.

The unit offers a "traditional" 2D GPS perspective (where you're looking straight down onto a map of the surrounding area, with your vehicle positioned in the center of the map) or a pseudo-3D perspective (where the map is angled and you're looking down and forward from above the car's position on the map). I find the 3D perspective to be more interesting and Garmin seems to agree since that view is the default. Unlike the C320, the 2820 will zoom out depending on how far you need to go. For example, if you're traveling 10 miles on a highway the 2820 will zoom the view out to show you more of the surrounding area including points of interest, if applicable. As you approach your turn the 2820 will zoom in to closer detail so you don't miss the turn (you can also manually override this function and zoom in to whatever setting you want). In contrast, the C320 maintains its zoom level at whatever the user specifies.

Audio quality is very good, much improved over my mother's C320 and there's even support for multiple languages (so, yeah, it'll talk to you in Spanish or any of a dozen other languages.) There are three "American English" voices. One is dubbed "Jack", the second "Jill", and the third is unnamed. The "Jill" (female) voice is similar to the voice on the C320 and is the default choice for the 2820. The "Jack" (male) voice is somewhat easier to understand (versus Jill) but the unnamed (female) voice is inarguably the best of them. However, with this clarity comes a trade-off; using the unnamed voice will cause the 2820 to use generic directions ("turn left", "in 500 feet keep right") while using the "Jack" or "Jill" voice will cause the 2820 to call out street names and exit numbers. The reason for this is because the unnamed voice is really little more than a collection of sampled audio that the 2820 strings together appropriately, while "Jack" and "Jill" are a combination of sampled audio and computer-generated speech, thus allowing the unit to call out proper names and numbers when applicable.

There's a phenominal amount of data on this thing. I was particularly surprised by its airport options; not only will it guide you to the airport, but it will also guide you to the appropriate terminal or drop-off/pick-up area. There's also an extensive points-of-interest guide; tell the GPS what you want and it will tell you what's closest and guide you there with aplomb. Map accuracy is exceptional. It doesn't always take me via the route I expect to go or I'm used to going but it always gets me to my destination. I recently took this unit with me to DisneyWorld in Orlando and it successfully plotted dozens of locations for me, both on and off DisneyWorld property. It even recognizes DisneyWorld restaurants in at least four resorts and will guide you there accurately.

I selected the 2820 for its other features as well. The hands-free Bluetooth function works fine. After pairing it with a Treo 650 I was able to send and receive calls through the Garmin unit.

The 2820 also has the ability to receive XM satellite radio and XM's dynamic traffic system, "XM NavTraffic", which will reroute your path to avoid traffic congestion. This requires an XM subscription which I don't have (I'm a Sirius guy) so I was unable to test this.

You can also connect the 2820 to an optional FM TMC traffic receiver which, in areas that support the technology (mainly large cities like Manhattan), will also dynamically reroute your path. This is a less expensive option than the XM system but, again, I have not (yet) installed this so I cannot test it.

One particular item of note: The C320 has one significant shortcoming, and that is the screen tends to get washed out in anything resembling sunlight. I actually had to fabricate a small plastic hood for the C320 to make it visible and therefore more useful. I am happy to say that the 2820 has a significantly better screen. I had it on the dashboard of a PT Cruiser convertible, with the top down, at high noon, in the middle of Florida, on a bright and sunny 90 degree day and had absolutely no problems viewing the screen. The C320 (without the hood) would have shown me a vague blur in a similar situation.

So, overall this is a very positive review. So why only two stars? Several reasons, most of which having to do with comparing the 2820 to the lower-end products like the C320. First, the omission of a built-in speaker and microphone. The fact that Garmin's lower-priced systems has a speaker and the higher-priced systems do not is inexcusable, and the logic behind the external microphone eludes me. I am also removing a star for the other "nickel-and-dime" things. For example, the C320 includes a suction cup mounting for the windshield which is very convenient; the 2820 does not. The C320 has a built-in rechargeable battery good for about four hours which makes it invaluable if you're ever stranded on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere; the 2820 has no battery. Combined the entire package is a little nonsensical; it's like getting a full stereo w/CD player as standard equipment in a Kia, but not even offering it as an option in a Mercedes-Benz. I am also taking a full star off for Garmin's failure to respond to two pre-sale and one post-sale email I sent to them. There is absolutely no excuse for lackluster customer support.

On the other hand, it could fairly be said that I'm not giving credit where credit is due. After all, the 2820 has excellent directions, a very good screen, a ton of preprogrammed locations and a host of additional features like the XM satellite radio connection. To that I say: So what? Any GPS worth anything will have excellent directions, a good screen, and tons of preprogrammed locations so crediting the 2820 for something that it should have just by its very nature is kind of silly. As for the additional features, yeah, you're probably right, but since I'm not actually using many of those additional features I can't rightfully praise the 2820 for having them.

So, is this a good GPS? Yes, one of Garmin's best. But there's a lot of room for improvement and if you don't need the Bluetooth, XM satellite, and/or TMC traffic functions there are much less expensive Garmin units that offer better value.

The sound is clear and it even has an audio out jack for my auxiliary input jack of my stereo. So, if I'm *really* paranoid about missing audio cues when I'm driving, I don't miss them now. Alternatively, if you pair it with a bluetooth headset, you should be able to get the same in ear (of course you could also use the audio out for regular headphones while driving, say one earbud in, if you wanted).

The interface is very logical and anticipates what you want reasonably well. The navigation at a couple of weird spots in Toronto was a bit disappointing. Don't know whether to attribute to less attention to the Canadian map data or just a sampling anomaly. For example, I punched in a Wynford drive address (cultural centre) and after it took me off the DVP, it didn't tell me to turn onto a crucial cross street (was highly unintuitive at night) to actually get to the entrance of the destination. I'm used to these things generally routing you right to the front door.

Conversely, going to a friends new condo in Downsview, everything was perfect and I got right to the front entrance.

The thing with the 2820 is that like with most of these portable units, I don't leave it on the dash ready to use, b/c it's of course, more of a theft target, alarm notwithstanding. So I wrap it up in a little sports bag and whip it out when I need nav help. It's too big for the glove box (unless you have a really big glove box with nothing else in it). Often, I'll leave the GPS in the trunk so there's less for wandering eyes to wonder about. I really wish I had a unit built into the vehicle I didn't have to fold away, unplug etc.

Really, these units are best for travelers. In one's main car, I'd recommend going to the mobile audio/nav specialty shop and installing something.

While my 2820 has a bigger display than the Garmin ones with the "c" prefix (the smaller square shaped ones), I noticed that the extra screen space is mostly used for extra stats like distance to destination, ETA, current speed etc. In hindsight, the smaller "c" models that you can shove in your glovebox with effectively the same map display area, are probably better. That is - if it's going to be portable than make it fit in your glove box - otherwise - go with a properly installed permanent device.

Having used the device, I realized my concerns about a slightly larger screen size than the "c" models provide, was unfounded. Perhaps there's a mode I can set mine to to take up the full screen, sans the stats. It would be of negligible impact however. The audio cues and a quick glance over seem to really be all that one needs - even with a smaller model.

My 2820 is definitely a solid piece of technology and it does the job. It'll always get me in the area, if not to the doorstep of where I need to go. I've not used the "places of interest" and other such look ups, but my brother in law and cousin have the smaller Garmin units that do this as well, and they've been happy with those functions.

Let me start by saying the 2820 is a complete and terrific GPS however if you already own a Garmin 2720, 2620 or any other model with pre-loaded maps don't bother investing in the 2820. I own a 2620 and thought the traffic warning and blue tooth was worth the upgrade. Well as they say in Joisey "fuhgetaboutit". First you need to purchase an extra antenna at about $230,the traffic alert requires an extra XM radio subscription at $13 a month and once you sign up you will find out that the service is only available in limited areas. The blue tooth doesn't work with most cell phones out there (although the very newest ones will) and the 3D screen is not worth the expense of upgrading. Let me say further that I don't blame garmin, I blame myself for not researching better. The information was out there and if I did my homework I would still be using my 2620. If you do not own a GPS do not let this information give you a bad image of Garmin. In my opinion you CAN NOT OWN A BETTER PRODUCT!

I've had my 2820 now for a week and I am extremely pleased with the all of the basic features. The real plus is the Bluetooth capabilities. I am a consulting engineer and am on the road a lot so being able to use a full functioned, not so many confusing button pushes, hands-free device for my cell phone is a must. The one major gripe that I have, and I have voiced this with Garmin, is the lack of a built-in Wireless FM Transmitter. Before getting this unit, I had a XM radio in my car and connected it via FM. When I saw that Garmin had a GPS that provided XM services AND Bluetooth capabilities, I knew I had to have one. My oversight was making the presumption that since this device was newer than the 2730, it would have all of the features of the 2730 plus Bluetooth. Well, this was the wrong presumption to make and (in the short term) I've ended up buying a Wireless FM Transmitter. I'm not sure why Garmin couldn't include this in the 2820 since they do have a combination of Bluetooth and the Wireless FM Transmitter in their Nuvi 660 product. I did let them know that they should make it more prominent that this unit does NOT have the Wireless FM Transmitter on their web page so that others don't make the same mistake that I did.

Overall I love this unit. I recommend it to friends and demo it in their cars when we travel. The other reviews cover a lot of the features and I agree with most of what has been said about this unit. I've extensively used two other nav systems, Hertz's and the built in one on my previous car, a Nissan 2005 Quest. I like this a lot more then either one. I have had this for 10 months now and use it almost daily. I found early on some issues and had to struggle to not complain as I learned its many amazing features. Mnay early issues were resolved by sitting with it and drilling down into new screens and features. The review below is based on many thousands of miles driven trying to either challenge it or fine tune my understanding of it. I've driven in new areas, well known areas, learned new routes, been through challenging city environments and almost featureless landscapes. If I didn't like it so much I would not have taken the time to review it at this depth. I hope it is useful. I rarely travel without it.

Size and form: Fits in my Honda Accord glove box fine. The remote is great and key to a good nav experience for me. Screen has good room for interesting info. Found out like many cars my speedometer over estimates my speed by 3 to 4 mph at any speed over 10 mph. For the size I would have liked a speaker built in, as others have noted.

Missing feature/place for improvement #1: The buttons on the unit are okay but why not a mute button? Garmin knows there will be sound coming out of it, the AUX to car stereo or the one on the power cord, plenty of room for one. No external mute anywhere either on the unit of the remote is a serious oversight.

XM and traffic: Far out! Who knew what was out there on XM! I love it! The choices are wonderful. And the traffic avoidance! WOW! On trips XM is a fabulous choice when the local radio isn't playing anything interesting. One thing I didn't know what Hawaii is not covered by XM. I drove around Maui for 10 days missing my XM radio. Signal strength varies as you reach the Pacific Coast and are in mountains like in Colorado. The XM traffic is AMAZING. Incidents pop up on the map, the voice will say "activating better route" and the recalculate function routes you around accidents, construction, etc. I've learned several new routes due to this feature and saved amazing amounts of time commuting in LA County and traveling on the weekends to nearby counties for fun. I don't feel right driving anymore with out this aid, very worthwhile, pays for itself right away in hours saved. There are two issues I have with the traffic calculations. One is the info is delayed a bit, I've encountered incidents I heard on AM radio reports that XM didn't know yet. And cleared incidents have a lag also.

Missing feature/place for improvement #2: I wish there was a recalculate feature that started from the top and regathered the traffic info, or even bypassed it. Sometimes the unit is so set on a route I have to power it off, power it back on without the XM antenna, set the destination, reattach the antenna to get it to generate a useful route that doesn't insist on a huge detour.

Maps, routing and zoom: Love the maps, rarely confused when looking at them or listening to the descriptions of where to go. Complex keep left/then immediately exit right when not listening to the audio could be better.

Missing feature/place for improvement #3: Use of telling the driver the recommended lanes to be in would be a HUGE help.

I love the auto-zoom in as I approach the turn, very well done. I wish I could set the auto-zoom out to a more focused view. A 10 to 50 mile view when on long freeways is pretty much uninteresting, I want to see the local stuff as I drive through an area. I manually hit the IN button on the remote 5 to 6 times to see a view pretty much what the freeway signs are confirming to me.

More on routing and voice announcements: It is annoying to hear every freeway interchange as I drive interrupt the XM music. After a few days I discovered a mode that just does a tone when it wants to tell me something, a huge relief. I almost sent it back based on the annoyance of the routing. If I am on a freeway and not leaving it shut up already! So, I killed the voice and can hit the SPEAK button when needed.

Route choices: Why can't this amazing machine learn my preferences and given that I ignored its directions a dozen times and always take a particular route incorporate what I do in its routing? It is tracking where I go, I see the dots of past travel. I have to put a hard avoid road or two in to get it to go the way I want it to.

Missing feature/place for improvement #4: A preference to "follow breadcrumbs" would be good, don't you think?

Avoidance ratings: Three levels of avoidance, prefer, don't avoid, avoid. What's up with that? Use a road? Yes, maybe or no. I get exasperated with it wanting me to get on every freeway anywhere near my start or end of route. It has me go on three sides of a square 5 miles each leg rather than go 5 miles on surface streets in the mode of "don't avoid" medium roads. Most of the thoroughfares in LA County it counts as medium. Say what?

Missing feature/place for improvement #5: Give me more levels of road classifications (Interstates, US routes, state routes, county routes, main streets, medium streets local streets, dirt roads, based on civil engineer classifications maybe), give me as many levels of choice (with the above, say 8). Have a default of if the travel is less than X number of miles auto-avoid any freeways, or auto-prefer other roads. Even destinations less than 2 miles away on surface streets it urges me to get on freeways.

Setting destinations: Works well for addresses. Setting an address number and street and letting it pop up with the list of cities to choose from is amazing. 50% of the time the address turns out to be unique and only one California destination fits. Works sometimes well and not others for points of interest. The classification systems for restaurants is challenged and not all that useful. I enter the city as a destination, enter the name search and click "find near destination." Clunky but it works.

PC interface: I use a lot of computers and am confident that I understand ergonomics pretty well. I have to say I am not attracted to using this as it is so, well, bad. What I have poked around in I don't see a lot of automation, it seems mostly attuned to data entry.

Missing feature/place for improvement #5: What I would love to see is a Google Maps interface that works like say you search for "Whole Foods Markets near here" and it gives you an option to populate the Garmin address book. And you could hook up the Garmin and it auto populates the Favorites. Sigh, I wish this were the case.

Signal strength: Cities sometimes confuse it as most nav systems are confused. Review your route ahead of times when you are going into high rise areas. LA is fine, few high rises. SF was laughable at times, Seattle too, with all the bounces. Sitting still it would say we were driving at different speeds as satellite signals bounced in around the buildings.

Bluetooth: Until I got my Jawbone headset I used this all the time. Now only when the `bone is out of juice do I use it.

So, I love it, overall. I am annoyed with it in places and can see where minor programming and interface or hardware changes could make this even better than the outstanding unit it is. It is SOOOO close to what I have always expected from nav systems when they were first described to me.

Good job Garmin, an "A" rating, close to "A+"!

this 2820 is a fantastic upgrade and improvement if compares to my older 2620 machine. the turn-by-burn street reminder and 3-d routing direction and the uptodate street information totally turned my bad impression generated from the 2620 model around and changed it into a warm loving feeling. unlike 2620 which often directed me to middle of nowhere and totally lost , there's almost zero mistake or error happened so far on this 2820. the recalculating speed is very quick if you make a wrong turn or decide to go different route.
the only downside of this 2820 is the bad voices input. none of them is good enough, two female voices are especially bad, i didn't try the british or the australian male voices, but those two female voices installed by garmin are terrible and unattractive with very bad intonation(tones), especially the one from 'jill', often slurred and unclear, turn left always came out like turn liv, while the other female voice sounds old and rigid. but in general, this 2820 is way better than the 2620.
after the 2620 mysteriously malfunctioned by formatting itself and lost data, i've contacted garmin's tech dept., their responses were so quick and professional. even my warranty was just expired, they just asked to send it back for a refurbished replacement. they were very courteous and sincere. the replaced one was forwarded to me within 2 weeks. this is an amazingly good experience with garmin's tech support dept.
i didn't miss the phase-out of my 2620 but miss its female direction voice a lot. because that voice on 2620 is so soothing and crisp clear with a wonderful feminine tone, not like those two new female ones on the 2820.
BUT I'D SINCERELY RECOMMEND EVERYONE TO BUY THIS 2820!

I have had the Garmin StreetPilot 2820 GPS Navigation System with Bluetooth for about two months and have been extremely happy with its performance. It was valuable during a recent cross country trip and also provided excellent service in a more urban setting. I previously had an indash (GMC) navigational service and find this much easier to use. The screen is large enough and very easy to read. The instructions are really not needed because the system is easy to pick up and use right out of the box. I do wish it had battery capabilities but otherwise am very pleased with this purchase.

I purchased a StreetPilot 2820 in July of this year and overall the unit has been excellent. The biggest problem is with the actual mapping software and how it calculates the route as you move along an Interstate. If you are traveling between two cities on an Interstate, (example between Columbus, OH and Cleveland, OH on I-71) and if the same Interstate roadway intersects other Interstate routes, either crossing or merging, the unit's mapping software will divide the length of the roadway into sections between each intersecting Interstate. In the example provided above, I-71 is divided into 4 parts of various distances. Although you are actually traveling 130 miles in I-71, the first leg is 90 miles, the second leg is 18 miles and so on. When this happens, it becomes very confusing as to how far you actually have to go to reach the destination. I have contacted Garmin about this 'bug' and they have stated 'this is not going to be changed'. Older units such as the 2620 did not do this.

I am very pleased with this product. It is very easy to program and use. It is loaded with features that add to your driving experience during long trips. The bluetooth connection for syncing with a phone works without a hitch. The Garmin Mapsource software that comes with the 2820 is a real value add. I also like the fact that software updates are announced automatically when you connect the 2820 to your computer. The manual is clear, or you can hack through the programs on the GPS easily in no time at all. This is a great product!!

We chose this unit for the diversity it offered. We use it in our truck but also mount it on the motorcycle. It works well on both and keeps us on track. It is easy to use and is not complicated to program.