Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 1300T GPS Navigation System

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Garmin 1300T is a nice GPS navigation device with the usual features, plus the additional great feature of FREE lifetime traffic information. But there are two things you need to know about the traffic information feature. First, in order for it to work, the device needs to be connected to the charger, and the charger needs to be plugged into the car cigarette lighter. This is because the antenna receiving the traffic info is located on the charger wire. The traffic information feature will not work if the device not connected to the car through the charger. Second, the traffic information feature also provides advertising - the advertisers are apparently the ones who are paying Garmin and the traffic system so that you can have free traffic info. The advertisements show up on a small line at the bottom right of the screen when the device is in the traffic info mode (which is a separate display from the navigation mode). Note of this is explained in the very brief quick-start guide. Another thing a buyer should know is that an 100/220 volt "home" charger is NOT included in the box. Also a case for the device is NOT included in the box. But you can buy these separately for additional money. My only criticism is that all of these things are not clearly brought to the attention of the buyer before the purchase.

I have had this going on a month now and find it to be one of the best, if not THE best GPS Vehicle Nav I have come across. I've several handhelds of various names as well, but in sticking with the scope of this review, I will only mention my previous experience with the vehicle GPS units.

I've had just about every brand name of GPS unit in search of the "perfect" one. Up until now, the closest I came was with a Nuvi 350 when it was first released in 05, which I foolishly sold as I wasn't using it as much as I had originally thought. Back then, GPS Nav was a nicety and not nearly as "big" as it is today. Since then, I've had units from Magellan, Cobra, Finedrive (Ugh!), Whistler, TomTom, Mio(My favorite TeleAtlas based brand) and Navigon. All had their plusses and minuses but, never really hit that sweet spot. With the exception of one small detail, the 1300 FINALLY gets it.

I can't tell you how happy I am to be back to a Navtech based device. While TeleAtlas certainlny has come a long way, it's still not as accurate as Navtech. I still have two of my TeleAtlas based units(Mio and TomTom) and have done a series of comparisons between the 1300 and the others, with the 1300 being the most accurate. The Navigon actually has free map updates and is running the very latest maps, but still falls short in comparison.

The routing alogarythim is also much better in this unit than with rest. With the exception of the Nuvi 350, of course, which routes very similar to the 1300. That's not to say, there are no routing flaws. All GPSes have flaws, and this is no different. However, the strange routes are far less than with my previous units.

And last, but not least: Appearance. Good lord this thing is gorgeous! The map display is top notch and looks great scrolling through whatever road I may be on. I know this doesn't really matter to some, but for those who like good looking graphics, this is the unit for you!

Also, I HIGHLY suggest getting the 1300T over the 1300. That is if you live in an urban area and are affected by traffic on your commute. This has saved me TONS of time, as people around here can't seem to drive through a simple tunnel without crashing daily! I will point out, however, the free lifetime traffic does come at a small cost. There are unobtrusive ads(hotels mostly) at the bottom of the screen when on the traffic menu. These only show when not moving and are quite small. Definitely not something to get in a fuss over, but thought I'd point it out.

The only thing I would change about this model(and the whole Garmin vehicle line) is the ability to better control your detours. On my previous TomTom, Magellan, Navigon and Cobra, I could tell it how far to reroute and in some instances, choose the route. Garmin just gives you one Detour and that's it. Sometimes even putting you back on the same road a few miles up. This isn't as much of a problem with the traffic module, as it automagically routes you around the traffic. But it would still be nice to have more tweakability.

First of all, I am a MAP guy. I like paper maps, Paper maps at my local AAA and they have gotten me to my destination for years without problems. That said, I work in the transportation industry as a dispatcher. My drivers often claim that they can not find a street because it does not show up on their GPS. This is because they do not enter the information correctly. Street numbers, Street spelling are very important with all GPS receivers.

I have traveled to the Sierra foothills to the local drives in the San Francisco bay area. The free traffic alerts are pretty accurate. The GPS navigation routes are pretty direct and good. When I take my own route or a turn, it recalculates quickly and gives me the direction to where I need to go. Satellite acquisition is quick and have never had a problem with it. The points of interest are nice to find post offices, restaurants, and other stores. Has the option to spell out the particular name of the retail outlet you may be looking for.

I would recommend this Model to anyone looking for a GPS receiver with good features and is priced reasonably. Use with conjunction with a Iphone or regular map, its all the GPS I would ever need. Now I want to see how long it will work without problems. At the time of this review, Ive owned it for little over a month.

Got this as a gift a few months back and took it on vacation with us to Las Vegas. It was a lot easier to use than the GPS system that was built into the rental car. In fact it was working like a champ until the last day of our trip. Then when you turned it on, it would boot to the Garmin logo screen and freeze there. It was fully charged and ready to go but it would never get past that logo screen. I figured that I'd reconnect it to my laptop to see if that would shake loose the problem. Nope, no luck. Got on their web site and quickly discovered comments from other users who had a similar problem. Apparently the original software that shipped with the nuvi 1300 had a fatal software flaw in it that would cause the entire unit to seize up and be unuseable. Something happens occassionally when using the USB cable to sync with your computer. The problem is easily avoid IF you download the latest software update to the nuvi before this self destruct kicks in (which needs the USB sync to your computer to complete, so cross your fingers).

The good news is that they had very responsive customer service that shipped me out a replacement unit within a week. Down side is that it is a whole new nuvi, so any saved data on the original unit will be lost and need to re-entered on your replacement unit.

Still, despite the initial issue, I have been overall pleased with the performance of the nuvi. The screens are pretty intuitive and the Eco mode option is good if your like to track your fuel economy and route to your destination with the minimum use of gas.

I bought my Garmin Nuvi 1300 from Walmart back in May 2010, when my youngest daughter grew interested in geocaching. Since we didn't have a car GPS at the time, I decided to buy a Nuvi, so we could use it in the vehicle as well as out looking for boxes of tupperware in the woods.

At first the Nuvi was awesome. The icons are easy to understand and planning trips was very, very simple. We had many days of fun hiking in parks nearby - and far away - looking for geocaches.

Then things went sour. My daughter decided to put a picture on the start up screen. This is supposed to be one of the features of the GPS. Well, with a photo on the screen, everything slowed WAY down. It seriously took 10 minutes to get to the screen where we could unselect this option. Of course, over the months we have had the GPS, she has forgotten about this issue a couple of times and each time we've had to change it back with a lot of hassle. So if you buy this GPS, I would not recommend putting any photos on it.

Now that we are more than a year out, the battery is almost completely dead, and we can't really use it for caching anymore. It has to be plugged in for the battery to work at all. I have about 5 minutes use after unplugging it. Also, sometimes it refuses to turn on at all, even when it is plugged in! So it's nerve-wracking whenever we're traveling, because I never know if my GPS is going to be available or not. Sometimes it will just shut off in the middle of a trip too - and this again, is when it is plugged in.

We are looking into buying a replacement battery now. I hope it helps, because I'm cheesed off that it has only lasted a year. I don't have money to waste on buying a new GPS every year!

I bought this navi for my boyfriend who drives all over for work. The traffic feature is pretty cool and definitely useful to him. He loves the big screen and it's awesome quality graphics. The annoying gps lady voice isn't as annoying as earlier models:). One thing he doesn't like is that when he goes to touch the screen and drag to a location near his current destination the gps jumps to a store nearby instead of just letting you browse street names and roads around you. He hasn't been using it for too long and I don't know too much about it but I know enough to say that I will probably be getting the same one for myself.

I bought this item an I'm extremely satisfied. I live in Bronx, NY and have used it in the entire NYC area, and can say it has been accurate in arriving at its programed destination point. I would strongly give it a great buy reference. My only regret is that I wish I had bought it sooner.

This is a great GPS that is very easy to use, which is key in a GPS as you don't want it to be complicated while driving. Everyone that has gotten in my car has been able to figure out how to use the unit with very few instructions.

The traffic feature seems to work ok, but it has not been flawless. The information that is transmuted to the unit is not always up to date, but that is not the Nuvi 1300T's fault as it only receives that information. There are pop up coupons that come up on screen due to the "Free" lifetime traffic updates, but they seem to only happen when the unit is first turned on and go away fairly quickly.

I bought the Garmin 1300T as a replacement for the Garmin 1100. The 1100 busted after 4 years so I think I got my money's worth out of it. The 1300T is a significant upgrade. The 1100 was "jerky" as it displayed your position driving in real time while the 1300T is nice and smooth. The 1100 had a jacked up sliding "on" button (it was small & you had to slide it multiple times for the GPS to turn on) while the 1300T has a simple "push" button that works every time.

Traffic: The reviewer who mentioned this was dead on. The advertisments are big & VERY anoying but you can turn them off by disabling the "traffic" feature which, turned out, to be awsome.

1 thing that's anoying about this GPS is you have to select the city EVERY TIME you enter a new destination. The salesman at Bestbuy told me they are all like this. Why can't this thing recognize that I'm always in Houston, Texas?

My job requires a GPS and this 1 works REALLY good. 5 stars all the way!!!!

Love it. It works great. Traffic works great. Easy touchscreen. Compared against my brother's Roadmate, the touchscreen on this Nuvi is far superior. Highly recommend it.