Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great product! Almost a home run, but not quite..., April 25, 2005
I have had about a week to use the M5. My first impression is WOW. This IS my first GPS and also my first PDA, so take my review for what it's worth. I would love to give this product 5 stars, but I will get right to the point of why I can't do it.
CONS :
No 802.11b/g - Not a huge deal if you don't mind plugging a bluetooth USB adapter in your PC, but honestly it is a little annoying that I can't connect right up to my 802.11g network out of the box. There are SD/MMC 802.11b cards available that are a option, but I have not ordered one yet.
GPS non-responsive - (see *Edit* at bottom of this review) As one other reviewer also noted, I also had a GPS problem where it acted like it was looking for the satellites, but couldn't see any of them. This was outside, and not indoors. I pushed the reset button, and GPS fired up just fine. As with the other reviewer, I also haven't had this problem reoccur after about a week of using it. The initial problem was about an hour after I took it out of the box. Since then I have used it a good 20+ times without any problems. I will report back if this problem comes back!
The leather flip case(?) - It is a little lame, and offers no protection except for maybe screen...and even that's a stretch.
PROS -
Wow, I opened the box, and it was very complete. A nice windshield suction mount, cig adapter with speaker and the other 'standard' PDA items (cradle, USB cable, travel A/C adapter, etc).
It's a nice size, not to bulky. The battery seems to perform as expected. I don't have any exact #'s, but from what I could tell it was at least 4 hours with some GPS usage.
One thing I would like to comment on is the 'cost'. A lot of reviews elsewhere talked about how expensive this device is. Yes, it's not cheap, but try buying a comparable PDA and a GPS add-on. You'll be close to, if not higher than what you would pay for this fully integrated PDA/GPS.
I have taken one trip (74 miles each way). It did a pretty good job getting me to the destination. I did notice that it was a little slow to recalculate the route if you miss a turn (5-10 seconds on average). Not a huge deal, but could be a problem in inner-city driving. It also did a random "Make U-Turn" in the intersection I was turning at. I believe the intersection came up later than the GPS/mapping software was expecting. The estimated time of arrival is nice, and right on target!
GPS performance : The GPS picks up the satellites fine in my car. My house (2 story) it's fine on the second floor, but the first floor it does not pick up the satellites unless I move over to a window.
Storage - I don't own a memory card yet, but even with the built-in memory I was able to get most of middle-TN and North Atlanta. I hear a 2GB memory card will hold all of the US, and 1GB will hold over half the US. I would say that is about right.
That's about all I can think of at this time. I will report back in a few weeks with an update. At this point I am very pleased.
Edit 4/28/05 - I did have one additional lockup of the unit that required a 'reset', so I went to the Garmin website and found out that there was a new firmware revision. I loaded the firmware and so far the unit seems to be performing perfectly. So, for those who are having GPS lockup problems, download the firmware revision. Garmin states that the firmware fixes several lockup issues.
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76 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
NEEDS WORK!!!, February 26, 2005
Overall, I would give this device a 3.5 stars.
Pros
1. Display is larger than most handheld GPS, which is nice.
2. You can find most of your point of interests, though it does not contain the nursery that I go to often.
3. Speaker on included car adapter works well and the voice is clear.
4. GPS is one of those useful gadgets, adding PDA makes it even better.
5. Good battery life.
6. Lots of other goodies like playing mp3 and bluetooth.
Cons
1. Lost GPS capability once and had to do a reset.
2. It gets you there but routing can be way off. With all avoidances unchecked and fastest time chosen, it consistently gave me MUCH longer routes and time. A trip that should only include going on ONE freeway, M5 routes a total of THREE freeways, making a 17 mile trip into 24 miles!
3. Device have been inexplicably locked up; unable to use GPS from time to time except for this last time. Device was reset. Received "out of memory" error when tried to open Garmin apps after reset. Downloaded "fix" v2.50; fix app does not run. GPS right now USELESS until Garmin comes up with another "fix".
4. Business addresses can be totally incorrect, for example, listings a Church's Fried Chicken and Papa John's pizza were about two miles off and the streets and numbers don't even come close!
5. Totally not user friendly.
6. Screen can be insensitive, requiring multiple taps.
7. Expensive.
8. Windshield mount is almost a joke; should have included friction mount instead. Most vehicles have fairly slanted windshields, which would be a hassle mounting the M5 and also would potentially block your view of the road. Besides, it's illegal to mount stuffs on your windshield in CA.
9. Acquiring satellites can be slow; you can be a few miles from home before getting a signal.
10. Cover flap attachment is poorly design which partially block the adapter connection. Snapping in the device may cause a mild shock, which may reset your device.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One awesome PDA, January 19, 2006
As a longtime palm user I was a little reluctant to move into the Windows Mobile world, but my old dependable M130 was dying, so I started looking for a new PDA. I travel a ton for business and was fascinated by the GPS in the M5. I was also interested in the WiFi capabilites (with a WiFi Card, I bought a Spectec....it's great, and small enough you won't break it off) of Windows version of the PDA....I read all the reviews and almost didn't buy it, but if you look at the reviews ... the later ones are much better, obviously Garmin has been working on the bugs.
Pros:
The GPS is top notch, accurate to about 10ft in the car, when mounted on the windshield. The mount that comes with the unit is fine, you don;t need another one. Just make sure the windows is CLEAN....If not it will fall off. Windex it first. You'll also want to move it around some until you find a spot where you can easily get it in and out of the cradle. It will take a few trys until you find the perfect spot in the car.
The Windows mobile has abilities my old palm would only dream of, I sync it with lotus notes via intellisync and it works great.
It's a tough bugger, I had it a month and dropped it in a parking lot, put a nice gouge in it and it's still going.
Battery lasts a long time with steady use, Wifi in the airport, etc.....doesn't do so well with the GPS though, only about 40 minutes.
The ETA display is right on, handy when you are calling your next appointment to confirm. If it says you'll be there at 2pm....short of a major traffic jam, you pull in at 2pm.
****
Cons
The mapping sofware that came with mine is about 2 years out of date. I can tell by a few road projects that have been done locally and are not yet in the mapsource software. Garmin does allow you a free update, which I ordered. I would think that will help. The points of interest are about the same. Even after the free update, from what I can tell the software update only costs about $50
The routing is a bit odd, when you select fastest or shortest routing it will do exactly that, even if it makes no sense. For example, on a local road near my house there is a highway that was expanded and moved, it will actually take you off the new road, down the old road and back to the new road because it cuts off a corner. playing with the settings helps, but you will still see it do some odd things. Honestly It always gets me there, just sometimes not the simplest way.
****
Bottom line is this work just about as well as any in car I've used, and is a solid PDA as well.
With a 1GB card I added the entire Northeast, FL, TX and AZ. It took about 450MB of the card.
****
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