2,183 of 2,200 people found the following review helpful:
Better than the nuvi 660
I own both the Nuvi 660 and the 760, I'm writing this review for people having trouble deciding between the two as the price difference between the two products at the time of this review is about 100 dollars. I'm not going to focus on the feature differences, as that information can be easily obtained from specifications and online reviews. The 660 was a fine product...
546 of 559 people found the following review helpful:
Bullet List of What Isn't Good
Lots of reviews here that cover the bases. So I'll limit this to a bullet list of some items I found annoying:
1. Hands free calling is not as good as my BlueAnt gizmo. Callers on other end said my voice sounded muddy and uneven. When I tried the Garmin 670, callers on the other end preferred it. But overall the Blue Ant was best.
This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
I own both the Nuvi 660 and the 760, I'm writing this review for people having trouble deciding between the two as the price difference between the two products at the time of this review is about 100 dollars. I'm not going to focus on the feature differences, as that information can be easily obtained from specifications and online reviews. The 660 was a fine product back in 2005-2006, but the new 760 outdoes the 660 in practically everything, but there are some key usability fixes that make the 760 a better buy for the frequent user.
1. 760 has much better fonts for street names than the 660. This may seem like a trivial update to some, but the 760's fonts greatly improve visibility. The 660 uses all capitalized text for street names on the map, and the font is incredibly cartoonish and unaligned, something like the scribbling Comic Sans font on the PC. The 760 uses your standard Verdana-like font with street names in capitalized and lowercase letters. The fonts on the 760 are smaller, cleaner and surprisingly much easier to read while driving. The maps end up looking professional, and not some cartoony children's video game.
2. 760 has better rendering in 3D map mode than the 660. In the 660 when you are zoomed in under 3D map mode, the roads close to your car are displayed incredibly large, so large that they run into other roads, making the zoom function essentially kind of useless for dense roads. The 760 does not oversize your roads just because you zoomed in to view smaller roads in detail. This fix is very nice for those who drive in places with dense roadways, like New York City.
3. No antenna on the 760 makes hooking up your Nuvi to the cradle one step easier. On the 660 you need to flip up the antenna before attaching the cradle. For people who park their cars on the street overnight, removing the GPS from the cradle for storage in the console or glove compartment is a must, and it's a lot easier hooking up the 760 to the cradle than the 660. It's hard to aim the 660 to its cradle in the dark as you have to align both the bottom edge and the charge port under the antenna. In the 760, the charge port is directly on the bottom of the unit; you can attach it to the cradle with one hand in the dark easily on the 760.
4. It takes the 660 a good 45 seconds on average (sometimes longer than 2 minutes) after boot up to locate the satellite on a cold start. If you have firmware 2.6 installed on the 760, the satellite acquisition time after boot up is between 10-20 seconds. After the firmware update, my 760 also holds a stronger lock to the satellites than my 660, I can get satellite lock inside my house with the 760, whereas I can't get a lock with my 660 (adjusting the antenna does very little).
5. The ability to set multiple ad hoc viapoints on the 760 means it's a lot easier creating alternate routes (very handy to avoid a specific interstate or a high traffic road). Whereas the 660 gives you just one viapoint.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
I feel a great amount of sympathy for consumers shopping for a portable GPS systems or any sophisticated electronic product for that matter. There is such a dizzying array of models/brands/functions that it is both a blessing and a curse. I am very tech oriented and enjoy researching and evaluating new electronic gadgets. After a few days of reviewing GPS brands and models, I narrowed my selections down to the Garmin 760, Garmin 680, TomTom 920T and the Magellan Maestro 4250.
I am not going to dive deeply into the features and benefits of each model because many of the reviews on Amazon and other websites do a great job of that. However, I will summarize my thought process for finally choosing the 760 as the best GPS for me. Let me start by stating that there is no perfect GPS system and therein lies the challenge. Every model that I looked at had strengths and weaknesses and there wasn't a product that made it a clear cut decision. What I did (and recommend) is to make a priority list of the features and functions that are most important to you and to pick the model that best fits your requirements. This sounds like an obvious approach but it was a lot harder than it sounds.
The single most important aspect for me was the accuracy and capability of the routing engine. That seems simple enough but when you throw in the all the other features offered in today's GPS models the decision making process becomes much muddier. In staying with my original strategy, I determined that the Garmin 7xx series had the best routing engine for North America. My conclusion is based on consumer and professional reviews, discussion boards, and my own testing. With that being said, the 760 is not perfect and I have experienced a few quirky directions but nothing that was of great concern.
How do I like the 760? For the most part, I am extremely pleased with the performance and functionality of the 760. Like most people I do have a list of my personal improvement and enhancements for the system but they are not deal breakers. When I first received the unit, I tested it on a trip to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park. The directions to and from the Park and Palm Springs were flawless and the GPS recognized all the main roads within the park. We actually encountered some road construction on one of the main highways and the traffic receiver recognized the jam but gave us a strange recommendation. It directed us to go down the off-ramp and immediately get on the next on-ramp. We did this twice and it actually moved us ahead in traffic. I'm not sure how effective that strategy would be in other similar situations. The speaker volume could be louder but I could easily understand the commands traveling at 80 mph. I have also tested the system on several routes throughout Southern California and the system performed very well. All of the main features worked as published with a few exceptions noted below. The user interface is very well designed and I was able to operate 80% of the functions without reading the manual. In addition to the 760, I also purchased the Garmin Friction Dashboard Mount which I believe is superior to the glass suction mount provided.
So why did I only give it 4 stars? The one big annoyance for me was that if you directly input the POI name, the search can take a long amount of time (greater than 5 minutes)if it goes outside of your vicinity. This is extremely slow compared to our in-dash GPS system. The touch screen could be more responsive and is not that sensitive especially with the browse map option. The 760 bluetooth pairs consistently and quickly with my Motorola KRZR phone but the receiving and transmitting sound quality is very poor. The FM transmitter is unusable.
I really wanted to like the TomTom 920T especially with the voice recognition, user updates for maps and a long list of customizations. However, the routing engine seems to produce more inconsistent performance than the Garmin and I could not find enough information on their mapping data to understand how accurate it is today. The two main providers of map data are Navteq and Tele Atlas. Garmin and Magellan use Navteq and TomTom uses Tele Atlas. In the past, Navteq has been considered more accurate and complete for North America but Tele Atlas has made significant updates in recent times. Interestingly the 760 uses Garmin's 2008 North American maps but the source data is 18 to 24 months old which shows there is always a large lag in map information. Garmin has been very good at providing updates more frequently than the other manufacturers. My impression is that TomTom is much stronger with the European maps than the NA maps.
Here is a quick rundown of how I view the models:
Magellan Maestro 4250:
Pros: multi point destination routing with optimization, great address and text input system
Cons: questionable routing engine, outdated map data, inconsistent voice recognition, cumbersome POI interface, poor text to speech quality, poor customer support in US
TomTom 920T
Pros: voice recognition, enhanced positioning technology, map share, excellent customization options, multi-destination routing
Cons: questionable routing engine, outdated map data (although this is somewhat offset by map share), no routing optimization, cumbersome user interface
Garmin 760
Pros: routing engine seems very good, multi-destination routing optimization, good POI database, more map updates compared to competition, great user interface
Cons: touch screen is not very sensitive, outdated map data, FM transmitter is useless, expensive
Garmin 680
Pros: most of the same features and functionality as the 760 but with MSN Direct, louder speaker volume than 760, much better value than the 760
Cons: no multipoint destination, older look and feel than the 760
I have only listed a limited set of the pros and cons for each of the different models but these were the areas that stood out the most to me. When it's all said and done, I probably would have been happy with any of these models but if you can afford the 760 and routing directions in North America is your most important requirement then I would highly recommend the 760.
I have seen questions about whether the 760 comes with the SiRF Star III chip and the unit that I just purchased from Amazon did come with that chip. The SiRF is a high performance GPS chipset that can quickly acquire and maintain a lock onto satellite signals for position information. It is considered the chipset of choice for the higher end mobile GPS devices. All of the models I have described above have the SiRF chipset. I also have seen questions about how quickly the 760 can lock onto satellites. I updated my system firmware to version 2.6 and the satellite acquisition time is lightning fast. I have found in outside environments, my 760 can consistently acquire a signal in under 10 seconds even first thing in the morning.
There are a couple of other useful features that are not described in the instruction manual. If you hold down on the signal strength bar in the top left corner, you will get the satellite acquisition screen which shows the position accuracy. If you hold down on the battery indicator for a few seconds, this will allow access to the diagnostic screen which is where you can identify the GPS chipset among other information.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
Lots of reviews here that cover the bases. So I'll limit this to a bullet list of some items I found annoying:
1. Hands free calling is not as good as my BlueAnt gizmo. Callers on other end said my voice sounded muddy and uneven. When I tried the Garmin 670, callers on the other end preferred it. But overall the Blue Ant was best.
2. The speaker on the 760 is tinnier than on the Garmin 670 and annoying. The 670 is a thicker model, and I suppose they were able to fit a better speaker. If you're just using maps and guidance this is not a big deal. But if you use hands free dialing, it is terrible.
3. I disagree with another post about the font. I think the font on the 670 is sharper and easier to read than on the 760 model. Much of the time (not always) the font is larger on the 670 model.
4. The MP3 on both models is rudimentary at best. The playlist function does not work very well.
5. The supposed ability to play sound through the FM is a joke. Neither unit works well enough to use...ever. Sometimes nothing comes through. When sound does show up, it is scratchy and irritating beyond belief. If Garmin is going to list this as a feature, they need to go back to the drawing table. As of now, the implementation of this feature is pathetic.
6. Both the 760 and the 670 lock GPS about the same speed...perhaps the 760 is a touch faster...but not to the extent anyone would really notice.
7. 760 is thinner and doesn't need to open the antenna. So it is much easier to use in pedestrian mode. On the 670 with the GPS antenna up, it's tough to fit the unit in your pocket. So pedestrian mode isn't realistic on the 670.
8. Garmin got ridiculously cheap on the 760 with respect to accessories. NO AC Adapter; no disk for PDF Help file; no case. All three are standard on the 670 model.
Garmin's Maps and POI are both great. The guidance works very well. So bottom line, is that it is the hands free phone use, playing sound through FM and MP3 that I'm critical of.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
Nuvi 760 Software Version 2.10 / 2008 maps
This unit is replacing a nuvi 360, which is going to my sister. The nuvi 760 is still a bit hard to find. I found one in stock at a local SoCal retailer on 28-Oct.
Overall, I like the new compact form factor. There have been concerns expressed in various forums on the sensitivity of the internal antenna. So far, it seems to be sensitive enough. Side by side, signal strength and accuracy of the 760 are maginally better than my old 360 with the pop-up antenna. I'm getting 21 foot accuracy inside an office, a few feet from East facing windows. Attaching my external antenna to the MCX connector gives 9 Foot accuracy with 10 satellites at full signal strength.
The wide screen display is much brighter than the 360, readable in direct sunlight. The interface refinements are generally improvements, cleaner, more logical. I like having a choice of a QWERTY keyboard, better editing with retained history for the search field. Based on limited testing, the routing engine seems to perform identically to the 360, which was excellent. I've noticed a few updates to reflect newer roads in the 2008 maps. POIs are much improved in the San Diego area.
"Where am I?" works well and is quite useful displaying nearest address, major intersection, nearby hospitals, police and gas stations. "Where did I leave my car" is a bit clunky since you have to go into setup and change the Navigation to "off road" and then select "Last Location" from Favorites.
I've found two bugs so far in the initial firmware:
1) Start guidance with GPS active on a stored route with a distant starting point, decline "Navigate to Starting Point", nuvi will crash and delete the route.
2) Bluetooth dialing of "Home" phone number is truncated when using "Call Home" from the Phone screen. Dialing the same number from the "Home" entry in Favorites works.
Bluetooth paired easily with my Motorola E815 phone. Call history and phone book are loaded into the nuvi automatically. The sound from the built-in speaker is just OK. You may want to run it through your car speakers using the FM transmitter or Aux jack. If you use the phone a lot, buy the optional microphone and clip it to your visor... people will hear you better.
Garmin do not provide an AC charger in the box. They will sell you one. Using a generic USB charger (I used on from a Blackberry) places the nuvi in Data Mode. It charges just fine, but you can't use it while it is charging.
Still no selective route avoidance. The 2008 maps actually have a road near me that is not yet open. The nuvi always wants to take it to get to the freeway.
Haven't tested the traffic functionality yet. The nuvi comes with a 3-month subscription, then it's $60/yr.
The FM transmitter is less than useful with the crowded spectrum in SoCal. Hard to find an open channel, need to change it periodically. Often get a bit of static. I'm using the Aux input on my car stereo instead.
All in all, a great evolution of the nuvi line. I'm sure the firmware glitches will get worked out over time. If you are in the market at this price range and can find one, buy it.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
I've never written a review but this item caused me to take the time. I've owned a Magellan Meridian Platinum for years mainly for geocaching. Great handheld unit but not user friendly. When I decided to get something for my vehicle I found the Garmin Nuvi 760. What a great unit! Simple to use out of the box, very user friendly, not intimidating at all and works as advertised. Very bright display even in the Arizona sun. The vehicle mount is the best design ever! Easy to pop out and put in your pocket and pop it back in when you return to your car.
Yesterday I needed to go to 3 places in Tucson I had never been before. Normally I would print out maps for each place and try to find my way through traffic while glancing at them. With the Nuvi, I simply entered each address and drove from one to the other without any problems even though downtown Tucson is a mess with all the highway construction. Nuvi simply kept recalculating new routes whenever I encountered blocked roads etc. Amazing gadget and while expensive, if you need to get to where you going as fast as possible, like me, worth every penny!
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
Pros: Multi-stop routing, easy Bluetooth connection, ease of use.
Cons: Smaller speaker than the 600 series, price could be better.
This unit replaces a Garmin 650. The 760 is incredibly easy to use and set up (even easier than the nav in my wife's Infinity) The first time satellite acquisition took about 3 minutes. Be sure to do your initial setup in an open area, no tall buildings. Also, before you initialize, connect the unit to Garmin's site and make sure you have the latest firmware version. Easy to do and mine didn't. Haven't seen any of the delay that some others have complained about. I would guess that anyone having satellite issues either is not running the latest firmware or never initialized properly.
Bluetooth connection to my phone took less than 30 seconds, transferred all my phonebook, easily connects to numbers. Suggest you get a cheap $10 external mike as the only complaint is an "echo" effect on the receiving end. Transmission through my truck radio was very clear using the inclusive FM xmitter. Set up a sample sales route that had stops in Orlando (3), Oviedo and Ocoee in cental Florida. Took about 4 minutes, but you can save the route to use later, saving time. The 760 optimized and plotted the route in 35 seconds. Navigation voice is very clear. Checked the traffic on I-4 in Orlando and the unit let me know where there was a delay and even how long.
My wife just went out and set up a destination and even placed a call without ever looking at a manual. She can't even do that in her car. Easiest unit I've ever used. So far, absolutely no unpleasant surprises. The fact I can set up the keyboard as a QWERTY was a nice discovery. I would enthusiastically recommend the nuvi 760 to anyone using the unit for sales calls, pickups, deliveries, etc. As a sidenote, the unit registers the max speed driven, miles driven, time of stops, and also will give you a breadcrumb trail of where it's been, useful for keeping track of employees and billing customers.
UPDATE: Since purchasing this unit, I've had the chance to research both this device and it's closest competitor, the TomTom 920. Both are excellent devices, Top of the line, but in some areas, the nuvi 760 really outshines the TT920:
Let's see. The Garmin 700's use sirf QuickfixII, can display position accuracy, use the new MSN2 services, can easily do a screen shot of the map to give to your GPS-less friends, can navigate to any set of coordinates within the map if the address if not known, will verbally announce what side of the road your destination is on, has stable support for Mac-based computers, offers tru multi-stop route optimization, warns you when exceeding the posted speed on U.S highways with posted speed limit icon on the map, includes Auto_tune to assist in finding an open FM channel for broadcast,can use topo maps, displays trip statistics such as time driving, time stopped, max speed, etc., uses a single integrated cable for both power and US traffic, can store 10x the favorites, and uses a active mount so that nothing has to be plugged into the nav itself. NONE of these features is available from it's nearest competitor, TOMTOM. Garmin has also been great at adding new features, supposedly reserved for the new 800 series to the 750, 760 and 770.
With the new enhancements from Garmin, I'm even more impressed with the 760.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
My wife and I have been using Garmin C320 GPS in each of our cars since 2005. It was time for an upgrade. I purchased the Garmin Nuvi 760 and we love it. Here is a little overview about how I decided what to get and some of the key features we had to have.
My "must haves" in the new GPS were "Text To Speech", Traffic, Bluetooth, no flip out antenna, and a 4.3" screen.
I did a lot of research on Magellan, TomTom and Garmin models meeting my "must haves". My conclusions were as follows: The Magellan incorporates AAA and that I feel is a really nice touch. The TomTom's come pretty loaded but seem a bit more complex. The Garmin's interface hasn't changed form the C320 but Garmin has added a slew of additional features in comparison to my C320.
Since the new GPS wasn't only for me but for my wife, I decided to keep the learning curve to a minimum and decided I would choose another Garmin model since we are both experienced with them. Now, which one? I looked at all Nuvi units. I narrowed my choices down to the 255W, 760, and 780. Each of these include 4.3" screens, "Text To Speech", Bluetooth, no flip out antenna, and are Traffic ready. The 255W does not include either the FM TMC Traffic or the MSN Direct power adapter. The 760 includes the FM TMC Traffic power adapter while the 780 includes the MSN Direct power adapter.
When I started to check pricing I was noticing that the 255W is the same price as the 760 but did not include any Traffic power adapter. I also noticed the 255W power is connected directly to the unit. More on this in a moment. I decided it was off my short list and my choice was now between the 760 and the 780. I decided on the 760 since the price was more that 100 dollars cheaper then the 780. I can always ad the MSN Direct power adapter later and I will have the FM TMC Traffic power adapter as well.
Another reason I decided against the 255W is that the power is connected directly into the unit and not the mount. It is so much easier to remove the unit from the mount and not have to worry about disconnecting the power cord as well. Convenience is another key factor I should have mentioned.
The first thing I did once I got the 760 was register it at the Garmin web site. Once I did I was able to update the unit's software and Maps. Garmin has a "Web Updater" software download on their web site. Connect the 760 via the supplied USB cable and run the Web Updater Software. The software will check for the latest version of system firmware/software and update the 760. That worked very well I might add.
The 760 came with 2008 Maps but the 2009 Map update is available via Garmin's web site. If you buy the 760 now you can call to get the 2009 Maps free if it does not come with them. Garmin uses NAVTEQ Maps and from what I have read, are more accurate for the USA. The web site was telling me to buy them but I made a quick phone call to Garmin and verified my purchase via email with one of their support staff. A few minutes later I was able to either download or get a DVD with the 2009 Maps. The DVD is $10 and that is for shipping. I opted for the download. The 2009 Map file is large, around 2 Gigabytes so it took about 20 minutes to download via my cable modem. Once downloaded I ran the setup and it updated my 760 to the 2009 Maps. It was pretty easy but including the download it took about an hour. I also created a DVD with the 2009 Map file for safe keeping. The map is the Complete North America Maps. On the C320 the maps had to be uploaded and not all of the USA would fit. The 760 is fully loaded with the USA and Canada. Very nice!
While I was online I looked at the Garmin "Extras" available for download and decided to add a few new Vehicles. Pretty cool.
Once I finished updating the 760 I took it to my car and mounted it. The mount is just a couple of pieces and the 760 mounts securely in seconds. The power cable connects to the mount and not the unit so that the unit can be removed from the mount easily with no wires to disconnect. The mounting is excellent. I also purchased the optional "Portable Friction Mount" which sits on the dash. I highly recommend this so that you can easily hide the 760, mount and all, on the cars floor. Very easy as compared to the supplied suction cup mount and doesn't leave that suction cup ring on the windshield. Seems thieves love to smash and grab navigation units so the Friction Mount is great as it leaves no evidence visible you have a 760 in the car.
I am amazed at how quickly the 760 acquires Satellites. When I did the software/firmware update it installed SiRF Star III Quick Fix. This allows the 760 to acquire satellites very quickly. So far every time the unit has been off to powered on it has acquired satellites as soon as it is booted up. Total time from off to "Ready to Navigate" is about 30 seconds.
The Nuvi 760 has a beautiful, bright, and crisp looking 4.3" display. The fonts have been updated and the graphics are much better than my C320. I really like the new Automatic Zoom in and out based on distance to the next turn and destination. You can see the destination Checkered Flag and Via Point Flags are Orange. A nice touch is that your Personal Addresses display on the Map.
The 760 speaks street names "Text To Speech". Nice feature instead of turn right in 200 feet. There is no maneuver Ding like on the C320 but I'm not sure it is needed with the additional spoken information.
The 760 includes Bluetooth so I was able to pair the wife's phone in about a minute. Really simple. The Phone Book from the Phone transfers to the 760 along with Recently Dialed, Recently Received, and Recent Missed calls. Very cool. Once you start populating the 760 with your "Favorite" destination addresses you can manually add Phone Numbers to your Favorite addresses if needed. This is very nice since you can touch the Favorite you want and touch the little phone icon and dial that number. You can talk "Hands Free" via your 760 and I was pretty happy with the voice quality. I read a few instances where people say it doesn't work well or sound good. This isn't the case for us as I find it to work very well and sound really good. A valuable and convenient feature. On our first trip together we needed a certain item and we were able to pull up stores we thought would have it and simply touched the phone icon and called them to see if they carried what we needed. Once we found the store that had what we needed we were able to easily navigate to it. Very convenient and easy to use. I recommend the 760 with Bluetooth. Very nice.
Searching for any of the included 6 million Points of Interests is easy and the POI Search displays Names and Addresses in the results. The additional address is a nice touch to see just how far away a result is if you know the town and how far away it is from you. The keyboard can be set to QWERTY and that makes typing so much easier if you are familiar with a PC keyboard. And who isn't now a days. Another nice feature is there is a drop down that will allow you to access and insert recent Searches without having to retype them since they are remembered by the 760. Another nice feature.
Another very nice feature is you can create multiple destinations and have them automatically sorted for the optimal route. You can keep adding stops or via points and you can even remove them. You can manually reorder them to your liking or let the 760 automatically reorder the best route for you. Great if you need to run some errands at two or three different stores. The 760 will get you to each in the most efficient way.
The 760 has a "Where Am I" feature that is very nice. It will show you Hospitals, Fuel, and Police stations that are near to where you are at. It will also indicate the nearest Address and nearest Intersection. This is great to see just where you are and can be provided to law enforcement in an emergency or to tell someone exactly where you are in an unknown area. Your Elevation is also indicated.
As you drive there is an icon that will display the Speed Limit for the road you are on. A little reminder to check your speed and keep it safe.
Maybe one of the best features are the Real Time Traffic updates. The 760 comes with the FM Traffic power adapter. The Traffic adapter is in place of a regular power adapter so the only thing different is it is it has some LED's and it is a little larger where it gets plugged into the car's power. Of course you need to be in an area that is covered by FM Traffic. If you are in a covered area than it can take about 10 minutes to get traffic data. Once data is in the 760 it will display on the map and on a separate Traffic screen. One bad thing is once power is lost so is the traffic data. It may take another 10 minutes or so the acquire traffic data again. Traffic issues are displayed on the main map screen with different colors and an appropriate traffic icon on your route as you approach them. An icon in the lower right will also show you how much time traffic is causing your delay. This time is automatically added to your current route. If the traffic is deemed too much then the 760 will recalculate a new route almost seamlessly to divert you around the traffic. There is plenty of traffic related detail on a separate screen if you want to access it. You can also touch the "Avoid" or "Detour" to force the 760 to reroute around traffic. The included FM Traffic comes with a 3 Months free Trial then it is $60.00 per year. Worth it if you are on the road a lot and your travels are within the covered areas.
I think I am going to get the MSN Direct (separate power adapter) after the 3 month trial expires. The MSN Direct includes Traffic, Gasoline prices, and Weather alerts. There is more to MSN Direct but these features make it more worth it to me. Another nice thing about the MSN Direct is that you can opt for a one time lifetime payment and you're done.
These are all the features for us that make the 760 a really nice GPS unit. There are many pluses and only a few drawbacks. Two drawbacks are; no House AC Adapter and no Carry Case for storage. But, if you have a USB cell phone then you can probably use your AC charger for the phone as I do.
I recommend the Garmin Portable Friction mount for the dash. Easy to put in place and hide on the cars floor. I also recommend getting the Garmin Carry Case.
I was able to shop the web and find the 760 for about $350.00. The Portable Friction Mount and the Carry Case were another $50.00. So for about $400.00 I got a very nice Navigation unit. For us the 760 is a wonderful GPS. It is beautiful and sleek. The features it includes are a valuable addition and make traveling even short distances easier and more enjoyable. I highly recommend the 760 to anyone looking for a new personal GPS unit.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
First Impression. I spent considerable time researcing all brands and models. I already own a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx so I'm not a newbie. The Garmin 760 is my #1 choice over everything currently out there, at the time of this post, based on features vs. street price. Don't worry one second about buying this navigator. It will serve you very well and I expect you'll be very happy with it. Hopefully you've already done your research and know a lot about this unit so I won't repeat. Here are my first impression highlights based on my first hour of use.
Pros:
Beautiful large colorful display, no bad pixels, Jill's voice is loud enough and she is easy to understand, unit knows what side of major streets you are traveling on and took me straight to my test destinations. The Garmin 760 suction cup mount works well but I ordered a bean bag mount anyway. The find my car that is lost in a huge parking lot function worked perfectly.
So so: You can charge the unit with the furnished USB cable so you don't need an external charger. Garmin did a pretty good job with the menus. My unit came with the latest production map and the 2.10 operating system.
Cons: I cannot say the following too loudly. It is almost criminal that Garmin didn't include a complete operating manual! You have to download it from Garmin or read the 760 review at gpsmagazine dot com to learn operating details. While Garmin provides a web updater program on their web site to bring your 760 operating system up to date the updater connection to Garmin is very flaky. Too many users trying to hit Garmin's overloaded server is likely the problem. To get a proper update you have to run the updater repeatedly until you get everything right. There are lots of foreign language downloads available but most of us can skip those.
See Amazon discussion below the reviews for my comments on the Bluetooth function.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
I have been using the Nuvi 760 for about 2 weeks and I love it. It does what it is supposed to do very well, telling you where you are. It is stylish and the user interface is easy to use. Has tons of features such as "Where am I" feature which tells you your current coordinates, nearest address, nearest intersection as well as nearest Hospitals, Police Stations and fuel. The only thing I noticed with this is when you try to find anything that is near to you it uses nautical miles to find places. Some other neat little features are that you can change the vehicle icon (very minor but fun). One feature or features I found to be very handy so far is the ability to look up a business and be able to call them at the touch of a button with the Bluetooth feature. When I was looking at the Nuvi it was a toss up between the 750 and 760. The 750 is much cheaper so I asked the sales associate. He told me that the 760 not only has the Bluetooth but a faster processor.
I have had some very minor issues with the Satellite signal. Sometimes I get it immediately and sometimes it take s a minute. Another a bit more major issue is the directions it gives you and the addresses are a bit off. For example, I live in Birmingham, AL. I have a Walmart about 3 miles away, It had the store in the middle of a main road about 1 mile short of the actual location. Another was a recreation place we take our son, it had their address 5 miles away. It also had my house on the wrong side of the street, no biggie, I know where I live. The other flaw with the directions was when we were going to downtown B'ham to the McWane Science Center. I live 10 exits away, it kept taking me off the highway wayyyy to soon to take back streets all the way there when it was easier and faster to take the interstate. It has a setting where you can change from shorter or faster, neither helped. I have found from talking to several people that have GPS units that this is common with a lot of them.
The map is very detailed. I was recently deployed to a small, tiny town of Delta Junction in the very interior of Alaska. It had the town and all the streets so the map is great. The only thing I wish they added was a button to go straight back to "View Map" when you are deep in the menu.
Overall I like the Nuvi 760. Many great things you can do with it. Several ways to charge it such as vehicle adapter through the windshield mount (included), USB or AC charger (not included but I bought a Blackberry one which works from Target). I have not used the traffic since they do not have it here. The FM turner is garbage. One last thing that I think is great, depending on what time of day it is the screen changes background color. During the day the background is a bright easy to see white. At night it changes to a easy to see black background. The setting you can change to always white, always black or to auto.
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This review is from: Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)
With 80+ reviews and the Garmin nuvi video, there's not much left to say, except....
I'd never had a GPS before, and even having done my research, I still purchased and returned four other GPSes before I finally settled on the 760, which meets my needs very well.
The features of the 760 that I really love include the wide, anti-glare screen; text-to-speech; QWERTY keyboard, and multiple route points. I didn't think I'd use Bluetooth much if at all, but I couldn't find a 750 and thus purchased the 760. Bluetooth has turned out to be a very convenient feature, and the 760 paired easily with my Motorola Krzr1m phone.
I'm very disappointed in the FM transmitter, however. It has no noise reduction, so I get to listen to "fuzz" until the GPS speaks. The MP3 and Audible player is OK, but the sound isn't good enough to drown out the static. The 760 does have a 3.5mm audio out, so if your car stereo has an AUX in, I recommend buying a cable and using that. If not, pick up a noise-reducing FM transmitter like the Kensington Universal FM Transmitter for MP3 Players (Black). This transmitter provides a very clear sound and no static!
Bluetooth works great on my end, but callers have consistently complained they can't hear me. My solution was to get the Garmin External Microphone for StreetPilot C550 (010-10804-00). Since I've been using this microphone, I've had no more complaints from callers.
The 760's cradle is much sturdier and easier to insert and remove the nuvi than those of other GPSes I've used. Still, I prefer not to mount the GPS on the windshield. My solution was to get a beanbag mount, which lets me place the 760 to the left of the steering wheel. I picked up the Garmin Portable Friction Dashboard Mount for Nüvi Series and StreetPilot I Series, C530, C550 and C580 GPS Navigators, which works great. This mount allows me to use the 760's well-designed cradle without the need for suction cups or sticky foam pads. It stays put and yet is easy to move out of sight when leaving my car.
The nuvi 760 comes with no case, but as my first GPS purchase/return happened to be a Navigon 2100, I'd also purchased the matching Navigon 3.5" Protective Hard Shell Case. Fortunately this case happens to fit my nuvi 760 snugly and allows me to toss the GPS my purse without worries of scratching the screen.
Also note that this GPS comes with no AC charger. As I have a number of devices to charge and I don't always want to charge the GPS in the car, I chose to simplify by getting the Gomadic Universal Charging Station - tips included for Garmin Nuvi 200 many other popular gadgets. Standard miniUSB chargers put the Nuvi into "computer connect" mode. But Gomadic's nuvi tip (#73) has the correct pinout to allow the unit to function as a GPS while charging.
Can the nuvi 760 be improved? Certainly. (1) Dump the FM transmitter or add noise reduction. (2) Increase the volume range (and quality of) the nuvi's internal speaker. It's just not loud enough, and as I increase the volume, the speaker distorts. (3) Include some accessories with the unit. A GPS at this price point shouldn't require another ~$75-100 in accessories.
Although my nuvi 760 came with the 2008 map, I'd purchased it within Garmin's "free map upgrade" window. I've noticed that the 2009 map has updated/corrected POIs, a few addresses and roads have been added and others corrected. Also, speed limits have been updated, too. (We went from 55 to 70 here in Michigan.) Firmware, voice and other updates have been quickly released by Garmin and are easily installed.
I'm happy with the 760 and am eager to try it on a longer trip. Still, the 760 is very useful when just driving around town.
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