Automotive GPS Systems

1 comment

1. 

   Bruce E. Munck says:

   July 11, 2010 at 2:17 am (UTC -5)

   Review by Bruce E. Munck for Garmin nuvi 1450T 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with nuMaps Lifetime
   Rating:
   It isn’t everything it could be. Maybe it isn’t fair to compare something to what I want as opposed to letting it stand on its own merits, but then again that’s part of what a review is for. First off a bit of history. My first automotive GPS was a Garmin Streetpilot 3+, a beast of a unit that was huge and heavy (due in no small part to the fistful of batteries required for out-of-car use) and that used a rather small memory card to hold area maps instead of the entire U.S. While it was a nice unit for its time and quite sturdy, it was very slow and ungainly. My next unit, a Garmin Streetpilot 2620, served me fabulously well from 2005 until a few weeks ago when the hard drive failed. I also own a Garmin 7200 with a seven inch screen and XM radio which my wife has commandeered. The 2620 and 7200 are, in my opinion, a couple of the finest GPS’s ever built and have forever altered my perception of what a GPS should truly be. Since receiving my Nuvi I have had the chance to give it a small workout and find it quite similar to my other Garmins with some updated graphics and better spoken information. My other units showed an arrow as a track marker while the Nuvi has optional markers that look like cars, trucks, even feet! The entire display is updated with much smoother lines and richer colors. It’s a bit like moving from VGA graphics to a 32-bit true-color PC display, nice to look at and much easier to tell what things are. This unit continues Garmin’s wonderful tradition of announcing which side of the road the destination is located on, a feature lacking in some units, and adds a (new to me) feature of speaking names of destinations rather than simply calling them “destination” as with my older units. Satellite acquisition is fairly fast compared to my other Garmins and location data appears to be very accurate. I haven’t had the opportunity to experience the intersection lane position feature, but am looking forward to that. The suction cup mount is the first one I have ever used and is surprisingly good! The lifetime traffic and maps features should prove to be worthwhile options and I intend to make use of them both. The database of businesses is in typical Garmin style well represented with even small ‘mom and pop’ establishments listed. Routing is intuitive and works as well as my older Garmins which is a real blessing. You might be wondering why I didn’t give it five stars instead of four. Well, one really huge disappointment for me is the lack of a remote control. My 2620 and 7200 both have remotes and I can’t begin to tell you how much I grew to depend on them. It is so much easier to input route information with a remote while driving since you don’t have to take your mind off your driving and lean forward to fiddle with the touchscreen. Ask yourself this: would you like to go back to changing TV channels without a remote? If you’ve ever had a GPS with a remote you probably won’t be satisfied with one that doesn’t have one. Unfortunately you would have a hard time finding one with a remote anymore since everybody is going for tiny ultralight units. Bad decision!!! Another sticking point, and this one is minor although it does bother me, is something Garmin started somewhere between the 2620 and the 7200 and has continued to the Nuvi. Sometimes the voice prompt will say “…please navigate to the highlighted route…” without telling you how to get there. My 2620 would NEVER tell me that! The 2620 told me exactly where to go at all times. The 7200 and the Nuvi, however, both have this same deficiency and I am not sure why Garmin is not correcting it!?!? Minor, but an issue nonetheless. Another area where the Nuvi is lacking is the absence of a way to connect an external GPS antenna. OK, so if you always mount the GPS on the windshield that will never be a problem, but with my 2620 and 7200 units I could put them on the floor on top of the tranny hump where they were out of the direct sunlight and put an external antenna on the dash or on the roof and get wonderful reception. In fact, an external antenna produced MUCH better reception at all times compared to the internal antenna. So why did Garmin do away with the connector? Ignoring the things I prefer, this GPS rates very high in functionality and features and is a worthy unit. I anticipate it serving me well for a long time. One other thing: some folks have indicated that the cigarette lighter power cord isn’t up to the challenge of operating the GPS and keeping it charged at the same time. This unit offers to turn off whenever the cord is disconnected which leads me to believe that the cord is plenty able to handle the power requirements of the GPS. I would expect nothing less from Garmin!