| Great Product |
After getting lost a couple times recently in northern Chicago, decided it was time to invest in some technology as the Mapquest maps were just not cutting it. As with any new purchase, I did my research via countless user reviews along with feature comparisons. I had narrowed my options down to the Nuvi 660, TT720/920, and this unit (mostly based on features and price). All seemed to be fairly balanced with options and value... and each had their good and bad points. But it seemed like the more I researched, the more confusion set in... so my next step is something I would highly recommend to anyone considering this type of purchase - putting your hands on a unit.
I made a trip to the local BestBuy and was quickly met with a sales rep who made it very clear he knew nothing about GPS's, but was willing to "help" by printing out a feature comparison. After he finally left us alone (and not a moment too soon), we started playing with several different TT's and Garmins. My first action was to test the Bluetooth, as my BlackBerry phone was listed as compatible with the Garmin, but not with the TT. I quickly confirmed the Garmin would indeed sync up and worked quite intuitively. Ironically enough, even with an Error Message on the TT about incompatibility with my phone, it still was able to sync and work. Now comes the selling point...
I was struggling with trying to navigate through the TT menu's and was kind of getting frustrated as I really thought before "touching" the unit, that TT was my top candidate. About that time, my girl friend (who is by no means a "technology geek" like me) was showing me all the cool features on the Garmin (the demo unit was actually a 780, but basically the same as this 760) including the POI, "where am I feature", etc. After which I moved over to a Garmin and was instantly hooked. All the menus are easily accessed, it is easy to back up and move around, and the obvious difference was the Garmin was linked to several satellites (even in the store), yet none of the TTs could "acquire".
Pros: Bluetooth works good (even through the FM transmitter), easy to navigate menus, great reception, Querty or standard keyboard (user selectable), great windshield suction mount (unlike TT, has the locking lever to increase suction power) with built-in connection to the dc power cable, trip-o-meter, traffic (optional service, but 3 months included), new mapping s/w ('08 rev. loaded with '09 free to download within 30 days), multi-point destinations, where am I feature, and very accurate. I could go on, but these are the things that stand out.
Cons: only includes USB and DC power cables (No ac adapter included, but any cell or digital camera charger with a mini-USB cable works fine), no case (bought one at the same time for $14), map upgrade took multiple attempts to download as my computer cache kept filling as it is a 2gb file (but seems to have all downloaded - will be upgrading mine this weekend), only includes a US map (TT920 & Garmin 670 both include Europe).
All in all, it really comes down to prioritizing features and price and go from there as all of these units have good and bad things. I could have easily bought the lower end 6xx and had Europe maps as well, but then no multi-point destination (which was important to me for some trips I have planned this summer). And then of course you need to price shop - Amazon once again had the best deal:-)
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5 Rating
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