Garmin nuvi 780

This is my third Garmin and overall I am pleased with their products. I purchased this model for the bluetooth feature and it is pretty good but this model has some features not as good as my old 330.… There is no external volumne control and it is more complicated to save a current location than my old unit. The battery life is better than the old model and with the bluetooth feature it is a step up from the old unit but I much prefered the external volumne control and ease of storing locations.

expand

collapse

This is the second GPS unit I have owned. After reading countless reviews on many products I selected this one since it was lower cost due to its out of production status, but had the features I wanted;… text to speech, blue tooth for hands free phone,live traffic information, and a reputation for quick start-up finding all the satellites it needs to navigate. Garmin also has a good reputation. How does it work? Well, the start-up time is affected by how long ago the last time you used it and if your position has changed much since then. In general it is satisfactory on that score. At first, the text to speech was weak, but a downloaded update improved it to the point I am satisfied. I have not tried the live update feature yet as I am waiting for a long trip to test it. The sensitivity to the gps satellites is great. This unit works inside my house which helps when I am doing planning. I also like the MP3 storage [sandisk card]. I am able to load several hours of music to this device. That said the fm transmitter is poor in my car, a Honda minivan. I can use it if I plug a 3rd party device [Radio Shack] that works from the earphone jack on the Garmin that does the fm transmitter work. This will make it possible for the Garmin unit to interrupt my music playback with navigation instructions. My experience with Garmin tech support has been good so far. After you go through the phone maze and the waiting you get an American English speaking person who, in my experience is informed and patient. There is not much of that available these days. The only improvements I would want to see is: 1. Being able to organize "favorites" into folders and 2. Having computer software that allows you to plan trips and upload them to the unit.

expand

collapse