Garmin nüvi 755/755T 4.3 Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic

I’ll address what was my biggest apprehension in going for an ad based, free traffic program. No issue! The ads are small and not at all intrusive. My eyes never were pulled in a way that was a distraction. I can even envision the few occasions that it might even benefit both the advertiser and the user. If you think about it … newspaper, radio, internet, TV … advertising is very much a part of our culture and in this case very tastefully done.

Before further review, good grief … now I sound like a sports caster; I should say that I’ve owned GPS units forever. Started with laptop programs then I started buying all of my vehicles with factory GPS. Acura, Toyota’s (two of em) over the years have all been GPS equipped. I travel a lot for work and it was just more convenient to own stand alone portable units when I rent auto’s. Magellan and Garmin were my last two portable units. I’m not a nerd or engineer so I’ll give this my best shot and hope the average Jill and Joe will get something out of this.

Next, I’ll talk about routing and traffic. Garmin (in my opinion) has always been rock solid in terms of routing. With this unit they have taken the art to a new level. I looked at the new TomTom with its smart routing and almost pulled the trigger on that unit but, with what happened today I am not one bit sorry with my choice. This morning I had to make deliveries to a number of Lowe’s Home Improvement stores in the Metro Phoenix, AZ market. I went to the “Points of interest” icon typed in Lowe’s and after a short wait was rewarded with all of the Lowes stores in the area. I touch on each one and saved it to a sub category I made (Lowes Metro Phoenix), gave each their appropriate store number (the search came complete with address and phone) and then scheduled my day. From home to the factory first, then to four stores, then back to the factory. During the day I had to insert another unscheduled stop. Fantastic! If I could have asked for any improvement here it would have been that each way point was somehow shown as I progressed. It did announce my arrival at each location complete with what side of the street it would be on; in the long run I am so happy with the result that I couldn’t bring myself to diminish the 5 star rating. Also, at each stop when I turned the car off the unit powered down. When I got back in the car I needed to go to the “custom routes” icon, where I built my route, and touch the button to activate my named route. Garmin, if that could be automatic I would love it … and maybe down the road I’ll learn something that I don’t yet know and this unit is capable. Honestly, it was so quick and easy and the routing picked up right where it left off so not a big deal to me. Traffic probably should have its own paragraph except it ties into the routing. I understand that this is dependent on how your town is covered. Even here in Phoenix only the major highways are covered. I submit that if you need to travel inner belts and outer belts as well as the highways in and out of your towns you will be very pleased. I watched the traffic icon turn from green to yellow to red and back again as road conditions changed. The icon showed how long the delay would be and if you touch it, it shows where and how far away! Garmin gave me the option to bypass each delay but when I answered yes with the touch of the button it reminded me that my route had been optimized including all other options … with the delay it still had me on the quickest route. Because I had multiple destinations it kept me posted to the delays even in the opposite directions when my routing would require back tracking.

There was slow downs along the way and one accident and I was notified well in advance. With the accident, I passed the location about 15 minutes after notification. It was minor and had already been moved to the side of the highway yet I could see the remnants of broken head-lights in the lane it happened. I was prepared to be disappointed with the traffic because not all the traffic reviews are complimentary. Again, I tend to feel where you live and the roads you travel could affect your opinion. For me, I would add extra stars here if I could. It amazed me when it routed me a different way from the factory to my house (different from the one I took in the morning) because the road conditions were different. It was right on based on years of living and driving these roads.

The Voice and the timeliness of prompts were strong. I tried all the voices and ended up with Australian Karen. She is very understandable in “text to speech” and very pleasant. Even my wife likes her … I’d like to meet Australian Karen someday but she wouldn’t give me her phone number … like my wife would like her if she did! With my Magellan I liked the way it would ding just before the turn. This Garmin announces the turn and the timing was very comparable to the Magellan and that is a good thing. Some of the previous Garmin models had problems in this area if you read the posts. Also, loudness with the unit on external speaker was OK to Good, I’d like to see it a touch louder for times when road noise or blasting AC is an issue. I have not tried piping it with FM to my radio and probably won’t.

On my wish list to Garmin (you think they read these?), I’d like to see a little more information around the edges of the screen. You can program the “arrival time” button for things like altitude, time of day, direction of travel and many more, but you can’t program the “speed button” for anything. I’d like to see my altitude … just for giggles, and my ETA. Who needs the time with clocks in the car & on every cell phone? Who needs to know how fast you are going with a speedometer in every car? I would also like to know the street I’m currently on. Sometimes you can see it depending on how you are zoomed to the map but sometimes not. I’d also like to know what direction I’m traveling in without hitting another button or giving up my ETA or 3d view. The speed limit of each street is a fantastic thing to have especially when your in areas you don’t know or rural roads that go for miles without a sign. I can tell you that when the speed limit changed as I entered different zones the changes were very accurate in their timing.

The last thing for today’s review is lane guidance. I went thru some pretty major interchanges today and not once did I see the Navagon style or Garmin advertised type of full screen preview. Again, I’ll see if there is a setting I missed or I will just have to live with what I’ve got for awhile. I understand that Garmin will be adding to their data base as they go along. What I did see though was plenty good. The “distance to turn” indicator in the upper left corner of the screen listed with arrows how many lanes to the interchange and which lanes you should be in. It also listed the lanes not to be in as you transitioned from one highway ramp onto another highway. It was good to have advance notice that the right lane would not continue and you needed to move left before it got crowded.

I’d say buy this unit and help me find Karen!

I have had no reset issues and use the unit 6 to 8 hours per day. This is not to say it hasn’t been an issue with others though.

10/18/08

I found the neatest thing on this unit today. I tapped the car on the screen while I was driving and noticed every few seconds the screen updated with the exact address I was located. I could see the street I was on, the numerical location, and I could see the addresses going up or down as I traveled. Also it showed the elevation changing up or down. I have used this exact screen many times when stopped to mark locations I wanted to save to favorites but never on the go. I’m not sure exactly how one would use this information but I thought it interesting.

I have had much more experience with the traffic option now. I have found it very useful during rush hour. Only once… so far, has a delay been so severe that it changed my routing automatically. But, during that occasion I felt gratified in that I was guided off the freeway before other drivers. from my detour route I ended up with a view of a bumper to bumper full stop on the highway that was backed up for miles. To be honest, after a while you take the traffic icon for granted until it turns yellow or red. Even the yellow icon doesn’t change things in terms of routing, just information about how many minutes the delay will be.

I can say that sometimes the information is not exactly timely. A yellow indicator may show and when I reach the location the traffic may be moving more normal or a little slower than indicated. The minutes of delay indicated seems not too far off though and arrival times are pretty accurate.

Other that no Junction view’s in the Phoenix area at this time I’m still thrilled with the 755t. Garmin support is working on a free update (I spoke with them) for the Junction view.

Additional questions have been ask and answered in the comments section if you would like to read more.

Rating: 5 / 5
Garmin nüvi 755/755T 4.3 Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic

After much research I purchased the Garmin Nuvi 755T portable car GPS device. It has lived up to my expectations in every way after using it for a week. It was extensively used during a 250 mile day trip to Milwaukee from suburban Chicago. I felt extremely confident driving around in unfamiliar territory.

*Sattelite load is quick- nearly instant except for (1) instance where it took about a minute.

*Traffic alert and map showed congestion and offered the option to go around.

*The selected routed for areas I am familiar with were nearly identical to the ones I have driven over the years.

*The dislay is bright, clear and updates quickly. I did not experience any sluggishness.

*The lane assist works on several exits in the Chicago area- not any in the Milwaukee area. These snapshots appeared at just the right time to illustrate the proper exit lane based on the highlighted road sign. I imagine this will become available for many more highways as maps are updated.

*Mounting and connecting were first rate- the windshield suction worked very well as did the unit power adapter and cable.

*I did not use FM transmitter- I see no need to do this.

*The street names and voice commands were loud, clear and in plenty of time to navigate properly.

I am not displeased about any attribute of this device. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 / 5
Garmin nüvi 755/755T 4.3 Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic

The graphics and interface on the 755T are some of the best I’ve seen on the few GPS units I’ve tried. I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the interface to be honest, but it’s better than others in terms of being intuitive.

The colors are crisp, the directions I received were accurate, the voice was clear. The unit was excellent on the highway alerting me to each exit before I reached it - loved that feature.

I didn’t try the traffic function as I didn’t enter a major city so I can’t comment. Ditto on lane assist.

I generally drive 30,000 mils a year and I’ve done quite well without a GPS unit. Maps and getting print outs from Google have been mostly sufficient when I don’t know exactly where I’m going. A GPS would be better, of course, and I wanted to go with the best brand I could. Source after source pointed to the Garmin and specifically the new 7×5 series.

Another person who’s in the same line of business as me told me how he receives proximity alerts for specific points of interest (POIs). He didn’t say which brand he used and I assumed that was a basic feature. It’s not. These POIs are already programmed in the Garmin. Everything I need is right there. However, I cannot program the unit to link proximity alerts with those preexisting POIs. I received this from Garmin customer service:

“This can only be done with Custom POI’s. You can set

a distance for the POI within the CSV file. You would just need to find

a database of xxxxx in a CSV format. I am sorry it is not possible

to do this with the POI’s currently in the unit.”

I’ve looked and looked, I could not find another source of these POIs. But why should I have to find them or pay for them? They already exist on this unit! It is baffling to me that a proximity alert preference is not built in. This is extremely user unfriendly.

It took me all of 3 minutes to discover that TomTom has proximity alert preferences built right into their units. I’ve tested several and I can already see they have their own flaws. The maps are not as easy to read and the interface is not as good. TomToms also have a major flaw of their own that’s a deal breaker for others - when entering an address you must know the town. As one TomTom reviewer pointed out, this can be difficult when boundary lines change quickly within a metro area (like Boston). Me, that doesn’t matter so much.

I generally know where I am. What I frequently don’t know are these specific POIs that I might not be even aware exist. This is an important additional asset to my business.

I realize others might not need this function. So again, a lot of people will find the 755T more than acceptable. It’s a great unit to operate. But it just doesn’t have the function I need - a function that I think is pretty basic. It was basic enough that TomTom puts it on their GPS units.

So I got rid of my 755T and will buy either a TomTom 730T or 930T and put up with their flaws that are more tolerable for me.

EDIT:

After using both the Garmin 755T and the Tomtom 730T for several days it gave me some new perspective on both strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, if you’re looking for a straight out of the box user experience with no fuss or muss and little need to tweak the system the Garmin 755T is probably the better model. If you’re already familiar with how to tweak a Garmin (and there are many who are) then you’ll probably also find this a more than fine model.

To use a computer metaphor, I found overall that the Garmin has the initial user interface of what you’d expect from a Mac, but has the user adaptability of a Windows system. The programs you have to download and the tweaking necessary to go beyond Garmin’s presentation is complicated for those who don’t already know how to do it.

The Tomtom on the other hand has the initial feel of a Windows computer, but the user friendly adaptability of a Mac. I hate the Tomtom’s interface and colors, but WOW, is it far easier to change to my needs than the Garmin!

It all comes down to knowing your own needs and abilities. Test the 755T before you buy if you can. If it’s all you need, then I would recommend it. If you know you’re going to have adapt to your needs (like the POIs) and you just want your GPS to do the job without having to go through a steep learning curve, then stay away from the Garmin.
Rating: 3 / 5
Garmin nüvi 755/755T 4.3 Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic