Product Description
The nuvi 755T offers full coverage mapping for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. It also comes preloaded with highly detailed City Navigator NT road maps for North America and Europe. The preloaded map data features nearly six million points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and attractions. The map data is provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping. It features 3D buildings, lane assist and lifetime traffic alerts from NAVTEQ. Take advantage of garmin's first premium traffic service without subscription fees. 3D navigation with lane assist provides drivers a clear picture of what lies ahead on their route, including road sign detail and arrows indicating the proper lane for navigation. Some areas even offer a 3D view of buildings. Steer clear of traffic with nuvi's integrated FM traffic receiver. Receive alerts about traffic delays and road construction that lie ahead on your route. Auto time zone will automatically adjust your time zone while navigating garmin Connect Photos - associate your favorite images with saved locations DEM maps show you shaded terrain contours at various zoom levels High-sensitivity GPS receiver for improved performance and reception Turn-by-turn directions with voice guidance Easy-to-use, Touchscreen interface Trip computer records mileage, max speed, total time and more Simplified PC connectivity, using USB mass storage Configurable vehicle icons allows users to select a fun, and customized icons Dimensions - Width 4.8 x Height 3.0 x Depth 0.08 (12.2x7.6x2.0cm) Weight - 6.48 ounces (183.8 grams)
I decided to get a 775T when I really needed was a 265WT.
Price difference was $220 (prices on Amazon change nearly everyday as you probably know). A separate European map on SD card is approx $150. So you pay $70 for other features that you may not use. However, SD European map on memory card may not have the same features as the built-in map *shrug* I just don't know.
The FM transmitter is useless. You must tune to an unused frequency. What's the idea here? Do they expect you to hear static noise all the time while waiting for the GPS to give you direction? OTOH, they can't overcome a strong FM transmission, so you may as well not have this feature.
The Bluetooth feature is a hit-and-miss. Some people get to use it, others don't.
Multi-routing feature does not seem too useful. I will update this section when I get to play with multi-routing.
MP3 and picture storage are probably ok but there are better devices for those purposes.
The built-in dictionary is probably the only useful extra when travelling.
Traffic info requires automobile power cord plugged in. You don't get traffic when walking or on bicycle.
I found battery life (after having fully drained and fully charged) is closer to what Garmin estimated: approximately 3 hours. While battery on the 265WT is supposed to last 4 hours. Remember to turn off Bluetooth and turn contrast down to 10% to achieve that. The feature chart on Amazon says battery for the 775T lasts "up to 5 hours". Sure, Amazon is technically correct. Is 3 hours long enough for a walk in an European metropolitan city?
Is that all worth an extra $70 (30% of the price of a 265WT)?
Don't buy a wall charger. I use my Blackberry USB charger. As with all electronic device chargers (laptop/digital camera/cell phone/etc), the Blackberry charger works at 110V/220V.
Do get a 010-10987-00 case.
Well, this unit is loaded with features, most of which are useful. But the fundamentals are lacking:
1. Turn-on time is 45 seconds+. This is an eternity when u are trying to get quick directions and get out of a traffic snarl. And there is no standby mode, so you will wait for turn-on again, and again, and again.
2. Search is SLOW. So after you wait for turn-on, you then wait for search. By name searches can take MINUTES while you watch the hour glass. Allowing for getting one or two searches wrong (the categories arent exactly intuitive) , we're talking 15+ minutes to get started on the way to a POI.
3. Entering a route is ok, but needs work. It doesnt even remember the last city entered, so you will be typing in the city name again and again and again. Why isnt there a "current city" button???
4. The unit forgets everything after power off. So if you pull over for a break for 15 minutes and turn it off .. its re-enter the destination again (it has a list of recent destination to make this easier, but if it can remember that, why cant it remember that it was mid journey when switched off?).
5. About 50% of the time it "forgets" that you have set a destination. So you set a destination, click GO and the unit shows a map and then sits and doesnt plan the route. So you yet again have to re-enter the route.
6. It's routing is dubious. The unit tends to pick what it sees as the shortest route even if it involves making many many unneeded turns. So if you are going diagonally across city blocks be prepared to make lots of alternate left/right turns, instead of just one or two (as my TomTom does quite happily) on main streets.
7. It takes FOREVER for it to notice you are off-route, particularly at the start of a trip (where sometimes it just says "drive to XYZ" and then forgets its mind forever). You have to drive MANY blocks before it notices you are off route and recomputes.
This is a premium unit, with a premium price, and I would expect premium performance. Frankly, it doesnt deliver. The unit works (if you are prepared to wait) most of the time, and it WILL get you where you are going. But it needs a lot more work to justify the asking price.
Garmin has a somewhat confusing product line, which is somewhat alleviated by a reasonably good online guide on the manufacturer's web site (you select the features you are looking for, and it narrows down the choices to fewer and fewer models until you find what you are looking for);
I was specifically looking for a model with both North America and Europe maps, capable of supporting multiple languages for speech synthesis (so that my non-English speaking parents could use it as well), traffic information, lane assist, and pretty good UI.
I had narrowed my choices down to the Garmin nüvi 775T and the Tomtom 930T, but eventually went for the Garmin for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I am a little biased, having used their aviation panel mounted models for a few years and I knew that Garmin makes excellent units. I was also impressed by their customer support: they replied to a couple of questions I had about their products pretty quickly, even though I hadn't bought the 775T yet.
This is a feature rich device; I haven't had time to play with all its functions yet; it is able to get a satellite fix even in non optimal situations (such as tree coverage, tall building, even indoors if a window is nearby); the routes it picks look quite reasonable (by the way: do not try to make it compute 'silly' routes, such as asking it to compute a driving route from some place in California to some place in Europe... the unit will get stuck and might require a hard reset). The user interface is very intuitive IMHO and presents the information in a very concise and effective manner (important while driving!)
So overall, I am very satisfied with this purchase, especially at the price that was offered on Amazon (significantly cheaper than what I had found elsewhere).
A couple of things in no particular order:
The safety lock feature is neat (you can protect the unit with a PIN, and if you dial the PIN wrong too many times, the unit can only be unlocked by returning to a 'safe location.' Sounds neat, until you realize that it is easy to misdial the PIN (until you get used to the touch screen I suppose), which might be a snag if you do that many miles away from said 'safe location', for instance, when on vacation. I disabled that feature as a result.
The manufacturer's web site was not specific enough IMHO about which voices were provided 'out of the box' for the speech synthesis function (where it speaks the instructions and street names); it turns out that the nice customer service representative answered that question promptly. Note that not all the voices / languages provided can speak the street names (e.g., the various English, French, Spanish, etc. voices can, but the one Arabic voice cannot)
If you choose a voice of a different language than the locale, its pronunciation of the street names can be a bit puzzling at times :-) it does however a remarkably good job most of the times (I went out of my way to try to confuse it :-) ).
Finally, don't forget to download your one free map update (you'll have to choose between either the North America or European map for this free update), and the free firmware updates. There are also pretty neat applications available (which combined with some Google Maps features, e.g., possibility to overlay the contents of GPX files that the unit can export onto Google Maps, increase the possibilities.)
Okay, I got lazy and bought the 775t from Amazon. I must say, this is a huge improvement over the built in nav system in my car and even more so over the $100 issue of a nuvi I purchased retail for my wife last year.
I will be traveling to Germany, so paying extra for the built in maps was worth it to me. Amazing detail there, by the way. Even walking paths I used in Bad Homburg were on the map.
As an aside, I've learned that the built in nature of the European maps is an improvement to my uninformed suggestion below. Yes, you can save a few dollars by buying the 770t and purchasing additional maps on SD chips, but I suspect this will slow the map retreival process somewhat. The convenience of having the maps preloaded may be worth the extra cost of the 775t.
The 775t is amazingly intuitive. There really is no user's manual to speak of (unless there's something online at Garmin, which I haven't checked). The quick start pamphlet that comes with the unit is all you need to start using this device.
The bluetooth implementation works flawlessly with my Motorola Razor cell phone and is MUCH easier to use than the blue tooth implementation in my car. All the phone numbers in my cell phone transported (transparently) over to the nuvi, and how all I have to do is pick the number out of the nuvi's phone book and have the nuvi dial it. I'll be getting another one of these to replace my wifes unused "budget version" nuvi, just to get her telephoning hands-free in her car!
Speaking of my wife's car: It has an "aux in" port that she can connect this nuvi to. I copied a couple hundred of my favorite mp3 files to the nuvi and these play beautifully over her mom-bomb's stereo system. The media players functions are minimal, so don't expect this to replace your i-pod or other mp3 player. Still, it's nice to have.
The traffic feature may work well, but since we don't live in the middle of a major urban area, we don't seem to ever find ourselves in a situation where we're re-routed because of taffic delays. The construction zones we negotiate don't flag traffic delays. I like that this nuvi comes with permanent access to traffic info vs the 30 day trial her budget version did. The traffic signals come to the nuvi via fm receiver - no accessories or contracts required for this, unless you upgrade to a different service. This may suggest that the free included service may not be around too long, but consider yourselves advised.
I still can't give the unit 5 stars because diverting to other features requires the user to step back repeatedly (via Back button) to return to the main menu. There you have to touch the Map icon to return to the mapping function for the route that's being plotted. Seems to me there should be a simplified function to return you directly to the map from just about anywhere you divert to in the unit.
For example: You're driving into the city to a friend's house (the nav system is guiding you there). Enroute, your passenger decides to look for an Asian restaurant near your friend's house. To return to the map displaying your route guidance can take as many as 5 or 6 steps "back" to get to the main menu. There you have to touch the map again.
But as for finding that asian restaurant, it's pretty slick. If you know the name of the place you're looking for, you can type it in (Spell) and viola, the unit hunts for all occurances containing that name. Be sure to select the one you're looking for though, because the unit will continue to search ad infinitum to find more matches in the data base. Once found, it returns the address and telephone number of the place. You can choose to have the nav system take you there. But if you do it on the fly, I think it will override the destination you are presently being guided to. You can program in a sequence of destinations beforehand to get around this.
I've used this simply to get a phone number of a restaurant and love that aspect of it. The savings in terms of directory assistance charges alone may help defray the cost over time.
Another potential flaw is that, despite my powering the unit off, I've come back to my car to find the unit on. I don't know if screen burn is an issue on these units, and I don't know how, when or why the 775t powers itself back on. If it's smart enough to know the car door is opened upon your return, then it's a great feature. It it starts up on its own minutes after I park the car, it's a flaw. I suppose I could always unplug it overnight while parked in the garage, but I would prefer if the unit just stayed off. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong and a visit to Garmin's website will clear this up for me.
I recommend this unit despite the minor flaws I've encountered in its programming logic.
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original (hasty) review follows:
The 3 star review (which I can't change as I revise my review) had more to do with Amazon pricing practices than the actual product.
I'll probably buy this unit elsewhere because Amazon mis-states the Garmin list price at $849. Garmin lists this for $699. Granted, Amazon's price of $565 reflects a decent discount from list, but other web sites offer it for considerably less (as low as $440 last time I looked). Now as a long time Amazon shopper and Amazon Prime member, my first choice is always Amazon, but this is the second instance recently where Amazon was considerably more expensive than alternate web sites. Where pricing is close, I usually give the business to Amazon as they have treated me well over the years. Even so, this time, I may shop elsewhere.
Another tip. Even at Amazon you can save money by buying the 765T ($407) and the Garmin City Navigator Europe NT SD card (010 10680-50) ($110) instead of the 775t with maps already loaded. If I do buy at Amazon, this is the route I'll take. ($517 vs $556)
Good luck.
Really great product, does everything its supposed to and lots more I havent got to yet, takes a while to locate satelites which I hear is common, my only complaint is that Garmin dont offer a carry pouch to put the unit, window suction cup and all the cables in when travelling....had to go to a camera store to find something.....Garmin, why leave money on the table?
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About Garmin nüvi 775T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator detail
- Amazon Sales Rank: #172 in Consumer Electronics
- Brand: Garmin
- Model: NUVI 775T
- Released on: 2008-10-01
- Dimensions: 3.00" h x .80" w x 4.80" l, .40 pounds
- Native resolution: 480 x 272
- Display size: 4.3
Features
- Bright 4.3-Inch Diagonal Touch Screen Color Display
- 480 X 272 Pixels, Wqvga Tft Display With White Backlight
- Preloaded With City Navigator(R) North America Nt & Europe Nt
- Bluetooth(R) Wireless Technology For Hands-Free Calling
- High-Sensitivity GPS Receiver For Improved Performance & Reception
Read more Garmin nüvi 775T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
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