Yesterday I purchased a new Garmin Nuvi 660 portable GPS receiver to use in my new vehicle. So far, I’m going to have to give this little unit a rating of 8.5 out of 10.
Things that are fantastic about this unit:
- Garmin offers free software that allows you to load your own custom Points of Interest into the unit. You can then go to POI sites such as POI-factory.com and download free POIs to include in your device.
- This GPS device voice announces streets by name. Most others simply say “Turn left ahead…”, but this one says “Turn left on President Bush Freeway in 1/4 mile…”. This means that you almost never need to even look at the unit.
- The unit automatically dims the screen when the light goes down to save the strain on your eyes.
- Nuvi will connect to a Bluetooth enabled cell phone and you can use it as a handsfree speakerphone. It will even let you dial out using a touchpad, voice commands (if supported by your phone), or directly to one of the built in Points of Interest phone numbers.
- You can load MP3′s into either the available internal storage space on the device (over 600MB) or simply put it in a directory called MP3 on an SD card. You can then play them back while you are navigating and doing other things with the unit either through the built in stereo speakers – or you can broadcast them to an FM station for playback on your car’s stereo system.
- It will even pause MP3 playback when it makes directional announcements or when you take a phone call through your Bluetooth phone.
- Garmin offers an automated WebUpdater which noticed that my unit needed an upgrade and handled the transaction flawlessly.
- The boot up and satellite acquisition times are very quick compared to other GPS units I’ve used.
- The sound quality of the internal speakers is far better than any other GPS unit I’ve seen. The quality of sound transmitted through the vehicle stereo is good, and callers report that the voice quality through the speakerphone on the other end is quite good as well. Even while driving in a Titan at highway speed everything sounded fine on both ends of a call.
- The screen quality is excellent and the touch sensitivity is perfect.
- It is incredibly light. Not only is it small, but when you pick it up you expect it to be heavier than it is!
There are more nice features than this, but I’ll leave a little out so that future buyers can have a few pleasant surprises.
Things that could use a little work on this unit:
- It is almost unforgivable that a $1,000 portable GPS unit doesn’t come with a printed manual. They only include the manual on the CD and also on the unit if you plug it into your PC and look on it’s internal storage. True, the device is very simple to use, but if you really want to get the most out of it you simply need a manual. In fact, I’d say this is the most feature-rich toy I’ve ever purchased that doesn’t include a manual.
- The Travel Kit area on this device includes several extras such as the MP3 player, a World Clock, calculator, etc. Unfortunately you can’t remove unused icons. For example, there is an icon for SaversGuide, but if you don’t choose to purchase it for $50 per year you can’t get rid of the damn icon. The same goes for other costly built ins such as the Language Guide ($75) and Audible Book Player. Luckily the unit I purchased came with a free Travel Guide which is pretty useful.
The bottom line is that this is a costly little tool, but it can do a LOT of things to make your life better:
- Use it as a wireless speakerphone for your bluetooth phone.
- Play back MP3s from your personal collection while you’re driving around.
- Navigate all over the country with ease, even routing around traffic incidents.
- Find places to eat or things to do in the built in database.
In addition to the fact that the Nuvi is very feature rich, the thing I most appreciate is that every time I tried out one of the new features it just worked. I didn’t have to jack around with it to get it to work or anything. Nowadays gadgets that simply work exactly as advertised are rare, so this is something to really appreciate.
I give the Nuvi 660 a hearty thumbs up and highly recommend this to anyone that can justify the price.
UPDATE: Incidentally my first trip with this device, and the main reason I bought it, was to bring my new NSX home from San Francisco to Dallas. From California to Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and through Texas it never got a single turn wrong and inspired tremendous confidence.
This little GPS has also made its way from Dallas through Austin and all the way down to Big Bend National Park in Texas, and it’s navigated me around Pittsburgh, PA. So far it has proven to be more accurate and faster than GPS units I have (or have had) in my 05′ Nissan Titan, 02′ Infinity Q45, 02′ Acura CL Type S, or 06′ Honda Civic. Plus I can travel with it!
Great Article, I have one question. Can you plot multiple points on the PC and upload them so it will guide you from starting point A, then point B, then point C, then point D, and back to point A. Basically as a delivery driver with new stops each day, program the stops in and go about my day.
Thanks for the descriptive article.
Harvey,
Thanks for the comment. As far as your question is concerned unfortunatly, no, the Nuvi can’t do that.
It will allow you to program in a single waypoint on your route, but it doesn’t let you put in multiple stops. So, you could program in points A and B, but then after you get to B you’d have to put in C and D.
So, you wouldn’t be able to sit down and program in your entire delivery schedule, but the good news is that you could still take along your route sheet and when you finish one delivery just enter in the next point.
It takes about 30 seconds to type in an address so at least they make it quick and painless even if you can’t schedule the entire day in advance.
Here is a link to the Nuvi manual in case you’d like to see more details about the features.
John
I finally bought a GPS and decided to take the plung on the high end portable Nuvi 660. Outstanding is a rare comment I make for new tech items. I have not used all the features yet but I found it to hit the mark EXACTLY every time I traveled so far. In my sales travels in the NE USA and elsewhere, I have found every customer and prospects location that was programmed in. With 500 favorites to save, you can build up a directory of accounts for recall. I went into NY state small towns, rural locations, downtown cities, suburbs along with my home state of Mass. Traveled to the outskirts of Toronto to a sister company office and local address’s. The unit plots quickly and if you miss the turn, recalculates every little detail. Can’t find the address, plot the nearest intersections. The voice commands are execellent and as noted you almost don’t have to watch the screen. Back screens give you average speed, stopped time, travel time, directions, estimated miles and time for the trip entered. Now I will read the manual. Yes it is that easy. Got to have the 12v auto power.
Thanks for the comment Mike. I’m glad to hear that you had a similar experience to mine.
I also found it is quite amazing that the Nuvi has more accuracy than the GPS built into my high end automobiles. There are very few instances where it can’t find a specific location. And I’ve normally found that by searching a different way it does usually find them.
And yes, it’s very fast at both satellite aquisition and route calculation. And although the auto power is a necessity, even the 6 or so hour built in battery life is quite outstanding for something so small and powerful.
Take care,
John
I just tried to order a 660 but quickly canceled the order. The guy I was placing the order with stated that the touch screen was very delicate and that I should get the extended waranty for $150.oo. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Ron,
Those retail sales people make big bucks to sell the extended warranties. The screen on this device is no more delicate than any other device I have with a touch screen. Cell phones, PDAs, etc. I’ve carried this thing all over the country, and use it almost every day in my car. That comment was an absolute lie.
The guy was trying to scare you into buying an unbelieveably expensive warranty ($150!!!). Please buy a Nuvi. You will love it. Please don’t by it from the scammers that were using fear tactics on you.
John
I’ve just bought a Nuvi 660 after using TomTom Navigator on a PDA for a few years. The Nuvi is truely excellent. The build quality, ease of use, size and functionality is far better than the TomTom 910 I was considering buying. There are two things that bug me, however: 1. Having the ‘Warning’ start-up screen every time you turn it on and 2: having to enter the country you are in when inputting an address after the unit has been turned off – shame it doesn’t remember or at least give you a default. Oh and another thing, the voices are not as good as TomTom; and I’ve been unable to find any comedy voices for it to make your journey a bit more fun. But, these are relatively small gripes. Overall it is a fantastic bit of kit.
My 660 came with the traffic updater. you get the first 3 months free. After that the oost is $60/yr. The updater/antenna is also your power adapter. If the service is available in your area it is well worth the money. It picks up traffic info and you can see where the problems are o your screen. If you are in the navigation mode (directions to a particualr place)the nuvi simply reroutes you around the problem area. If you normal mode (just using the maps) it will warn you with an icon and a verbal prompt (“traffic” ahead, “accident” ahead) Last week, on the way to work, I got the prompt of an accident ahead.. I put myself into navaigation mode using “work” as a favorite. The unit automatically directed me off the highway at an earlier exit, avoiding the entire mess.. very worth while option!!!
I about to buy one of these for my wife but worry that it might be easy to steal. How do you secure the unit if it’s only attached with a suction cup to the windshield?
Steve
Steve,
Very good question, unfortunatly no good answer. The portability of this device makes it easy to steal. It’s basically just like a radar detector in that regard.
All I can say is that when I leave my car anywhere I take it down out of the window and put it somewhere out of sight. It does come with a nice carry case that you can slip it into when you are putting it away.
One of the nice things about the Nuvi 660 is that the mounting method is awesome. It snaps into and out of the suction cup holder, so removal is very, very easy.
Hope that helps,
John