 "What a Dud" | 2009-11-14 |
| - Reviewed By onetruegod |
We purchased this unit in late October, for an upcoming trip to Las Vegas we were taking in early Nov. This was our first GPS, and we were looking forward to putting it to the test. As it turned out, it put us to the test! Right after we arrived, and got our car rental, we used it to navigate to an In & Out Burger place. That went pretty well. After lunch, we decided to use it to help us navigate to a couple of ghost towns. On our way there, it locked up, but we removed the battery and we were on our way again after we put the battery back in. The following day, we used it to help us navigate to a local museum. Halfway there, it locked up again, and this time, I couldn't even get it to turn off! Finally, we got it to behave, and we just put it in the glove box, since we knew where we were going by that time anyway. We didn't use it much after that. Fast forward to the other day, when I had several errands in town to run, and not a lot of time to accomplish my task. Thankfully, our son was with us, looking at the map as we moved along, because it told us we were 8 miles from our turn off, and the next thing I know, I drove past the turnoff! While I am busy navigating us back to where we needed to be, our son couldn't get it to turn off, and when he finally did, it wouldn't come back on! We removed the battery, and put it back in, and that worked. It worked fine for the balance of our day.
I need a GPS unit I can trust. If he hadn't been with me, and let's say I was in unfamiliar territory this could be really bad for me, since I am somewhat handicapped. I understand no unit will be perfect, but this one is WAY off the mark as far as we are concerned! We only tested it in relatively familiar territory at first, so we could see if it would be reliable or not. I would definitely put this one in the category of not reliable!
We are returning this unit, and i have purchased the Garmin 780, and we will see how that goes! Hopefully, I will be able to write a glowing review after putting that one through its paces! We really wanted to get the 7200 Street Pilot, but the issue of not having an internal battery was a problem for me, since my car has one plug in up front, and another WAAY in the back. If I ever needed to charge both the GPS and my phone, one of them has to go way out of my reach, behind the back seat.
As a side note, I cannot say it has been fun researching and reading TONS of info. on all things Garmin for several days! To begin with, there are features on any given unit that I might like that someone else might not like, so with every review you read, you kind of have to take what info. works for you, and toss the rest. I don't know if it is doable, but it would be kind of cool, if you could kind of "custom" order a GPS, that has only the features on it you want. For example, an Mp3 is useless to me. I have a really great Mp3, and I know that what they put in these units cannot compare. I also have no need for the bluetooth feature. I realize that the 760 is the same unit, but without the bluetooth feature, but it is also about $34.00 more at the moment. Hmmm..., it costs more, but has less features. Yep, that makes sense!
I hope this review has been a helpful one to you, if you are seriously considering getting this particular unit. Was it locking up just a weirdo thing, and perhaps another unit wouldn't lock up? That is entirely possible. I just don't want to have to keep trying the same unit over and over again. |
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 "Great So Far" | 2009-11-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A29TWCGQTM516J |
I ordered Garmin 885 Nov. 8th and it arrived at my home surprisingly Nov. 10th with free standard shipping. Ironically, the GPS case I ordered the same time has not arrived even today!
After researching several models, I settled with 885. I am a first time GPS buyer, never used a GPS in my life. Saw some of my friends using a GPS and got lost every time. I have been resistance of purchasing a GPS for my travel, but I decided to give a shot to see if it helps me, yes it did help after I tested it out a few days.
Although the instruction manual is not quite clear for a first time GPS user, it is not difficult to figure out various features by pressing icons. The Garmin's web site did not really help me much when I was trying to find out how to operate various features. The web help is difficult to search, I might not have reviewed the site closely and did not know how to browse correctly. I am also not a patient person, like to get things done very quickly. If I do not see information that helps me, I started pressing icons on the unit.
I think I have mastered most of the features in a very short time period. I tested it out in the past 3 days, just love it! It gave me clear directions with enough preparation time. The voice recognition feature is really a plus. Surprisingly, it understands most of words I speak; English is not my native language, I give very good rating for this feature 885 offers. I had difficulty pronouncing the word "routes", the poor GPS could not understand what I was saying, then a gentle touch on the screen indeed helped.
I remember I read some people saying that the unit cannot be powered off, they had to take the battery out or insert a piece of paper in the battery case. This unit I have does not have a Power Off button, but you can power it off easily. What you do is plug it to your computer via UPS cable, then unplug it. You will be prompted to either turn off or stay on. Just click on Turn Off or wait for 30 seconds, the unit would turn off. Another way is when you take the GPS off the cradle (the same as unplug the car charger), it prompts you either turn off or stay on. Just wait and the unit will be turned off. I also read people saying something about windshield mount is not as good as the "sandbag" mount. In the package, there is a small round piece, you clue it on dash board, then suck the cradle on the round piece; this way you see the GPS very closely. I think the volume is fine, I set it up to 90% when I was listening to radio. But you can plug an audio cable from the cradle to your car and use the speaker system. If I do not listen to radio, I set the volume to 70%.
One thing I am not sure is if it can give me an overview of my route after the route is calculated. Another thing is how to speed up the "simulator". What I mean is when you change the GPS to simulator, it will run an entire route for you, but it is too slow. I cannot find a place to change the speed of simulation or if I can pinpoint to the area near the destination and start the simulation from that point. I would also hope that when a route is calculated, I can review it and can revise the route manually by touching screen, just like Google Map. This model may have the above features, but I just do not know yet.
In general, I really like the unit; the price is so good in Amazon, a small $200 unit that can do so many things, really amazed me.
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| "Nuvi 855 is nice!" | 2009-11-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: AIJNG7WDZAYTQ |
| I bought the nuvi 855 from amazon last month (october 2009) and everything went perfect. Everything arrived on time and well packed. The voice activated feature was ok but I sometimes had to keep repeating my instructions for the nuvi to understand them; but still a very cool feature. The volume was ok just don't adjust the car radio volume too loud. I had the radio on (volume not maxxed out) on my road trip from san diego to la and I heard the nuvi loud and clear. My only negative with the turns. After a turn, there is automatically a prompt on when the next turn will be; but then the next prompt is when you are very near the turn. Thus there were instances when I had to slow down quickly or completely miss my turn due to this. I also bought the sandbag accessory and it was worth it; way better than the windshield suction. Overall I liked the nuvi 855! Oh and I had only used a very old garmin model prior to this one. |
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| "Nuvi 855 Great GPS Navigator" | 2009-11-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1FB49VIA61PCF |
| I purchased my first Garmin unit 6 years ago and it worked flawlessly until it was recently stolen (forgot to lock my car doors). I'm actually glad that it was stolen as it forced me to purchase a new unit. The Nuvi 855 is a major advance in GPS navigation technology. The solid state memory, battery power, and voice recognition are all great new features. It is amazing how the Nuvi 855 can recognize my voice commands even with the car noise at open highway speeds. It seldom makes an error. Voice recognition is probably not necessary with the easy to use touch screen but it is just plain fun. In researching other user reviews before purchasing this unit one of the common complaints was that the internal speakers did not provide enough volume even at 100%. I did not find this to be the case. I generally have to keep the volume at 70% or it is too loud. Garmin's recent software update may have addressed this problem. Updating the unit's software online is extremely easy when connected to a computer via the supplied USB cable. For a bit more fun you can download celebrity voices into the unit to guide you to your destination. The Garmin support website is excellent and easy to navigate. I highly recommend the Garmin Nuvi 855 or any Garmin product. I also recommend purchasing from Amazon.Com as they have the best prices around for GPS units. |
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 "worth the money" | 2009-11-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1F7CB1MSD7ZLB |
| it seems faster to not use the voice recognition. but its a cool feature anyway. |
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| "Great GPS unit: Simple & Intuitive. User-friendly for the not-so tech savvy" | 2009-11-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2190XOAX21UK1 |
| Interface is simplified so that it provides you with quick access to everything you need in a GPS unit. So user-friendly even my grandma could use it. |
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