Garmin nüvi 2300 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought the Garmin as a gift for my wife and was thrilled about the lifetime updates for traffic and maps.
Setup and navigation is good. We like the big screen and the way the information is provided.
The lifetime map updates sounds like a great feature. Maps can be updated four times a year and the access using the web page was easy. But I have to wonder what Garmin considers "useful life" of the device. But even if they are only available for three years, then it is still cheaper than buying the maps.
The conditions of lifetime traffic updates are definitely not what I expected and the reason that I am thinking of returning the device. The ads that finance the lifetime traffic pop up on the screen and disrupt the navigation. This is obnoxious! This should be mentioned in the product description! I couldn't even find information about the ad financed traffic on the Garmin web page!

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The very easy to use widescreen nuvi 2300 speaks street names and includes maps for the lower 48 states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. It features myTrends predictive routing, and ecoRoute to help calculate a more fuel-efficient route. Enhance its pedestrian capabilities with optional cityXplorer maps for mass transit information.

Experience nuRoute Technology with myTrends With myTrends, nuvi 2300 recognizes your favorite destinations and over time predicts where you're going and provides estimated travel time to your destination. So whether you're driving to and from work or a regularly scheduled weekly event, your 2300 will help you get there on time. No subscription or added cost required.

Select Fuel-efficient Routes nuvi 2300 saves you gas and money with ecoRoute--a green feature that calculates a more fuel-efficient route, tracks fuel usage and more. With ecoRoute, you have a "less fuel" option as a routing preference. When selected, nuvi will determine if a more fuel efficient route exists based upon road speed data and vehicle acceleration data for a given route.

Navigate City Transit With its enhanced pedestrian navigation capabilities, nuvi 2300 is the perfect travel companion for getting around town. Download optional cityXplorer content to help you navigate city public transit. Know where to walk, where to catch the bus, subway, tram or other transportation and how long it will take to get there. cityXplorer maps are available for select cities throughout North America and Europe. And with prices as low as $9.99, you'll have money left over to spend in the big city.

See More With nuvi 2300's widescreen display, you'll always get the big picture. View map detail, driving directions, photos and more in bright, brilliant color. Its sunlight-readable, 4.3 (10.92 cm) display is easy to read--from any direction.

Get Turn-by-Turn Directions nuvi 2300 has an intuitive interface that greets you with two simple questions: Where To? and View Map. Touch the color screen to easily look up addresses and services and get voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that speak street names to your destination. It comes preloaded with detailed City Navigator NT street maps for the continental U.S., Hawaii and Puerto Rico with nearly 6 million points of interest (POIs) such as stores, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, gas stations, ATMs and more, and speed limits for most major roads.

Go Beyond Navigation Navigation is just the beginning. nuvi 2300 saves you gas and money with ecoRoute--a green feature that calculates the most fuel-efficient route, tracks fuel usage and more. The 2300 includes many travel tools, including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. With photo navigation, you can download pictures from Garmin Connect Photos and navigate to them. It's also compatible with lifetime traffic alerts (receiver purchase required). With its Where Am I? emergency locator, you always know your location. Simply tap the screen to get your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and fuel stations. The 2300 features Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and is compatible with our free Garmin Garage where you can download custom custom voices and vehicles. Enhance your travel experience with optional plug-in microSD cards.

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TomTom GO 2535TM 5-Inch Portable Bluetooth GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic & Maps Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If TomTom wanted Beta-testers, they would have had no shortage of volunteers. If TomTom had delayed the release of this item until it was fully functional, they would have had a few disappointed pre-order customers but otherwise happy users. However, charging customers the current price for a buggy product which is clearly not ready for sale is unacceptable. Selling this product in its current form is false advertising. Plain and simple.
I'll start with the positive:
1. The windshield mount is very nice. The twist/click suction cup works great and the magnetic dock is super simple to use.
2. The screen is nice and big. The graphics display nicely and are clear and easy to understand in a glance.
3. It gives directions. That IS why you want a GPS system, after all, isn't it? ;)
4. Unlike some other reviewers, mine finds its signal extremely quickly. It is ready to go long before I am (having to connect it to the dock and power cord, start car, check mirrors, etc).
5. It seems to do everything quickly. It recalculates my route within a few feet if I choose not to take its suggested turns. Scrolling through menus is quick as the page refresh is very fast.
Sorry, that's all I've got for pros. So far, I Just. Don't. Like. It.
Here's why:
1. The browser-based interface is glitchy. Sometimes it connects to my device right away. Sometimes I have to plug and unplug it a few times to get it to show up. Sometimes it goes right to the overview page (which contains only paragraphs about all the fabulous features which TomTom will release eventually but don't actually work yet and a link to non-existent accessories), sometimes my only option is to change my email address and password. I have to close and reopen my browser until it offers the full list of choices.
2. Unavailable features:
a. TomTom claims the voices read street names. While it's technically true that the DEFAULT voice reads street names, it is the only one. Spoken address recognition is only available with this voice as well (per the manual). You better hope you like Samantha.
b. Add-on voices don't work. They don't actually tell you this until after you've paid for them and call to ask why you can't get them to download onto your device. Then they "helpfully" offer to "try to refund" your money. Which will take 7-10 business days.
c. Home software. One of the advertised features is the ability to manage your device from your desktop. Then you call TomTom support because the software can't see your device and they tell you "never mind. You can't do that." No estimate on when any of these features will become available.
3. As other reviewers have mentioned, the button for voice control is VERY tiny. Almost impossible to hit accurately while driving without taking your eyes off the road while you do it, which defeats the purpose of voice control. A double-tap of the screen or larger button would have been a much better choice.
4. Menus could be condensed and reorganized for ease of use. Some of the options don't seem to make sense where they are.5. Worst of all for me: Customer Support. TomTom thinks it's perfectly acceptable to advertise a product can do things it can't and charge people full price while they wait around for features that might work someday. I was told flat-out by a tech "TomTom releases a new device every 3 or 4 months. You can't expect all of the features to work on all of them before we release them." Yes. That's a direct quote. And yes TomTom, that's EXACTLY what I and the rest of your customers expect. If it doesn't work, don't take people's money for it. Period.
With business practices and products like this, I am appalled that TomTom is still in business. If you MUST buy a TomTom for some reason, you might want to consider a model that's been around awhile. Maybe they've gotten around to making it work by now.
Update 5/6/2011: After only owning this device a week and using it a handful of times, my unit died. I dropped it into the windshield mount and hit the power button while I buckled and backed out of the driveway and when by the end of my street (3 blocks) it was still on the start-up image, I was perplexed. I turned it off and back on with the same result. I left it on, thinking perhaps it was updating some database or something and would eventually move on, but when I arrived at my destination 20 minutes later, it was still displaying the startup image. A google search of reset instructions led me to hold the power button down for an extended period, which according to TomTom's service instructions, should have initiated a soft reset. Instead, it powered down completely and I have not been able to power it back on since. TomTom tech support confirms that there is clearly something wrong with this unit and have issued an RMA with a promise of a replacement unit. I will update my review after receiving the replacement to indicate how the RMA process went. Have I mentioned that I'm underwhelmed here?

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