Choosing a GPS

[jlinder]

Looking for some feedback on buying a GPS. Looking at the Garmin 265WT vs. the Magellan 1475T. Thoughts?

For example, I see the 265WT has blue tooth and is supposed to let you do hands free phone calls when paired to your cell phone. Does anyone use this feature? I always find that blue tooth headsets seem to pick up so much road noise they are hard to use when driving down the interstate.

I am also somewhat of a geek. My old Tom Tom (stolen) would let me easily see battery charge and graphical display of signal levels. Do the new units do this?

Comments?

 

[Ret USN CPO]

Re: Choosing a GPS

I have a 265WT. The traffic feature is well worth it as is the larger screen. I also have a 250. The bluetooth sucks. There is a bit (a second or so) of delay between when you talk and when the other person hears you...kind of like talking on a sattelite phone. The sound quality for the BT is also rather poor, sounds very tinny.

If you are buying it for the bluetooth to be the main feature, I wouldn't choose a 265WT. However, it is excellent for it's main, intended function of being a GPS. And as I mentioned earlier, the free FM traffic is a big plus. But that is only if you live in or travel around a large metropolitan area. It won't give you much traffic info outside of there.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Choosing a GPS

We have a Tom Tom for the car and a Lowrance H2O hand held for the boat. Satisfied with them both.

 

[jlinder]

Re: Choosing a GPS

I like the traffic but both units have it. I suspected the blue tooth audio was poor. Understand the delay problem, but the biggest problem I have with wireless headsets is the road noise. Whenever I try to use it people always complain that it is hard to hear me over the traffic.

The BT headsets always put the mic up by your ear. Someone should point out to the people who make those things that our sound comes from the mouth

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Choosing a GPS

I had a Magellan that the touch screen died just after a year.
Tossed it and bought a Garmin,larger screen and better display.
It does show signal strength on the top left of the screen.
When not plugged into 12 volts it shows battery level.I never tried the blue tooth,never needed it.

 

[boling]

Re: Choosing a GPS

I have a Tom Tom go 930, seems fine so far, I love the IQ routing feature. Also had a Magellan hand held unit, all good.

 

[heyttown]

Re: Choosing a GPS

Not to throw a wrench in your decision making, but I just bought a garmin 1350 nuvi from cabelas. It has the bluetooth (i will never use,so cant rate its function) but I like this unit as it gives pretty good detail even down to what lane you need to be in on a multi lane highway. which is good in your busy areas. I just used it around chicago earlier this week and that alone was a huge plus... I am in no way affiliated with cabelas or anything like that, but I will say that they have that unit for sale currently for 50% off..Usually $300, I paid 149 for mine...which I thought was a great deal.

 

[jlinder]

Re: Choosing a GPS

I checked the site on the 1350. The 1350 does not have free traffic - the 265WT does.

The 265WT is $169 at Costco.

The big problem with these things is they seem to change every week. I find myself suffering from analysis paralysis tring o figure out which one to buy.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Choosing a GPS

I just got a TomTom XXL 540-S. Has a 5" screen but no Blue Tooth. Its a $300 unit on sale for $150 right now. It has the ability to be updated through your computer. It also has the lane suggestion feature. I like it, just hope it will last. Time will tell.....

I had a BT once and didn't like it so I sent it to SBN He was happy with it.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Choosing a GPS

Very satisfied with the bluetooth connection on my Tom Tom GO 720. I also managed a semi-reliable hack to enable voice recognition (only available in the more expensive 920 that model year), thanks to the geeks on one of the gps forums (imagine, a gps forum...).

Unfortunately, it ends there for the TT love affair and me. I find almost everything else highly annoying. There's a glitch in the OS that makes it power on by itself, battery life is poor, the screen zoom buttons are hopelessly small to hit accurately when driving, as is the screen keypad, the auto dim feature is erratic, and overall usability is poorly thought out.

A "quick" review of the entire route requires digging through multiple menus, it regularly chooses routes that I know aren't the best, it doesn't have the more desirable feature some others do which indicates which side of the road the destination address is on, even on high detail settings it doesn't give road names near to your route and many of the northern roads I travel are not accurately represented - leaving me to ponder where the road actually is in relation to the field the TT insists I'm driving through. (This last one I grant is probably more of an issue with the map creater not the unit.)

I leave my car unlocked regularly in the hopes someone will steal the damn thing but so far, no luck...

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: Choosing a GPS

Garmin all the way.