Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-to-Speech Reviews

• Formerly expensive, but now just fabulous

  
  By A1P5QF8QXIMZTD on 2005-11-20
  After trying other Garmin units, this is the one I kept. Simply wonderful. I bought it when it was more than triple its current price and thought it was good deal then. It's a great deal now.
  
  It has all the characteristics that I was looking for:
  
  1) VERY compact -- easily able to fit in a breast pocket
  2) Text-to-Speech -- announces proper street names, not just "turn left in 500 feet"; radically reduces how much you need to look at the screen to figure out the real instructions; wouldn't own a GPS unit wihtout this
  3) Bright Screen -- readable in virtually every situation
  
  AND
  
  Faster location of the GPS satellites. This turns out to be quite important in day-to-day use. In the other systems, it wasn't unusual that we could be driving for a couple minutes before it located the satellites and could give us directions. With this unit, the satellites are located almost as quickly as the unit fully starts up.
  
  One comment on how we use this: We don't mount it on the dash board or on the window (which is technically illegal here in California). Instead we just lay this on the center console in our van or car. The antenna system is plenty sensitive to work just like this and we've never lost the satellite signals except in tunnels.
  
  We also like all the potential of the traveling features (clock, calculator, etc.), but this is the one to own even if you just use it for the basic GPS features.
  
  Very impressed.
  
  [July 2006 Update]
  How Its Ease-of-Use Enhanced Our Vacation: We were recently on a vacation combined with a business conference. While I was at the conference, my family had the confidence to explore the city without ever getting lost. Even our kids were able to help enter addreses and find locations.
  
  Factoring In Added Cost: Just a warning about upgrade costs. Although Garmin does a good job of releasing updates to their system software that either fixes bugs or adds enhancements, the cost to update the built-in maps is extra. And they issue updates about once a year.
  
  
  

• Garmin is the best for GPS

  
  By A1CPRP3VFJRS1R on 2006-09-29
  I spent a lot of time trying out GPS units, and have compared Garmin, Tom Tom, Magellan, and several factory GPS units. All of these GPS units tell you how to get somewhere and will re-route if you make a wrong turn. However, Garmin is my absolute favorite, and here's why:
  
  1. The most important thing about Garmin units is the user interface. It is simple to understand and easy to use.
  
  2. The Garmin unit uses a built in database of sunrise and sunset times (based upon your location) to automatically change from daylight mode to night-time mode. This is important because the daylight screen is much too bright for use at night. With the Tom Tom, you must make this change manually.
  
  3. If you have the Garmin unit plugged into your car power, when you turn off the car (and the cigarette lighter power goes off), the Garmin unit will detect that and automatically turn itself off (it gives you 30 seconds to override and keep the unit on).
  
  4. When you start your car again, the Garmin unit will detect that too and automatically power up. If you were in the middle of a trip, the Garmin unit will pick up where you left off, and you won't have to tell it where you were going again.
  
  5. Unlike most factory GPS units, Garmin will allow you to select your route and make changes while you are moving.
  
  6. The Garmin units have an extensive database of locations and the excellent interface makes it easy to search the database to find what you want. Do you want food or gas? Just click three buttons and a list of locations (sorted by distance) will appear. If you know the name of the place you want, you can type it in on the on-screen keypad and Garmin will find it for you. You can even add your own locations using the favorites feature. I first started using this when I was out of town, but its amazing what you'll find near you when you look.
  
  7. While you are driving, the Garmin unit will both prompt you to turn and give you a written explanation of the turn (including the street or highway name and direction) at the top of the screen. The Garmin unit also shows an estimated arrival time (usually a few minutes earlier than you'll actually arrive) and the distance to your next turn. A separate screen gives you detailed trip information, including how far and how long you've been driving and your maximum speed. I used mine on an airplane once (yes, it is allowed - read the back of the airplane magazine), and it now says that by maximum speed was 590 miles per hour.
  
  8. I often use the Garmin even when driving locally, becase it often finds better, faster ways to get there then the way that I usually use.
  
  9. Garmin offers a variety of installation options and accessories. My favorite is the friction based dashboard mount (three weights connected to a center stand) which is much more convenient than the supplied mounting system.
  
  10. If you turn off the GPS receiver (see settings) and then look up another location, you will get the option to set this new location as your present location. This will allow you to use search Garmin's points of interest for the new location. This is a great feature when planning trips, because Garmin's points of interest database is quite extensive and includes all of the typical tourist attractions, plus food, shopping, gas, banking, etc.
  
  11. Be sure to check for the latest map and firmware updates at Garmin's web-site.
  
  

• Not quite ready for prime time.

  
  By ALMIFFHNE45JX on 2006-01-17
  Purchased in Dec. This is what I have found.
  
  1. No manual with unit. You must print from website.
  2. Download of software fixes is not well documented. Does not function on my computer(win xp)using USB connection. I must download to a 32 meg SD chip and insert into Nuvi for update.
  3. Often(almost always) when powering up, I will see message that it is searching for satellites. I can wait several minutes and still be searching. I then power down and power up again and often will then find satellites ok. Sometimes must go thru powerup/powerdown sequence several times before success. As a motorcycle rider, this is a pain as you can not really do this while riding as you can if you must, when driving an auto or walking.
  4. Status of battery charge condition is poor(in spite of following their instructions to totally allow battery to go dead and recharging). Now after 1 month I have discovered that if you plug into power to charge, the unit powers itself on from an off condition. If you then power off while still plugged into electrical outlet, then you will get a message on screen if battery is charging or if it is fully charged. This is not documented.
  5. No longitude or latitude location given by unit. UH??????
  6. Have had 5 software updates in one month. From release 2.2 to 2.7 in incremental releases.
  7. Not waterproof, or even water resistant. This is very bad for a hiker or motorcycle rider.
  8. No lanyard or any other method to affix a cord to carry around your neck. Small leather case does not have a belt attachement. Hint! Not a belt clip, but an actual attachment that requires the removal of your belt to carry it. Belt clips lead to losses. Look at the Canon SD 550 camera case for the proper design.
  9. Search arguments for spelling out locations that you seek is poor. Example would be to search for "Harley Davidson" to find a local dealer. In Silicon Valley, the closest find is some 300 miles away. There are actually 5 or more HD stores within 25 miles from my home. This occurs on many searches, fuel stations, fast food places, etc. Very disconcerting if you are looking for Wendys or McDonalds or Chevron or Shell and are told by Nuvi the nearest is 30 miles away, as you are riding down the freeway and see one at the next exit.
  10. MPH indicator when driving is not accurate. I have 2 newer autos that will indicate 70 mph and the Nuvi will say 66 to 67. I have checked speedometers in both by driving down the freeway at 60 and timing with a stopwatch at mile posts. The autos are correct.
  11. What happens when built in battery gives up the ghost, no indication in documentation from Garmin. Must you pitch the unit(ala Ipod--however now for 75 dollars or so, Apple will install a new one)or does Garmin have plans to replace a failed battery. Somewhat hard to justify throwing a 900 dollar unit away because the battery has failed. Of course would probably function ok as long as your vehicle has a cigar lighter. No so with most motorcycles.
  
  Other smaller lesser complaints. I often wonder if engineers that design these products ever actually come out of their cubby holes and test their designs in the real world. In other words "do they come out to see what us chickens are eating out here"? Some of these issues, I uncovered within 1 day of owning the unit. You see this in virtually every product that you acquire and it is really annoying that the designers failed to consider these before foisting the product on the buyer. No wonder so many returns and they of course wonder why and attribute returns to flaky buyers. For 900 dollars, you have an expectation of near perfection and if not satisfied then you should return.
  
  I will not cover the numerous good and excellent attributes of the Nuvi in my review. These have been well covered by other reviewers. And mind you, there are many good points. I will wait for version/release 2 as most likely will be returning this unit.
  
  Additional problem on Nuvi that I did not note earlier. If you have created a list of "Favorite Places", it will become quite large over a period of time. You may wish to weed out some of the entries that are no longer of interest. You are not permitted to delete individual entries. You must remove the list in its entirety. This then means that you must recreate your "Favorites" from scratch. This is a serious usability defect.
  
  

• A TRUE STORY...

  
  By A2RUUTTFJQ7CBH on 2007-03-28
  I'm sure you're all aware of the new GPS craze that has taken the country by storm, and if you're aware of that then I'm sure you're all conscious of the present war between the GPS manufactures that is taking place. Customers of these products all seem to have different opinions about which is the better GPS, the two most prominent names being TomTom & Garmin. My friends and I decided to find out personally which is the better GPS for North America by taking both the TomTom One (New Edition) and the Garmin Nuvi 350 for a two week drive across the country.
  
  Having accumulated four weeks of vacation time at my job (and being forced to take at least two weeks off this year because of the extensive vacation time I've built up) my brother-in-law and I decided to put our two GPS products to the ultimate test. He (the owner of the Garmin 350) and I (with the TomTom One) set out to end all disputes about which is the better GPS once and for all.
  
  We routed out all our stops the night before and this is where we ran into the first problem. The Garmin 350 lacks any itinerary planning system. I was able to program into the TomTom One all the destinations on our cross-country voyage from start to finish. My brother-in-law had to use a Rand McNally road atlas. We both got a good laugh about this and both agreed this was a definite plus for the TomTom One.
  
  The next morning we headed out. Our first stop the wonderful city of Chicago, which is about a three hour drive from our hometown. We both turned on our GPS units and waited to acquire a satellite signal. My TomTom One is programmed with the latest maps form Tele-Atlas and has all the latest updates form the TomTom website so I was able to acquire a satellite signal within 25 seconds where as the Garmin 350 took about a minute and a half. Not really that big of deal but when you're conducting a test between two GPS systems everything counts.
  
  Our routes were calculated in about the same time and we were off. The Garmin 350 has the ability to pronounce street names (text-to-speech) so it was a little easier to watch the road while driving. The TomTom One still tells you where to turn when approaching new road but only tells you whether it is a right or left turn. So the driver has to watch the TomTom's screen to ensure he or she is making the proper turn. The Garmin 350 wins in this category.
  
  We noticed on our drive that Garmin 350 gave us a route that would have taken about 15 minutes longer than the TomTom One's directions. Also, once we got to the city the Garmin lacked several streets in it's database we wanted to visit. We then compared the Point Of Interest databases in both devices. They both scored fairly low in this category. The Garmin 350 only located 5 out of the 10 points of interest we entered where the TomTom One located just 6 out of 10.
  
  We left Chicago for New York and noticed again the Garmin 350 gave us a longer route than the TomTom One. This time roughly 60 minutes out of the way. Not very reassuring. Once in New York we decided to visit some family & friends, the address database in the Garmin 350 is extensive but not as accurate as the TomTom One. We visited an old high school friend in Brooklyn, the Garmin 350 recognized the address but was about two blocks off when navigating there. The TomTom One located the same address in it's database and was able to navigate us within 30 yards of it. Out of the 7 different street addresses we visited in New York the TomTom One had trouble locating only 1 where as the Garmin couldn't find 4. It was about this time my brother-in-law smirked at me and said, "Wanna trade?"
  
  On to Texas to visit some filming locations used in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." We ran into some road construction on the way there and had to use several detours. The Garmin 350 hiccupped several times during our alternate routes and became very confused. It attempted to recalculate a route for us but stalled. Eventually it did manage to get a route for us but it ran us in a circle and took us back to the road construction we were attempting to get away from. The TomTom One recalculated routes very quickly, the alternate routes it gave us were accurate, and got us to our destination much faster. It was about this time we noticed the Garmin was having trouble determining the turns on our route. Sometimes telling us to turn left only after the turn had already been made.
  
  We spent four total days in Texas before heading to Southern California. The traffic on Los Angles freeways is frantic making it extremely easy to miss your exit. Several times on the route the Garmin Nuvi 350 thought we were on a different road then we were actually on. It quickly realized it's mistake and began to recalculate it's route. The only problem, while in the middle of recalculating (for quit a lengthy amount of time) we missed a key freeway exit.
  
  All in all we were both surprised by how lacking the Garmin Nuvi 350 is compared to the TomTom One. When we started this little adventure we thought both products would have their ups and downs but in the end be close. This was just not so. My brother-in-law has since exchanged his Garmin Nuvi 350 for a TomTom One. After our cross-country road test and at nearly $200.00 less it seems the more logical choice.
  
  
  

• Small, perfectly formed, great performance, highly recommended

  
  By A3EVG8FCBJ6BHJ on 2005-11-20
  Not cheap but you get what you pay for. Points of interest: (a) very compact but has the same screen size as the Garmin C3?0 series (b) screen readable in bright direct sunshine (c) Navteq US database - the best - and you can fit all of Europe on a single 2GB SD card (card and European map are extra) (d) North indicator on map (missing on C3?0) (e) the GPS is extremely sensitive and locks on very quickly - I've had it work on the second floor of a three floor building (f) intuitive user interface (g) nicely displayed map (better than C3?0) (h) optional traffic capability. I'm finally selling my NavMan! The only two features that are missing to make it the perfect GPS are (a) dead reckoning capability (b) integral satellite traffic capability - given Garmin's pace of introduction of new products I wouldn't be surprised to see those next year...
  
  
• Better than TomTom 910
  By A2QKMATRW04UKF on 2006-05-05
  I was recently looking to purchase a GPS unit and I had resigned myself to spending approximately $800. The obvious choices presented to me were the Garmin Nuvi 350 and the TomTom 910. For use in the USA, both machines are essentially equally equipped, with large, bright color touch screens and pre-loaded maps. The TomTom also includes maps of Europe, but as I don't intend to travel there anytime soon, this was not a compelling selling feature.
  
  I spent a bit of time in the store using both devices side-by-side. I entered identical destinations and observed how many keystrokes it took to get the machines to recognize the address. The Garmin Nuvi, with a very refined user interface, took significantly fewer keystrokes in most cases. Since the Nuvi allows you to enter the state first, the machine can pinpoint your destination city much more quickly than the TomTom, which requires that you enter the city before the state. As such, you are presented with a (sometimes) very long list of matching cities, which you then must scroll through to find the correct one. Consider, for example, a city name like "Springfield." Once you manage to key in enough characters that the machine can guess the name, it presents you with a list of Springfields, one for each state! There are a lot of Springfields in the US, so you end up wasting considerably time clicking past the ones you don't want.
  
  Now that the addresses were entered (and I was already starting to get annoyed with the TomTom's inefficiency), the machines begin to calculate a driving route. The Garmin found a reasonable route from Paramus, NJ to Cambridge, MA in about 8 seconds, and it took another 5 or so to draw the map and announce the first move. The trip was estimated to require about 3 1/2 hours (reasonable, if not a bit low). On the other hand, the TomTom required more like 30 seconds to calculate the route, plus another 10 or so to draw the map. What's worse, the TomTom told me it would take over 8 hours to reach the destination. Only on a pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday in snow, many years ago, has it ever taken that long!
  
  I figured perhaps some other customer had chosen a route preference that led to this odd path. After searching hopelessly through several poorly labeled menus on the TomTom and failing to see a "shortest distance" or "quickest trip" option, I tried resetting the machine's preferences. Unfortunately, the machine's touch screen registered a finger-touch event right after the reset (I must have brushed the screen accidentally), and it locked in a foreign language I couldn't read. (I guess the first question it asks after a reset is "what language do you want?") There was no "back" button that I could find, and it kept asking additional questions in this foreign tongue. I needed a translator to continue! At that point, there was no sense in playing with the TomTom any further. The user interface was simply one frustration piled on another. Even if they were to update the menu choices to be more logical, the touch-sensitive feature is slightly misaligned, requiring you to press the bottom corner of a button you want in order to get the correct selection. Button presses made in the center of a button often resulted in the button above being chosen. I don't appreciate electronics that waste my time.
  
  The speed of the Garmin's route calculation is more important that simply allowing you to set off quicker, though. If you miss a turn en route, the machine must recalculate your trip so it can correct your path. The Garmin recovers from missed turns quickly enough that it can usually find and announce the correcting route before the next turn. If a machine cannot recover this quickly, you'll simply miss that turn, too, and the machine will set off recalculating another new route. You'll end up in a vicious cycle of missed turns if the machine is off-line for too long. I have not used the TomTom in a car, but given that it was such a laggard in the store, I would want to experiment with it during a missed turn before investing such a large sum.
  
  As for bright light visibility, the Garmin is more than adequate. I have a convertible, and even in bright sunlight with the top down, the Garmin is adequately legible. The built-in speaker, though small, is powerful and clear. Directions are easily audible over the wind and road noise, assuming I've got the stereo at a reasonably low level. The Text to Speech (TTS) feature allowing the unit to speak street names performs well enough to recognize the street without looking at the unit.
  
  The windshield mount worked quite well despite the stiff suspension in my car, my aggressive driving habits, and the fact that it was in the direct sun and heat for several hours today. (The car corners at greater than 0.95g, and achieves about 1.00g in deceleration, which did not so much as shake the unit or the mount. Larger transient forces such as expansion joints also failed to upset the suction cup mount.) The machine snaps in and out of the charger / holder with complete ease.
  
  Garmin's unit is much thinner than the TomTom, and its battery is rated for up to 8 hours of use while unplugged from the car charger (a wall charger is also included). Becaues the unit is so small (think iPod size), it fits easily into a pocket for walking trips, hiking, and biking. It's also very easy to place in a brief case or pocketbook, further protecting your investment when you park.
  
  $800 is a lot of money to spend on a GPS device, but the Garmin has justified the expense with an exemplary machine. With plenty of map data, a very polished and efficient user interface, and simple setup and operation, they have managed to outshine the competition.
  
  As a footnote, I had planned to purchase the Garmin from Best Buy or Circuit City until they told me there was a 15% restocking fee for a returned item. Given the unique nature of this device (you need to like using it IN YOUR CAR, not in the store), this could be quite a loss if you decide against the item. Amazon has no such penalty. However, if you choose the Garmin, I suspect you will never want to send it back! Hope this helps you choose.
  
  UPDATE: After a 1300 mile road trip to Virginia, I am still extremely pleased with the Garmin Nuvi 350. Even gravel side roads off the Blue Ridge Parkway were accurately labeled and present in the map data! No matter where we were, a few taps on the screen brought up a list of nearby restaurants (marked with arrows so you can choose only ones that don't require a U-turn!) or stores. Also, do not underestimate the utility of having a portable, battery-powered device while walking around unfamiliar cities and towns. It's a huge help. In short, this device is a joy to use. Garmin also plan to release Macintosh compatible software in the next several months (according to press releases on their Web site) so that we Mac users will be able to keep our Nuvi's accurate in the future.
  
  Best Regards,
  Daniel Wambold, MD
  www.ascendiac.com
  
  
• My wife is in LOVE!!!
  By A1M9126YPQPS3L on 2006-08-12
  And it took an electronic device. LOL.
  
  OK, here is the deal. This product is as good as any GPS I have ever used or seen. It is small and easily carried with you wherever you go (something most of them can't do at all). It can be used in any vehile (caveat, you do not get multiple mounts, but extra mounts can be purchased for $25), and even has pedestrian and bicycle modes. ABOVE ALL it is easy to use, thanks to good software and an excellent touch screen, although a getting started manual would have helped me enormously.
  
  The thing is great at telling you what to do and where to go. There are no second guesses. It says take a right, it highlights the turn graphically and it even tells you the road or route you are turning onto verbally, something most GPS's are missing. Instead of "turn right in .02 miles", you get "turn on to Vista Drive in .02 miles". It even has some landmarks that comfort you along the way.
  
  On of the best features is something my wife experienced on a trip to NY. She is not familiar at all with the roads here on the east coast and was taking a rather long drive to NY to a hotel we had never stayed at. Along the way, she managed to mess up and miss one turn. For her, that could have been a major hassle. I mean, you know what it is like. I have spent as much as an hour getting back on track when I was lucky. Even more time was lost when I wasn't lucky because of detours or road work. One detour in California took me over two hours to recover from on what was originally a 1/2 hour trip. Other GPSs do this too, but this one seems incredibly adept and efficient at it.
  
  When she missed her turn, the system immediately recognized it and redirected her. She lost about five minutes for her goof and didn't have to ask directions or even pause in her travels.
  
  In NY, she used it repeatedly in pedestrian mode to find where she was going. And it worked like a charm even in the confines of all the buildings in NY.
  
  OK, my complaints are why it doesn't get a 5 star rating. Read them closely, because there are ways around a couple of them, but that said, I don't think ANY GPS would get 5 stars from me.
  
  1. There is no "getting started" manual, although it is referenced by Garmin in one of their manuals, it doesn't exist in the package or on the website. All such a manual (which could be one page long) has to say is how to get it working the first time. I will tell you after this how to work around it, but I think it results in a number of these devices being returned in frustration.
  
  2. It does sometimes get confused about the best route. Don't get me wrong, it will get you there and will show you exactly where you are. But when I use it on roads I know, it often isn't optimal. For example, it wanted me to take a road I knew had 10 traffic lights instead of an open freeway in one instance. Or it told me to drive a half a mile out of my way when the left turn onto the highway I wanted was right in front of me.
  
  3. Detour mode is great if there really is a detour. But I accidentally hit this once and there does not appear to be a way to turn it off. I found this incredibly annoying on one trip because I knew it was the best route, but needed details at the end of the trip and the GPS was trying to send me every way but the right way because I accidentally clicked a button. :-(
  
  4. It has an emulation mude allowing it to pre-navigate a trip for you. I thought this would be an INCREDIBLY useful feature. You could practice a complex route before you actually took the trip. But it works at real speed. So emulating a four hour trip would indeed take, well, four hours. Silly indeed. Great for sales demos, but useless for the customer. If someone knows a way around this, it would be a great thing to tell folks.
  
  5. The battery is not customer replacable.
  
  OK, so how do you work around 1? You charge the battery, you go outside to use it the first time under an open sky, and you give it at least five minutes to acquire the satellite positions. It won't work on your couch in the living room unless you are very lucky. It needs at least 3-4 satellites to triangulate your position, and I couldn't get more than one indoors. Outside, it picks up more than enough satellites to get the job done. Oh, and dont' forget to open the antenna. :-)
  
  How about working around 2? Live with it, it is a factor of the mapping software. It ain't perfect, but it is great when you get lost. That one wrong turn is easily corrected. When you are in an unfamiliar area, it really doesn't matter if you use the perfect route anyway in most cases, just that you got there safely. And add to that you always know where you are, and you have something worth every penny. It truly kills the stress factor of driving in an unfamiliar area.
  
  Now 3 is a problem. Don't use the detour feature unless you are absolutely sure you need to take an actual detour. It takes you literally that the route is detoured, and the only way I could find to work around it was to restart the entire trip over from your current location. Something annoying while driving on the highway if you don't have another person in the car to reset it.
  
  For 4, there is no workaround I have found. It makes this mode useless for only the shortest of trips.
  
  For 5, again, you have no workaround. You will have to take it in for service if the battery wears out. IPODs have a similar issue though, so I am used to that. Battery life appears to be 4-6 hours. So when I use it around town or on short trips, I don't even bother to use the cigarette ligher adapter.
  
  Conclusion: Awesome unit. Wins every comparative review I have found. Works great. And gives you peace of mind for you and your family in your travels.
  
  
• Very Nice GPS
  By A4GWXAXW1XMDF on 2005-12-12
  After extensive research, I decided to buy either the Garmin 2720 or the Nuvi 350. I wanted reliable maps, ease of use, future real-time traffic expandibility. I decided on the Nuvi because the sensitivity of the GPS antennas is much better in urban environments and the small pocket-sized shape. I have now owned the unit for 2 months and used it extensively. Here are my observations:
  
  1. The antenna sensitivity is outstanding. As a test, the first time I got it, I had the unit "find itself" from within my 2 story house. I was on the first floor and not near a window. While I took a shower, it figured out where it was. In the car, it usually finds itself within 5 seconds. The tangible benefit of this sensitivity is that I don't have to mount the Nuvi on my car dash or window. It just sits on the center console of the car.
  
  2. The maps are very good. So far, it's found every place I searched including little local resturants. The time to calculate (or re-route) based on these maps is very good. I have been able to use the unit straight out of the box without any updates to the software or the maps.
  
  3. The readability of the screen is very good. Even in bright daylight, the screen can be easily read.
  
  4. The speaker on the unit does the job but should be improved. At the higher volume settings the sound is tinny and the cheap little speaker just isn't as clear as it should be. I'm not trying to compare to built-in GPS units from manufacturers like Honda but for $900 the speaker should be better.
  
  5. The internal battery seems to last about 3 1/2 hours with the screen on full brightness. Seems reasonable considering the manufacturer says the battery should last about 4 to 6 hours and we all know how manufacturers over state battery life.
  
  6. The Li-Ion battery is sealed in the unit and can't be replaced by the owner. I don't like this at all. Since this product is reasonably new, there is no detail on how much the battery replacement service would cost. I expect we will get taken to town like Apple with their iPod battery replacements. However, Li-Ion batteries are well regarded so the they should last about 1 1/2 years. We'll see. If anyone from Garmin reads this: Don't do it again. It's not good. Convince your design team that a battery cover with a screw isn't going to take away from the coolness of the product.
  
  7. The software has worked fine. One time it came up with a better route and asked if I wanted to take the new route. However, it didn't say how much shorter or faster the new route would be so I could make an informed decision. Minor detail but if you want me to make a decision, give me some relevant information.
  
  8. The product comes with a quick start guide which is all you really need. There is a product manual but it doesn't get shipped. You can get the pdf from Garmin's web site for free. At $900, I would have expected a paper manual in the box. If you want the paper manual, it's around $10 from Garmin.
  
  9. It comes with the capability to play mp3s and audio books. With the built-in speaker, that is a painful experience. Better to hook-up headphones.
  
  10. One feature that it doesn't have compared to other top-end GPS units is the ability to tell current position in Longitude/Latitude. Minor and not needed but what's the harm? After all there is a screen showing 12 satellite signal strengths and your current elevation.
  
  Overall, I think this has been a good decision. Maybe some of the software issues will be fixed in the future. It is expensive but tangibly better than other GPS units on the market at this time.
  
  
• product lacks refinement
  By A5JLAU2ARJ0BO on 2006-12-09
  I hate to say this, but I've come to the conclusion that most of the positive, 5-star reviews are written by people either working for Garmin or hired by Garmin to spoof this website. I'll tell you why.
  
  On the plus side of this product, the new SiRF receiver is very sensitive, and I'm able to get a geo fix even inside my ranch-style house. The older-generation, 12-channel receivers I had before would need a totally open sky to even get the signal from one satellite, let alone fixing the location (for which you need at least 3 satellites). The new SiRF receiver in the Nuvi 350 is also fast in acquiring signals, but you need to stay stationary for it to work well from a cold start.
  
  Now I'll tell you why I think most of the positive reviews are lying. I review this product from the perspective of someone who's used a few other GPS products before.
  
  First of all, for $450 the fit and finish of this product ("designed in USA, made In Taiwan" (sic) says the box) is lacking. This is in start contrast to the similar-priced Sony NV-U70 "Nav-U." Whereas the Sony looks and feels like a well-made electronics item, the Nuvi 350 looks and feels totally cheap. The paint on the plastic casing is uneven, and there are poor-fitted cracks along the edges. The fit and finish of this is even worse than a $100 iPod Nano, much worse.
  
  Unlike the Sony NV-U70, which has a handy standby mode whereby you can shut down and wake up the unit quickly, each time you turn the Garmin Nuvi 350 on from power-off, it goes through the whole boot sequence: initializing, loading maps (which takes a long time), asking you to agree to the danger disclaimer, etc. It takes about 30-40 seconds for the unit to be in ready mode, not counting the time it takes to acquire GPS signals. The power button, located at the top, is also poorly assembled: on my unit, it's hard to press and often does not register when I press it.
  
  The worst offense of the Nuvi 350, at least for me, is the poor user interface (UI). First of all, I challenge anyone to find Ave. U in Brooklyn, NY. According to the electronic manual included in the unit's built-in memory (2GB of it), you should take a minimalist approach to entering addresses. For example, to enter "E 16th St" (the USPS standard format), you just enter 16 and let Garmin search. When I read that part in the manual -- yes, I did read the manual from cover to cover -- I went "uh oh, deja vu!" Why? Because every time a mapping program tells you that, it means it won't recognize input like "East 16 Street." It gets worse for things like boulevard and parkway which different people abbreviate differently. On the Garmin, forget about it. It'll just tell you "not found" if you don't spell part of the street name exactly as it is. So if Garmin thinks it's "Main Pkwy," it won't find it if you typed in "Main Parkway."
  
  Now, here's why I think all those 5-star and 4-star reviews are phonies. If you read reviews for other GPS systems -- TomTom, Magellan, Navman -- you'll see people complain loudly about the inflexibility of entering addresses, along the lines I described above. People would end up giving a model 2 stars or less for this lack of intelligence alone. But look at this board. I have yet to come across another review that even mentions this limitation. That's right, you are likely reading the VERY FIRST review that tells you the truth. And you deserve to know the truth if you don't work for Garmin, are thinking about getting a GPS, and don't find $450 a trivial amount of dough.
  
  Anyway, I digress. To continue with my example. So I was looking for Ave. U in Brooklyn. Now, to enter the state of NY, you have to spell it out, N-e-w-space-Y -- after the Y, Garmin will know you want New York. It's stupid you can't just type "NY" and go on with life. Also, unlike Magellan GPS units, the Garmin does *not* gray out letters you cannot type, based on what you already entered. Next, you type Brooklyn. It recognizes Brooklyn after you typed the y. Next is house number; easy enough here. The street name is where I found the problems. So to find Ave. U, I first tried U. All the streets that start with the letter U are listed, except Ave. U! So this is already contrary to what the helpful (not!) manual recommends. I sighed. After all, this is not the first time I ran into a stupid address search engine like this. (But how come NOBODY else mentions this in their glowing reviews of the Nuvi 350????) I tried "Ave U". No luck! I finally decided to type in the whole thing, "Avenue U". But I must have made a typo -- that's a lot of letters on a small touchscreen! -- so it wasn't found, either! I was so upset. Anyway, turns out you really need to type in "Avenue U", because Garmin's software thinks the street name has two words: Avenue (full spelling) and U! I just love this piece of cr*p!
  
  Because the Nuvi 350 uses the Navteq database, the same map database used by Local Live, MSN Maps, etc., its overall usefulness and routine accuracy are on par with most online mapping sites. The mapping software version is v8, the latest, but it doesn't have a few stores near my house, such as the Staples a few blocks away which has been there forever. (Instead the Nuvi 350 tells me the closest Staples is 5 miles away.) What I dislike here is the routing speed. It's really slow. It's slower than the Magellan Roadmate 300R I tried and returned to Radio Shack after Thanksgiving. But it has a nice touch of telling you the routine calculation progress in %, so you can entertain yourself by counting "10%... 16%... 23%... 23%... 23%... 50%...". You get the picture.
  
  The MP3 and photo viewer functions are basic but, well, functioning. You can load an SD card (up to 2GB in capacity) with MP3 files (in the MP3 folder) and JPEG files (in the JPEG folder) and then stick the SD into the Nuvi 350. The I/O circuitry of this thing is really painfully slow, but if you have the patience, most functions will eventually work.
  
  Anyway, I will update this review as I spend more time with the Nuvi 350. The bottom line is, this unit lacks refinement. The counter-intelligent address search engine is just scandalous. I wish I had bought it from a local store so I could return it. (If I return it to Amazon without mentioning a physical defect, I'd have to reimburse Amazon for the overnight shipping charge and the return shipping charge. Not good.)
  
  Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that there's nothing close to being half perfect in the portable GPS market. I still think Garmin, a Taiwanese company, makes the better units. I totally dislike Magellan because their products crash. I don't want a TomTom because it uses the Tele Atlas map database, which sucks big-time in North America. Other brands like Averatec, FineDrive, etc. are just jokes; they are based on an old version of WinCE which tends to crash multiple times a day -- not good, not good at all when you are driving. Finally, there's the Sony NV-U70. I tried it out once and liked it. It's a bit bulky and doesn't come with MP3 or photo viewing, and doesn't do text-to-speech like the Nuvi 350. But it's fast (has a fast Intel processor and a fast proprietary GPS receiver inside) and doesn't crash and feels very well made. In hindsight, the Sony is what I should have bought.
  
  
• Garmin Nuvi vs. Garmin 2720
  By A13E9XBNP6YSFM on 2006-01-10
  My wife travels to the homes of several new clients every week, so a GPS was the perfect gift for her. After much research, I chose the Garmin 2720 over the Magellan 760. But I didn't know about Garmin Nuvi until after I bought the 2720. I was torn after reading favorable reviews of the Nuvi, so I bought a Nuvi as well, with the understanding that we would test both and return one to the store.
  
  First of all, it is hard to go wrong with either, both are great products, and I got them both for about the same price.
  
  2720 Advantages:
  
  --Heavy duty construction. Waterproof.
  
  --Very sharp, bright screen that is more like a mini computer monitor.
  
  --Advanced GPS features.
  
  Nuvi Advantages:
  
  --Ultra compact, light, and portable. A brilliant design.
  
  --Reports of better receiver sensitivity.
  
  --Reports that it draws better routes.
  
  --extra non-GPS features: MP3, picture viewer, audio books, language translater.
  
  --can run on batteries and has a built in speaker
  
  
  2720 best suited for:
  
  --A motorcycle (it's waterproof)
  
  --Traveling salesmen that would enter many destinations and have the GPS choose the best route between all of them. The Nuvi can handle only 1 via point.
  
  --Mounted in a mini van/SUV for family vacations in rural areas. The 2720 gives you more control to plan your whole route. But the Nuvi would not be bad either.
  
  --The Techie who will use the advanced GPS features.
  
  Nuvi best suited for:
  
  --Your wife. I'm sorry, but a woman will choose the Nuvi over the 2720 almost every time. It fits easily in their purse.
  
  --Traveling by plane and using in a rental car. The Nuvi's ultra compact design makes this the obvious choice.
  
  --People who would use the MP3 player, picture viewer, other Non-GPS features.
  
  --People who travel in downtown areas, it will have fewer dropouts than the 2720.
  
  We chose the Nuvi. The 2720 was nice, but when my wife took one look at the Nuvi her mind was made up. She wouldn't use the advanced GPS features on the 2720, but she liked the MP3 player, etc. on the Nuvi. She loved the compact size, and the ability to run it on batteries in her car without the power cable. The screen is not as bright as the 2720, but it's still very readable.
  
  To see very detailed and technical reviews of all GPS receivers, see gpsinformation.net
  
  UPDATED December 2007:
  
  We've had this unit for almost two years now, and it still works great. In fact we bought a new Lexus with a built in Nav, and we still like the Nuvi better. It has better directions, an easier menu, and text to speech capability.
  
  One thing to note, the touch screen on the NUVI will not scratch easily. Many people are concerned that they need to buy a screen protector. This is not necessary. We've never used a screen protector, and I can't find any noticable scratches on the screen. And I can't count all the times that we've dropped it, or it fell off the dashboard. It still looks almost new.
  
  
• hard to use, and database has a lot of omissions
  By A34RLV8RAH5KDD on 2006-05-07
  I've updated my review of this unit. My issues are two: its data base is not large enough, and you have to go back to ground zero to start on another search/location.
  
  Issue one. This unit doesn't recognize the Prime Rib (or The Prime Rib) restaurant on K Street in Washington DC. Zagat rates this the 12th to the 20th best restaurant in Washington, but Nuvi says it doesn't exist (btw, this restaurant has been around for many years so it's not a newbie. Any of you that know DC, is leaving out this restaurant indicative of something that you wanna trust? (I have no personal interest in anything I comment on, other than wondering why several nice restaurants don't exist in this unit's database, alas.) Same issue for you Chicagoans regarding Tru, a top-rated restaurant, it doesn't exist in this unit. A lot of omissions in other cities too. It seems this database arbitrarily chose about half the restaurants, with a focus on the lower-priced fast food ones. If that's your style, OK.
  
  It appears they cut back their database too much when figuring out what to load, and thus this is not a good unit. This is my third GPS unit, so I am able to compare this to some others.
  
  Another issue is that once you have to make a change with this unit, it seems you mostly gotta start at ground zero, gotta start from scratch and put everything in again.
  
  It's a shame because otherwise there is a great market niche for a portable GPS unit that could reliably and easily find stuff when one is not in a car. I can use my Garmin 2620 GPS well (I'm not electronically-challenged), but the Nuvi 350 GPS unit lacks what it would take in usage or in its database to make it worth its $800 price, or even a lot less than that. Price it at $100 or so and you might meet expectations and performance.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Great product, worth the price
  By A2UJ8XLKJZ55LO on 2006-02-18
  After a month of heavy usage and testing, I'd have to say this is the best automotive GPS unit I've used to date. I also tried the Garmin StreetPilot 2720 and Magellan RoadMate 760, and the nuvi is a much nicer overall package. The only physical buttons on the unit are the Power button and a Reset button, with all interaction with the unit done through the touchscreen. The nuvi is very simple to use, and even my folks, who are seriously techno-impaired, managed to take a 400-mile trip to Kansas City and back without incident.
  
  + The Good Stuff +
  
  The design is sleek and stylish, putting other units to shame. Garmin's user interface is colorful and intuitive, and though the screen is a little small at 3.5" diagonal, the icons and graphics are scaled just right for easy reading. A neat feature is that the nuvi inverts the display after sunset, that is, dark text/graphics on light backgrounds becomes light text/graphics on dark backgrounds for better viewing.
  
  Maps of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico are preloaded on the unit, and there's about 700MB left over for even more data to be loaded. In case you need more room, there's also a Secure Digital card slot on the side. Satellite signal reception is fantastic, and the high-sensitivity antenna really does its job. The unit locks onto satellites relatively quickly, but it can take quite a bit longer if you're moving, a problem other units share.
  
  Routes are calculated quickly, and if you miss your turn the nuvi recalculates fast to get you back on track. You have the option to have the nuvi speak the directions, and the selection of female announcer voices is pleasing to the ear. Volume from the rear-mounted speakers is adequate, even at highway speeds.
  
  The Points-of-Interest on the nuvi are quite comprehensive, covering a lot of things like hotels, gas stations, movie theaters, restaurants, and stores. There's a neat Favorites feature that lets you have one-touch access to locations you save (a lot of restaurants in mine).
  
  Everything you need is included in the box, which is nice considering the amount of money you're spending on it. However, the manual (PDF) is only available as a download from Garmin's website.
  
  The included suction-cup mount is nice and secure, though the cup needs a little cleaning from time to time to keep a nice seal going, especially if you move the nuvi between cars. On cars with steeply-sloped windshields it can sometimes be a pain to get the nuvi's antenna raised. Mounting it a little higher on the windshield helps a bit. You can also flip the mount around and put it so that the nuvi sits on the dashboard. This requires the use of a plastic disc, one side covered with semi-permanent adhesive and the other side smooth to provide a mounting surface for the suction cup.
  
  - Not So Good -
  
  My main concern with the nuvi is its internal rechargeable battery. Like all lithium-ion batteries, it has a finite lifespan, and with the nuvi's price pushing four figures, it's quite a problem if you can only use it plugged in after a few years.
  
  You can only use one waypoint per trip, so if you had to make multiple stops on a route you would have to stop at your first destination and program a trip to the next one, instead of doing it in one fell swoop.
  
  Battery life is merely decent, I've been spoiled a bit by built-in automotive GPS with always-on screens. The nuvi is adjustable to several backlight shutoff intervals, which prolong battery life significantly. With the screen always on and at 3/4 brightness, I got around 2 hours of usage. I may have to bite the bullet and put up with the cords to run it through the 12v power socket. The screen washes out a tad on bright days, and you really do need the backlight on to see anything.
  
  Some of the points-of-interest information is a little out of date, as the nuvi had no entries for area restaurants built a couple of years ago and showed a Target in its old location before it was torn down and replaced with a SuperTarget a block away in 2001.
  
  = Other Thoughts =
  
  If you pick one of these up, make sure its firmware is up to date! You can grab the latest from Garmin's website and the update only takes a couple of minutes. The nuvi is snappier with the latest firmware, and several bugs I was going to write about in this review were addressed.
  
  The nuvi is great as a navigational aid, but the extra features weren't of much use to me. They were nice to have, but a less expensive unit would have been better, considering dedicated tools are almost always better for the job. A currency converter is included, but you have to update the current exchange rate manually. The mp3 player works fine, but lacks the polish of a dedicated unit and the sound quality isn't as good as my iPod using the same headphones. Some may find the added goodies very much to their liking, but I think the nuvi excels at navigation and is merely okay at the other stuff.
  
  The nuvi is worth the price, and being able to ditch the maps and have less stress on trips is most welcome. It's easy to use, well-designed, and works great. It's also packed with tons of features, and though not everyone will find a use for all of them, they're there if you need them. It's not quite perfect, but is pretty darn good and has earned a spot in my stable of gadgets.
  
  
• No such thing as a perfect GPS, but this one comes closest
  By A3E0VAIG6L1HHD on 2005-11-28
  This GPS unit is simply beautiful, and has worked great so far. The display is comparable to the TomTom units when under ideal viewing conditions. However, when the angle changes, or in different lighting conditions, the Nuvi is leaps and bounds better than the TomTom units.
  
  However, this unit is not perfect. The preloaded points of interest are quite antiquated. Alot of attractions, hospitals, and businesses that are included in the POIs (even HOSPITALS, and police stations) have changed name, relocated, or shut down. So I would strongly recommend against solely relying on the POIs when looking for things to do. It works great for large attractions that arent easily moved (ie theme parks, monuments, etc).
  
  In terms of getting you from destination A to desination B, the unit works great. No lockup experiences yet. One selling point of this unit is that it uses SirfIII ultra sensitive signals. This is true, but please be aware that in certain circumstances, even though a signal is still acquired, the accuracy can be quite degraded (ie if you're in a tunnel for extended periods of time, etc etc). However, this is remedied as soon as you come into an area with unobstructed satellite view.
  
  Stay tuned for periodic updates!
  ______________________________________
  *** UPDATE 1: Still VERY impressed, but have found a few bugs **
  
  
  I've been roadtesting this unit for about 5 weeks now, and have noticed the following:
  
  1) At times, this unit will "Recalculate" the route for no apparent reason. The new route it gives you is exactly the same as the one you were traveling on before, but the user will be distracted and puzzled about why the route was recalculated in the first place.
  
  2) This unit will struggle a little in huge metro areas such as downtown LA. The unit occasionally showed me on an incorrect street but this fixes itself rather rapidly.
  
  3) Relying solely on voice prompts can get you into trouble. For some cities, especially San Diego and Los Angeles, the voice prompts will not give you adequate warning on whether to stay to the left or the right. To avoid this problem just rely on the purple highlighted route which has a white arrow showing whether to turn left or right.
  
  4) At times, the unit will take upwards of 45seconds to 1 minute to acquire a signal lock. Especially if you have been playing with the unit indoors w/ a poor signal.
  
  5) The speaker is virtually worthless if you are playing your radio or cd player.
  
  But overall I'm still impressed with this unit. The display works even at high noon, with blaring sun conditions. The few bugs noticed were rarely seen, and easy to work around. This is by far the best unit i've played with. With the map sent to "more" detail, you can see everything around you as you are driving.
  
  The best part, when you park, and everyone is eyeing your new unit... you can just take it down, put it in your pocket, and not have to worry about theft!
  
  ********** Update 2 *************
  
  Version 2.6 of the firmware fixed alot of the issues that were complained about previously. I've had this unit for a good amount of time now, and have tested it on the West and East Coasts. My overall recommendation is this: The only real problem with this unit is the fairly weak speaker. For the non-advanced GPS user, this unit is the best you can get, and the one I would recommend.
  
  Go to Circuit City, Best Buy, Frys, etc and play with other units, then play with the Nuvi. You'll see that the other units look cheap, clunky, slow, and have dull screens compared to the Nuvi. If you're going to buy GPS, NUVI is the way to go. For constant travelers, the portability just can't be beat.
  
  You'll never find the "perfect" GPS unit that meets all of your wants (note, wants, not NEEDS) to a tee, but this one surely comes close.
  
  
  
• Wonderful, with a few bugs
  By A1SMYG0BI25BAQ on 2006-05-07
  We've owned the Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS system for about 3 months now, and used it in Minneapolis and Boston, the cross-country drive, and on several business trips. There are 3 primary users of the system. We spent a lot of time researching the tradeoffs among GPS systems. We selected this one because it seemed to meet our needs the best.
  
  (Pros) In general we love this gadget. It finds the satellites quickly, has a good database of places to go, finds good routes, announces turns nicely, etc.
  
  We love its form factor - it does fit in your pocket, just as the advertisements claim. The display is bright and large enough to see while driving. The antenna does a great job of maintaining satellite signal. The suction-cup mount works well most of the time, and transfers nicely from car-to-car. The interface is intuitive. When listening to a book/music, it pauses playback before announcing driving directions, & then rewinds a couple of seconds. I love being able to just put my finger on the screen and move the map around, and also to specify "go here" just by pointing to the place without needing the address. We really like the time estimates to your destination.
  
  (Cons) I'm guessing that this list of cons will be true for any GPS system of this size, so take them as a list of suggestions for software enhancements. The fact that software updates are available online is nice; I look forward to seeing what gets fixed.
  
  The biggest irritation is the automatic zoom. It *always* zooms out too far. I think the algorithm decides to zoom out to show the entire next segment (till the next turn). Often that means your car is displayed much, much larger than anything useful on the map. It doesn't seem to matter what distance you're travelling, the zoom-out is too far. For example, I've had a 400-mile segment displayed in a 2-inch wide window. Getting mile-long displays in a neighbourhood means you can't see the upcoming intersections. All of us will consistently hit the zoom-in button 3 or 5 times after every turn. We think the decision should probably be based on the density of roads/intersections.
  
  Occasionally, when a highway splits in two directions, you get a reasonably long distance of them running in parallel before actually separating. The Nuvi algorithm seems to "prefer" to assume that you are on the correct path, and occasionally won't warn you that you are in the wrong lane before it's too late to make the correction. If the zoom factor were corrected, you'd be able to see these nuances in the route, and self-correct... but it would be better to relax the "magnet" factor in these cases. (This problem is much more serious in Boston than the other places we've driven.)
  
  When searching for "where to", the system lists all the locations and approximate distance/direction from where you currently are. I would really like the map to be able to display these icons on the screen... for example, driving on a long highway route, I'd like to know which upcoming towns have gas stations. I don't want the planner to plan a route to these locations, I'd just like to be able to see ones that are "near" my future route.
  
  When you go to "map explore" mode (moving the map around), it is sometimes too quick to assume that you wanted to go to that point (rather than drag the map). Up pops a yes/no window asking whether you want the point added as a waypoint. If you say "yes", then it adds a waypoint while leaving the final destination the same. If you say "no", it makes that point your final destination and recalculates the route. This menu desperately needs a "cancel" button.
  
  I would LOVE to have an "avoid this place" menu item. This would be useful for intersections that you know are bad for traffic, or under (long term) construction. It's really irritating to have it generate the same route over and over again when you know you won't be able to follow it.
  
  I would like to be able to add to (or correct) the main database. The only way to add to the database is to call something a favourite. However, sometimes a store is missing or the name spelled incorrectly, and you really don't want to "clutter" up your favourites list. (I also think that Garmin should use this information to update their maps; users could easily upload data.)
  
  While the database of landmarks is large, the "search" for items is a little weak. For example, I would like it to grey out letters of invalid keys, i.e. I type "Q" and the only available letter is "U". As another example, I haven't found a way to search for wild cards. This is particularly irritating for places like "KMart" (or is it "K-Mart", or "K--Mart")? (There is a hyphen that doesn't match the dash.) You also get strange situations with numbered highways. I've also had a few times when someone said "the restaurant is just a few blocks down, at the corner of Main and Broadway;" I assume (incorrectly) that it's in the same town, and Nuvi can't find it. I'd like it to suggest the "nearby" options.
  
  The estimate of time to destination is extremely accurate for highway driving, but the algorithm isn't too bright about predicting red lights. (We've learned to "round up" appropriately.)
  
  Finally, it doesn't have the bicycle routes in its database. This feature would be a huge bonus.
  
  ===========UPDATE============
  
  After 6 months of use, the "on/off" switch stopped working: that meant we couldn't adjust volume or use it without the car's electric system. BestBuy replaced it without question under their extended warranty plan.
  
  The software has been updated since we originally bought the unit. The most significant change that it shows your current lat/long. However, not one of my complaints has been addressed! Rather disappointing.
  
  
• Perfect, except invisible.
  By A1WUKM07N3TC9U on 2006-05-28
  I can't believe it. I finally found the perfect GPS unit. BUT, because the polarized screen is installed at a perfect 90 degree angle from 99% of all other polarized screens and sunglasses, the screen is totally black unless I turn my head sideways. If you don't understand what I mean, put on a pair of polarized shades, then take another pair and stick them in front of you. Everything is fine, but then turn the second pair 90 degrees up or down and notice that you can now not see anything. This is a HUGE design flaw, that I'm hoping Garmin will fix with the 360.
  
  
  
• BATTERY REPLACEMENT IS EXPENSIVE!!!
  By A2KIQKAWR3R5LO on 2007-07-25
  After reading many reviews, I decided the Nuvi 350 was the GPS for me. However, one review caught my attention. It said that it was "too bad that you can't replace the battery." What???? Can't replace the battery???? I contacted Garmin at their customer service number to see if this was true. They assured me that the battery could be replaced. They said it was just a matter of sending the unit into their customer service department for replacement for one flat rate fee. -- That sounded good. It sounded good until I asked what the "flat rate" fee was. --- $225.00 !!! --- They said that the Lithium battery that comes with the unit should easily last two years. So, my thought is this. -- When you buy the GPS for somewhere in the neighborhood of $370 you should consider this your "initial installment payment." The "2nd installment" will essentially come when you are forced to replace the battery....When a battery dies completely it can either "open" or "short." -- If you could guarantee that it would "open" you could still use the GPS with the automotive adaptor. (Although it may, depending on design, lose saved data when unplugged) But, if it were to "short" the unit would be rendered useless because the shorted battery would clamp the supply voltage to an unuseable level. --- Sounds, in my opinion, pre-planned. I have plenty of electronic devices that use recharageable Lithium batteries that can easily be changed by the consumer.....So, don't be caught off guard when your "2nd installment" payment comes due.
  
  
• Disappointing Nuvi 350
  By A1UKR3L12B5FLJ on 2007-08-01
  I just returned my Nuvi 350. It was a very disappointing experience with this product.
  
  It worked very well the first ten days or so. Then while on vacation in California on my way from Kings Canyon to Fresno, it lost satellite signal. I almost got lost because I trusted it so much that I didn't even bring a decent map with me. It never gained back satellite signal that whole day until I got to the hotel. Ever since then it had very poor satellite reception. Over 90% of time it froze up because of poor satellite signal, no matter it was in cities with tall building or in interstate highways out in the open. It basically became useless since then. I tried reset and even discharge/recharge the battery. Nothing worked.
  
  Maybe I just had a bad luck with a malfunctioning unit. Does anyone have a similar experience with your Nuvi?
  
  After I returned from the vacation, the first thing I did was to return the Nuvi. I am truly disappointed with this product.
  
  
  
• Dysfunctional and Unreliable
  By A1N85CDP250ECQ on 2007-11-25
  I work in a sales job where I drive to between four and seven customers' homes each day, and I thought a GPS would be perfect--no more mapping out routes! Unfortunately I have had nothing but problems with this GPS navigation unit.
  
  -Frequent problems locating satellites even when I was outside and stationary.
  -Would occasionally shut down randomly even when it was plugged into the car charger.
  -Homes that were built two years prior to me purchasing this unit were not in the map system, and it often could not locate apartment units in buildings that are 20+ years old.
  -Redirected/reconstructed roads and highway onramps completed well before I purchased the unit were not mapped correctly.
  -Once I was following its directions (without looking at the screen) and as I arrived at my destination I realized it had directed me to "1"--that's it--that was the complete address it had sent me to which happened to be a parking lot on the side of the highway about one mile from my actual destination.
  -Sometimes the speaking voice would read "Maple Dr." as "Maple Doctor"--weird! (and I had found the street name using search, it was not manually typed in as "Dr.")
  -It consistently referred to a certain highway as Highway 64 when in reality it is Highway 364 (and Hwy 64 is a different, major interstate in the same city.)
  -While travelling straight East on a major interstate it directed me to take an exit and get on another interstate that travels North-South, although the route lines on the screen stayed correct (travelling East.)
  -It could not handle detours due to road construction and even when I drove far away from the route it would just direct me to make a u-Turn and go back.
  -When I tried to search for certain businesses, it would not display them or only displayed certain franchise locations, even when there were several closer to me (and none of the locations were new!)
  
  
• Surprises from the Nuvi 350
  By A3CATBH588Y513 on 2007-06-27
  Bought the Garmin Nuvi 350 last month after reading the reviews on lots of different GPS systems. The thing I learned while trying out the Nuvi on a trip was that the reviews were not helpful. I would have been less disappointed if I had not read the reviews. Indeed, most of the reviews sound like they were written by the manufacturer, although I am sure they were not.
  
  It is possible that my surprises and disappointments would have been the same with any GPS system.
  
  My first surprise was when I took it out of the box and plugged it in to charge it up. I plugged it in, but couldn't tell if it was charging. I tried pressing the ON button, but nothing happened. So I called the help line. The nice man said that I had to hold the button down for a number of seconds. I recommended that they put that in the manual.
  
  Second surprise: the manual was only a few pages long, and horribly written. I found that I could go on the GARMIN website and download a long, more complete manual, so I did.
  
  3) Got into the car for a long trip and put the Nuvi on the windshield. It was supposed to be "sunlight readable". It is not. In strong sunlight, the driver can barely make anything out on the screen, but then again, the driver should be looking at the road. My passenger couldn't read the Nuvi from the other front seat. I called the company. They said that that is the way things are on all GPS systems. That is as good as can be done now. OK. Then don't advertise them as sunlight readable. The Garmin representative told me that I could buy a hood to put over it to make it a little better in sunlight, but not much. I wish that had been in the reviews and in the literature.
  
  4) It told me to go a direction that I knew, from years of experince, was not optimal, so I went my own way, and it said "Recalculating". I thought that it was recalculating a new route to take me to my destination. It was not. It was calculating a new route to take me back to the route it had calculated the previous time. Sometimes it does that. Sometimes it calculates a completely new route. Unfortunately I can't tell which one it did. I wish that it would say when it is giving you a completely new route, and when it is trying to get you back to a route that you didn't want to go.
  
  5) It allows you to enter one "way point", but that is all. There are times when I would like to put in a number of them. Other Garmin systems such as the 2720 let you do that on a computer ahead of time.
  
  6) we got on route I-84. When the Garmin said "I84", I couldn't understand it. I have been working with computer speech for over 20 years, and this is not one of the best. This one could be greatly improved with a few small changes. For example, putting a slight pause between the "I" and the "84" would make it much more understandable.
  
  I could go on, but you get the idea. I was quite disappointed.
  
  On the positive side. It does get you to where you want to go. You don't have to look at it, and you should not, if you are driving. When the sun goes down, the display is beautiful. I used it on a trip in Los Angeles, and I trust it to get me to my destination. HOWEVER, it did tell me to get off at the ramp for ">>>>>>>" but the ramp was labelled something else. I guess the map is out of date on that. The ramp did get us to where we wanted to go.
  
  There are some nice features that could be added simply. For example, it tells you how fast you are going, and it tells you the fastest you went during your trip. I recommend that it have a feature that you can turn on or off. When the feature is on, it asks "Do you really want to be going 87 miles per hour?"
  
  Another simple feature: it should tell you when it is recalculating to get you back to its previously recommended route, and when it is calculating a different route. Indeed, it should have a feature that allows you to press a button to ask for a completely new route.
  
  I have decided to keep it. Now I know what its faults are. It is difficult for me to know why these didn't show up in a lot of reviews. The next generation of these things will be much better. But for now, there are times when I need directions and I don't know a good way to go. This thing does that well.
  
  I hope that this review does not deter you from buying one. Rather, I hope that it helps you modify your expectations to be more in line with what you will get.
  
  
• SO Cool - it's the iPod of GPS Navigation
  By A3HXRVFS13BPTK on 2006-02-28
  After doing research on GPS units for about a month, I finally took the plunge and bought the Garmin Nuvi. Wow - it's so awesome! I haven't loved a new gadget this much since I got my iPod. Let me tell you the highlights of what I've learned:
  
  PROS:
  * The Nuvi is SO small and cool - it easily slips into my purse when I'm not using it in the car. When I'm driving, I have it mounted on the windshield just below my rear-view mirror and it does not obstruct my view of the road at all.
  * The WAAS-enabled GPS receiver with SIRF is super accurate and fast.
  * The Nuvi will tell me the street names in plain english ("Turn right onto Main Street"). My last GPS didn't use names, only vague instructions like "Turn right in 200 feet". That's not especially helpful in areas that are unfamiliar.
  * It's easy to add "favorite" locations, like home. You can set these up off-line. We're leaving for vacation, so I added as "favorites" the hotels we'll be staying at. This will make it just a couple of touches to get to them.
  * A nice variety of needed accessories are included right in the box... car adapter, windshield mount, dashboard mount, regular power adapter for charging at home, USB cable, really nice leather case.
  * The car power adapter plugs directly into the windshield mount, OR into the Nuvi. This makes it super easy to disconnect the Nuvi when you are leaving the car, without having to fuss with any cords.
  * When you go off of the calculated route, Nuvi automatically recalculates a new route for you. It does this quickly and accurately.
  
  CONS:
  * The Nuvi does not provide your latitude/longitude coordinates. Certainly it must know them! I can't imagine why Garmin didn't include this information on its "satellite" screen. It shows altitude, but not latitude/longitude. Grrrr! No GeoCaching for the Nuvi! (Update: 3/07/06 - Garmin has added this information on the "satellite" screen in the updated version 3.10 of the Nuvi firmware. Thanks Garmin!)
  * The NavQuest database that the Nuvi uses is outdated, which surprised me. A hotel we regularly visit in PA isn't in the "hotels" listing, and the map doesn't even include the street which the hotel is on. This is not a new hotel, it's been there for at least 8 years! I am finding that in general most streets are included, but hotels and other points of interest are not as current as I expected.
  * The software on the Nuvi is little buggy. I had one system crash, which required a hard reset using the button on the back of the Nuvi. And sometimes the "back" button doesn't work as the manual says it should.
  * The Nuvi didn't come with a printed manual - you have to download it from Garmin's web site and print it yourself (?!?!). I would have expected that for such an expensive unit, Garmin could have spent a few extra cents on a manual to put into the box.
  * I'm a little nervous about the battery not being user-replacable. I talked to Garmin tech support, and they said that the battery should last for 1000 charge cycles, and beyond that it's a flat fee of $225 to replace it. That's a lot for a battery!
  
  I don't have a need for the travel guide, MP3 player, currency converter, or audio-book player, although I did try them. They seemed to work fine, but the real strength of the Nuvi is navigation, not the other stuff.
  
  All in all, I am VERY impressed with this little Nuvi. My husband and I are enjoying the stress-free driving, with Nuvi doing all of the navigating!
  
  
• Pretty cool... but a little spooky
  By A37IBZO94Z4XR on 2006-06-24
  I'm not Stefanie, but her husband Ed,
  
  Okay, I like techy things, but the Garmin Nuvi 350 is really neat. I am currently on a trip across the US. I have now traveled over 1700 miles and the thing has yet to give me bad directions. I have traveled in town, freeways, rural roads with no signs, and into the mountains. I have lost signal twice, both times happened when I went into mountain tunnels, more on this in a minute.
  
  Setup:
  Out of the box it took about 2 minutes before I was up and running. The window attachement is quite good and I don't think it's coming off my window without help. The interanl battery is good for about 5 hours...the DC adapter has a long cord so you can use it in a secondary DC plug-in.
  
  Small in size it doesn't obstruct the view.
  The screen is quite bright.
  The speaker and volume are quite good.
  
  Use:
  
  Type in address and go. Pretty simple. It held the tracking signal even in mountain canyons, as I was driving I started thinking about how hard that had to be. Anyway, the maps were great as they let me see the turns up ahead before I got there. The voice prompts were absolutely on target. At one point, Nuvi told me to take a named road, but there were no signs. So I ignored the voice prompt. Nuvi recalculated the route in about 5 seconds and got me back on track. Oh, by-the-way, I should have listened as Nuvi was correct.
  
  Nuvi can also provide a list hotels, food places, and gas stations in your vicinity with phone numbers. This was quite handy.
  
  The only thing that I would recommend to Garmin is that when you cross time zones that it should update the time of arrival in the time of the new zone.
  
  This has a been a very good purchase. Oh, and my wife likes it too.
  
  
• Nice GPS; now sadly downgraded by new screen
  By A1HRECPV2Q79BG on 2006-05-30
  The Nuvi is great. Or I should say, was great. It used to have one of the best screens out there, as you can read in many of the 2005 reviews. But that's changed, and the new screen is a downgraded high glare one. I confirmed this with Garmin customer support. Unfortunately, they did not reduce the price when they reduced the specs. The navigation works great, and if you don't try to read the screen in sunlight you'll be fine. I don't think it's worth the high price - unless they return to the original, better screen. We can hope.
  
  
• Compared with magellan 800 and Honda built-in
  By A3RNN3BRRY4CBN on 2006-06-08
  After 2 days of use and extensive use with the Honda Pilot's built-in GPS navigator and 1 week of extensive Magellan 800 experience can comment on the following.
  
  Pro's of Nuvi350 vs. Magellan 800
  1. Nicer screen
  2. Easier to see in glaring sun light
  3. Much nicer suction mounting system, very easy to use & setup
  4. Size
  5. Minimal buttons/options (easier for a novice to use).
  6. Text-to-speech while not as pleasant sounding is still a very nice feature.
  
  Pro's of Magellan
  1. Clearer, easier to understand voice (versus 'computerized' text-to-speech of Nuvi).
  2. At loud volumes maintains clarity (better speaker)
  3. Better routing (Nuvi FREQUENTLY doesn't chose the closest freeway entrance/exit to a destination) and seems just a bit 'off' in location information.
  4. Better routing control --> Can look at a list of turns/roads and just select one and have the system 'avoid' that section. Very helpful for long trips. Simply not an option for the Nuvi (yet).
  5. Easier to switch views. In the Nuvi, switching from 3-D view is cumbersome. If just tapping on the map, it does switch to a standard map view, but is North oriented not direction oriented (which takes many more steps).
  6. Does NOT exclude U-turns automatically like the Nuvi as default (this created some unexpected long detours when I could have done a quick u-turn --> this default setting can be changed in the Nuvi)
  7. Easy to control which POI's/icons are displayed.
  8. Pleasant 'chime' alerting you of upcomming spoken instructions (versus annoying 'beep' of the Nuvi).
  
  Pro's of built-in Honda GPS
  1. Keeps track when in tunnels/large buildings/covered parking lots etc.
  2. Size of screen
  
  Summary: In the end, for the novice the Nuvi350 is a much better choice or if just looking for a simple/easy to use device at the expense of loss of control over the display options or navigation/routing options (which the Magellan 800 can still control). As I plan to let my family/friends borrow the system while traveling I'll stick with the Nuvi.
  
  
• Amazing, much better than Hertz Neverlost (Magellan)