Garmin Nuvi 350

The past few months I've been GPS hunting.

The big names in the biz are Garmin, Magellan & TomTom. Other big name electronics firms like Philips and Sony have entered the market, but I wanted to go with a company that had more experience with the application. I've had a Garmin eTrex Legend for a few years, so I had my eye on a Garmen model like the Streepilot. TomTom also looked pretty cool.

There was a sale at the local Fry's Electronics a few weeks ago- a really good deal too. $599 for the Garmin Nuvi 350 which normally goes for $700-900. Five other people were already lined up behind the sales guy opening the cabinet to see if there were any units left.

I purchased the additional warranty by Fry's, by the way. I usually don't go for that kind of stuff. Usually by the time something breaks, it's time to get something completely different. But for a portable device like a GPS, the odds were higher that it could get dropped or damaged in shorter time.

It has really good maps preinstalled, and has a search by name/type that so far has found just about everything I've tried. Restaraunts, stores, etc. And it gives great directions, viewable from a 3D perspective or straight down.

A voice gives turn-by-turn narration, and it calculates re-routes if you miss a turn. The speech is recognizable, and warns first when a turn is coming up, then again when it's time.

You can choose language and accent like English, American, Australian, etc. There's even a language translator (But how good can it be? I'll have to try it some time).

Reviews say it syncs quickly with satellites. It does. You can set a "home" preset location, that you can choose to navigate to/from. Plus there are favorites & recent searches that are stored.

The Nuvi has a bunch of extra features like MP3 & audiobook playback and a picture viewer (via SD card slot). Nice, but they're not why i bought the device and I don't know how much I'll use them. It does have a handy converter tool though.

The next model up, the 360, has Bluetooth for syncing data with a PC and acting as a wireless speakerphone for your mobile phone. Yet another feature what would be nice, but not worth the extra cost.

So far I haven't had a chance to really try it it out in a place where I needed it. I used it to find a nearby Starbucks while driving around Las Vegas (worked like a charm) and also found a Geocache while hiking. I'm sure I get a chance to find a place or get un-lost eventually.