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Product: Garmin 010-00306-00 List Price: $642.99 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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Every now and then — make that every other now and then, because it’s a rare event indeed — a product comes along that solves a problem that has been plaguing man — and woman — for decades, if not centuries. In recent years, these rare breakthroughs have included Combat roach traps, which made those pesky critters a rare sight in even the most infested urban environments, and the pocket hard-drive mp3 jukeboxes enabling you to have your favorite albums with you wherever you go.

Now here come the GPS navigators that make it all but impossible to get lost, not to mention the AFFORDABLE GPS navigators like this fantastic little Quest. One of the guys in my band got one of the higher priced Garmins and was raving about its accuracy. When his Garmin got him right to a place we were playing while the rest of the band circled backroads endlessly, relying on directions that said things like, “go to Smith Road”, without bothering to inform you whether you were supposed to turn left or right on Smith Road or cross it — I knew I had to have one. Better yet, he told me Garmin had a new model that did the same job for half the money.

Well, it turns out that the Quest handles more than the same job the bigger units do. With its pocket size, you can also use it when you’re on foot trying to find a strange address in a strange city (or in the Village, here in Manhattan). Otherwise the only downside of the Quest is that you can’t add memory; the memory built in can handle enough map detail for a large state, but if you were going across country, you would need to bring your laptop with the detailed maps loaded, to download into the Quest as you passed from one region to the next. For those of us who typically travel within our state (or the so-called tri-state area around NYC), however, the Quest has more than enough memory.

Does the little Quest work? It sure does! I snapped it into its cradle, it came to life (it gives you a warning about using it responsibly when you’re driving), and soon it had located and then acquired the satellites it uses to track your position, altitude, direction, and speed. The voice pipes up loud and clear from a speaker hinged to the lighter plug unit, sounding rather like the computer voice on Star Trek, and you can enable or disable a chime preceding the announcement. Announcements are given in plenty of time so you can get in the proper lane, and turns are shown on screen with bright red directional arrows. If you miss a turn (and I did, not once but twice, the street was so poorly marked), the unit says “recalculating” and in a jiffy advised me to hang a uey in a quarter mile, then talked me back through my proper turn.

The display is bright and legible (I can read it, and I am more than 50), and useful information shown includes your current speed (it appears my speedo has been off all these years by more than 10 mph!!!), the time to your next turn, and your estimated time of arrival, based on your progress. The windshield mount works very well, using a suction cup with a vacuum clamp, and articulated joints let you position the unit where it can see the satellites and you can see it without blocking your view of the road. The built-in swing-out antenna seems to work very well; you would only need an external antenna if you had heavily tinted windshields or an in-screen heating system blocking the satellite signals, according to the instructions.

Which brings me to about the only other gripe I have about the Quest, and one for which I almost deducted a star, which is the instructions. Though the hardware and software manuals are well written, this rig cries out for a Quick Start card highlighting a few essential pieces of information, including where to find a useful tutorial on downloading maps into the Quest, which direction is now helpfully buried in an obscure Appendix at the back of one of the manuals. If you’re new to GPS, as I was, expect to spend a long afternoon and evening reading and fiddling, before you get a grip on the technology. Otherwise setup all ran smoothly.

And the Quest got me right to my gig; even better, with the push of one button, it got me home again that night. Now if there’s anything harder than finding a place when you have bad directions, try finding your way home in the dark, attempting to reverse those same poor directions!!! With the Quest, getting home is a piece of cake. I also tried the Quest on foot, and it led me right to my friend’s building in Stuyvesant Town, not an easy place to find for the uninitiated!

Basically I’m telling everyone in the band to get one of these, and if you do a fair amount of driving — and a fair amount of getting lost — I’m telling you to get one too! This is already one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century!

One addendum (written a week later): it turns out that Garmin DOES include a Quick Start card — which they hide in a pocket behind one of the software disks, where you will probably never find it! Unfortunately, except for a chart showing shortcut commands, this card doesn’t tell you the really useful stuff, like what the base maps cover compared to the detailed maps or where to find the map downloading tutorial.

So my comment about the documentation holds — if you start at the BACK of the various manuals and work forward, you might make faster progress learning the system! Nevertheless the unit works so well, you will forgive the slow learning curve the first time the tiny tyke guides you straight home from a strange place in the middle of the night…

I would also like to add a comment about another reviewer’s claim that the voice prompts are confusing to follow. In my experience, the voice prompts have been right on. In fact, every time I’ve approached a confusing intersection, or even a bend in the road, the voice pipes up with “keep [right or left] on [name of road].” Coupled with the big bright turn arrows on the screen, the voice makes it pretty clear where you’re supposed to go; and if you still do make the wrong turn, the unit will re-route you in a jiffee.

Again, I couldn’t be more impressed with the performance of the Quest. It truly does everything the larger Garmin units do except allow for memory expansion, plus it’s pocket-sized so it can help you find your way on foot in a strange city or on a hike…

I bought the Garmin Quest as a factory GPS system was not available on my car. Also for the fact that it costs about 1/3 of the price of a factory installed GPS system. Overall I am happy with the unit however for anyone looking to buy this unit these are just some things you should be aware of:

1) You cannot just depend on the voice prompts to guide you on your way, you need to also glance at the map. The reason is that it has a limited vocab for voice prompts so it can be confusing. For example many times it says keep left/right when it wants you to go straight. A couple of times I thought it wanted me to turn left when it said keep left. Thankfully it automatically recalculated the route. Answer: anytime it says keep left/right or turn left/right just glance at the map to truly understand where it wants you to go.

2) Similar to the above it doesnt have proper voice prompts for rotaries. If you were to take the second exit on a rotary, the system would say “in x feet keep left then turn right”. Look at the map you will see what you are supposed to do.

3) The screen is small, especially if you want to pan the map looking at alternative routes while in the car. Thankfully it does zoom into an intersection so you can see the lay of the land when you are coming to a turn.

4) I was driving in Manhattan and because of all the tall buildings it would have a hard time locking on to my position. Often it would announce “lost satellite reception”. I ended up zooming into the map with the proposed route and started guiding myself as it lost my location for several minutes. It works much better in the suburbs.

5) The routing system was a bit weird. Even though I set the system to take me from Manhattan to Long Island on the “fastest route” it insisted on taking me through the small streets of Brooklyn instead of the highway. Tweaking the settings from best route (spends more time calculating the route) to quickest calculation (least time spent calculating the route) while still retaining the get me there on the “fastest route” setting finally got me using the highways.

6) So far the mapping has been pretty accurate except for once in Boston it asked me to take a left when there was a no left turn sign. Still to see how often map updates will be made available. New construction will throw the device off.

7) The directory of points of interest is very good. We were able to find all the restaurants we were looking for in New York (it also had their phone numbers so we were able to make reservations).

Overall the device does work and does get you there. It can be a little confusing thats all. It is easy to use and enter data, easier than the Garmin streetpilot. As for losing satellite reception I am sure all small units like this would suffer the same problem. (FYI factory car based systems usually predict your position even if they lose satellite reception (they call it dead reckoning) – but they are much more expensive). The size is great we walked the streets of New York and it took us where wanted to go (you can set it to optimize routes for pedestrian vs car – this way it ignores one way streets). Voice prompts only work in the car not when you are walking as the speaker is built into the cigarette lighter plug.

Still if I had to compare it to a factory car based GPS system I would say its 85% of the product for 30% of the money. Good value!

This product is what I consider to be a great blend of field-based GPS devices and automotive-based GPS devices. I was initially interested in purchasing a unit that would offer me the convenience of electronic mapping with the ability to route and still be portable and durable enough to be used on an outdoor adventure. A Garmin dealer in my area was strongly recommending an eMap. It had most of the features I was looking for but that product has actually been discontinued, the display is gray scale and the technology for computer interface is at least 4 years old. (I’m talking serial cable connections here.) Still, it was looking like the best option and I was about the pull the trigger and buy when someone walked into the store with a printout of the Quest from Garmin’s website. It was fortunate for me that I was there at that moment because the Quest is exactly what I was looking for.

This device is a smaller version of the StreetPilot series but it’s completely portable and fits in the breast pocket of a dress shirt or pants pocket so it’s great in an urban environment. The battery life is listed at 20 hours between charges and it has a whopping 115mb of internal memory which means you don’t have to mess with data cards. The product ships with Garmin’s City Select v6 and I’ve found the maps to be extremely accurate in the Phoenix metro area. (I think this is a good test of the software since Phoenix is one of the fastest growing communities in the US and we’ve got new roads going in all the time.) The display is full color and can be user modified to meet personal tastes. It also comes with a UBS computer interface cable, suction cup windshield mount/DC battery charger and an AC battery charger for indoor use. (You can find all the technical information on this unit at Garmin’s website.) Oh, did I mention that it talks too?

Like other StreetPilot devices, this unit has a speaker built into the DC battery charging cable but unlike other StreetPilot devices, the Quest has a volume control. The voice technology is very clear and easy to understand and the timing of the directional advice is very accurate. The unit creates routes very quickly and the “find” feature is simple and straightforward. I do a lot of city driving, (approximately 50,000 miles per year) and I’m constantly looking up addresses in my map book. This device not only speeds up the process but also gives me the convenience of displaying a route combined with the ability to find local businesses, restaurants and points of interest along the way. (I can see this device being very handy when planning our next road trip in that we’ll be able to locate places in other cities with relative ease.) The device is also very quick to recalculate your route should you deviate from the one previously created. I’ve found that it can update itself within the space of ½-mile while driving at about 40mph on city streets.

(…)

Overall, I think this device is a great buy for the casual outdoor adventurer and urban warrior.

(…)

I would like to [tell that of problem of] the unit not displaying a full screen compass. Upon further tinkering, I have discovered that not only is a compass screen available but also a bearing pointer screen! These screens become available when you select “off road” as the method for creating a route and are viewable by pressing the ‘page’ button. (Either the compass or the bearing pointer will come up and you can then switch between them by pressing ‘menu’ and selecting the one you want to see.) This unit is now, in my considered opinion, the ultimate blend of urban and rural navigation and a darn fine geocaching device. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Oh, and make that rating a “5 Star” please.

Product: Garmin 010-00408-02 List Price: $799.99 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I am currently trying out the Garmin 2720 and the Magellan 6000, both top end units, to see which one I am going to keep. Tough choice ! Both are terrific for routing, have all the advanced features, like text to speech and traffic info option, but neither one is perfect.

Here are the pros and cons of the Garmin 2720, as compared to the Magellan Roadmate 6000:

Pros:

1. The maps of the 2720 are much more readable. On the 6000, it is hard to see which street label belongs to which line. The 6000 is also practically useless to use as a map (just scrolling and zooming around), since it is way too slow and jumpy. The 2720 is perfect in these respects. Scrolling is very smooth. When a destination is entered, the corresponding map is shown, and can be zoomed in. Very cool. I had first tested the 6000, and once I tried the 2720 I could not believe how good it was (or how bad the 6000 was). The map quality is a difference like day and night. With the 6000, I had trouble to understand the map even for the areas I am familiar with, like the block around our home or office.

2. Dash mount. I prefer the beanbag mount of the 2720, since it is easy to move from one car to another, or to stow away. Plus, the windshield mount is not legal in CA. For the 6000, no beanbag option is offered yet. With the beanbag mount, the unit does usually sit a little farther away from the driver (at least in my car), but this is no problem with the 2720, since it has a convenient remote control.

Cons:

1. No battery ! Very annoying that you can program your route on the 2720 only after starting the car. This problem is compounded by the long startup time of the 2720 (around 10 sec vs. 1 second for the 6000), and the fact that the 2720 does not start to navigate until it has a satellite lock. So when I start the car, enter my destination and start driving, there will be no directions. The 2720 then has trouble to get the inital satellite lock while driving, so I have to pull over and wait until it has the lock and gives directions. The 6000 starts navigating from the last known position. Also, I can take the 6000 home and program it from my sofa, then take it with me to the car and start driving.

2. Interactive POI: most POI (like restaurants) are not displayed on the 2720 map. You need to search for them via menu, and then get a list. On the 6000, you see the icons for restaurants, gas station etc. displayed right on the map, and you can click on an icon to get details or to have the 6000 plot the route to them.

3. POI search. On the 2720, you can only search for POI around your current location, or any other specific location that you need to enter first. If you don’t know the approximate location, you are out of luck. With the 6000, you can enter a restaurant name and bring up matches for the whole state. I used it to find a restaurant in a city 300 miles away, and it only took a few seconds. On the 2720, it was very difficult to find it at all.

4. Destination search. If you enter a city or street that does not exist (due to typo), the 2720 will bring up a prompt “Not found”. The 6000 is much smarter and does not even let you enter something invalid. If you enter the first city letter, for example, then it presents only those letters for your choice of the 2nd letter that correspond to actual cities in the database, others are grayed out. Very convenient.

5. Destination entry order. With the 6000, you enter the street first. You can omit prefixes like N or S. It will then show you the available range of numbers. This is very convenient if you just want to drive to a certain street (i.e. you know that a certain restaurant is on that street), but don’t know the number. Enter the street first on the 6000, then pick some number in the middle of the available range and go. It will also figure out the street prefix based on the number. With the 2720, you need to enter the number first, and then later you get a prompt to correct it if it was invalid.

6. Locate button. The 6000 has one. Press it, and it shows you city and nearby street and other details, and you can also save it. The 2720 has no such feature.

7. Route options. Both have “shortest time” or “shortest distance” options, but only the 6000 also has options “prefer freeways” and “avoid freeways”.

8. Screen size. The 6000 screen is a bit larger.

I have not made a decision yet. Even though there are only two areas where the 2720 has the advantage over the 6000, these two points weigh heavily. Especially the map readability, since this is one of the main reasons to have a GPS. As I said, tough choice.

UPDATE AS OF 08/21/06:

I returned the Magellan 6000. Due to the poor map display, it was of little use, no matter what features it offered.

The 2720, even with the shortcommings listed above, is much more usable and even enjoyable in daily use. I have also updated it’s firmware with the latest version from the Garmin website (was very easy to do), and now at least item 3 (POI search) is pretty much fixed. It still takes quite long to find a POI that is far away (2 minutes vs. 10 seconds on the 6000, for a POI 300 miles away). But at least you can find it at all, plus it gives an indication of the increasing search radius while it is searching. Since such a search scenario is pretty infrequent, I can live with the delay. The fact that Garmin improved the firmware also makes me hopefull that some of the other shortcommings can be fixed over time (except for the missing battery of course).

As for the missing battery, we compared the 2720 against the Garmin nuvi 360, which has a very similar feature set and operation, but includes a battery. The nuvi 360 has some advantages, it’s ideal for carrying around and has a few extras like MP3 player. Still, our verdict was to stick with the 2720. This was mosty my wife’s decision who by now has fallen in love with the 2720. It was due to the follwing advantages the 2720 has over the nuvi:

- 2720 has a larger and brighter display

- 2720 sits very secure on it’s beanbag mount and can be moved easily to another vehicle. It feels and is more robust.

- 2720 includes the City Navigator on DVD, where you can plan your route ahead of time and make changes, then download it to the 2720. This is invaluable for larger trips. Even if you don’t make any changes, it is very helpful to preview the route on the larger computer screen, zoom into sections etc. We tried it for one route and found it to be terrific. (Only inconvenience again is that you need to connect the unit to an AC adaptor in addition to the computer as it has no battery)

- The audio is a bit better, due to the larger speaker

So bottom line, we decided on this GPS, the Garmin Street Pilot 2720. I’ll keep it a 3 stars for it’s missing battery and other smaller shortcommings, but after our research it’s still the best unit out there.

UPDATE AS OF 08/28/06:

We have now completed our first longer trip with the 2720, and it worked out great. So we are confident that we made the right decision. Routing was efficient, it picked the perfect routes and guided us flawlessly. The best part however, as compared to other devices, is the terrific quality of the map display. It looks that the 2720 is smart enough to always show the right angle and zoom, depending where you are (on highway, approaching a ramp, in rural area, in city streets etc), to give you the most information. Also, the map is very easy and quick to grasp, even in an unfamiliar area, which is important while driving. Just to give an example: While on the highway, traffic was slowing, and we could see a jam ahead. There was also an exit just comming up. Wondering if I should take it, I glanced at the 2720 and saw that it displayed the exit, highlighted a parallel street a few blocks away, and even showed at a bird’s eye view how that street would merge back onto our highway a few miles away. So I just took the exit, and the 2720 recalculated the route immediately and guided me on the parallel road and then back onto the highway later. Voila, the jam was gone. I did not have to press any button or interact with the 2720 in any way while doing the detour. I guess when using the traffic info feature, the 2720 would even do such recommendation proactively, but I have not tried this yet. It works just fine the way it is.

To round this review up, during daily use we have found that we do not miss the few firmware shortcommings that much (and Garmin is improving on them). The battery we do miss a bit, but less than we originally thought. You will have to decide for yourself, of course. We found that once the novelty of the GPS wears off, we no longer carry the unit home that much to play with it (for which we’d miss the battery). And while driving, we just enjoy the precise directions and the terrific map.

I have been playing around with GPS for 5 years. Until I got this Garmin 2720, it’s all just been a waste of money.

The 2720 is a great practical tool. I travel all the time, and finally, I’ve been liberated from MapQuest, Yahoo Maps and Microsoft Streets & Maps. This is a practical tool that really works.

My last purchase was a Belkin Bluetooth GPS receiver to connect too my iPaq. A total waste of money, as were my previous GPS toys.

The 2720 is the first GPS product I’ve bought that really makes sense. It’s simple, and easy to use, and it’s ready to go right out of the box.

The screen is readable in all lighting conditions, and the 3D view is easy to read at a glance. The text-to-speech feature really makes it. You really don’t have to look at the screen that often. It speaks the names of the streets and tells you where to turn exactly how to get to your destination.

You’ll want to enable WAAS right away (It’s disabled initially in the default settings) because it keeps the system from spontaneously recalculating your route and taking you on wild goose chases. After enabling WAAS, it has been very accurate.

The user interface is very intuitive and easy to use, and you really don’t need a manual. I really love the ability to find nearby restaurants and shopping places.

The beanbag mount is great for all the cars I rent on business trips… Just slap it on the dashboard, plug it in and go. I was considering a Garmin C340 initially, but for the small difference in price, why buy a crippled low-end, hard-to-read-in-sunlight unit? You’ll be sorry you didn’t go for the 2720 if you buy a C330 or C340. The 2720 has the same easy-to-use interface as the C3xx with a much more readable screen, and far more features.

Honestly, I can’t find anything wrong with this unit. Buy one. You’ll be glad you did.

What in the world are the people giving one star ratings reviewing?

Surely they don’t have the same GPS I recieved a few days ago. I’m sure they think their complaints are valid — I just don’t see it.

I’ve been using m[ine for four days and love. RIght out of the box and on my dash in forty minutes. Would have been even quicker but I took time t read the reviews and update the firmware to the latest version as well as the new voice (JILL) from Garmin’s site. Perhaps that’s what made the difference.

No freezes. No unexpected reboots. Been smooth sailing all the way.

A few things that weren’t documented.

The GPS can be tiled forward and backward as well as rotated on it’s mount. I was a bit concerned when I first put the unit on my dash because my dash angles back. I was afraid I would be able to get a good angle in sunlight to see the screen. Garmin’s mount design is brilliant but I discoverd the tilt feature quite by accident when I grapsed the unit to push down on the self-adhesive gasket.

I live near Chicago — very congested area constantly changing. I was pleasantly surprised the mapset has a lot of recent developments.

One thing I thought I would hate is the speaker on the power cable. But it angles back to lie flush with the dash and I LOVE the sound. My old TOM TOM could barely be heard over road noise once I got over 55 mph. The GARMIN speaker is high quality and the female voice isn’t drowned out. Very responsive as far as routing and prompting turns. Much faster than my old GPS 60CS in fact.

I have a route to a local beach on Lake Michigan which features a series of rapid turns in succession. The 2720 keeps up with amazing speed. And if I miss a turn it seems to detect it much quicker than my 60CS and reroutes almost immediately.

I couldn’t be more pleased with this purchase. I toyed with the idea of getting the 2730 but XM Radio/XM Traffic just wasn’t something I was interested in at this point in time.

I highly recommend this device.

If you buy it UPDATE the firmware immediately and update the voice. The new firmware features a new interface/map layout than what’s shown in the promo pics on Amazon and Garmin. The Turn Arrow icon has been moved of the sidebar and now overlays the map. And the Direction Text is no longer across the top in a greenbar but on the sidebar in a box. Much more pleasing to the eye in my opinon.

It’s also a much more stable device than it apparently was several months ago. WHich is typical of GPS units. THe bugs get worked out slowly in a series of firmware updates.