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I recently bought a Nuvi 850. Here's my advice for what it's worth.
The proper value of a Nav system comes from the fundamentals.
* Receiver
* Maps
* Routing Engine
* Display
* User Interface
Garmin does a solid job in all these areas. But that's not why you're paying a premium for an 800 series Nuvi.
This model has a couple of "nice to have" features that were introduced on the 700 series of Nuvi's.
* Where Am I
* Where's My Car
Both are very well implemented and can be very handy. But again, all of the stuff I mentioned so far can be found in a Nuvi costing $300 less.
So what are you paying a premium for?
* Negate Recognition
* User Replaceable Battery
* Front Mounted Speakers
Well, the front mounted speakers are level-headed drowned out by moderate road noise. So, I wouldn't pay a nickel for that. The only staunch sound solution remains the FM transmitter that everyone complains about. It works OK for me, in my car, in my region. Your mileage may vary.
The user replaceable battery is generous. For $30 you can carry a spare battery and go totally wireless in the car or exercise the Nuvi for 8 hours of walking around a city. I'd pay for that. In fact, every portable procedure should have user replaceable batteries.
OK, that leaves the "Substantial Kahuna" feature, notify recognition. Don't occupy the hype from the professional reviews or some of the hosanna's being thrown around in Amazon reviews.
Does it work? Yes, it works amazingly well. In a lifeless still environment.
With moderate road noise or even indoors with a TV at indecent volume 15 feet away the thing to gets confused about what it's "hearing". It should have a microphone with coarse sensitivity and high directionality to camouflage out fraudulent noise. A itsy-bitsy DSP noise filtering wouldn't injure either. Unfortunately, the standard piezo mic that Garmin also uses for bluetooth phone calls will prefer up any sound coming from any direction. The result is that whine recognition becomes an excercise in frustration.
Still, I'm gonna preserve the darned thing. I'll simply enter destinations in the aloof of my home, office, hotel room, or a restaurant before heading out on the road. The remote will live in my briefcase. It does achieve you from a lot of unimaginative keyboard entry. But, it is not the mobile safety feature that reviews would have you own since announce commands are all but useless in a car. You can fetch essentially the same features in a Nuvi 760 and achieve yourself $300.
Your decision.
EDIT: Update.....OK maybe I was a bit harsh first time round. I have found that the unit will reply with moderate background noise.....some of the time.....if you cry at it. It appears to have the ability to lock in on the loudest sound it "hears". So, if you are relatively cessation to the microphone and roar really loud (yowl), it does answer some of the time.
On the upside, connecting to the Garmin website was very easy. I registered the 850, downloaded the newest firmware, and downloaded/installed the latest maps (2009), all in about ten mintues without a glitch.
I am a Realtor and have been using my Garmin GPS for almost four years. (It was the 2720 and had cost $999 when I bought it.) It's invaluable to me in my business. Today it died as I was previewing a dozen homes and I went aid to where I bought it originally and picked up an 850. Boy, am I disappointed!
The recent graphics will grasp some getting frail to, but that's not the pickle. With the newer technology and all the bells and whistles, I had expected this unit to be MORE intuitive than my outmoded one. Turns out it's not. Twice it told me it could not win addresses in older neighborhoods where my archaic Garmin never had a jam. I had to guess my arrangement across weird areas to accept them and, distinct enough, once I got there, the street names registered on my veil. I immediately saw what happened but was panicked that Garmin hadn't picked up the tiny differences.
One street is named McLain Road. I typed in Mclain (runt "l") and it couldn't derive it. The weak Garmin dilapidated all upper-case letters, so it found every address regardless of upper or lower case. This one obviously needs you to know which to employ -- very frustrating. The second one is spelled Hollowbrooke Lane. I typed in in every which procedure I could contemplate of -- Hollow Brooke Lane, Hollow Brook Lane, Hollowbrook Lane, etc. Now that I'm home and could play with it a small, clear enough, it found it. I should have typed in "Ln" instead of Lane and it had Hollowbrooke without the "e." When I had typed in Hollowbrook Lane, it couldn't net it because I spelled out the word Lane. Again, the conventional Garmin knew that Lane and Ln were the same thing.
Another very annoying thing I found missing on this novel one which was on my frail Garmin was the point to of streets. Typically, each street will prove up as I win arrive it, whether I'm turning onto it or not. With the 850 it doesn't prove streets unless they are major thoroughfares. I finally clicked on the "plus" button twice in succession and it started to give me lines (which represented streets), but it rarely showed the name of the street. Again, the broken-down Garmin showed every street you came up to.
The stutter prompts are also unreliable. Several times the sing prompt did not match up with the cover and if I tried to retort based on what I saw on the conceal (for example, a city was on the cloak and the drawl was asking for a street address), I could not net it to sync and had to open all over or (more often than not) unbiased gave up and tapped the information into the GPS. Again, a nice belief but frustrating if it's not working properly!
I can't figure out why this newer model would be LESS intuitive than the conventional system. I'll play with it for a few days, but at the designate I paid, I won't be keeping it very long if I can't figure out how to earn this work better.
And, not to beat a humdrum horse here, but I'm frightened that the unit doesn't arrive with a carrying case. I fair bought my daughter a nuvi 350 last week for her birthday and it cost a portion of what the 850 cost -- and it had a carrying case! SHAME on you, Garmin!
This unit functions perfectly as it is described. The voice-activation is nearly perfect. Probably one of the best implementations to date that I can remember. The plan is a bit under-detailed for the trace but it gets you where you need to go. Stutter commands from the unit are very easy to understand. Controls are easy to navigate as are the menu options. One thing that I deem is a bit ridiculous is the absence of Bluetooth Hands-Free calling. For $800 they could have included that and it is the reason that I gave it four stars instead of 5. Many of the options included with the diagram are useless to me to be just. Games? Portray viewer? MP3 player? I don't need any of these but the voice-commands for unit control are awesome.
If you have the money to acquire this unit, rep it... if not sight at some of the lower-priced 700-series Nuvi's
