Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have owned the Garmin nuvi 850 for a couple of months, and have made several trips with it. I find it to be a mostly reliable GPS navigation unit, and recommend this product, with some reservations.
Its principal benefits are:
* Voice recognition works under most conditions, at least where substantial noise is not an issue. It is necessary to interact at the speed of the unit, waiting for your turn to speak, which is indicated both visually and audibly. The voice-activation remote control is a clever tool for accessing this feature, although placement of the remote on the steering wheel in such a way as to avoid accidental activations is difficult. Once voice recognition is active, the unit does not always understand commands on the first attempt, but I found that reducing fan speed on the vehicle's air conditioner (to reduce background noise) usually helps with this.
* The menus are generally user-friendly, although there is a learning curve that requires some practice for less frequently used areas. The menus are not always intuitive. For example, having user-defined routes as an item separate from favorites, rather than as a sub-menu under favorites adds a memory component when trying to access that feature.
* The directional voice prompts are timely, and match the visual cues provided on screen. I found the male British voice to be the most easily understood under most road conditions.
* The low-glare screen is consistently viewable in a variety of lighting conditions, although somewhat less so in the brightest light. It is, however, difficult to keep clear of fingerprints and smudges that produce their own glare and can interfere with viewing.
* Routing and re-routing is fairly quick. The initial route calculation tends to take several seconds, and slows for more complicated mapping. The closer you are to the destination, the more rapidly the calculation or re-calculation seems to take place. Most routes seem quite efficient, with only an occasional questionable route selection offered.
My principal complaints with the unit are:
* Battery life is short. Expect to run this unit under car power for trips much longer than an hour. Also, removal of the battery between trips was the only means I found to reliably keep the battery from draining with the unit off, even in as little as a couple of weeks on the shelf. The inability to charge the unit via USB with the unit turned off is not a great concern, but does lengthen the charging time requirement.
* Maps that do not reflect current information. Usually this was most noticeable for highway speed limits that had changed, sometimes several years earlier, and for points of interest that did not match actual conditions. Routing can sometimes be misleading as well. For example, when trying to locate a Post Office, I was routed to an adjacent highway from which there was not a direct entrance.
* FM transmission is a feature without much reliability, given the constantly changing nature of radio signal interference on trips of more than the shortest distance. However, the audible prompts are loud enough to be heard from the unit directly, and sound even better over headphones.
* While rare, I have experienced lengthy (several minute-long) delays in satellite acquisition on system start-up. When it happens, it negates the value of the product, but the nuvi 850 still outperforms an earlier GPS unit that frequently dropped satellite connection while in transit. At least I have not experienced that problem with the nuvi 850 yet, and most of the time, it acquires satellite information in a matter of seconds on start-up.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Garmin nüvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Voice Command and FM Transmitter (Soft Black)
Simply speaking, nuvi 850 is one advanced navigator. It features voice-activated navigation, a widescreen display, preloaded maps, an FM transmitter and more. Like the rest of the wide nuvi 800-series, just speak a menu option and nuvi obeys your command. Speak Commands nuvi 850 not only tells you where to turn but listens to your spoken commands. With nuvi's innovative speech recognition, you safely control nuvi's interface with your voice — allowing you to keep both hands on the wheel. Simply press the button on the remote (which attaches to the steering wheel) to activate speech recognition and begin speaking menu options. nuvi even recognizes shortcut phrases for popular functions. Tell nuvi "Find Address" and speak an address to start navigating.
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