| Products Electronics & Photo GPS Garmin nuvi 680 | Satisfaction | Experience | |
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| Name | Date | Helpfulness | Review | Overall satisfaction | Ease of use | Quality of Manufacture | Durability | more... |
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| Amazon.com customer | 2008-05-16 | | Outdated maps,, which is the essence of a GPS, isnt it? | 4 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | After so much research, I bought this item and was terribly dissapointed when I tried to use it in New Jersey.. First, its a world renowned fact that there is no LEFT turn in New Jersy,, but this little dangerous unit asked me to take a left turn on Route 1!! Also, it called New Jersey Turnpike another name, showed roads which existed 10 years ago, took me to places I had no clue where I was and turned me few times around a shopping complex when I could clearly see where I couldve entered without wasting my time. In Washington, Issaquah area,, the map shows me I am off the highway on a service road ( that doesnt exist) when I was on Hwy90 going West. To me defence, I did try to update the maps and it told me there was no updates available. I even bought the MSN subscription,, which was okay but not giving me traffic information when I am driving,, rather I had to go to MSN menu ( while driving) to look for traffic information what a joke!! I tried to save a location and it took me a while to figure it out,,, its not like a regular navigation where you can mark the point. The POI never comes up while you are driving,, you need to know where you want to go first and it will take you just there but wont show other POIs around the location. All in all, one thing that works good is the bluetooth pairing and the dumbed down menu, which frankly, I didnt really care about. I am really dissapointed in this GPS and would ask the company employees to use it themselves and feel how it is to take a left turn on a highway!! | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 4 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-03-30 | | I Love This Thing! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I already had two conventional GPS devices before I got the Garmin nuvi 680. To be precise, I should say before I won the nuvi in a raffle. Yes, I'm a lucky bastard. The reason I bring this up is because I would never have bought what I called a "driving" GPS, not when I had two other perfectly acceptable devices (a Geko 201 and an eTrex, both Garmins). Mainly, I used these for Geocaching and if ever I needed a real-time map, hooking the GPS to my laptop running Streets and Trips was all I needed. I'm so glad to say I was wrong--the Garmin nuvi 680 is a technological wonder that goes beyond anything I expected. First, the screen is bright and beautiful, the colors simply pop and it all stands out for readability in everything but the most direct sunlight. Second, the features on it are incredible (a built-in MP3 starts things off nicely and three free audio books from audible.com are included). Featuring a vast database of data, one can easily search for, and more importantly, find just about anything nearby: food, hotels and motels, theaters, ATMs and banks, entertainment. And with the purchase of an MSN Direct subscription--there is a one-year free subscription that comes with the GPS--you get access to the closest gas stations *with pricing*. I don't need to bore you with the feature set because that's easy to find, but I'll relate my experience in using it. Starting the device is easy: either push the power button (duh) or simply attach it to the car charger/mounting platform which is held to the windscreen by means of a pretty good suction cup that locks into place. If the car is on and providing a charge through to the charger, the device will turn on. How clever and convenient! By the way, I've had rather good performance from the suction cup, but you need to make sure that both the surface of the cup and the windshield is clean. Actually using the nuvi is easy: the screen is touch sensitive (although I wish it were more sensitive because I feel like I need to almost bang on the screen sometimes to get a result) and the device works by touching "buttons" shown. If you're not a reader of manuals like me, diving in to using it is also easy and very self-explanatory. Grandma shouldn't have too much trouble with this thing. It presents you with a logical flow to things: first, where do you want to go? At this point, that database comes into play. If it knows the city you're in (hey, it's a GPS!), you can choose to go either to an address, or you can search for other establishments and even parking. All by touching the screen. Now, for safety's sake, you understand this can get a bit distracting while driving and it's not like I haven't changed options and such while driving myself, but care needs taking when you're working the nuvi. It's dangerous to divide concentration like this and in fact, the nuvi shows a warning about this on each boot up to which the user has to acknowledge. The Bluetooth feature is incredibly useful. It offers a hands-off connection to your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone with all the usual features (voice dialing, etc.). I really found it useful because the driver actually sees the incoming phone number while driving. One pairing exercise is all that's required and from then on, anytime the two are in proximity of each other, they connect up. The sound is excellent and I found I didn't need to raise my voice when using Bluetooth. The really amazing thing is, the nuvi can broadcast to one's car radio. This means that instead of the small (although powerful) built-in speakers, you can converse with your pesky friend and hear sound throughout your car! MP3s and audio books can also be broadcast through the radio. This features is hit-or-miss for me though; there are times I can't get the transmission to work and others it works great! I'm still experimenting with this and with the various frequencies to find the best. As a GPS user, I know that GPS signals are attenuated or degraded in certain conditions--like buildings in most downtown areas. Heavy overhead tree cover will also attenuate signals, but in my experimentation so far, the logic built into the nuvi seems to handle these problems quite well: it simply "knows" which street you're on, even if it's only receiving a partial set of satellite signals. I'm not 100% sure about this, but it seems to make sense. A word (the last) on the turn-by-turn guidance and instructions. This is one feature I LOVE. Why? Well, say I have a turn coming up to the left but right afterwards, I need to be in the right lane because either my destination is on the right or the next turn is coming up on the right. Well, the nuvi handles this perfectly by giving you this exact information. That right there is the reason I'll be buying another nuvi if this one, hopefully not for a while, bites the dust. Excellent, REALLY excellent. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-03-18 | | A look at the Bluetooth on the Garmin Nuvi 680 | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | There have been lot's of reviews regarding the GPS side of the Garmin Nuvi 680. Here's my review of the Bluetooth features: With California banning the holding of a cellphone to your ear while driving, you're stuck with either a headset, a hands free Bluetooth unit, or using your phone's built-in speaker. I don't want to try and put on a headset in time to catch a call or try to hear the speakerphone over all the road noise. Plus the Bluetooth hands free sets are currently overpriced in my opinion. This is where the Nuvi 680 shines. When a call comes in, the Nuvi 680 shows the number. And even better, it will show the name I've assigned it in my contacts. A simple press of the touch screen and you're talking hands free. I use the FM transmitter to beam the conversation over a radio station so I can hear over the outside noise. It also handles a second call coming in (like the flash option on your home phone) so you can switch between callers easily. You can also use the on-screen dial pad to place calls. If you're on a call that requires the pressing of an extension number, the dial pad screen works for that too. But Garmin didn't stop there. When you use the points of interest (POI) to find a place (restaurants, hotels, stores, etc.) and there's a phone number for that place, you can call it just by hitting the phone icon on the screen. I've used this feature many times to get things like movie times, place food orders, and see when a store is closing. I found this feature very handy when I'm traveling. Another feature I liked is how my contact list from my cell phone shows up on the screen. This is a nice feature as I don't have to re-type them into the unit. Simply press the 'Phone Book' icon on the screen to access the phone numbers on your cell phone. The Nuvi 680 also supports voice dial tags. It will use the voice tags that you created on your cell phone. This could be a mixed bag depending your cell phone's voice tag quality. I use Microsoft's Voice Command 1.6 which has the ability to simply say the phone number I want to dial. This is handy when I can't press the individual numbers to dial out. My only complaint is the screen doesn't show what's happening until the call starts. This can be a problem if the cell phone misinterpreted the voice tag and starts dialing the wrong number. There are other options on the Nuvi 680 like a quick call home button. I also like the Call History button as it shows calls I've missed, dialed, or received. Again this information is gathered from your cell phone so it's always available whether the Nuvi was being used or not. The Nuvi 680 can also handle text messaging if you're phone supports Bluetooth 2.0 too. I could not test this feature as my phone doesn't support bluetooth 2. I currently have the Cingular 8125. It's a little old but you can't beat the battery life compared to other smart phones! Overall I've been very pleased the phone options on the Garmin Nuvi 680. I don't have to use a headset! Plus having the phone conversation beamed to the radio for increased loudness is great. While Bluetooth Hands free systems are nice, the high price you pay for one can be applied to the Nuvi 680. You'll get far more features than a simple speaker attached to your sun visor. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-03-08 | | Save Your Money, Do Not Buy This Product | 2 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | My advice is to save your money and not buy the 680. The MSN feature is worthless and unreliable. I live in Minneapolis (where there's supposedly a strong signal) and yet the MSN system has gone "inactive" seven times in the six months I've owned the 680. Each time means a long wait while MSN re-sends the signal, and the inconvenience of not having the feature work. I have updated the software, pushed every button MSN has suggested, and still the device continues to fail. This is the worst major purchase (defined as a product over $500) that I have ever made. So do yourself a favor, and don't make the same mistake I made buying Garmin. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 2 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-02-12 | | My 3rd Garmin in a month, and I'm still missing that Nuvi 650 | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I recently received a 650 as a gift. It was a beautiful device. I then decided to get more bells and whistles and got a nuvi 750. Big mistake. The 750 was buggy so I returned it, too many updates to it, etc. POI's were missing. I then decided to return the 650 and get my wife and myself the Nuvi 680. It's has the same beautiful screen as the 650, all the POI names show up, parks, golf courses etc. However, the 680 bluetooth for some reason is not compatible with the bluetooth on my Treo 755p (Sprint). I did get it to work but it freezes my phone the first 2 attempts, then works on the 3rd attempt. My wife has a Blackberry Pearl-8100, from t-mobile, which is on the compatibility list but the Nuvi 680 never finds it or recognizes it at all, go figure. The phone that shouldn't work now does, the phone that should work never has. MSN Direct is typical Microsoft bloatware and undelivered promises. It takes days to receive any data, then looses it if you turn your 680 off for 2 days or more. Microsoft hasn't done anything right since Office '03 or XP. They are all talk and don't really deliver much of anything. MSN Direct gives me movie times for Oakland and SF, 45 miles away, but has never found the AMC-15 exactly 1 mile from my house! Explain that. Gas prices usually show up with no gas station name and no address. Very useful. Traffic reporting is another joke, I won't even get into that. It does give weather info, but I could get that every 12 minutes on my local AM CBS news station. I'm giving it 4 stars only because I love the screen, the color and sharpness of the text and the great job it does as a GPS unit, displaying POI names, etc. It's a great GPS but does everything else rather poorly, and MSN Direct is not free forever after the free trial. I should have stuck with the nice, simple Nuvi 650. Get one at the big box store online while you still can for $299. I got the 680 in their store for $399, it was recently $479 (and still is online). If I weren't so tired returning and buying these things I would just go back to the Nuvi 650. It doesn't require any updates and works great. Also, remember this. I have found that with the bluetooth feature, as simple as bluetooth should be, still continues to be a pain, either crashing my phone or not finding another phone at all. These companies sometimes offer more than they can realistically deliver, but overall the 680 is a nice machine that would be better if it were not for the bluetooth problems and the MSN Direct. I should have known to stay away from anything that Microsoft was involved in. If you want a GPS device without too many gimmicks get the Nuvi 650, or a 6XX series without the MP3 player. After using a couple of months, I found a new problem. When using the bluetooth feature with my Palm Treo phone, I notice old address book data on my Nuvi. It's like it brings in the very first address book it ever synced with my phone. I have deleted numbers, corrected typos on my phone, but the Nuvi 680 still shows the old data and numbers. I called Garmin and they say it's coming from my phone, but it's not possible because I completely erased everything on my phone (phone software update). I believe the Garmin has a hidden file somewhere that stores phonebook data and it is not updating. My phone had a major firmware update that wiped out everything, so how did the Garmin find an address book that was wiped clean from my cell phone? | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-01-29 | | great product | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | We took this GPS to Hawaii and it exceeded our expectations. We entered our destination addresses, and it guided us there with voice prompts that were timely and clear. It lets you know how far you will be going on a given road, which direction you'll go when you do turn, and it tells you when the turn is coming up. It also tells again to turn when you come to the intersection. It tells you the name of the street you are turning on, too. It also gives you them in writing at the top of the screen. This is all particularly helpful when the street names are unusual and many are similar to each other (as the Hawaiian ones are to me). At night it is not always possible to read street signs, and the GPS is helpful here because it lets you know you are approaching your street when you are. The map also gives you a pretty good picture of the roads, so you know how sharp a turn is, etc. This can be especially useful on winding roads. If you don't follow its instructions, it is quite prompt in recalculating and telling you how to get back on track. It was also very helpful for finding restaurants and shopping. We haven't used the MSN much yet, as Hawaii didn't have coverage where we were (Honolulu does though). In covered areas, it seems to work fine (though I have yet to be in an area that has traffic reports). Before I got the device, I was not sure if it was Macintosh compatible; it is. Also, the product info I saw didn't tell me you can set it to pedestrian mode, but you can. I'm not sure how much difference it makes, but we tried it off road, and it seemed to work. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2008-01-22 | | Nice travel companion | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | The Garmin 680 has proven an excellent navigation tool. I am in the business of field sales and the 680 has found every location I have thrown at it. The bonus, contrary to expectations of poor performance, has been using the 680 as a hands free phone interface via bluetooth. I have the 680 paired with a Blackberry Curve phone and the handsfree, contact lookup and voice dial features on the phone are nicely integrated into the 680 user interface. I have yet to get a complaint about the sound quality from anyone on the other end of the phone when using the 680 handsfree feature. On occassion, I have to reset the 680 to see the phone once I have left the car and returned. I have a Toyota Prius with a line-in jack to the car stereo. Using the line-in feature for the sound output of the 680 has produced excellent audio quality for both phone and MP3s played from the 680. Surpisingly, the audio quality of the 680 is every bit as good as my iPod nano. The auto mute for phone is very convenient. Even when blasting music, the 680 will mute the music to provide you navigation voice prompts. The MSN feature is a nice novelty but not something I have found useful for real life driving and navigation. I did download red light and speeding camera POIs which have proven useful. When approaching a signal with red light cameras, the unit beeps and the screen displays a red alert dialog box. All in all, I am pleased and recommend the 680 for those that can take advantage of the feature set. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-12-20 | | Awesome GPS at fantastic price through Costco | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I was planning to get Garmin GPS for quite a while, but didn't feel urgency to do so. In the middle of December I noticed that Sharper Image runs special promotion $449.95 for Garmin Nuvi 750. Research revealed that 750 model doesn't have Bluetooth. Comparison through Garmin.com shows that 680 is probably the best model for USA. "The COOLEST Gadget". I got ready to order 680 model through Amazon for the best Internet price of $555, but luckily went to the local COSTCO store. Believe it or not, it was there for $479.99. I have played with it for only a few hours, but so far it is great. The only disappointment is that GPS didn't transfer Phone Book from our two cell phones PPC-6700 and HTC Touch. Otherwise it seems to be very easy to use and really helpful. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-11-12 | | Good GPS Unit, needs some polishing | 6 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Like many other people reviewing this unit, I thought that this is the best GPS unit out there. Now don't get me wrong, this is a very good GPS unit and works well, but there are a few features that could use a bit of polishing. As a car unit, this GPS works well. The screen is wide and has a decent resolution and contrast levels. This makes it easy to read at most times while driving. The touch screen also works well; it is not calibrated so sensitively so that the slightest brush would invoke a menu, nor is it calibrated so that you need to poke a hole through the screen to get it to work. The menu options are laid out quite well, once you get the hang where certain options are located. Most of the time when entering in information about where to go to, the nuvi will only need a few letters to figure out where you're going. However there is one caveat during this process. The nuvi has the ability to search its database according to the whole name or parts of the keywords. This process while nice, doesn't always work when you're beyond a certain range. For example, in New York City while mapping a route to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and History, the nuvi could not locate the museum. I entered in Metropolitan Museum thinking that it would find it, the nuvi did not. When I reduced the keywords to museum, it still did not find it. Only when I entered the entire name did it find the museum. Later on when I was within 15 miles of the museum, I did a search for the museum again, this time it found it quickly. Strange if you ask me. Although the nuvi seems like a portable unit that can be used in the car or in your pocket, it's more at home in the car. The unit, far from being big, isn't all that small either. It also isn't heavy, lighter than my cell phone. However it definitely will not fit in your shirt or pant pocket and activating the GPS receiver requires you to flip up the antenna. While not a bother to flip up the receiver, it adds extra dimensions to the unit. In addition, sometimes it takes a while for the receiver to lock on to the satellites. In Atlanta, the GPS unit works fine, picking up the satellites within a minute or less. In places like New York City, more often than not I could not acquire a satellite lock. The average time it took to lock on to a satellite was 5 minutes or longer. While 5 minutes might not be much sitting in a Starbucks, it is an eternity when you're lost. Sometimes on the highway, especially on the New Jersey Turnpike, the unit said to turn left or right, even though the road is straight with no exits. This probably has more to do with the maps loaded in the unit rather than the unit itself. So it seems like I'm ripping the nuvi for its shortcomings, but there are good points to it too. When you miss a turn or go the wrong way, the unit will quickly recalculate your next route. The mp3 player functionality is an added extra, however this drains the already short battery life. The photo album is more of a gimmick, but if you're traveling around and want to show people pictures, this definitely helps to reduce extra electronics that you would need to carry on. As an all in one travel assistant, the nuvi probably succeeds in being a good GPS unit. Being the best of the GPS units leaves much to be desired. The 2-D maps can be interacted with, allowing you to drag the map to a certain location. So there are a few good points about this unit. It is a very good unit, but if you're looking for a personal GPS unit that you would carry in your pocket and expect a fast response time to lock on to the satellites, look somewhere else. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 6 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-11-02 | | Not quite ready for primetime RV-ing | 6 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I used the Garmin Nuvi 680 GPS on a five thousand mile six week RV tour of National Parks in seven states. Bottom line: the Nuvi has room for improvement for RV drivers. I was frustrated when I tripped over inaccuracies in the Garmin's maps, especially since I had updated the unit just before my trip. I was routed to several businesses that failed over two years ago that are still listed. A couple of RV parks had bad addresses that took me touring the town at the end of a long day. There were a small number of bizarre but obvious misroutings that looked like the old Vermont farmer telling Nuvi that "you can't get there from here", and we drove on 3 or more roads that looked more than a year old which Nuvi didn't know. In general, I estimate that the map database contained an error for every 250-300 miles we travelled. Garmin would do well to have an easier method of reporting these errors to help alleviate user frustration - maybe a "thumbs down" button to tell Garmin/Navteq that there was something wrong: even if users don't have time to detail the error, maybe enough problem reports will help locate inaccuracies and give users some recourse other than getting angry at the GPS. I wanted the product to be more "RV friendly". Nuvi has several automobile service categories, but I could never figure out how to look for an RV park as easily as I could look for a motel, nor could I find repair shops specializing in RV repairs unless there was "RV" in the name (and Nuvi's search function threw in many red herrings such as names including "seRVice".) I found a woeful lack of detail in National Parks (e.g. for seasonal services.) There were many roadside attractions missing altogether. Nuvi has a "truck route" navigation preference, but no "scenic route" for those of us willing to drive farther and slower for prettier roads. Altitude information is hard to locate, and slope information doesn't seem to exist (which is important when you're towing a load). I couldn't figure out how to download any routing information to allow the unit to keep track of where I went on my vacation (even the "Recently Found" waypoints would be useful). I wanted search categories for pets/vets, and for "Doc-in-the-box" businesses separated from hospitals. The MSN Direct coverage is almost useless for the RV kind of cross-country driving we did, and its lack of comprehensive movie theater coverage makes it disappointing for local use as well. I'll be looking for WiFi features in my next GPS. Specifically, I want a WiFi locator that can tell me if I'm in range. And once Nuvi connects to WiFi, it should update information useful to me, such as podcasts and traffic info for my commute. Most of the user interface is useful and optimized for getting places, but there are numerous rough edges. For example, looking up by address requires spelling out the city each and every time (yuk!) And why can't Nuvi import my address book from my email? The "Nearby" and "Spell" buttons seem to be magically implemented (now you see them, now you don't). Looking up a City doesn't sort the list by closest match, so it can take some time to scroll down and find the one I'm looking for. And you should abandon hope for phonetic spelling: if you can't spell where you want to go, you'll struggle to find it. The map display needs some attention, especially for the long stretches of cross country travel. With almost nothing else on the screen most of the time, Garmin could do well to tune the route display to be more useful (e.g. next feature plus next town with services). For routing lists, Garmin could also break up the long stretches of interstate highways with intermediate towns (e.g. "100 miles US-15 to Provo UT" might be divided into ""50 miles US-15 to Salt Lake City UT; 50 miles US-15 to Provo UT"). For all these minor weaknesses, the Nuvi product line is solid and easy for auto touring. Garmin simplifies and optimizes the user interface to facilitate getting you wherever you want to go. As of this writing, the Nuvi 680 attempts to be the most comprehensive "Digital Travel Assistant" in the product line, and begs for the kind of enhancements tuned to distance traveling and to be polished to justify the premium price. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 6 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-10-06 | | Garmin Nuvi 680 Personal Review | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | The Nuvi 680 is a great device, surprisingly useful features on the Nuvi 660 platform with the inclusion of the MSN Direct service. Garmin has incorporated these additional features in an easy to use way that does not detract from the overall aesthetics of the operating system. I have issues with the Bluetooth feature, were it doesn't always notice my cell phone. The MSN direct traffic feature is nice to have, but after the free year is not worth the cost for a membership. Additionally, the MSN function only work when the cable is plugged into the cigarette lighter, why...I have no idea.
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-10-01 | | Nuvi 680 GPS the best | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I previously owned the Magellan 670 and thought it was good; but in next to the the Garmin Nuvi 680 it is not even close. First the reception on the Nuvi 680 (even w/o an external antenna is great) the Magellan would lose the satalite all the time even with an external antenna. Then the Nuvi tells me of traffic problems ahead of time and the ability to down load books and get weather. The Nuvi 680 is better that the units in the new cars. Garmin 010-00540-25 Nuvi 680 Travel Assistant | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-29 | | Get the StreetPilot 7200 if you want traffic | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | My sole reason for this unit was to have good and reliable traffic report system. MSN is not the answer for two reasons - spotty reception in areas I need to travel and really poor coverage of incidents. In the many years I have been an Amazon customer, this is the first item I ever returned. By the way, Amazon makes it easy to return items. Most important lesson - buy from Amazon. Then I ordered a StreetPilot 7200 and XM antenna. What a difference. Excellent reception, even with the antenna inside the car! Incident coverage is massive and detailed. Huge improvement over MSN. Best part, the 7200 will also accept an FM antenna. A bonus is the excellent XM radio interface (radio channels can be subscribed separately from traffic). It is a BIG unit and it may not be right for your car but it is really easy to see while driving. I found I struggled to see the Nuvi screen and information while driving. Stay away from MSN! Note the newest Garmins do not have MSN! | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-20 | | Nuvi review | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I used this device on a 2500 mi trip right after I got it and really enjoyed it. It did a few odd things (trying to route me onto some backroads off the main road, on a route I knew) for some reason that was unclear, but overall it did the job well. Easy to enter destinations in unfamiliar areas, and it does pretty well at getting you around, though sometimes it seemed to miss the interstate in favor of adjacent streets/roads. It is very easy to use and has a lot of nice features. Recalculates rapidly and updates directions. Display/touch interface are very good. I like how it projects your arrival time -- on a 850 mi 14 hour leg it projected an arrival within 2 minutes of actual arrival, when I first entered the destination! The traffic update feature worked well, where it worked (a limited number of metro areas), and it works well at home, when I pay attention to it! Some of the less expensive units probably have many of the same nav features, but I like this one. One feature I would like to see (and it might be there) is a pause feature for when you get off the road to get gas or eat -- that drives it crazy trying to make you get back on the road and it gets kinda annoying listening to it tell you to turn around, etc. Nice unit, strong recommendation. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-20 | | Okay but not perfect | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Unit can generally give good directions. Occasionally wants to send you down road that doesn't exist or go through to the street you are on. Sometimes sends you down county road which parallels state highway only a quarter mile away. Look-up for lodging/stores is cool. For basic functionality the TomTom seems to be as good at half the price. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-19 | | A Big Hit and a Little Miss | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | Purchased in May, 2007, have used the Garmin Nuvi 680 for short and long trips, near home and across the country. It is an expensive, top-of-the-line GPS, but mostly justifies this cost with its slew of helpful features. Production Quality: The Screen is bright, colorful and crisp. It's large touch screen is easy to view when driving and even automatically switches to display differently for night and day. The touch screen is accurate, though users with big fingers may hit a couple wrong keys on the touch keyboard, especially when the car is moving. Menus are easy to navigate and most items appear in the logical, intuitive place. The included mount works well, but has fallen off a few times. There are many voices to select from and all sound clear and easy to understand. The leather case included is nice for stowing or carrying the GPS without worry of scratching. Overall, very polished product with little oversight. Features: The Nuvi 680 is loaded with features. Some features are common to most GPS - Points of Interest Database, travel related software tools, multiple stops en route, option to take a detour at any time, preview of route, zooming in/out & changing view of map. I cannot compare to other devices, but these features all work quite well. Though the POI database can be slow to find a particular place by spelling and occasionally a place is found in an incorrect sub-category. Anyway, the main feature that sets this GPS apart is the MSN Direct Service... MSN Direct - Traffic: Traffic reporting is the big draw here above other models. However, it can take 15 minutes or longer (around 20-25% of the time not working at all) for the traffic information to update when you plug in the GPS. If you keep in plugged into your car, often your wait time will be less, but you will still occassionally be left in the dark. When traffic reporting is functioning, you will get a semi-realistic estimate of the time delay and acess to brief details regarding all delays in the area. It's tough to say for sure, but I believe the rerouting usually saved me a good 10-30 minutes at least half a dozen times. Yet, it seems like there were as many times or more where I should have been rerouted and was not. Hopefully the firmware update I just received will fix these issues. One simple suggestion I'd have is to let the user know when they've been automatically rerouted and to show both routes and ETA's on the map screen. To illustrate - On a normally 3 hour trip we hit 2 hours of traffic, while 30 minutes were predicted by MSN and only after an hour into the trip (but before the traffic jam). We were rerouted around some of the traffic (maybe 30 minutes time saved), but if the correct delay had been predicted, we probably would have been shown a detour shaving off even more time. So while certainly better than a regular GPS, left some room for improvement. MSN Direct - Weather, Gas, Movies: Unlike traffic reporting, Weather, Gas and Movies information is useful even if it is several hours or even a day or two old. Usually gas prices are correct or within a few cents. Movie showtimes I haven't used much, but seem correct. The weather, I've tried the most, and is probably 90% accurate, maybe more. These features can be pretty helpful, though I rarely drive out of the way for gas. Ease of Use: The startup time (to acquire satelites) is a fairly quick, almost always under 5 minutes, usually under 2 minutes. The route calculation is even faster, almost always under 1 minute, usually under 20 seconds. GPS is highly accurate, despite my regular driving through crowded criss-crossing streets. Once in a while, it may take a few seconds for the GPS to register a turn, but hasn't caused me any problems. Recalculating of route is very quick when you miss a turn, enough to make the next turn. Guidance through directions are easy to pay attention to, with well placed reminders and clear graphical presentation when there are many places to turn off or road splits. It certainly beats mapquest! Overall: I'm glad I bought this GPS. While I would highly recommend it, I believe for some, the much cheaper Nuvi 350 is a better buy. The traffic reporting is currently hit or miss and so you may find yourself listening to the radio for traffic anyway. However, if you can't stand traffic and are planning to use this for many years to come, you'll eventually get your money's worth. And hopefully some time in the future the firmware will be optimized and MSN Direct will have a comprehensive reporting system. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-16 | | Nuvi 680 Great - but MSN Direct Stinks | 8 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I love my Nuvi 680, but I think I would have liked the 660 better. My only dissatisfaction with the 680 is with MSN Direct not really with Garmin. Although Garmin did accept my premium dollars for the MSN Direct features. Garmin should offer to swap the MSN Direct receiver/power cord with the TMC FM receiver power cord so those of us that purchased the 680 for the real-time traffic features can actually receive them. The problem is with MSN Direct. MSN Direct reception in the Chicago-land area is pitiful. MSN Direct tells you that when you call them with difficulties registering and downloading. Isn't it odd that no one tells you about this known issue BEFORE you purchase this item for delivery to a known reception trouble area? So even though you are not receiving a reliable MSN Direct signal, your "free" subscription (which is really included in the premium price you pay for this unit) continues to expire. Until MSN Direct can give me green bar signals on a reasonably regular basis, my subscription should not be decremented on a daily basis. From what I have read since, the TMC traffic reception is in fact better. But now I would have to purchase, at more additional cost to me, the TMC power cord / receiver just to get the same functions provided in the 660 out of the box. OK, I would not have movie times, gas prices, and weather, but since MSN Direct can't seem to transmit those to me anyway, at least I would have updated traffic. Had I bought the 660 in the forst place, I would even have some spare $$$ in my pocket. If you look at the Garmin site, it seems they are also unhappy with MSN Direct, as the new units coming out this fall will use TMC. The Garmin 680 unit itself is excellent. I love the main GPS features, the Bluetooth mobile phone connection, but all of these are available in lesser priced units. I paid a premium for the MSN Direct features that CAN NOT BE RECEIVED, at least in my area. MSN Direct could not possibly be more arrogant on the phone. Garmin assistance personnel on the other hand, could not be nicer, although they can not be expected to fix the MSN Direct issues. Just as a note, the audio output to an FM channel "works", however in my area there is no decent FM station to utilize for this function, so we are stuck with unit audio. Call MSN Direct BEFORE you buy the 680 or any other unit with MSN Direct to get some assurance that there is adequate reception in your area to make use of the features you are paying a premium for. Otherwise, buy the 660, or wait for the newer models coming out this fall that will offer a nice mark my parking spot feature, helping you find your way back to your car in large parking areas.
| Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 8 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-14 | | Another great Garmin product | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | This is another upgrade for me as far a GPS's. This is replacing my 60GSx and I have owned all of the (plus) products, and have never been dissapointed with Garmin. I was on the fence between the 660 and the 680, but this price at amazon is too good to pass up and I am glad I went with the 680, the MSN service seems to be working out well so far after a week, where all of my GPS units would have been staying home I use this one every day for the traffic, it changes the road color to traffic flow, red for very slow, yellow and green for normal speeds as well as construction and accidents, so it's a very cool toy, cough cough I mean device that I need haha. Anyway if you are thinking about a TomTom? I don't know if they have changed something in the past year, but I am thinking that the only people who like them are people who have never owned a garmin because TomTom's are simply not accurate in the US, I had one for a week, the reason I bring this up is because the 680 is kind of like a tomtom with all the bells and whistles, but it will actually get you to your destination. If you are on the fence between the 660 and 680 and have the extra $90.00 I would say go for it, but the 660 I think is the same unit without the MSN, oh and I used the gas price option yesterday and it worked, saved 10cents a gallon, so this thing will pay for itself in 180 fill ups, thats about 5 years lol. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-07 | | Don't leave home without it | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | 2,500 miles into a summer driving trip, our new 680 has transformed our route planning, swept away the challenges of navigating unfamiliar territory and unexpected detours, and has made exploring side roads enjoyable. The user interface is very well executed, with lots of convenience at your fingertips. It relegetes the book of maps to secondary importance. Tapping in a bunch of favorites for a trip, directly into the GPS can be a bit tedious. So I entered all our key stops (Points of Interest) for the entire trip into "My Places" on poi-factory, and downloaded them as one file, first onto the PC, then onto the GPS. The Bluetooth interface with your cell phone is slick, making the GPS a hands-free speakerphone, with your entire cell phone directory displayed on the GPS screen, and voice dialing intact. While driving along, if someone needs to make a pit stop, just search for fast food restaurants or a gas station, and it'll list them in order of distance from you, and indicate whether you're approaching or have passed them. Choose one, touch the "Go" button, and it'll guide you directly to it, then put you back on the road to your destination. The MSN Direct service functions only in major metro areas and is imperfect, but can be a time saver. One time, because of a construction zone traffic tie-up, it routed us off an Interstate for about 4 miles, then back on. It's not perfect, but it's amazing. Every once in awhile, it gets confused, but then, so do I. If you don't need the MSN Direct service, get the 660 for less money, but otherwise the same features. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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| | | | | | | Amazon.com customer | 2007-09-01 | | It finds everyplace! | 10 | NR | NR | NR | | | | Helpful? | I had a Mio that could not even find my home and I made the mistake of taking it to Chicago with me...for any of you who have a "not so good" GPS Navigation system - the turn right the U TURN WHERE POSSIBLE voice is very annoyoying - my Mio had me lost all the time. The Garmin 680 has been fantastic - I love the "take next right on Washington Blvd" instructions that make finding your way in a city you don't know so much easier. I will be back in Chicago shortly and am expecting to be able to find my way around with no issues. Unit is a little pricey but worth it if you love to travel and hate to be lost. | Satisfaction | Score |
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| Overall satisfaction | 10 |
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