— January 8, 2008
Garmin’s nüvi 700 series brings two exciting new features — multi-destination routing and, “Where am I?/Where’s my car?” — to its popular pocket-sized GPS navigator lineup. As with all nüvis, you get Garmin reliability, the fast satellite lock of an integrated high-sensitivity receiver, a slim, pocket-sized design with a gorgeous display, an easy, intuitive interface, and detailed NAVTEQ maps for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico with more than 6 million name-searchable points of interest. All of the 700-series navigators also feature a rich array of features including spoken directions in real street names, MP3 player and photo viewer, and an FM transmitter that will play voice prompts, MP3s [Read More...]
Buy Garmin nuvi 750 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator at Amazon
People here are obviously confusing the different unit model #’s. The Garmin 700 series covers the 750, 760, and 770. Obviously some of these folks got the 760 and think it’s a 750. The 750, which this review space is for, is all silver, there are NOT different color choices. The 760 and 770 have a black finish around the screen. The 750 doesn’t come with bluetooth and an included traffic reciever, which doesn’t work that good at all and coverage is “spotty” at best. But for the additional $200 they’re asking for these insignificant features, I’d recommend the 750 for 200 less. The 770 is the same as the 760 but comes with both N. American AND European maps installed.
These are Garmins top of the line Nuvi’s and imo… the best portable gps’s on the market. The big difference in the 700 series over last years 600 series is the inclusion of multi-destination routing. So if you’re a delivery driver or someone that drives a different route with multiple stops each day, then the 700 series is for you. It can even optimize the stops to take the least amount of time. But if you only need to input 1 or 2 stops, then I’d go with the Nuvi 660. It has all the same features of the 760 (the one that’s $200 more than the unit covered here) minus the multi-destination routing. Meaning it has both the bluetooth and traffic reciever included for less of a price than the unit on this page. I own both units and highly recommend either one based on your needs. If you’ve never owned a gps before, let me say that it doesn’t get any more user friendly than Garmins’ Nuvi series.
On a side note… stay away from the Garmin “C” series. Yes, they may be SLIGHTLY cheaper than the Nuvi 350 or 360, but what’s inside cannot compare. The “C” series uses an outdated chip that requires direct line of site with the sky for satellite reception, meaning that tall buildings and trees WILL affect reception, and it’s calculations are nowhere near as timely as what newer units offer. Not to mention, the “C” series has much older maps and is just plain old antiquated. If you’re getting a new gps and spending hard-earned money on it, don’t get something that’s already out-dated. Whichever gps you decide on, make sure it has the SiRF chip in it. The SiRF chip is the defacto standard in the gps market by leaps and bounds. Hope I shed some light for those of you researching a new gps for the first time.
I previously had a nuvi 660 and left the unit in a rental car in Iowa. I waited to replace it until the 750 shipped at the end of last month. While I was waiting, I tried a Tom Tom and Magellon. The 750 far exceeds all of the other units. The earlier reviews give a pretty good run down on what is good about it. There are a couple of things that were not mentioned that I really like over the 660.
1. I like the feel of it better than the 660. It doesn’t have the flip up antenna and seems more streamline and fits into my shirt pocket better. 2. The mounting unit is FAR superior than the one on the 660. I have rented cars 140 times so far this year, and the different windshield slants caused problems at times with the 660. The 750 mount allows greater rotation of the GPS for better viewing.
I didn’t use the bluetooth on the 660, so I opted to not get it and purchased the 750 instead of the 760. I do disagree with an earlier review in that I greatly appreciate the traffic antenna and traffic routing. I travel mostly in major metro areas and it has helped me considerably. Fortunately when I lost my 660 I did not loose the traffic antenna or the electrical charger, both of which work on the 750. Is it worth $200? Probably not. But it has steered me around traffic jams and bridges that are out.
Also, one other neat feature that I haven’t figured any usefull purpose for yet but that I like is that it lays down a pink line showing where you have been. Kind of like laying down bread crumbs.
There is NOTHING out there that is as good as the nuvi 700 series!
Been playing with this unit a bit and here are some first impressions.
I do not have enough experience with routing performance yet but I hope these impressions are useful nonetheless.
The good:
- aesthetically pleasing unit, it has a large screen and is thin and easy to put in a pocket and take with you.
- the screen is plenty bright and has a reasonable viewing angle
- the mounting system is sturdy
- unit is intuitive to use, this is good because the manual that comes with the unit is pretty pathetic
- SD card slot for MP3’s, images or additional maps
- Contains maps of the entire US by default
- POI icons are ‘customizable’
- spoken street names
- headphones jack, although driving and using headphones is not a safe thing to do, not sure how useful this feature is. Sound quality this way is good
- good runtime on batteries
- multiple destination routing
The bad:
- When using the FM transmitter your ‘mileage’ may vary, there is a lot of static on every channel I tried, this does not make for a pleasant listening experience. iPod transmitters definitely work better
- The sound quality of internal speaker is just plain bad
- Menus are intuitive for the most part but lack the simple feature of being able to get back to the map with ONE push of a button, be prepared to push ‘back’ an annoying number of times
- USB interface is slow
- overal the unit feels slow when drawing the maps
- unit converter? why? I use this device to navigate, not solve math problems
- screen real estate wasted by information I am not interested in, with no option to turn it off. The always present green bar and speed limits come to mind
However, what I subtracted 2 stars for is satellite reception, or lack thereof. This is supposed to be a high sensitivity receiver yet it acquires satellites no faster than my 2610. Satellite acquisition takes a ridiculous amount of time. My $200 Etrex Vista handheld acquires a lock in less than a minute, this $500 device needs 5-10 min to get a lock, assuming it acquires any sats in the first place. The best GPS unit is useless unless it acquires satellites fast and keeps a lock. The 750 does not do that. Even with an external antenna reception is not stellar.
Overal I do not know if I, at this point, would recommend this unit.
UPDATE:
- After going through Garmin techsupport and doing a master reset, satellite reception has improved a bit but is still nothing to be impressed with
- routing seems to be pretty good, not always the ‘best’ route but the unit will get you where you are going
- the GPS simulator is unable to complete a route that includes a ferry ride
UPDATE2
- The address database on the nuvi 750 appears to be less complete than the older City navigator v7 software.
I am sticking with 3 stars because I think the satellite acquisition issue is such an important thing for a GPS device.