— January 8, 2008
— January 8, 2008 The nüvi 770 adds European maps to the multi-destination routing and, “Where am I?/Where’s my car?” features the entire 700 series brings to Garmin’s 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 transmi [Read More...]
Buy Garmin nüvi 770 GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant at Amazon
I bought the Nuvi 770 for my wife for Christmas. I had been watching the GPS price/features evolution for some time, and almost went with the 660. Ultimately, the new, more polished interface of the 770 and a few of the more recent features won out. As a Mac user, one of the most important aspects of any electronics device is the willingness of the manufacturer to support the Mac platform. Garmin does a very nice job of this. I downloaded the Web Updater and updated the 770 software in less than 5 minutes. I also installed the POI uploader and tested it out; worked great.
While the 770 is no iPhone, it does what it does very well. The number of steps required to get to desired information is not significant, and the screen interface is quite nice. Very polished, less “cartoonish” than some interfaces I have seen. The 3-D view is very effective. Directions were flawless. No chance yet to test the Traffic.com functionality.
My wife loved how well the 770 pairs with her iPhone. Dialing POI phone numbers was simplicity itself, and the ability to use the 770 as a handsfree speakerphone, even when dialing with the iPhone is very nice. Sound quality is pretty good, too, for such a small speaker. Persons on the other end of the line report that sound quality is good and fully understandable.
The FM transmitter feature–for which I did not have high expectations–is at best so-so. The 770 seems to find open FM spots on the dial fairly well [here in the Bay Area of Northern California, that is not trivial], but the downside of leaving the radio turned on to an occasionally hissing, static-y spot did not seem worthwhile. I want to be able to listen to the radio, and be interrupted as need be. That’s how the built-in GPS works on our Subaru Tribeca, interrupting as necessary. I have not yet tried to hardwire the 770. BTW, its GPS functions are vastly superior to the built-in navigation.
One reason we chose the 770 is because we are visiting Europe this spring, and renting a car. So, we are looking forward to using it there. My test of the POI capabilities in Europe was pretty impressive. So we are looking forward to taking it on our trip.
We bought the dashboard frictional base, and it is amazing. Through twisting curves, quick starts, and surprise stops, it never moved. I will never use a windshield or dash sticky mount again.
The GPS display is bright and clear and maps are well detailed for both the US and Europe. The unit even warns of the location of known “Safety” speed cameras and their corresponding trigger speeds. To minimize the need for fiddling with display scales while driving, the map display “Auto scales” to show you increased detail when you slow and turn for an exit leaving the highway and then scales back out again when you get back up to speed. Of course, you can override this if you want to.
The GPS performance of this product is exceptional. I have never had a GPS that has a receiver so sensitive that it can regularly lock onto satellites even when it’s inside a house or in a restaurant. This one does it, and quickly too. When I first got it, I turned it on and prepared to walk out onto into my yard to let it “find itself”, but before I even got out the door, it had found the satellites and was “ready to navigate”.
I agree with one of the other reviewers, and rather than 5 stars, I would have liked to give this unit only 4.5 stars. My reasons are: The lack of a case, the lack of an included AC charger (though one is available at a very reasonable cost), and the lack of an onscreen map scale indication while driving. Other than that, I love it.
Operational hint: I have seen that some of the reviewers mention having no “return to main menu” button so they have had to keep hitting the “Back” button multiple times back, back, back, etc. There is a single instruction in the Preface of the Owner’s manual under “nuvi Tips and Shortcuts” that is easy to miss. It says, “To quickly return to the Menu page, touch and hold Back”. It works fine.
I have used Garmin GPS units for many years now, and have had no problems until the last month. My trusty iQue M4 did not like getting wet in the California rain (my fault I must admit) and promptly died in the middle of a trip.
As soon as I got home I looked at the Nuvis and decided that the 770 was the best fit for my needs. I had it overnighted from Amazon as I was leaving on another trip in 3 days. Everything worked well for the first couple of days, and then I switched it on one evening and it could not authorize the maps. A call to Garmin Tech Support (and a 40 min wait on the phone) got the problem solved by downloading the unlock code file to the unit… this was VERY slick with Garmin Tech using a remote desktop type application (though this only works for Windows OS). 2 days later the maps would not unlock again, Luckily I had copied the file and reinstalled it. This time added write protection to the file, it worked for at least 5 days like that.
Then the next problem. I tried to use the Bluetooth connection to my phone. I had switched it off when traveling to conserve battery life. It would not come back on. The screen would say it was initializing bluetooth, and hang. Only switching the unit off would unlock it (bluetooth was still disabled). I tried everything I could think of, and then everything Garmin could think of, with several changes of firmware(2.4, 2.8 3.0…), nothing would persuade the bluetooth to come back.
So, after just over a week the unit has gone back to Amazon (who very promptly refunded me). I have become so dependent on my GPS that it HAS to be reliable, and for me the 770 is not there yet. I am sure that once the bugs are sorted out this will be an excellent unit, but for now I have ponder what to get next.