Garmin Nuvi 260 Reviews, Compare, Prices

Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 4:07 am

Garmin Nuvi 260 Reviews, Compare, Prices.

Product: Garmin Nuvi 260

List Price: $482.13
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The Nuvi 260 is a Nuvi 250 with the addition of text-to-speech (speaks staunch names) . Other than the text-to-speech (TTS) feature, the units are identical in appearance and operation.

Why did I engage this?

1) Many GPS models have features not needed for navigating (such as an MP3 player or Bluetooth) . The 260 only has what I really believe is primary in a portable GPS. It's sleek (fits comfortably in your pocket), easily transportable, has preloaded maps with a grand database, and a rapidly processor which calculates and recalculates routes in seconds. Eliminating unnecessary features reduces the cost, plus makes it easier to exhaust.

2) The touchscreen interface in the Nuvi 260 is so intuitive, many people can skip the short instruction book altogether. Ten minutes of fair "playing around with the unit" after taking it out of the box is all you will need to be navigating. That's the heed of a mountainous compose.

3) Unlike the flip-up antenna found in Garmin's 300 series, the 200 series has an internal antenna...a great plus. (One less thing to crash.) In addition, the cloak in the 200 series units is significantly brighter and sharper than Garmin's older 300 series.

4) Speaking street names is a big asset. Units that don't have TTS only say "In 500 feet exit good". That forces you to discover at the hide to ogle what street/exit/etc you need to navigate to. A unit with TTS says " In 500 feet seize exit 52, on apt, to Route 80 West". You maintain your eyes on the road with this feature. So besides the convenience, TTS is a safety feature that is worth the extra dollars.

What do I hate about the Nuvi 260?

1) I am not a fan of the windshield suction mount. In many reviews people have said that the mount is not splendid in the long term. It randomly falls off (this happened to me a few times) . On a hot day the suction cup can soften and is reluctant to advance off at all, or it leaves a telltale ring on the windshield. That's not obedient. (As an aside, there has been a well-known increase in the thefts of portable GPS devices from cars...even when the devices were not in dumb idea. Police have stated that thieves assumed there was a GPS unit hidden in the car if a residual ring from the suction cup was seen on the windshield.) Build yourself from the inevitable and retract the beanbag skedaddle mount.

2) The information in the database and maps can be a few years mature. This pickle is seen in ALL brands of GPS units, not fair Garmin. There are millions of points of interest and roads to maintain track of. It changes by the day. By the time the final product makes it to market, some of it is already outdated. But, for over 99% of the time, it is accurate and it finds what I looking for. Until the manufacturers figure out a diagram to update their databases and maps in true time, this is what we have.

Once you assume about what the really essential features are in a portable GPS unit, you will realize that the Garmin Nuvi 260 is a wise choice.

I would say there is no perfect GPS unit in the market, but this definitely is one of the best.

If you were a nuvi owner like me, a previous owner of a nuvi 350 GPS, you will know that nuvi is very easy to operate. You do not need any thick manual to eye how to utilize the unit, objective accumulate it out the box, turn it on, and play it around, then you are ready to go. This is a nuvi, so, yes, it is easy to exercise. As a trade off, some advanced routing functions are not included in this unit, for example, you can not add many via points to one route.

Basically, Nuvi 260 is a Nuvi 250 with Text to Speech, so even you can not glean many reviews for Nuvi 260, actually you can unbiased search those for Nuvi 200 or 250. Nuvi 260 is also a nuvi 350 after some weight loss which means some functions such as MP3 player will miss in this unit. The box comes with the unit contains less accessories than the one for 350 too. You will not have USB cable,leather case, and AC charger. However, in other hand, the 260 has more improvement. What I like most is the hide brightness which is really wonderful compared to the nuvi350. It is highly readable even directly under the sun light. The opinion angle of this camouflage is also considerable wider than that of the 350. Both the driver and the front seat passenger can read the veil easily if you location the unit in the middle. While my experience with 350 is that you need adjust the unit to a upright angle so that the reflection from the hide will not bother the driver from reading the camouflage. Another sweet allotment is the internal antenna which makes the unit more sleek than the 350.

The mount is smooth easy to assemble, easy to adjust, compact. Unfortunately Garmin changed the mount slightly from the develop of 350.For the nuvi 350 the power cord connects to the mount and then the mount feeds power to the Nuvi, but in the 260, the power cord connects directly to the scheme. So in order to disassemble your 260, you need disconnect both the power cable and the mount which is not as convenient as the case for 350.

My unit has a Bravo sensor instead of the SIRF III sensor in 350. Both are boasted as the high sensitivity sensor. After testing it for several trips and in my home. I found that the Bravo has better signal receipt ability than the SIRF III. I can easily score plump bars signal before my computer desk with Bravo, but with 350, I can only receive signal reach to the window. Somehow I feel that the SIRF III has better accuracy although the dissimilarity is subtle. Like I said, no GPS is perfect, so neither does the sensor.

Overall, I like the 260 very considerable. Garmin has the best navigation engine and algorithm in the industry, so you do not need doubt its navigation performance at all. Furthermore, this is the cheapest Garmin nuvi with text to speech. If you like Text to speech and do not need other appreciate functions like bluetooth, mp3 etc, this one is definitely the best choice for you. Otherwise, if you do not care the text to speech function, you may reflect nuvi 250 or nuvi 200(no Canada draw) which are cheaper.

Updated(Dec. 8,2007)

For those who do not like the window mount, I strongly suggest you check out this friction mount:

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Portable-Friction-StreetPilot-010-10908-00/dp/B000LRMS66

I purchased it with my nuvi 260 and it works immense!

Never notion I'd capture I GPS unit but what the heck, the prices are dropping and I'm a gadget geek.

So I accumulate this unit, hook it up, and all is well-behaved!

The sing is a bit robotic but that's what I expected and I suspect other GPS units are the same. Determined words/letters (street names) are not clearly annunciated given the limit of the robot deny but it's noble enough. If a definite street name is not spoken clearly and you're not distinct what it unprejudiced spoke all you need to do is occupy a mercurial study at the green bar at the top of the cloak and it's all spelled out for you...not a scrape at all.

I fancy this thing!

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