Ac Delco Battery: Garmin nuvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator Review

Average Reviews:
3.8 out of 5 stars

(More customer reviews)I recently bought a Nuvi 850.Here's my advice for what it's worth.

The real value of a Nav system comes from the fundamentals.
* Receiver
* Maps
* Routing Engine
* Display
* User Interface

Garmin does a solid job in all these areas.But that's not why you're paying a premium for an 800 series Nuvi.

This model has a couple of "nice to have" features that were introduced on the 700 series of Nuvi's.
* Where Am I
* Where's My Car
Both are very well implemented and can be very handy.But again, all of the stuff I mentioned so far can be found in a Nuvi costing $300 less.

So what are you paying a premium for?
* Voice Recognition
* User Replaceable Battery
* Front Mounted Speakers

Well, the front mounted speakers are still drowned out by moderate road noise.So, I wouldn't pay a nickel for that.The only real sound solution remains the FM transmitter that everyone complains about.It works OK for me, in my car, in my area.Your mileage may vary.

The user replaceable battery is excellent.For $30 you can carry a spare battery and go totally wireless in the car or use the Nuvi for 8 hours of walking around a city.I'd pay for that.In fact, every portable device should have user replaceable batteries.

OK, that leaves the "Big Kahuna" feature, voice recognition. Don't believe the hype from the professional reviews or some of the hosanna's being thrown around in Amazon reviews.

Does it work? Yes, it works amazingly well.In a dead silent environment.

With moderate road noise or even indoors with a TV at low volume 15 feet away the thing to gets confused about what it's "hearing".It should have a microphone with low sensitivity and high directionality to screen out spurious noise.A little DSP noise filtering wouldn't hurt either.Unfortunately, the standard piezo mic that Garmin also uses for bluetooth phone calls will pick up any sound coming from any direction.The result is that voice recognition becomes an excercise in frustration.

Still, I'm gonna keep the darned thing.I'll simply enter destinations in the quiet of my home, office, hotel room, or a restaurant before heading out on the road.The remote will live in my briefcase.It does save you from a lot of tedious keyboard entry.But, it is not the mobile safety feature that reviews would have you believe since voice commands are all but useless in a car.You can get essentially the same features in a Nuvi 760 and save yourself $300.

Your decision.EDIT: Update.....OK maybe I was a bit harsh first time round.I have found that the unit will respond with moderate background noise.....some of the time.....if you yell at it.It appears to have the ability to lock in on the loudest sound it "hears".So, if you are relatively close to the microphone and speak really loud (yell), it does respond some of the time.

On the upside, connecting to the Garmin website was very easy.I registered the 850, downloaded the newest firmware, and downloaded/installed the latest maps (2009), all in about ten mintues without a glitch.

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Product Description:
With the nuvi 800 series, Garmin adds smooth speech recognitionto its bestselling line of sleek portable GPS navigators. As with all nuvis, you get a slim, pocket-sized navigator with a gorgeous display, detailed NAVTEQ maps that let you search by name for more than 6 million points of interest like stores, restaurants or hospitals, and an easy, intuitive interface. All of the 800-series navigators also feature a rich array of features including spoken directions in real street names, integrated traffic receivers, MP3 player and photo viewer, and an FM transmitter that will play all the nuvi's audio, including voice prompts, MP3s, audio books, and more, directly through your vehicle's stereo system. The top-of-the-line nuvi 880 adds Bluetooth for hands-free phone calls, an integrated traffic receiver and enhanced MSN Direct content with traffic data, reas-time gas prices, movie times and more.

Key Features/Benefits

Which nuvi is Best for You?: Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators

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Easy to Use Right Out of the Box

One of Garmin's key product philosophies is, "to make extremely complex technology easy to use for anyone right out of the box," and perhaps nowhere is that better exemplified than in the user interface for Garmin's portable navigation devices.

Garmin's interface is a key to their success and one of the things that makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip.

New -- Voice Recognition

Usable voice recognition is something we've been waiting to see for a long time. Reaching over to type out directions on your GPS isn't just difficult, it can feel downright dangerous. There's even a warning on every GPS not to do it. But who has the time to sit still and punch in a destination? Well, now you can have your hurry and your directions too.

The nuvi 800s aren't the first GPS navigators to offer voice recognition, but the level of flexibility they offer sets a new standard for simple and intuitive use.
The device comes with a little remote control that mounts on your steering wheel. It has two buttons. One is, "listen." The other is, "stop listening". Hit the "listen" button to start voice recognition. Then you can speak any of the words that appear on the display, and the device will understand, or you can ask questions based on most points of interest. Say, "find nearest Italian restaurant," for example, and you'll get a list of nearby spots. Say "go to" and name of the one you want, and you get turn-by-turn directions to dinner. The nuvi also knows the names of many large business brands, so you can just say, "find place, Starbucks," if that's your coffee mojo.
Of course, if you know the address you want to go to, you can say that too, and the nuvi will give you directions, all without having to reach over to the dashboard and touch it.

Speech recognition is available for American English, British English, European French, European Spanish, German, Italian, and Netherlands Dutch languages.

Traffic-Capable for Either FM Traffic or Enhanced MSN Direct Content (optional receiver required)

MSN Direct Enhanced Traffic and Content

With an optional receiver, you can access enhanced dynamic content from the MSN Direct service. Check the weather, avoid traffic backups, compare local gas prices, get enhanced movie listings, stock information, news and local events when you travel with your unit. Even plan trips from the convenience of your computer, via Windows Live Local, and wirelessly send custom to your nuvi.

Check out a full description of MSN Direct content features, or a coverage map for MSN Direct services.

A 12-month subscription to MSN Direct is included with the receiver. After that, subscription fees are $49.95 per year, or $129.95 for a one-time payment.
FM Traffic

With an optional receiver, you can get alerts from TMC Clear Channel about traffic tie-ups and road construction that might lie ahead on your route. All you have to do is simply touch the screen to view traffic details and you'll be ready to detour around any problem area. And if you end up missing a turn, or you're forced into a detour that is not relayed through the traffic receiver, the nuvi's sophisticated automatic routing will get you back on track in no time.

In most areas, TMC Clear Channel traffic broadcasts are continuous - there's no waiting for scheduled traffic news updates or random alerts. Because traffic broadcasts are received via a "silent" FM data channel, you can still listen to music or news programming on your car radio without interference from incoming FM traffic data transmissions.
A 3-month subscription to TMC Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network is included with the receiver. For more information on subscription fees, coverage in individual cities, and traffic data networks in the United Kingdom and Europe, check the Garmin website.

Widescreen -- See More of What's Around

The super-bright, 4.3-inch (diagonal) touchscreen display gives is anti-glare for ease of viewing during the day and automatically changes its color profile for easy viewing at night or in dim light. It offers 2d or 3D perspective views.

The widescreen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are more widely spaced and somewhat easier to push. Wider screen lets you see more of what's around. Compare these actual size views of a 3-inch (diagonal) screen

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5/18/2011

Garmin nuvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator Review