Garmin nüvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Voice Command and FM Transmitter (Soft Black)
Posted by Apple iPods at 3:04 PM
Product Details Garmin nüvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Voice Command and FM Transmitter (Soft Black)From Garmin
Amazon Sales Rank: #30 in GPS or Navigation System
Color: Black
Brand: Garmin
Model: 010-00577-23
Dimensions: 3.30" h x 6.40" w x 6.40" l, 1.30 pounds
Features
Sleek, ultra-slim design fits in a pocket; high-sensitivity GPS receiver for fast satellite lock
Pre-loaded with City Navigtor NT maps for North America, including more than 6-million name-searchable points of interest
Speech recognition: speak menu options and keep your eyes on the road
Multi-destination routing: enter several destinations and get the best route to all of them; "Where am I?" and "Where's my car?" features
Full feature set: text-to-speech for spoken directions with real street names, MP3 player, and photo viewer
Editorial Reviews Garmin nüvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Voice Command and FM Transmitter (Soft Black)From Garmin
Amazon.com Product Description With the nüvi 800 series, Garmin adds smooth speech recognitionto its bestselling line of sleek portable GPS navigators. As with all nüvis, 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 nüvi's audio, including voice prompts, MP3s, audio books, and more, directly through your vehicle's stereo system. The 850 also features an integrated traffic receiver and enhanced MSN Direct content with traffic data, reas-time gas prices, movie times and more.
Key Features/Benefits
New -- Voice Recognition -- Just tell it what you're looking for (Learn more)
Easy to use interface (Learn More)
Integrated Antenna for a slim form factor
Pre-Loaded Maps for North America with 6 million searchable points of interest (POIs), plus add your own custom POIs (Learn more)
Multi-Destination Routing -- tells you the best way to get to a lot of different places in one trip (Learn More)
FM Transmitter lets you hear spoken navigation prompts, MP3s or audio books through your car's stereo system
Add FM traffic incident data or Enhanced MSN traffic flow data and content with an optional antenna (Learn more)
Where Am I? -- instantly shows you all of the emergency services nearby (Learn More)
Where's My Car? -- never forget where you parked again (Learn More)
Widescreen -- gives you a better idea of what's around you (Learn More)
microSD card slot -- store extra maps, travel guides, photos or MP3s
Photo Viewer and MP3 Player (Learn More)
Customize Your Onscreen Vehicle Icon (Learn More)
Garmin Lock (Learn More) -- keep others from using your navigator
New -- Photo Navigation lets you upload geo-coded photos from a phone, geo-coding camera or photo site and navigate to them. (Learn more)
New -- Send addresses directly to your Garmin from Google Maps or Mapquest (Learn more)
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 nüvi 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 nüvi 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 nüvi 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.
Multi-Destination Routing
This lets you enter several spots into the device (day care - supermarket-cleaners - office - day care, for example) and it will plot the fastest route. And once you've found the best router, the "Route Planning" feature lets you save up to 10 different routes, Garmin touts the feature for providing, "the most efficient route for errands, deliveries and sales calls." The feature also makes this an instant essential accessory for anyone who shops garage sales (you know what we're talking about).A trip log provides an electronic bread crumb trail of up to 10,000 points, so you can see where you've been on the map.
Customer Reviews Garmin nüvi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS
Navigator with Voice Command and FM Transmitter (Soft Black)From Garmin
Over-priced and all features not so good We, as consumers, seem to easily reward mediocrity. That is why I see some folks have given this model a good rating. I think this model, at best, should get a 3 out of 5. While this GPS is good, I think it is over-priced at $244 that I paid for it. I wanted to try out the voice recognition and it is not very good. Garmin provides a separate wrist-watch type of remote which has a strap that installs on your steering wheel. This remote keeps getting in the way as you turn the steering wheel. They could have just provided a touch screen button (yes, yes, I know, they don't want you to look at the screen when driving and get distracted but even their voice recognition system in this 850 requires you to look at the screen from time-to-time. For example, when using Points of Interest feature, you will have to look at the screen menu to select as it lists choices on the screen and prompts you to look at it and call out the corresponding number. The voice recognition system is still developing and is hampered by noises, accents and is slow. But you may find it fun to have and certainly may be useful on certain occasions. I also did not like the on-off switch as it is a bit hard to use than other models of GPS that I have. They do not provide an A/C adapter / charger and you have to pay more for it. It does not have blue-tooth either (for a high priced item, you would think it should be there). If this model was $150, I would give it a higher rating.
Works great...when it is FULLY charged and out of the sun. I loved this the first week, but after 8 months of frustrations I have turned against it. I am a heavy user of this GPS for comping foreclosures before auction. I have to program my routes fast, and when it works, it works great. When it doesn't, it drives you nuts. The voice recognition won't hear. The screens display erroneous routes...sometimes temporary routes programmed months ago. My theory is the thing is underpowered. To get it to work correctly I have to keep it cool and FULLY charged. I've found if I let it get hot (even when I'm in the car with A/C on but it is in the sun on the window mount)it goes wacko. Same if you let the battery draw down to any extent. So I remove the battery, stick it and the unit in front the A/C for a minute, and I can get it to act normal again. The speech recognition DOES save a lot of time when it works, but for now its problematic. I was hoping Garmin had a high horsepower version of the 850 that works better. The 860 and 880 have the same issues. Maybe the 885 and 885T work better, but have not seen reviews that convince me yet.
Terrible technical support The product works well enough, but you will need divine assistance if you ever try to update the maps. Technical support on the telephone is both rude and completely unhelpful. The software does not function correctly and e-mail support crashed on the Garmin website (generated an unable to send error message). If you never need to update (i.e., do not plan to keep the unit long enough to need to update the maps) and are technically proficient with GPS devices and will never need technical support, then this is not a bad choice. If you are not an engineer or expect to keep your GPS unit for more than a few years, then buyer beware.