Binding: Electronics
Brand: GarminGarmin
Display Size: 4.3 inches
EAN: 0753759067991
Includes Mp3 Player: 1
Item Dimensions: 49090039290
Label: Garmin
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Manufacturer: Garmin
Model: 010-00540-25
MPN: 010-00540-25
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Platform: Not Machine Specific
Publisher: Garmin
Special Features: nv:Type: Receiver; Acquisition Time Cold: 38 Seconds; Acquisition Time Warm: 1 Second; Update Rate: 1/second, continuous; GPS Accuracy Position: 10 meters; GPS Accuracy Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec RMS; Inputs: USB; Inputs: Bluetooth; Display: TFT; Touch Screen: Yes; Voice: Yes; Expansion Slots: SD Card; Battery Type: Nonreplaceable Lithium-Ion Battery; Battery Life: 3 hours; Antenna: SIRF-GPS antenna
Studio: Garmin
Warranty: The Official Ford Licemsed Garmin nüvi 680 product features a full 3-Year Warranty from Garmin. The Ford Licensed Garmin nuiv 680 comes with a 3 year warranty certificate from Garmin in the box. This is a FULL 2-Years longer than the Garmin warranty offered by other retailers.
Features:
Pre-loaded with complete Navteq Maps for North America
2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions; Accepts custom points of interest (POIs)
Bluetooth wireless technology with a built-in microphone and speaker allows for hands-free calls
1 year free subscription to MSN Direct Traffic, Weather and Entertainment Service
Super-bright, sunlight-readable color screen
Rating: - Garmin 680
The equipment is amazing. I love this thing. the heads up on traffic and weather works great, as long as you are in the coverage area. MAKE SURE you check on that first. The product I have no problems with the company I got it from on the other hand not so much. Amazon.com said shipping and delivery was free but the company that sent it out charged me for it. When I tried to get my money back that just kept sending me back and forth between the two.
So in conclussion:
The Garmin excellent
The companies not so good.
Rating: - Great Produce!
I needed a GPS unit for my car but got really confused with all the options out there. I read some comparison reviews and settled on Garmin. I chose the Nuvi 680 cause of the bluetooth, MP3 player and screen size. I really do love this GPS unit. It does what it's suppose to and it re-routes really fast. Its a really high-quality product.
I would say my only problem has to do with the bluetooth option. The bluetooth built into the GPS allows you to talk on your phone hands-free via the GPS's internal speaker, which is pretty darn good by the way. I thought it was going to be horrible sounding, but I was impressed. But I already have that option built into my car. I wanted to use the bluetooth to get the voice part of the GPS to go through my car speakers like my bluetooth phone does. I don't know too much about this technology, but its really annoying that the bluetooth on this Garmin is so limited. The FM transmitter doesn't cut it for me as I live in a big city and can't find a frequency that works flawlessly. Garmin, if your listening, please give us the option to pair the GPS with our car's bluetooth option so I can hear the GPS directions through my car speakers via my car's built-in bluetooth hands-free option.
All in all, a fantastic product. I'm very happy with the purchase!!
Rating: - A Brilliant Piece of Work
The Garmin Nuvi 680 is my first true auto unit on top of handhelds used for work. This is my real experience out of the box.
A friend and I traveled 300 miles in a rare trip to Atlanta, GA to see "Lord of the Dance", staying with area family. Truth is truth, I am a LOUSY road warrior who DESPISES driving in Atlanta. Computer map printouts are near useless around the perimeter because one must know about and PLAN lane changes, sometimes very quickly. I have NO experience with locating the Marietta theater, which already has me sitting on nails, and we unexpectedly discover some Atlanta friends are also going to the show. This creates dinner plans to a restaurant within a half-mile of the theater, but it may as well be 100 miles because I don't have a clue where IT is, either. Now I'm sitting on knives, knowing we better leave for dinner and the theater at 12-noon if we are going to make the 8:00pm show at all.
Instead, we spend daylight at some I-85 shopping centers where I buy the Garmin Nuvi 680 to raise our odds. Here is what happened.
Out of the box, Nuvi immediately locked on to the 'birds' INSIDE our host's house ... impressive. In 10-minutes, I had it ready in the car. Nuvi's street address entry is VERY easy and ABBREVIATED, displaying the correct address with minimal entry! Cool! It only took moments for Nuvi to calculate the route and off we go for the hour ride to the restaurant. Before leaving, I touch our host's street on the screen and Nuvi lets me enter and permanently save full details about our starting point for easy call up when it is time to return.
After 20-minutes, I threw our paper maps away. Apart from the basic route, Nuvi WARNED ABOUT WHICH LANES to use ('Stay Left' or 'Stay Right') and announced the turns in PLENTY of time. It even announced which side of the road to find the restaurant, which was hidden by a hill until the last moment. Bingo-bango-bongo-bam ... THERE IT IS ... right where Nuvi said, arriving within 1-minute of Nuvi's prediction for the hour ride. Nuvis 'text-to-speech' is very good, backed by top-line screen instructions.
Our friends are late and the restaurant is packed. We finish with 10-minutes to make the theater, park and hike it to our seats. Oh, man, I still don't know where we are going and I'm sure we are NOT going to make it. It took 30 seconds to enter the theater address, racing off. My confidence rises as Nuvi guides us through multiple turns straight to the theater parking lot, a new facility only 6 months old. We get to our seats with 1-minute to spare; 6th row ready to enjoy the marvelous spector of Irish dance.
My friend falls in love with the violinist. I'm not so selective wanting to take ALL the talented, beautiful girls home. I'm sure the ladies felt the same about the guys. The performance was teriffic, candy for the eyes and ears with arrival guaranteed by Nuvi.
Charged by the performance, I tell Nuvi to take us back to our hosts house. Nuvi's first route is to enter I-285 on the right side with an immediate exit to I-75 across 4-lanes of heavy traffic on the left. NOT POSSIBLE! Nuvi quickly knows the turn is missed, reports 'Re-calculating', and guides us to a quick and easy turn-around exit that was MUCH safer. This was a lesson not to BLINDLY follow a first pick by any GPS.
It gets better. The term 'Atlanta expressway' is an oxymoron, so I generally take the lesser back roads home for the 5-1/2 hour trip. Nuvi agrees rural roads are better and calculates a route I have never considered before. To my amazement, Nuvi cuts the trip time for the 300 mile trip to 260 miles and 4-hours 50-minutes. 40 minutes FASTER on superior roads which I would have NEVER noted on a paper map. We pulled onto the driveway at the EXACT time Nuvi predicted ... to the MINUTE. The display can be zoomed in/out, while a wide angle route view will AUTOMATICALLY zoom in as a turn is approached, with excellent detail.
While Nuvi 680 has standard and optional features for which I have no use (e.g., Bluetooth), a few really appeal to me. Download your favorite MP3's and Amazon Audible audio books for a more enjoyable trip. The fidelity is very good when Nuvi is told to play them through a quiet, fully selectable FM frequency on your car radio, interupted by Nuvi's brief turn instructions. If you have a car stereo aux input, Nuvi can use it with an optional (Radio Shack) cable. Nuvi will run for an unknown-to-me amount of time on a lithium battery. FM broadcast is through Nuvi's 12-volt adapter cable as a transmit antenna, therefore likely required for the FM feature. When cable powered, Nuvi shuts off with ignition after a 30 second warning that offers the option to stay on with battery power. Nuvi also has a security lock feature that I have not used, yet. When away from home, a 4-digit code would be required to activate the GPS. When at home, Nuvi knows it and bypasses the code requirement. If the unit were to be stolen with this feature in use, the ONLY known way it can be unlocked is by sending it to Garmin. If you have registered your Nuvi, Garmin will know it's a stolen unit.
You can touch the screen on an IDENTIFIABLE point to make an unplanned route change as a new destination or 'via' stop. Gadget geeks may like the MSN traffic, weather, gas-station, 'points of interest' features but I cannot conceive how that can be made to work well as some reviewers opine. Some things still require judgement and brain power.
I don't think it is reasonable to expect any GPS to tell YOU where an unplanned destination can be found and always be accurate. Download Garmin's map updates timely, plan the trip with STREET ADDRESSES in hand and Nuvi WILL confidently guide you right to it. Does it ALWAYS choose right? Not for me. Nuvi wanted to take us down Georgia's I-95 for the last leg home. With on-going (decades) worth of construction amidst very heavy traffic with copious numbers of semis squeezing through narrowed lanes, it is an inordinately DANGEROUS highway which, despite MSN, Nuvi can't judge. Local knowledge prevails. What is marvelous is how quickly Nuvi detects the detour and recalculates the route (a whopping 3-minute difference). When it does detect a 'wrong' turn, it may first try to get you back on the original route. If you purposely miss the second turn, Nuvi gets the idea.
With a Nuvi 680 on board, you can put your road maps in the trunk for emergency use and let Nuvi guide you while entertaining with your favorite music or audio books in the bargain. And if you are a true road warrior that cannot stand to be disconnected from the world with one of those goofy things sticking in the ear ... well, you get your wish, too.
I suppose states that have banned windshield mounts can make the case that a driver may look too much at the GPS, despite a view into the hood, and not enough at the road. I make the case that it is far more dangerous to mount it away from the windshield, forcing one to fully look away from the road. Nuvi's verbal instructions are usually adequate and good judgment dictates looking only when necessary. Display brightness is plenty adequate day and night and fully adjustable. If you need to make ANY meaningful setting change, the socially responsible way to do it is by pulling off the road, first. If you try to do it while driving you ARE being IRRESPONSIBLE and become a danger to everyone else. It is NOT possible to do this, responsibly, while driving. Yet another of our local citizens lost their life in a head-on collision talking on a cellphone with a laptop computer running in the passenger seat. Give me a break!! The worse news is that the driver of the car he hit is also paying the price for this stupidity with a very lengthy and painful hospital stay. No one has this 'right' on public highways.
Well! In the end, I did manage to 'kidnap' a beautiful doll in Atlanta and take her home ... the voice of the lady whom is now known as 'Miss Nuvi'. I shall hold her for a ransom none can pay, such is the beauty of her intellect. Indeed, the charm of Miss Nuvi's excellent features are such that I don't think it's practical to consider buying a car with a built-in unit. Why do that, when the Garmin Nuvi can be transplanted to any car any time.
Rating: - Best Yet
Ordered a Magellen and was totally disapointed. It would not work off of adaptors that came with it. Had to keep recharging the battery to use it. Battery got low, it would not work until it was charged back up. Called their Tech surpport and got someone in India that only understood part of what I was saying. Sent it back and ordered the Garmin 680. It is great. It was easy to learn and I've had no problems with it. Called Garmin for info before I ordered and got a person in the USA not India. She was able to answer all of my ?'s and assured me that they will support my 680 even when it is discontinued (Magellen does not, IE: my old 760). Keep it up Garmin and I will buy your products again when we update our 680.
Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator Reviews
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