Garmin GPS Receiver

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

Received the Garmin 3790T four days ago. I upgraded from a from a Garmin Nuvi 760. My first comment is Wow! The size and physical design of this beauty is amazing. That’s the same word that comes out of most people mouth’s when I show them my new toy. Physical beauty aside this new unit really is a huge step up from my 760.
The 800 x 480 pixel glass screen is incredibly clear and a huge enhance over my old unit. The multi-point screen works great. Everything about the 3970 is an improvement from the old 760.
One interesting point is the 3790 picks slightly different routes than the 760 used to. I assume this is the nuRoute/trafficTrends in action.
Hands down my favorite feature on the 3790 is Voice Command. When I originally bought this item I had concerns about how well this feature would work. Let me tell you it works great. I can navigate to some place, add stops or phone someone without ever having to pull over or take my hands off the wheel. What a huge safety improvement.
Another seemingly small item they improved that I really like is the zooming. The map zooms in as you slow down and out as you speed up. It does it very smoothly and provides the perfect amount of data for my tastes.
The traffic data is also very useful in urban areas and well presented. However this area contains my only complaint about the product. Using the traffic feature causes small little adds to occasionally pop up on the screen. They are unobtrusive and don’t happen very often so far but I would prefer to find a way to turn them off.
All in all I love my new Nuvi. It is one of the best purchases I’ve made in years.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

This is a beautiful little unit – very slim, large, bright screen. The voice command system gets things right about two-thirds of the time, which means you can get going almost as quickly using voice as you can using the touchscreen. It switches between portrait and landscape effortlessly. And, having upgraded from a Nüvi 670 to this, I appreciate the new nüvi features such as displaying speed limits and cameras. Having included lifetime traffic is really handy too.

The integration of traffic into routing seems smoother than prior Garmins, although I drove in “red” traffic today that was moving really well, so maybe it overstates the problem sometimes. The new “mytrends” feature, in which the unit gets used to where and how you drive, sounds nice – I haven’t seen evidence of how it affects things yet.

There is also a lot of new environmental and fuel economy software built in. The concepts will be familiar to people who drive hybrids – you get constant feedback, and can also access a lot of data, on whether you are doing too much stop-start driving, too many bursts of acceleration and too much rapid breaking. You get fuel economy and absolute cost estimates, all of which is handy. However, I don’t like having the little “leaf” indicator taking up screen space, telling me whether I’m being naughty or nice. I wish I could remove it in the display options! A firmware patch is needed from Garmin.

OK . . . now on to the PROBLEM. This thing has POPUP ADS. Yes – commercial popups, like “Crabfest at Red Lobster” and “Best Western Rewards – Get 1500 points” and “Unlimited lunch $6.90″ that pop up while you are driving, and take up screen space, obscuring the damn map. I called tech support, and they said that these are not supposed to pop up while you are moving, only while you are stopped. But these came up while I was driving today. Tech support says there is NO WAY THE POPUP ADS CAN BE DISABLED. Apparently it’s built into the license with Navteq and will happen whenever you are receiving traffic information, and they cannot disable it. How is this OK? They don’t mention it in the product specs, or on the box. I am paying hundreds of dollars for this device, and I cannot opt-out from popup ads?$#@!% Garmin seriously needs to get a firmware patch (or a hardware patch if it’s part of the traffic receiver) out to allow people to disable this. The popups don’t even have an “X” in the corner for you to press to get rid of them.

Having got that off my chest, I’m still happy, overall, that I bought this unit.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I just got my Nuvi 3790 today and I must say it is by far the best GPS I have owned. I have owned Garmins, TomToms, Navigons, and Magellans.

The display is super crisp and bright. Even in bright sunlight. I had my Nuvi 1690 up next to it. The 1690 was washed out, the 3790 was very, very bright.

I transferred my favorites (waypoints) from the 1690 without a hitch. Also installed traffic cameras… no problem (UPDATE – the traffic cameras I installed were from GPS POI which I have used on other Garmin units without a problem. They did not appear on this unit. I understand there is some kind of bug Garmin is working on. I used the Garmin POI Loader, as I have in the past. I downloaded the Garmin Safety Cameras for the US, which they didn’t have a while back and they do show up, but I need to see what happens when I come across them.). I tried the voice command and it worked surprisingly well. I had used a TomTom with voice control and this was far superior. You get a list of commands on the screen and I had no problem activating the feature simply by saying, “Voice Command.’ Picked me up without a hitch. Only once did it seem to freeze on me and for a minute I thought I would have to do a reset, but I said another command and it cleared. (UPDATE – I really like the voice command feature. It makes things so much easier while moving. I am not a ‘voice’ person but this has come in very useful. Rarely does it miss a beat. If it does I just repeat and it gets it.)

The unit is super thin. In fact, I almost lost my grip on it a few times it is so thin. I bought the Garmin case for it and it fits very well. Easily fits in my shirt pocket.

I did a backup on the hard drive, which by the way is a whopping 8 GB, using a little over 4 GB — room for expansion indeed. I couldn’t select all on my mac and get them all to copy over, but I burned a DVD and pretty much everything was copied from what I could tell. It took about 25 minutes or so.

The unit did get pretty warm in use, perhaps because of the black back and the sun. I haven’t used it at night to tell if that is it. (UPDATE – it doesn’t seem to get as warm now even with the sun hitting it. Perhaps the electronics needed to get ‘burned in’ and all is well.)

I live in northern Virginia and was not able to pick up traffic. My 1690 was showing traffic in the same areas. The 1690 is cell-connected, the 3790 is FM.

In comparison with the 1690 with most detail selected, the 3790 is pretty much about the same in many areas, perhaps a bit more in others. No complaints about that at all so far.

I do like the ability to rotate the screen. I didn’t think I would but I like the portrait view. It gives me more of where I am going rather off to the sides. I will need to experiment with it.

Routing is a bit different than my 1690. I will see how it evolves in its learning my routes. Calculation seems quick. It did take a while to lock in after being powered off, but nothing appreciable.

I can easily pack this, or put it in my shirt pocket and take it most places.

A great GPS. Pricey, but wonderful. This is the iPhone 4 of the GPS world. Nothing comes close to the beauty of the 3790.

_______________________
Update – 7/6/10

The Junction Views on this appear more often than they did on my 1690. Same map version, but obviously updated Junction Views. I have read that in Europe they have photo realistic Junction Views and from the pictures they look very good. Hopefully they will update the US Junction Views to photo realistic ones…. makes for a much nicer picture. (UPDATE – in portrait mode the junction view is on the top half of the screen and you still see the road and your ‘vehicle’ moving in the bottom half of the screen. In landscape mode junction view takes up the entire screen.)

Also, the software user interface is different in this unit and while it offers pretty much what the 1690 software does, many things are in different places. For instance the last position you are at when you remove the unit from the mount in the 1690 was found under favorites. In the 3790 it is found under parking – last stop.

Best thing is to explore all the menus and see what’s there. Very nice indeed.

7-10-10… Some tips…. To power on push the on/off button and wait to hear the click. Let go at that point. To power off, you need to HOLD the power button down until you see a power off screen asking you to make a choice. Otherwise, if you hold the on/off button down briefly and let go, it goes into standby and when you push the on/off button to turn it ‘on’ you get a lock screen, at which point you hit the lock icon and it comes to life. This is not turning the unit off – just putting it into standby mode. For a quick return to where you left it, standby works great, but not for long periods of time as it uses up the battery. If the car power is lost the unit goes into standby, not power off. If you pull it off the mount, nothing happens. Interesting.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I’ve been using Nuvis for years. Was very excited to get the new form factor Nuvi so I could give my well-worn 765 to my graduating daughter.

Received my fancy new device and put it directly into service on a trip to NYC–my first time there after all these years of exploring the rest of the country.

Made it through the northward routes of PA into Jersey, and then found myself at one of the famous “Jersey jughandle” intersections and unsure which lane to take for the direction I wanted to go. And the moment I stopped, I looked at my beautiful new Garmin to find out my next move.

And right on top of the map was a damn Red Lobster ad, hiding the info I needed. Couldn’t make it go away, couldn’t see my map underneath. Let loose a stream of profanity. Then the light turned green, I began to move, the ad went away and I found I needed to be in another lane, but my moment in traffic to plan the lane change had passed.

Garmin takes the only safe moment to check your map away from you–the moment you are stopped. So the only times you can check your map are when you are in motion and should have your eyes on the road.

Who is the genius that came up with this garbage?

I knew this problem was going to be bad in NYC traffic. But this POS had me steaming before I even entered the city. Inside the Lincoln Tunnel, once again hoping for lane info to get to my hotel, up comes a great big ad, WHILE THE CAR IS IN MOTION, obscuring the directions I paid my $450 plus tax to have. I damn near caused an accident with the “tourist slowdown” needed to find the right lane in time to get there.

Once in the city, this thing was the very definition of useless, with ads obscuring the map every time I was at a standstill and able to look at it. When I realized I was going to be more of a problem to surrounding traffic with this thing than without it, I put it in my suitcase and went to electronics alley and got the cheapest Tom Tom on the shelf–$79.

The Tom Tom outperformed this POS Garmin in every respect. If you must have the latest and greatest advertising-delivery technology, you can bid on mine on ebay.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I have owned many gps units for the past 10 years. I am very picky when it comes to gps units and I do not think twice about sending back units that I do not feel are good and accurate. I currently own Nuvi models 360 and 780.

I received my 3790T last week and for a brand new model this one has blown me away. One main thing to remember is to make sure you uncheck most of the choices on the avoidance screen so your routing is more accurate. For instance on my unit the only thing I have checked is to avoid ferries.

I downloaded the voice Dr. Nightmare and is by far my most favorite voice and is excellent quality. The maps that ship with this unit are April 2010 and Garmin support indicated the next map update is due out in July and they indicated I would get that update for free.

So far the 3790T has exceeded my expectations and I will keep this unit.

It has not locked up or rebooted at all during the first week so far, so hopefully the hardware issues other models have had are not going to occur since this model is a new design.

I would highly recommend this unit !

***Update***

Well after writing my previous review the 3790T starting to do some strange things. When I left work or my house I did not go the direction that the gps had suggested which would of normally prompted the gps to recalculate the route. In both cases the gps correctly showed my position on the street which was 1-5 blocks away from the suggested route and it did not reroute me until I crossed the suggested route and then it recalculated.

Next I had problems getting the unit to power up when getting in my car one morning. I placed the 3790T into the cradle with the car turned on and it would not power up, I removed the 3790T and tried to power it up holding it in my hand and still nothing. I then placed it back into the cradle again and after about 1 minute it power up. Keep in mind the battery was fully charged.

The last and most puzzling issue was I had told the gps that I wanted to go home so it calculated the route correctly, then I decided I wanted to stop for gas on the way home and searched for the gas station and selected to add it to my route which it did successfully. While still driving towards the first stop at the gas station I added a stop at Wendys into my route which occured about 4 miles after the gas station and 3 miles before my home.

I arrived at the gas station just fine, then it wanted to route me home first even though I was driving right past the Wendys that happens before my house, then once I arrived at home it wanted to have me do a U turn and go back to the Wendys.

I cancel the trip and put it back in again and it still was going to route me home, before the Wendys.

I called Garmin tech support, held for the usual 1 hour and then explain the various issues. Since there are no software updates for this new unit yet the only suggestion then had was to do a reset all and see if it happens again.

Well I decided not to keep the unit because I can’t justify keeping a gps that does not route correctly. I purchased a Magellan Roadmate 3045-LM on sale for $169 that includes lifetime traffic and map updates that uses Navteq maps and traffic just like Garmin does and works correctly.

So if you are looking for a dependable no frills gps I would highly recommend the Magellan Roadmate 3045-LM. Also if you are a AAA member, once you register your Roadmate you can extend the hardware warranty for 1 extra year for free !

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I purchased the Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigatoron Amazon and through Prime had it in 2 days. The device is very impressive with a couple of exceptions.

We have a Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic, a Kenwood DNX6140 6.1-Inch Wide Double-DIN In-Dash Nagivation with Built-in Bluetooth USB/iPod Direct Control/DVD Receiverwith Garmin and and a Garmin Streetpilot 7200 7-inch GPS Receiver – Europe – North America in our RV. We bought the 3790 to put in a new Camry Hybrid and I have now been using it for a couple of weeks. Here are my thoughts:

PROS:
Beautiful device – thinner than an iPhone, great user interface, nice graphice, great screen (resolution, contrast, color, daylight readability), excellent features and functionality, fast location of satellites (after first use), voice control. Overall I love it. I like being able to set the mileage of my car (city/highway) and having it recommend the “most economical rout” in Eco mode.

There are a few Cons, probably associated with how new this is:
A message comes up to approve the 4 EULA (end user license agreements) every time you start. This in addition to the normal “Agree” button.

Voice control is touchy. It is difficult to get it to recognize commands with background noise (people talking, radio on).

CONS:
There are a couple of quirks in the settings (couldnt get route options off the map display without a reset). These are probably because this is a new device and there are still a couple of minor bugs in the software.

I bought the garmin friction mount Garmin Portable Friction Mount for the dash. The 3790T is so small and elegant it makes the old friction mount look big and clunky and detracts from the look.

I liked the option on other Garmins of having it ask you for the type of routing (nearest, fastest, etc.) – havent found that ability here.

Gets hot during use. Right side heats up fast.

Overall the Pros FAR outweigh the Cons and this is far and away my favorite Garmin device. You will not be displeased.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I was initially upset because I paid for 1 day shipping early enough to “receive” it the following day…however it was not “shipped” until the following day. It arrived after I had left for a weekend trip out of state (Still hoping to qualify for a reimbursement).
Ok my gripe session is out of the way…shipping has no bearing on the quality of the product.

I got to use it for the first time this morning and I am thrilled with it. This is my fourth Nuvi…I upgrade every so often and this was one I could not resist.

One of the features that I noticed right off is that, for example, you are driving down the highway and you slow down to take an exit ramp…it will zoom in as you are slowing allowing you a better view. LOVE THAT.

The free traffic is a bonus and it’s accuracy is OK…not great but OK.

The display is phenomenal and definitely a fingerprint magnet, but in no way distracting while being used…mainly when it is turned off will you notice the prints.

One of my favorite features is the additional data you can choose to display on the right hand side of the screen. I have current time, Arrival Time, and Distance showing on mine…it is customizable though and you can choose what you want to display…including Direction of Travel and Elevation.

It is a true Groovy Nuvi in that Garmin makes the best GPS units on the market(My opinion) and this one allows you to have your cake and eat it too. Not to mention the icing is great.

Garmin even has a program you can download for free from your online account called voice studio. If you are tired of the same old computer voices, have your spouse or child record their voice and then upload onto your 3790T…Very tempting, indeed!

If you want a true state of the art, top of the line unit that has all the bells and whistles, you can’t go wrong with the Garmin 3790T.
I’m still getting used to all the amenities and am having a blast with it so far (I have an hour and 45 minute commute each way to work)

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

First, I have to tell you that I have had a Garmin 2720 Street Pilot that I bought several years ago when that unit first came out. The Street Pilot 2720 performed flawlessly for the entier time I had it so I I had high expectations for the nuvi 3790T. Well, so far I am on my second unit and I really want to get rid of it for a number of reasons. Here is my story.

I bought the first unit through Amazon because the 3790T was not yet available in stores. When it arrived I was anxious to try it out. My first big trip was from Lutherville, MD to Chantilly, VA (a trip I have taken many times). The nuvi 3790T took me right down to my destination. It was a hot day (98+ degrees) so we were using the air conditioning in my car all the way down to Chantilly. I did not leave the unit in the car while attended a gun show for several hours (in an air conditioned building). I put the unit into the little leather pouch they sold me and carried it around in my shirt pocket the entire time. When we left the gun show my car was, naturally, very hot so I turned on the A/C immediately. I set up the nuvi to return us home. The first thing it wanted to do was to take me home a different way. I didn’t have any problem with that because traffic around Washington D.C. is always horrible and the traffic feature was routing me around the problem by going a different way. But after driving for a few minutes the screen on the unit stopped working. It was, at first, simply frozen and then, after a few minutes, turned completely white displaying no roads or anything else on the screen. The voice system continued to give directions but they were virtually useless without the screen to look at. I then turned around and went home the way I knew through all of the D.C. traffic. After about 15 minutes of having the unit 100% useless, I turned it off in disgust and simply drove home. This happened within the first 30 days that I had the unit. I should have demanded my money back but I trusted that Garmin would make it right.

When I got home, I attempted to update the operating system on the unit through my Windows 7 computer. I connected to the Garmin web site OK, but the unit would not update as the directions on the Garmin web site indicated. Although the maps were now showing again, I took the unit out for a test drive. This time my little car on the screen laid down a purple trail as I drive along on the orange highway. When I crossed roads that I had travelled on earlier, there were purple trails on those roads as well as if the unit was reminding me that I had once gone that way. This was really distracting so I called a Garmin tech.

We were on the phone for more than 2 hours. Once I connected the unit to my computer, he tried everything he could to update it over the phone. I went from a level 1 tech to a level 2 tech, then he consulted with a level 3 tech before they decided that my unit was defective. He then suggested that I return it to the place of purchase. When I told him that I bought it from Amazon, he finally relented and agreed to give me an RMA number to return it to Garmin for an exchange. I was told that the exchange would take 2-3 weeks! As it turned out, it took about 5 weeks because the Garmin people messed up their paperwork somehow and had put a hold on my new unit. Finally they sent out the new unit. I’ve had this new unit for about 8 weeks and so far the performance of this unit is way below par.

Now, when I turn on both the nuvi 3790t and the Street Pilot 2720 in the same car on the same dashboard, the nuvi takes 3-4 times as long to find its satellites as the Street Pilot 2720. I matched the nuvi 3790T against my Motorola Droid phone for navigation and there is no comparison. The Droid navigation system does a fantastic job of finding roads and directing me properly. Here is a small example.

Just tonight I was in Halethorpe, MD at my son’s new house. We decided to go out for dinner and took two cars because my wife and I were coming home and he and his wife had some shopping to do. The restaurant was .5 miles from my son’s new home. I used the nuvi 3790T to navigate to the restaurant. It took me on a drive that was 2.8 miles long. At the end of the drive, rather than having me turn left at an intersection having a functioning traffic light with a green arrow for left turns, I was directed to turn right into some dinky little neighborhood and then take two rights so that I could come out at the very same traffic light and this time go straight into the shopping center where the restaurant was located. When we left the restaurant I could see from the road signs that I should turn left at the very same light to return to I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway)to return home. Instead, the nuvi 3790T instructed me to turn right, then after driving about .4 of a mile, “make a U-turn when possible” to return in the direction that I could have gone in if I had just turned left out of the parking lot.

Something is seriously wrong with the algorithms used in this machine. I’m sorry that I wasted nearly $500.00 on this useless unit. My Droid does a much better job of navigation and it has the built in traffic reporting and rerouting feature. I was also able to find a list of speed and red light cameras to download to my Droid that have more information than the one I bought from Garmin. I am confident that with the progress being made with smart phones like the Droid that Garmin will be out of business within the next 2-3 years. If I had any stock in Garmin, I would dump it now just as I would like to dump this nuvi 3790T.

My advice, DO NOT BUY this unit, you will live to regret it. Get a smart phone like the Droid or an iPhone. You will be much happier.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

This is my 7th Nuvi (I upgrade and pass along the old ones to family members) and definately the best. Well worth the money if you use a GPS a lot.

On opening I was quite impressed with the thin form factor and appearance. Unimpressed with the lack of any type of protective cover for it. You need to purchase a separate cover to keep it from getting scratched during storage, travel (in suitcase/bag) or handling.

The display brightness, color, resolution and ability to rotate the display is great. I now use it in portrait mode about 99% of the time so I get more area ahead of me rather than to either side. You do need to put it to landscape on occasion to read long POI descriptions. The 3D terrain isn’t valuable per se’ most of the time but is nice to look at especially when traveling through mountains. Traffic color coding is now displayed on the primary navigation screen, which I really like, as well as on a separate screen. Navigation is easier through the menus than previous units.

Voice command is great. I rarely touch the screen now. It sometimes requires me to repeat the command up to 3 times (I’m from the midwest US so shouldn’t be too difficult for it to understand). However, the value you get from not playing with the unit while driving is worth the minor frustration of repeating the commands while driving. It even picks up the commands with windows and sun roof fully open and radio playing. Very impressive. Since I can access anything in the GPS via voice, it’s easy to use and MUCH better than my GPS system built into my car (other than smaller screen). Man, if I could upgrade my car GPS with the features from this Nuvi I’d be a real happy camper!

Phone connection is not great. The speaker quality is tinny and hard to understand the caller. It works, but I’d consider it a backup system at best. It does do voice dialing pretty well so it’s easy to use. Better in that respect than my Grand Cherokee bluetooth system.

The main routes to / from my office are very heavy traffic so I take back roads that do not have traffic sensors. GPS systems never reccomend these back routes because theoretically the main routes are all better choices. This GPS learns your preferred routes and starts to apply them rather than continually telling you to turn around and take the main route. This means it is actually useful to me at times my old systems weren’t. Of course, not that I need the GPS to find my way home at night – usually.

I use the Garmin portable friction mount for the dashboard and travel with this. Never any problems with it with any Nuvi.

The only problem I’ve had with this Nuvi is that on occassion, when inserting the GPS into the mount, the speaker (which is in the mount) doesn’t connect so there is no sound. By pressing down on what would be the upper left of the GPS (if it were in landscape mode) this pushes the contact pins on the left side into better contact and sound engages. Push down on the upper right and sound goes out. No visually apparent pin damage. Contacted Garmin and they are going to send me a new mount first and see if that fixes the problem. If not, then they say they’ll send a new GPS.

I highly recommend this Nuvi. The voice command is great to keep your eyes on the road and is easy to use if you don’t mind repeating yourself. Since I’m married, that’s not a problem.

This review is from: Garmin nüvi 3790T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Electronics)

I had 4 garmin GPS. The last one was Garmin 780. The MSN stopped working and Garmin wanted $150 to repair it.
I decided to replace with 3790t. When I received it, the unit looked absolutely amazing. The graphics were much sharper, than 780. I put it in my car powered the unit up. It took twenty minutes to locate satelites in a perfect weather conditions. I put an address, that was about 5 miles away. It took 3 minutes to calculate directions.
After 20 minutes of driving, the unit freezes. It took a while to reset it. Also it running very hot.
I gave it few more tries, before returning it back to Amazon. Emails to Garmin tech support, were never returned.
Now I am looking for a better unit to replace my 780.

Here is a list of additional problems, that I had:

1. Never got lane assist working
2. The unit froze 6 times in two weeks
3. Recalculations took on average 1-3 minutes, which cause me to miss few short exits
4. Never got voice recognition working
5. The ads are annoying
6. The traffic didn’t work well. I was going 50 miles an hour and it was showing yellow. Sitting in traffice was showing green
7. Not very accurate. Arriving at destination were 300-400 feet before.