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Garmin nüvi 250 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Silver)
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| List Price: | $249.99 |
| Price: | $122.99 |
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by BuyAccessories
18 new or used available from $104.50
Average customer review:
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1160 in Consumer Electronics
- Size: English language
- Color: Silver
- Brand: Garmin
- Model: 010-00621-00
- Platform: Not Machine Specific
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 2.90" h x 5.60" w x 5.70" l, 2.09 pounds
- Native resolution: 320 x 240
- Display size: 3.5
Features
- Psmap 530; Without Dual Beam Transducerr
- Sleek, Pocketable Form Factor
- Thinner Than Current Nuvi?
- No Flip-Up Antenna
- Full Us & Canada Coverage
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
Simple navigation at an affordable price--that's nüvi 250. This entry-level Personal Travel Assistant comes with preloaded maps for North America, including all of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. For added flexibility, choose nüvi 270 with preloaded maps for both continents or save more with nüvi 200 which offers less map coverage at a lower price. Like all nüvi 200-series members, the 250 features an easy-to-use colorful touchscreen and ultra-slim design--perfect for everyday navigation.
 The nüvi 250 comes preloaded with maps for North America, and features an easy-to-use touchscreen and ultra-slim design. | |||||||||||
 Configurable vehicle icons let you select car-shaped graphics. |
 nüvi 250 accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger. |
The nüvi 250 is built with a high-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver for extreme accuracy, as well as an SD card slot for storing your media and additional navigation tools, and a USB interface for loading data. All this is wrapped up in a package that measures 3.8 x 2.8 x .8 inches (W x H x D) and weighs just 5.2 ounces. The nüvi 250's 3.5-inch (diagonal) display is touchscreen-enabled, making it a cinch to control the device with your fingertips. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides up to five hours of battery life depending on use.
Navigate with Ease
nüvi 250 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. In addition, nüvi 250 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs.
Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nüvi 250 features many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and configurable vehicle icons that let you select car-shaped graphics to show your location on the map. Optional plug-in SD cards for our line of Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs.
Note: Like most USB Mass Storage Devices, the nüvi is not compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me.
What's in the Box
nüvi 250, preloaded City Navigator NT for North America (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disk, and set up and go guide.
Device | Screen Size inches (W x H) | Included Maps | Text-to-Speech (Directions in Real Street Names) | Traffic | Bluetooth | Media | FM Transmitter (audio through car stereo system) | Multi-Point Routing | Battery life (hours) | ||
Cont. U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico | AK and Canada | Europe | |||||||||
| nüvi 250 | 2.8 x 2.1 |  | | Photos | up to 5 | ||||||
| nüvi 205 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||||
| nüvi 205w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||||
| nüvi 255 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||
| nüvi 255w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||
| nüvi 260w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | Photos | up to 5 | |||||
| nüvi 265T | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | up to 4 | |||
| nüvi 265WT | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | up to 4 | |||
| nüvi 275T | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 285WT | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); | | Photos | up to 4 | |||
| nüvi 465T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 755T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 760 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | |
| nüvi 765T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | |
| nüvi 775T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 |
| nüvi 780 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | |
| nüvi 785T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | |
| nüvi 850 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 855 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 885T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | |
| nüvi 1200 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | |||||
| nüvi 1250 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||
| nüvi 1260T | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | up to 4 | |||
| nüvi 1300 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | |||||
| nüvi 1350 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||
| nüvi 1350T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | Photos | up to 4 | ||||
| nüvi 1370T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 1390T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | up to 4 | |||
| nüvi 1490T | 4.4 x 2.5 | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | up to 4 | ||
| nüvi 1690 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | NAVTEQ Traffic, 2 years free (Garmin nüLink! service) | | Photos | | up to 4 | ||
Customer Reviews
Best value for the money in my opinion
I have used Garmin products before and like the reliability and performance. This unit works very well and in addition a great value price wise. The touch screen works perfectly - no more hassling with non-user friendly buttons. Very easy to navigate the GUI and always seems to find a signal quickly. Routes seem to work well for me (have had it for 2 weeks so not fully tested on routing). Voice prompts are functional and options exist for different languages - I like using the English accent voice. Another great benefit is the size - no external antenna and a small thin unit with a big screen (big enough for me)very well packaged. You could carry it around for hikes or biking as it has that mode and can easily fit into a pocket. All in all I'm very satisfied and use it every day for business because it saves me time and money.
This is a tough one for me. If you can spend more, upgrade to a pricier model.
First off, I bought this as a convenience, not a necessity. I used to use those book type detailed maps and when it was time to replace it for around fifty bucks, I decided to pay about ninety more and get all of the convenience GPS units offer. I hated trying to follow roads from page to page on those book maps. Plus, I only got one metro area for my money.
For the money I can't complain too much. The June, 2008 Consumer Reports came out two weeks after my purchase and I would refer you to that issue for a detailed review of all the top brands on the market.
What I don't like about this unit is that roughly half the time I think there are better routes to take. I was hoping it would take into account peak commute times when calculating Fastest Route. I mean it's not the fastest route if it takes you through bottle necks during traffic times. I'm not saying it should have built in traffic alerts. That is a subscription service, but it should at least be smart enough to identify bottle necks and calculate speed as a combination of time and speed limits. It calculates everything as if you are the only one on the road. And in Atlanta you cannot drive like that. There are so many times that navigating to a freeway is not the best option. So, you could tell it to do the Shortest Route, but that is the other extreme. It may have you do some crazy maneuvering just to save a few feet in distance.
Secondly, when I know I don't like the route it has chosen I tell it to detour. It gives me another route and that is it. If I tell it to detour again, it only goes back to its original route. Very frustrating. Now if I was in unfamiliar territory I suppose it would get me to my destination without getting lost and I would be none the wiser for taking a stupid route. But in my testing of my area, the problem is that I have not built a great deal of confidence in this thing.
CR rated this one with less than average routing, but if you were to get one of the upgraded models, the routing is above average. So, I can't justify the extra money, but it may be worth it to you.
ONE LAST THING.....IMPORTANT. I just called Garmin support, which was very fast and helpful btw, and they let me know that a new 2009 North America map was available for my unit that I just bought. It came with 2008 maps, which I assumed was current, but I am eligible for a free download until June 1, 2008. When you register your product online with Garmin, it asks you for the units serial number and then tells you what updates are available. I'm in the process of upgrading and am very pleased to get the most current maps for free. After June 1st you will have to pay for the same map.
Good Deal on a Basic GPS
I bought my 250 just before we left on a month long trip through the southern US. It performed well. I loved the small size and portability. It was amazingly sensitive and able to pick up satellites even on the ground floor of a two story house. We were able to find a Thai restaurant close to where we were staying in Forth Worth using the POI. DFW freeways are confusing but the 250 did its job. There is a learning curve on using it. If you are in an off map location like a parking lot, be sure to drive a short distance so that the GPS can determine where you are before you make any turns. I ended up spending 5 minutes getting back on route. I turned before the GPS knew what direction I was headed and I got off track. Also, you should know that roads change all the time. In the month we were on the road we used it every day. 3 or 4 times we drove through new construction and the GPS showed us driving through the fields. When we got through the construction the GPS had us back on the map. I looked at the fancier Garmins and decided that I really did not need all the bells and whistles that they offered. My former navigator, my wife, says that the 250 has paid for itself are ready by lowering her stress level. We never argue about directions anymore.
