Customer Reviews

Nuvi 650 stripped down from the 660 packaging
I have have a been a long time Garmin GPS customer including three generations of the Streetpilot. I am very pleased with the Nuvi 650 echoing some of the praises you've read here in the reviews.

However for those of who are on the fence about getting the 650 versus the 660 for the extra Bluetooth, FM transmitter and traffic receiver, I want to offer you some more reasons to consider the 660. The Nuvi 650 does not include the leather carrying case, AC adapter and printed manual which comes standard with the 660 packaging ($50 value).

As a an old time Garmin user, I am used to having these items come with my GPS. In addition, the Nuvis do not include CD/DVD map software nor the friction mount (must buy separately esp. for California and Minnesota). Considering how easy it is now for users to access the memory space of the Nuvi from their computers, it's much easier to corrupt the system unintentially. Thats when you'll need the original map software to recover.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the Nuvi 650 over my Streetpilot 2720 for it's size, improve user interface and the SirF Star III receiver for much more reliable GPS reception. But I can only give this product 4 stars because of the lack of accessories that I find essential for my usage and yet comes standard for the Nuvi 660, 670 and 680.

Great GPS! Now shipping with 2008 maps
Before the Nuvi, the only GPS I'd ever used was a Garmin hiking GPS, which I purchased in 2004. It wasn't extremely easy to use, and installing maps on it was awkward. So for the longest time, I didn't bother looking at automotive GPS units, especially Garmins.

My parents recently got a Nuvi 650. They're in their 60s and not extremely technologically savvy. Yet they were able to use it right out of the box, spending minimal time reading the (very short, well-written) "getting started" guide that comes in the package. They are retired and spend every winter RVing around the country, so the Nuvi is an extremely useful device for them.

My wife and I got to see their Nuvi 650. We were impressed with how well designed the interface is. It's very intuitive. The screen is big and bright and easy to read in any light. We and my parents experimented with the auto-nav features and found it did a great job navigating us through complicated routes.

I got the bug to buy an automotive GPS and did my research. A recent Consumer Reports issue (Dec 2007, I think, also available online) has a great review of automotive GPS units. Four of their top 5 are Nuvis (the other is a TomTom).

I ruled out the TomTom because the suction mount it comes with isn't as good as the Nuvi's mount.

I considered the Nuvi 660 (which adds bluetooth and a traffic receiver, but is a lot more expensive). The traffic info requires an extra cost subscription (after a free trial period). The bluetooth wasn't attractive to me for these reasons: 1) I will only use my GPS for road trips and occasional visits to an unfamiliar part of the city I live in, yet I use my cell phone all the time. 2) My car stereo already has built-in bluetooth features and, after trying them out, I ended up not using them.

I ruled out the cheaper Nuvis for two reasons. Some of them have smaller screens: 3.5", whereas the 6xx series has a 4.3" screen. Second, on some cheaper units, the voice directions do not include street names ("turn left in 500 feet"), whereas on the Nuvi 6xx series, the voice directions tell you what street to turn on, as well as how many feet or miles or whatever.

So I settled on the Nuvi 650.

Before making the purchase, though, I was concerned that this particular model was introduced 3 years ago - a long time for a technological gadget. More importantly, I worried that the maps on it would be from 2004. I emailed Garmin customer support, they replied in 24 hours and said that Nuvi 650s are now shipping with the latest maps - the 2008 City Navigator North America NT mappping software. If, by chance, I happen to get a unit that doesn't have the latest maps, when I register my unit online I will be able to order a free update to the latest maps.

Based on this, I ordered a Nuvi 650. Sure enough, it came with the 2008 maps.

Despite that this model was introduced 3 years ago, my wife and I find it very well-designed and it meets our needs very well. As others here have noted, the auto nav is not always 100% accurate - but that's true with any automotive GPS. You always must travel with a good atlas, and of course, your cell phone.

The Nuvi series is great: there are lots of different ones with different features, something for just about everybody. Some reviews of the 650 complain about this or that feature missing -- fine, then look at the Nuvi line -- there's probably a Nuvi with the feature you want.

Nuvis are easy enough to use right out of the box, for people who don't like reading manuals. But for those that do, it's worthwhile to spend 20-30 minutes reading the manual and tinkering with it.

If you plug it into your computer using the included USB cable, it shows up as a drive in Windows explorer. You can drag and drop your favorite photos onto the photo folder of this "drive", and then view them on the Nuvi as a slide show. You can pick one of them to be your splash screen, which you see when you first power up the unit or plug it into your computer. You can drag and drop your favorite MP3 files to the Nuvi, and play them on the Nuvi's internal MP3 player. The Nuvi has an audio output jack (which takes a standard earphone sized plug), so you can play the Nuvi's sound through your car stereo if it has an auxiliary input jack.

You can change the auto icon that represents your vehicle on the map; there are quite a few to choose from on the garmin website. You can change the voice that gives you directions; the English speaking voices include an American female (the default) or male, a British female or male, and an Australian female or male. My wife likes the British male voice the best. If you're multilingual or traveling abroad, you can switch to one of many foreign language voices.

Since the Nuvi 650 is not the latest and greatest, shop around and you should be able to get a great deal. We got a fantastic deal from c o s t c o d o t c o m. (Trying to avoid the censor.)

One last tip: The Consumer Reports article I mentioned said that thieves love to break windows and grab GPS units (and iPods, etc). The article said that you should not only take the unit with you when you park somewhere, but also remove the windshield mount - some thieves will see it and assume you left your GPS in the glove compartment, and break your window to find out.

Good, but not perfect
Had this GPS exactly one month, so I'm still learning about it. However, it's an extremely convenient, easy-to-see, great sized navigation tool. Can easily fit in a jacket pocket to take with me anywhere. I find it helpful just about every time I use it, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

But it's not the perfect answer, just a tool. You have to be aware of what it's telling you, and make decisions based on your knowledge and common sense.

Pros:
--Large, bright screen (which can switch to a dark backlight when it gets dark out).
--Text-to-speech directions pretty clear (occasional weird pronunciation.)
--Remembers lots of places you've been, easy to save places as favorites.

Cons:
--Need to understand what the Nuvi believes is fastest versus shortest, and when you may want to turn off highways as part of the navigation.
--Sometimes the nuvi does NOT tell you to bear right or left as a road forks, and if you're not looking at the screen, you won't realize it (until the GPS-voice-with-an-attitude tells you that it's recalculating).
--The precise locations of things is more of a rarity than you may think. As an example, the nuvi is locating my "home" on the street that runs 150 feet behind my house. If it's accurate to within 200 or 300 feet, that's a football field away from where you actually are.
--It sometimes doesn't announce turns in advance (doesn't happen often, but does happen).
--Do yourself a favor and buy (separately) the friction mount (sandbag-style) rather than bothering with the suction cup mount that's included. You'll love it, it's easy to move (either from car to car, or to put under you seat so that thieves don't see it and break in). Absolutely should be the standard mount.

Additional comments:
The 650 doesn't include a few features, such as bluetooth, that are standard in the 660 and above. If you use audio books or play music through the MP3 player, bluetooth would enable you to play through your car stereo. If you don't care about that, the 650 is a better deal.

No printed manual is included -- just a Quick Start pamphlet. Do yourself a favor and go to the garmin site and download the manual right away. It'll answer a ton of questions for you and clear up things that are not obvious.