Product Description

Ready to go right out-of-the-box, StreetPilot i5 comes preloaded with detailed maps of North America and is the newest member of the i-series StreetPilots - a line of small, inexpensive automotive GPS navigators that make driving fun.No larger than a baseball and priced affordably, the StreetPilot i-series is destined to be a hit for commuters, college students, and corporate travelers who are looking to experience the ease and enjoyment of GPS satellite navigation for the first time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12998 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Garmin
• Model: 010-00496-00
• Dimensions: 2.74" h x 2.15" w x 3.00" l, .40 pounds
• Native resolution: 220 x 176
• Display size: 2.1

Features

• Small, inexpensive but robust automotive GPS navigator
• Unique and convenient click-to-enter scroll wheel makes it easy to select destinations
• Three-dimensional map graphics with voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions through a built-in speaker
• Automatically puts you back on course when you make a wrong turn or run into traffic problems
• Measures 3 x 2.74 x 2.15 inches (W x H x D)

Amazon.com Product Description
The Garmin StreetPilot i5 Automotive GPS Navigator is preloaded with detailed maps of North America and is ready to use right out-of-the-box. Another great addition to the StreetPilot i-series, the StreetPilot i5 is a compact, inexpensive automotive GPS navigator that helps you get where you want to go while making driving fun.

Main menu. View larger.

Turn-by-turn directions. View larger.

Review turns display. View larger.

The StreetPilot i5 packs powerful GPS navigation and a color display into a compact, reasonably priced device. View larger.

About the size of a baseball and priced to keep your pocketbook happy, the StreetPilot i5 is perfect for commuters, college students, and corporate travelers who are looking to experience the ease and enjoyment of GPS satellite navigation. Don't let its small stature fool you, though. Although it only weighs in at 5.3 ounces, the i5 has many of the same powerful capabilities as other premium Garmin automotive GPS navigators.

The i5 features a unique and convenient click-to-enter scroll wheel and a Back button, which makes it easy to select a destination from the unit's menu-driven interface. This unit includes three-dimensional map graphics and provides voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions through a built-in speaker. Toss your navigation worries out the window, because the i5 will automatically put you back on course if you miss a turn, and a detour function enables routing around traffic problems or road construction. Plus, if want to stay off the highways and blaze a scenic trail, the i5 lets you prioritize your choice of back roads or major highways. It is handy in any situation. and you can easily move the unit from vehicle to vehicle with the integrated suction-cup mount.

The i5 comes preloaded with detailed maps of City Navigator North America NT. These maps feature full coverage of the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico--including nearly six million points of interest (POIs) such as gas stations, ATMs, hotels, restaurants, and other attractions. You can plot up to 500 waypoints with names and an array of graphic symbols for customized, detailed navigation. This unit also comes with removable TransFlash data storage capability and is easy to connect to your PC through the USB interface.

As an added benefit, you can even import customized points of interest with the help of Garmin's free POI Loader software. The sky's the limit with this software--you can even upload safety cameras or school zones to receive warnings if you are traveling too fast in these high-risk areas. In addition, an optional proximity-alert feature notifies you of your upcoming custom POIs.

With a 32k-color, sunlight-readable TFT display with backlight, the i5 is easy to read in almost any light conditions. Motorists can choose from either a three-dimensional mapping perspective or the standard overhead bird's-eye view. For added convenience, drivers can power the unit with either two AA batteries (up to six hours of typical use) or the included 12-volt adapter cable.

What's in the Box
StreetPilot i5, Americas Lite Routable basemap, City Navigator North America NT (preprogrammed), PC/USB cable, 12-volt adapter cable, vehicle suction-cup mount, dashboard adhesive disk, USB drivers CD, and quick reference guide.

Customer Reviews

Exceeded My Expectations
November 2005: I already own several GPS units.

After getting into an argument with a novice who bought a Garmin "i3" and loves it, I bought a Garmin "i5" so that I could prove him wrong. A GPS unit this inexpensive just can't be that good. Boy was I wrong.

I picked the Garmin "i5" instead of the "i3" because my computer doesn't have a DVD drive for downloading maps.

The first area I was critical about was the thumbwheel with the two button (enter and back) solution. After a few hours I found I could enter data faster using the thumbwheel than using a touch screen.

The "i5" is small enough to hold in the palm of my hand, eliminating vehicle bounce, scroll the thumbwheel, and then press the thumbwheel to enter the desired letter or number.

Entering an address often requires only a few thumbwheel presses. First the state/province is entered, eliminating 98% of all the addresses in North America.

Garmin then guides you through a list of city and street names. Often the number of thumbwheel presses is shortened by selecting from a list of possible matches using the back button. Garmin did a great job in this area.

Next is the screen size. The advertising on Garmin's website shows screens with jagged lines. But the actual screen, although smaller is also clearer than most PNDs (personal navigation devices). I suppose this is because the pixels are closer together.

Next is signal strength. I put the "i5" inside my dashboard near the speedometer so that thieves wouldn't easily see it. It still worked great. It occasionally lost the signal but so did my more expensive PND which was windshield mounted.

Next is the instruction manual. You don't need it. Unlike the Magellan RoadMates, where the large buttons do nothing half the time and I don't know which to push the other half, the back button and the thumbwheel always do something and the screen always prompts you.

Next is routing. Don't expect the "i5" to find the best route to get from point A to point B. None of the PNDs do that and the less expensive ones usually chose the first successful route. But it will get you to point B and quickly recalculate a new route if you drive off route. Often the routes it chose were identical to my more expensive PND.

POIs (points of interest). Where POIs are useful is when you know there's a store nearby but you don't know the adddress. The "i5" will show you a list of stores and route you to one if desired. Once I drove around for 30 minutes looking for a small store without the use of the "i5". Finally out of frustration I used the "i5" to route me straight to the location and still couldn't see the store. After walking around for about a minute I found that the store was hidden behind a larger store.

My only suggestion is that I wish the "i5" had talking street names.

I bought this unit to see how well it worked and planned to return it. But I think I'll give it to my wife instead. She's always getting lost on long trips and the "i5" makes a nice low cost second PND.

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January 2006: I gave the "i5" to my wife and at first she was not impressed. I think she'd rather have jewelry.

But she liked the thumbwheel because it didn't interfer with her finger nails.

This morning she took a long trip and as usual called me. But instead of saying that she was lost, she said she got to her destination without any problems and stress free. Usually she's yapping away with her mother and misses a critical turn.

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December 2006: The original review claimed the "i5" used the SiRF receiver, but I cannot verify this. My apologies.

I continue to be amazed by the simplicity of the two button solution and the bright screen. In my opinion you won't find a better new PND for less money.

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May 2007: The "i5" has been discontinued. It is being replaced by the Nuvi 200, which has a bright touch screen and rechargeable battery.

Thanks everyone for reading this review and clicking on whether it was helpful, whether Yes or No.

Size does matter.
A tennis ball. The Garmin StreetPilot i5. What do the two have in common? Size.

The i5 is without a doubt, one of the best purchases I've ever made. Everyone has the same reaction I first had when I saw it on display at a marine supply store. "That's a GPS? No way." Then they want a demonstration.

The main selling point for this unit is it's size. It can do everything that other competitor's GPS units can do, and more, at a third of the size. If you've ever wanted a GPS on your motorcycle, the i5 is the real deal.

The unit comes with a 12V power cord for automobile use. You can also pop in 2 AA's and leave the cord behind. The unit is rated for 3-4 hours use when using with AA's alone. If you are going to use the 12V cord, Garmin still recommends having fresh AA's in the unit, as the unit is able to update it's position upon powering up faster, that just going with the cord alone.

The i5 gets a perfect score from me when it comes to ergo. Navigating through menus is quick and painless.

It also has an auto-brightness setting that brightens or dims the unit's display depending on ambient lighting conditions. Even cooler, at night, the nav map changes it's color scheme to darker colors which is cool.

Voice prompts are right on cue. Very glad the voice has NO "computer-voice" and even happier it's a female voice. I call her "Garmina".

So why not 5 stars? There's no Mac support for this device. This is why I had to buy the i5 instead of the i3. Having North America pre-loaded however might be worth the extra $100 bucks for some. Garmin also offers a "POI" (points-of-interest) loader software FREE, again, only for Windows users. This nifty feature enables you to load user defined proximity notifications for all kinds of different variables. Approaching a school speed zone? Once programmed, the unit will warn you to reduce your speed.

Bluetooth support would have been nice too, since other new (but much larger) units have it. If you have a Bluetooth cell phone and a Bluetooth GPS, the cell can inform the GPS of delays, accidents, road closures etc. in real time. This is of course with a subscription. The unit does have a USB port and maybe Garmin might want to think about writing in support for the use of a USB Bluetooth adapter in future firmware updates (pretty please).

Garmin does not include a carrying case for the unit, which it should have. You will not want to leave this in full view when away from your vehicle, it will most certainly be stolen and the kid who stole it will use it on their BMX, since it's so small.

This unit uses NAVTEQ map data, (North America pre-loaded) which is known industry-wide as the benchmark for map database into.

The i5 rules.

Garmin's Street Pilot is easy to use, fun, and reliable
I'm such a tech geek. Why do I need a golf ball-sized road assistant? Don't know, but I fell in love with it at the store. Initially, I walked into Circuit City to purchase a radar detector and nothing more, but after seeing Garmin's Street Pilot i5 ("i5"), I became curious. For years, I have always found ways to get lost on the road. I have an uncanny knack for making wrong turns, and often find myself a little confused when one road either changes names or does a 90 degree turn on me. With that being said, I hate being lost!! It's stressful, makes by blood boil, and turns me into a driving heart-attack waiting to happen. Thus, I bought the Garmin's i5 on sale at Circuit City for $399.99 (while still selling at other stores for about $499.00) and here's what I think about it:

Out of the box

Out of the box, the i5 comes with a colorful quick setup guide (with the full manual only available for download at Garmin's website), a disc and USB cable (for downloading updates) and two different mounts: One is a windshield mount, and the other is a permanent dashboard mount. I wish there was another way to mount the i5 to the dashboard without permanently affixing it to the dash. But since I'm driving a '96 Thunderbird and not a '05 Thunderbird, I didn't care about permanently changing the appearance of my dash. When I say "Permanent" I don't mean screws and bolts, but there is some really strong glue on the back of a black plastic disk that attaches to your dash; you then connect the windshield suction mount to the disk. I've removed the unit from the disk mount multiple times in the past week using its quick release, and the disk has not given. I didn't go for windshield mount option because that would place the i5 a little too far away from me. Since the fonts are small, I can see the maps better when mounted on my dash. For those of you who don't want to ruin your dashboard, you can still mount the unit to your windshield. But If your eyes were good enough to qualify you for a drivers license, then you should be able to see the screen when mounted on the windshield; I just like it on my dashboard better.

Operation

Operation was a breeze: I opened the box, plugged in the power cord and connected it to my device and viola! The unit asked me a few preliminary questions regarding my time zone and I was ready to go. It is very easy to navigate through the user interface: You use the thumb scroll to channel through your options, then press the wheel in to make a selection. If you make a mistake, you press the back button on the left which will back you out of your mistake(s) in incremental steps until you reach the main menu. The navigation voice is that of a woman's, is very loud and clear, and can be spoken in various languages. It's also very easy to spell street names and input street numbers using the thumb scroll.

Comparison / Reliability

I haven't tried any other navigational devices so I cannot compare this one to the more pricy brands, but I can tell you that the screen is just as bright and vivid as the other units on display at Circuit City. I am learning to trust the i5's sense of direction. The first day I purchased it, I turned it on in Circuit City's parking lot and clicked the link that searches for nearby "transportation" places. I received hits for all the nearby airports with turn-by-turn directions at a glance, and was incredibly impressed! Next, I told the i5 to find nearby food places, and it returned all the places of various cuisines in proximity to me, including small nondescript mom-and-pop restaurants that the unassuming motorist would never notice! Didn't know there was a Hip-Hop Museum a couple miles from my house until I searched for nearby museums (Who'd have thunk it?). Turned out to be a defunct building still listed as a Hip-Hop Museum (but still cool). For most of the destination spots stored on the i5's hard drive, the complete addresses and phone numbers are provided; I would highly recommend calling the destination spot before driving there, to minimize your chances of driving a few miles to a rib shack only to find that the business is defunct. The i5 has over 6 million preloaded points of interest and categorizes with headings such as nearby food, post offices, city halls, museums, department stores, shopping malls, gas stations, etc. You are also free to manually input an address and street name which is also easy to do.

Fun

Using the i5 for finding things to do on the weekend is like playing a game of catch the flag: I enjoy typing in the names of restaurants and amusement attractions to where I've never been, and watching the i5 locate the address and put my car on auto pilot, taking me to the uncharted destination. I must admit that I smile every time the i5 says "arriving at destination on right." It's just so 21st century.

Range / Sense of direction

Each time I turn the i5 on, I have to wait about 20 seconds while it finds the satellites, then I'm good to go (the unit locks onto 3 satellites when you have the "3-D map" setting on). The only time my i5 looses the satellites is when I enter my parking garage in Downtown Detroit. If you make a wrong turn, the i5 will notice after about 5 seconds then say "recalculating" which takes about another 5 seconds, then tells you what to do now. Depending on your preferences the i5 will either tell you to make a U-Turn, or have you make a series of turns around the block until you are back on course. I turned the "make a U-Turn" preference on. So now, if I pass my destination by mistake, the unit says, "When possible, make a U-Turn." Also, I used my i5 on a very wet and dark day this week and it never skipped a beat. I have noticed however, then when I ask the i5 to navigate me somewhere while I'm sitting in a parking lot with various ways to ingress and egress, the i5 doesn't know what direction my car is facing and may tell me to make a series of turns to get onto a particular road (when that road is actually right in my face). Also, if you exit a freeway too early and continue on the service drive, the i5 will not notice the change as long as the service drive runs parallel to the freeway, it only recalculates your course after the service drive and freeway diverge and the satellite realizes that you moving in a different direction of the freeway. However, once the i5 realizes that you are on a different path (probably a minute later depending on when the divergence occurs, you are put back on course in seconds) I rate the i5 4 out of 5 stars for this reason only.


External power usage

For the occasional days when my cell phone is plugged into my DC outlet, I wanted to test how the i5 long would it take before the i5 drains an alkaline battery; it took about 5 hours to drain my 2 AA Duracell alkaline batteries. Garmin's specifications says that the i5 should between 6 and 7 hours. I probably only got 5 hours because I had the volume turned all the way up, and the map settings on "most detail." There is a battery setting on this unit that ask you whether or not you are using Ni-Cad or alkaline batteries. I guess this helps the unit determine the most efficient way to use the batteries. First I thought it asked that question to determine whether or not to charge your rechargeable batteries, but after leaving the power cord plugged into my i5 overnight, I found that my rechargeable batteries' strength meter was neither weaker nor stronger by the morning. Garmin's next Street Pilot should have a built in battery charger.

All in all the i5 is a wonderful unit. I think it's a joy to use and a must have for those who like to explore different place without getting lost.