The Garmin website for this (thankfully discontinued!) product says: "Talk about simple!"
I think they meant 'simple' euphemistically, as in 'retarded'.
We paid AU$9.95 to have one of these in our Avis hire car to navigate around Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, and although we got to our destinations successfully, it was a wonder we did.
We assumed "all GPS units are basically the same". WorngA!
We have a TomTom One (Version 3), which AFAIK is one of their less fully-featured models.
We love it!
We absolutely hated the Garmin.
Here's why:
The TomTom was easy to mount - we found nowhere convenient to mount the Garmin with its crappy little suction cup mount, so opted for the top of the windscreen next to the mirror. It fell off within seconds (too heavy for the mount) so my wife held it in her lap all day.
The menu was unintuitive, had too many options, and had things in weird places.
Everytime we turned the ignition off, the Garmin turned off too, so we had to set it up again.
The screen was garish colours, making it hard to view. Presumably they could be changed? Dunno - couldn't find the option.
The screen didn't indicate the next turn (the TomTom has an icon showing the next turn, which direction it is, how far ahead, and what kind - turn, roundabout, etc.) The Garmin didn't actually tell you which direction the turn was in until you were very close to it, which meant a strong possibility of you being in the wrong lane in very heavy traffic and unable to get across three lanes to make the turn.
There were too few verbal reminders; the TomTom reminds you that you need to keep to the left/right lane on the motorway, etc. The Garmin had the voice of Some Annoying Australian Bint who mispronounced street names, making them hard to identify. Also, roads were referred to by their designation (e.g., "A20"), rather than by name and designation. Most did not have the designation marked on easy to see signs, and certainly not at intersections.
So, you're wondering "Is this A20? How can I tell?", when an instruction of "turn left onto A20 / Wombat Street" would've removed all uncertainty (especially with the lack of adequate forewarning).
The TomTom shows you your speed vs. the speed limit for the road you're on, and lets you know if you're exceeding the limit by more than a (user-configured) amount. Would've been very handy in SA, where the speed limits vary widely/wildly from 40, 50, 60, 80, 90, 100, 110 km/h.
Didn't seem to be a zoom in/out feature.
Annoying prompts to "Put your seat belt on!"
Doesn't allow you to change the destination while the car is moving. Then you have to put in the street number before the street name. We had to invent addresses....
Prompts you with legal warning screens every time it starts up - can't use the device till you click on 2 or 3 "I agree" buttons.
Couldn't find the Airport on the "Transit" menu, nor anywhere else! Had to search to find it. Strangely, the airport Avis was not among the rental car companies that were displayed...
Was fairly bulky and heavy - about twice the size of the TomTom, despite the screen being no bigger.
Even little 'niceties' were missing: the TomTom capitalises the first letter of a name, then defaults to lowercase. To change the Garmin's volume, you had to use a wheel, which beeped loudly for each increment of the volume, whereas with the TomTom, it retains the volume settings (no wheel to bump) and other preferences, remembers the current destination, and you can change the volume or zoom the screen by dragging your finger across any part of the screen.
The best thing about the Garmin was that it removed any doubt about which brand of GPS to buy if/when we upgrade.
DISCLAIMER: This review was based only on the model tested. I suspect there may actually be some Garmin models that are user-friendly.
I wrote this merely to vent some of the feelings of loathing and frustration I experienced on Sunday.
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Originally Posted by vifferman
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