reesesWeb

I'm fairly happy with the Garmin Nuvi 350. I haven't had one since my Garmin 45 that I got in 1995 (jeez!) back when I was working on marine navigation software. The reason I've done without is that we did cool stuff with GPS charting, and all of the handheld or portable units that offered similar functionality all came up very much wanting.

However, moving back to San Francisco coincided with automobile GPS kits becoming just good enough to tolerate their peccadillos while saving many hours navigating our way around the city.

I was out for a Fry's run with a buddy, and one of the things I intended to buy that day was a car GPS. I hadn't really decided which, but I was thinking about buying whatever the newest Garmin in the 2700 series (probably a 2730 at this point), or a Tom Tom GO. Fortunately, we ran across the Nuvi 350.

However, that store (San Jose) didn't have one in stock, other than the floor model. Same problem at Sunnyvale, but they would sell us the floor model, incomplete with any accessories. After driving to the closest Best Buy and asking them to look up nearby store inventory on the Employee Tool Kit (asking this kind of tipped our hand about knowledge of their internal systems.), that was a dead end. Calling the nearest Circuit City, we learned they had one in stock, so we drove past the cemeteries of Colma at breakneck speed to make sure I could pay near-full-retail because it was essential that I have the GPS NOW.

Having owned it for about a month and having two other people in my car since buying it, I have already secured for Garmin two additional sales. The buddy who was driving with me, guiding us around using his 4-month-old, $700, Garmin Quest 2 bought one soon after, and my parents, who visited last weekend, ended up with one as well.

Why is it sweet?

• It's much faster than other GPS units, especially the Quest 2. (Sucker!) It finds the necessary four birds pretty quickly, recalculates routes very quickly (think two seconds instead of ten), and the search functionality looks up nearby waypoints, markers, etc., with a minimal delay.
• The UI is very responsive -- pressing a "button" on the touchscreen results in immediate feedback, with no "think time". This is great when spelling a restaurant or store to find.
• Big screen. Nuff said.
• The voice prompts read the names of upcoming streets. Most don't do this, just saying,"turn left in 200 feet." With roundabouts and non-perpendicular intersections between more than two streets, the Nuvi has already proven to be a day saver. The only downside is that a lot of times in SF, you have to make a turn, then another quick turn into a "street" that is really an alley. In these situations, the GPS will tell you,"Turn left on Jones, and then turn left." It won't read the second street name until you're right on it.

Update:
I am less happy with it now than I was when I first bought it. After the first firmware upgrade, the unit started taking much longer to acquire enough satellites to fix my position with any accuracy. Not a lot, but if I make the mistake of turning on the device inside the garage (which happens automatically when the power adapter is plugged in), it can be several minutes before it can start calculating my route.

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