What are you folks using for an aftermarket portable GPS system? I would like something, which I can move from car to car. There are sooooo many GPS units on the market . . . Tom Tom, Navman, Garmin, Magellan, etc. It can be quite confusing.

Just thought I would ask, to determine what everyones' experiences might be.

Any comments and/or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

I just bought a Garmin 330 last week and it is an amazing system. All touch screen, all of north america already loaded into the system, and 5 million points of interest available. It is accurate and very reliable. I highly reccomend this system.

 

I am seriously considering the Garmin c330 as well. From the research I've done, it seems much better then the TomTom Go unit and worth the extra $$$.

 

Thank you for your comments. That's one of the rigs, which I am looking at. I trust your Garmin 330 is performing to your expectations.

 

I am planning on getting the TomTom Go 700 version tomorrow. It has in-built bluetooth phone connectivity, which is quite nice.

Anyone experiences with TomTom Go 700?

 

I have a Bluetooth Navi that connects to my Dell Axim Pocket PC. I travel extensively with work, thus needed something I could travel with in rental cars. The bluetooth receiver is about the size of an average Motorola flip phone and connects via bluetooth. The software/maps used by the Pocket PC (software is included) is done by NAVTEQ.

All in all, although I would love to have the factory navi, it would be pointess since i travel and drive rentals when I need a car out of town.

 

I ended up buying the Garmin C330. I am very impressed with this little unit. It's very easy to use with the touch screen and the maps are outstanding.

 

Holux GPS + Computer + Microsoft Mappoint 2004 = bliss

 

I picked up a Magellan Roadmate 700 about a month ago. It has worked flawlessly. My wife took it on a road trip (rental car) to L.A. and loved it. She calls it Victoria, my mistress. We then took it up to the Grass Valley area. Again, it worked flawlessly. We just came back from a 7 day trip (rental car) back down to L.A. This unit is great.

Regardless of what everyone else chooses, I trust your experiences are great, as well.

We are planning on getting a new SUV. We are going to pass on the factory NAV. The savings and portability, which the aftermarket NAV units affords are incredible.

 

Very well put and so true.

 

I just got the TomTom Go 700 last week and works great.
I haven't gone any major road trip yet, just used locally for testing.

It connected to my Bluetooth Motorola v330 and sound quality through the hands free feature is superb. You can dial and recieve calls through the GPS unit. Using touch screen to make calls is very convenient.
Love it....

More updates to follow....

 

The bluetooth option sounds great. I wish I had that.

 

I just got a TT GO 700 last week and love it so far. Here is my review based on my experiences so far.

1) Bluetooth Phone feature -
I love the bluetooth phone feature, My phone Motorola v330 was not listed in the supported list but I was successfull able to connect and use it. Based on my experience, I don't think the phone compatibility list is always up to date, just try your phone and see if it works with the device.

Making calls and recieving calls is very convenient though the GPS screen, sound quality is excellent for hearing the other party through the GPS speaker. Talking though the GPS microphone ranges from good to excellent. I had few freinds who could not believe i was talking thorough a Handsfree GPS device, while sometimes my friends complained the voice was very hollow. You have to give the benefit of doubt to the TomTom device as there are lot of variables involved in making a phone call though bluetooth like Phone Signal quality, road noise, etc... Overall i am very impressed with the phone capabilities, although I have some gripes which i will list below.

2) Mapping and routing - I have not tried it on a long trip yet, mostly I have driven locally where I know all the routes. Routing in general is very good and accurate. Although I found few new addresses that were not listed. I drove to one of my friends place who lives in the far west suburbs of chicago and his community streets were totally absent / missing in the TomTom maps. So, once I got to his house, I bookmarked the Map position on to my favourites, so that I can get to his house. Since there are no street level data for his community, all I could do was use the map point as guide to get me to his house.
Even for my house which is about 3-4 yrs old, the street names are slightly mixed in the subdivision and moreover I cannot get my address by typing / searching for the location in the GPS.
Rest of the regular routes are very accurate and detailed.

3) POI - I was surprised that I could find some local stores which I did not expect to find on the device. Haven't used the feature extensively but seems fairly OK. Although I would like to know how to update the POI?

4) Voice / Sound quality - Voice and sound quality is excellent. Instructions are read out loud and clear. I have read that there are darth vader and yoda voices available, love to get them installed on my device.

5) Visibility / Brightness - I have my brightness set to full and it looks very sharp and bright. I haven't seen any major issues during mid afternoon sunlight so far.

Complaints and like to have features -
First the complaints -

1) I am not able to see my "Phone book" numbers from my cellphone on the TomTom GO 700 device. I have the option to "Get numbers from phone" when clicked tries to retrive numbers from phone and after couple of minutes says retrieved numbers successfully, but my "Phone book" icon is always disabled on my TTGO 700.
My phone is the Motorola V330 with T-Mobile service.

2) Not sure if the TomTom Plus service is available in USA yet? No proper documentation available on the website and Manual.

3) The POI search capability could be improved, in the current version you are forced to select a category for searching the POI, this makes it hard if you are not sure what category the POI you are looking for is listed in. It would be great if you could just type the name of the POI and find it. As an example "Walgreens" is a "Store" which could also be a "Pharmacy". So, to search for Walgreens you have to know if it is in the "Store" or the "Pharmacy" category. This might not be the best example, but I hope you get the idea.

Like to have features -
1) I would love to have voice recognition / voice dial through the GPS device. I don't think it is a big ask, as the device already has a microphone through which you answer your calls. Most phones already have voice recognition capability, so it should not be hard to just pass my voice command to the cell phone.

2) Extending the above mentioned feature, it would be great if we can use voice commands to enter our address. That would make it truly hands free and very safe to operate.

3) Frequent updates to MAPS & POI through the internet?? Not sure if it is available or how to get updates?

These are my complaints so far, will keep updating as I use the device.

Cool features -

1) Hands free calling through GPS, I was really amazed this morning when I had the TTGO 700 in my living room and the bluetooth phone in my bedroom which is one floor above and the opposite end of my living room, the device could connect to the phone.

2) Ability to search for POI's and make calls to them through the GPS is really helpfull.

 

Hey. I bought the Garmin C330 with my birthday money from Good Guys for 699. You can get it cheaper on amazon.com. I've used it a lot, and like it. It's really easy to use, and my friends learn how to use it just by watching me.

Here are some of the good/bad things about the Garmin. I can only talk about the Garmin b/c thats the only unit I own.

Bad things about Garmin:

1. Sometimes the display can be hard to see in the sun
2. Only shows one route to a location

Good things:

1. Small, and easy to use (I've only seen one street that they messed up on, but if you click detour then it finds another route, or if you drive off route it automatically recalculates for you.)
2. 5 million waypoints (but sometimes movie theatres don't really show up.)
3. Good price. I was thinking about the Tom Tom but did not want to pay an extra 300 for it.
4. Touch screen, and portable

 

Anyone interested in Garmin products should PM G35Alex. I bought my C330 from him at a VERY good price.