Garmin Nuvi 700 Series

The Garmin Nuvi 700 series, besides the 200 series is the most popular of all the Nuvi's out at the moment, it has all the toys and features that you would expect from the top of the line Model's, IE: 760/770 Model's, All the features of the early Model's and more, Bluetooth, MP3, 5 HR battery, 4.3" screen, FM Transmitter, hands free calling, MSN direct traffic alerts, Garmin lock, pic viewer, audio books, (new) Multi-destination routing, 10,000 trip logs, (new) "where am I" this feature tells you exactly where you are in the street, where nearest hospital is, junction, police station etc..., if you take a wrong turn there is the auto route feature, very bright screen, TTS (text to speech, street names) headphone Jack, the 760 comes with the SiRF Star III chipset. SiRF is a high performance GPS chipset that can quickly acquire and maintain a lock onto satellite signals for position information.

Garmin's nüvi 700 series brings two new features -- multi-destination routing ( this is useful for delivery driver's, doing multi-drops ) and, "Where am I", As with all nüvis, you get Garmin reliability, a slim, pocket-sized design, an easy, intuitive interface, and detailed NAVTEQ maps for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico with more than 6 million points of interest.

At any time, with a single tap of the screen, drivers can display their exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations. And to help drivers find their car in an unfamiliar spot or vast parking lot, all nüvi 700s automatically mark the position in which they were last removed from the mounting cradle.

The bright, 4.3-inch touchscreen display gives is anti-glare for ease of viewing during the day and automatically changes its color profile for easy viewing at night or in dim light. It offers 2d or 3D perspective views.

The wide screen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are easier to use.

All nüvi 700s come preloaded with highly detailed City Navigator NT road maps for the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. This map database features over six million points of interest (POIs), including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, and attractions. Garmin gets its map data from NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping.

You can pair-up your nüvi to most bluetooth phones to make hands-free mobile phone calls. Simply dial the phone number with the nüvi's touch screen keypad to make a call on a compatible phone. To answer an incoming call, just tap the screen and speak into the built-in microphone. Making and taking calls on the road has never been easier, or safer. In addition, Garmin makes it easy to look-up and dial numbers from your personalized phone book or even tap into your cell phone's call history log, Note: not all phones have this feature, your phone must have the "phonebook transfer" feature to automatically transfer your phonebook to the Nuvi.

It has an integrated FM traffic receiver designed to receive alerts from TMC Clear Channel about traffic tie-ups, accidents and road construction that might be ahead on your route. All you have to do is touch the screen to view traffic details and you can detour around any problem areas. And if you end up missing a turn, or you're forced into a detour that is not relayed through the traffic receiver, the nüvi's automatic re-routing will get you back on track.

In most areas, TMC Clear Channel traffic broadcasts are continuous — there's no waiting for scheduled traffic news updates or random alerts. Because traffic broadcasts are received via a "silent" FM data channel, you can still listen to music or news programming on your car radio without interferences from incoming FM traffic data.

A 3-month free subscription to TMC Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network is included with purchase of this device. For more information on subscription fees, coverage in individual cities, and traffic data networks in the United Kingdom and Europe, check the Garmin website.

The Garmin Lock.
Garmin's theft prevention system that disables the unit from performing any functions until the user types in a specific 4-digit PIN or takes the unit to a predetermined secure location, set this feature up when you first get it, then security is setup for it,

Garmin's interface is a key to their success and one of the things that makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-menu-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip.

They are also compatible with optional content plug-ins available via SD card, such as the Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize your nüvi for all your travel needs.

Garmin has also added the ability for customers to add custom points of interest (POI’s) from third parties such as school zones and safety cameras.
All nüvis support changeable vehicle icons. These fun, customized car-shaped icons come in a variety of colors to add a personal touch to your vehicle's position on the map

What's in the Box
nüvi 760, Preloaded City Navigator NT for North America, FM traffic receiver with vehicle power cable, 3-month subscription to TMC real-time traffic services, Vehicle suction cup mount, USB cable, Dashboard disc, Quick start manual

There is no perfect GPS system, Every model has it's strengths and weaknesses and there wasn't a product that made it a clear cut decision. What I recommend is to make a priority list of the key features and functions that are most important to you and to pick the model that best fits your requirements. This sounds like an obvious approach but it is easier said than done.

The speaker volume could be louder but I could easily understand the commands traveling at 70 mph. I have also tested the system on several routes throughout Southern California and the system performed very well. All of the main features worked as published with a few exceptions noted below. The user interface is very well designed and I was able to operate 80% of the functions without reading the manual. In addition to the 760, I also purchased the Garmin Friction Dashboard Mount which I believe is a lot better than the glass suction mount provided.