Garmin nüvi 255W Automobile Navigator - 010-00718-20
Garmin nuvi 255W 4.3" GPS w/ Text To Speech, Where Am I?

I bought this unit specifically because I had work in the northeast. Road and highways in that area are often badly marked. What passes for a "highway" is also sometimes a joke for people used to driving in Texas. The unit was easy to use and generally worked well on the highways and in the cities. My only complaint was that when driving along a highway at 65 mph, some verbal instructions only came at 0.2 miles from a turn. That was sometimes not enough time to change lanes. At other times, I got a warning message at 1 mile. I don't know why it wasn't consistent.
 
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I read other reviews and agree, this unit has poor but adequate speech quality and volume. The screen is clear and crisp. The satellite access is fast. The accuracy of location is adequate but the prompts could be a little earlier for turns. My real beef is the route I got on a trip from LA to Santa Cruz via Hwy 101. It was fine until Salinas, where you are directed to get onto CA-183 to Castroville. The prompts were either lousy or Wrong. We got lost had to reroute, were directed into a dead end street and told to turn left. Finally made it out but the routing was very bad. Would suggest people buy the Tom-Tom equivalent maybe it is better.
 
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I read and read reviews on the Garmins, trying to decide which one to buy. Went to Garmin to see which ones they have listed so I would get a newer model and not one that had been on the shelf a few years. Decided I wanted one that said street names and talked...stay in right lane, etc. It was great. Kept me from missing my turns in heavy traffic when you can't change lanes quickly. My son and I did not get lost one time and we would have been otherwise..(-: The other thing I wanted was the posted speed of the highway. Very handy when in a new place...also having the speed I am driving is nice. Worth every penny.
 
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I will be going off to college next year and was in the market for a gps. I researched gps from different brands and thought Garmin was the best in ratings and efficiency. I received this gps in a week after ordering and used it right away. I have driven around the Arlington/Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex with the help of the Garmin 255W and it works wonderfully! It is very easy to use, great picture quality, changes directions quickly if I detoured or went the wrong way, and you can even change the voice. I recommend this gps to anyone :)
 
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Best value for an easy to use Garmin GPS. Had all the basic features I wanted; speaking street names is MUCH more helpful (I had previously borrowed a Garmin that only used distances; "Turn in 500 feet"). The widescreen is much easier to view and navigate through. Only feature i'd have liked to have added would be the traffic feature, though it was not worth the extra $$ to me as the service isn't in my immediate area. Completely happy with my purchase!
 
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So my wife and I had been eyeballing portable gps' for a while and decided that we wanted to text-to-speech capability, and the 4.3" widescreen display was a bonus. I tried out a friends tom tom and didn't like the interface and found it not very intuitive to use, but the Garmin was dead simple and very effective. The only gripes I've got is the battery life isn't incredible and when I've got the volume at 60%, it's too quite to hear the prompts, but at 70% it seems to be almost distorting the internal speaker. Other than that, it's an great unit for the money.
 
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Used a major consumer reporting magazine to guide my selection. In addition, this is the cheapest Nuvi that has pronounced street names. Does a great job with pronunciation. Streets like "Knickerbocker" and "Eisenhower" were no problem for it. Love the unit. Won't use it to fully replace a map, but it's a great addition.
 
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Has all the featues for a good price.
 
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Since there's like a million different Garmin Nuvi models I had a tough time choosing. This one had more features and was $80 cheaper than the one we first bought at Costco. The street name availability seems to be the stand out feature. Shipping was very prompt.
 
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After doing our research we decided on the Garmin Nuvi 255w. Very glad we got the wider screen, it makes it much easier to read. Having the street names, exits, etc spoken is the best feature over the lower priced models that just tell you to make the turn. Believe me you will be happy it says the names. I've talked to friends who have models that do not and said they wish they did as there are often exits or turns very close together and you wonder whether or not the unit could be 'off' a little. This feature makes you much more comfortable.
 
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I bought this NUVI 255W from buy.com. It got here 5 days later in good condition. I've used it to navigate to a few known and unknown places. So far it works great. <br><br> I picked this NUVI 255W over 260W after did some reading from many websites. The unit has all features I need. I don't need other premium features. No GPS is perfect and they all last about 4-5 yrs any way. Why pay more? So, here are some Pros and Cons I've noticed so far. <br><br> <b>PROS:</b> Fast satellite pick up, fast recalculate route, TTS voice is not bad but could be better, screen is bright enough to see in the sun, The unit will zoom in when approching a turn so you can see direction better then it will zoom back out. <br><br> <b>CONS:</b> A much better user manual is needed. It only comes with a quick manual. I can do without it. It only come with a vehicle power cable. No USB to mini cable. Using a regular camera USB-mini will only allowed you to charge the unit. You won't be able to operate the unit while it is being charged. You have to buy "Garmin" special USB-mini cable to be able to charge and operate the unit from your PC. However, there is a way to by pass this if you do some research online. Battery only last 3-4 hrs. depends on the volumn and brightness levels. The unit seems to be 1 second lack the real time movement. <br><br> <b>OVERALL:</b> It is a good GPS. Not perfect by any mean. I normally have to plan directions from mapquest before I go some where I'm not familiar with. Not any more. The unit helps me getting to places with a peace of mind and it's performing for what I paid for. I'd recommend this unit.
 
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I bought this NUVI 255W from buy.com. It got here 5 days later in good condition. I've used it to navigate to a few known and unknown places. So far it works great. <br><br> I picked this NUVI 255W over 260W after did some reading from many websites. The unit has all features I need. I don't need other premium features. No GPS is perfect and they all last about 4-5 yrs any way. Why pay more? So, here are some Pros and Cons I've noticed so far. <br><br> <b>PROS:</b> Fast satellite pick up, fast recalculate route, TTS voice is not bad but could be better, screen is bright enough to see in the sun, The unit will zoom in when approching a turn so you can see direction better then it will zoom back out. <br><br> <b>CONS:</b> A much better user manual is needed. It only comes with a quick manual. I can do without it. It only come with a vehicle power cable. No USB to mini cable. Using a regular camera USB-mini will only allowed you to charge the unit. You won't be able to operate the unit while it is being charged. You have to buy "Garmin" special USB-mini cable to be able to charge and operate the unit from your PC. However, there is a way to by pass this if you do some research online. Battery only last 3-4 hrs. depends on the volumn and brightness levels. The unit seems to be 1 second lack the real time movement. <br><br> <b>OVERALL:</b> It is a good GPS. Not perfect by any mean. I normally have to plan directions from mapquest before I go some where I'm not familiar with. Not any more. The unit helps me getting to places with a peace of mind and it's performing for what I paid for. I'd recommend this unit.
 
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I bought this Nuvi 255W last Thursday from buy.com and got it on Monday. I checked the price again today and it's dropped $10 less. I've used the GPS during the pass 2 days. So far I like it. <br><br> Many reviews on other sites said that the TTS(text-to-speech) isn't as good as other models. I found it is acceptable to me. Although it is not as good as the regular American-English one. I've heard that there is an update on the voice but I've not tried the update yet. <br><br> Here are the pros I've noticed so far. I'm sure as I used it more I will find more things.<br><br> 1)Fast acquired satellite signals. <br> 2)Hotfix (re-route)is fast.<br> 3)Sensitive. It can get signal inside house near window.<br> 4)The speed limit changed right where the speed limit signs are located. <br><br> However, I've also noticed 4 main cons.<br><br> 1)When I drove pass streets the streets shown on the GPS lack by about 1 second. <br><br> 2)Garmin doesn't include a USB-miniUSB cable in the box. Garmin USB-miniUSB cable is different from the regular camera cable(internally). Using Garmin USB cable will allow you to charge and work on the GPS at the same time. If you use a standard camera USB-miniUSB cable, the unit will turn into a mass storage mode (like a flash drive). You will be able to charge the battery only. You won't be able use your GPS at all. Talking about how to make money. If you do some research online, there is a way to get by this without buying a Garmin cable. <br><br> I've tried the cigarette-usb cable (included in the box). It can be used to charge the battery while operate the GPS in your car at the same time.<br><br> 3)The quick manual is pretty much useless. They could have save trees and not print it. Garmin needs to spend more time into developing a better detail manual. Example, there is no instruction or icon show you which direction to insert the SD card. Not on the GPS case or in the manual. I've to trial and error. <br><br>To insert a SD card. Holding the GPS face up. The SD card's contacts face down and insert it in.<br><br> No instruction on how to copy photos into what folder on the unit. If you are a computer literate, I guess this feature would be useless to you.<br><br> 4)No backup CD. If you accidentally delete files or a folder on the unit, you are out of luck. So, the first thing I did with my unit was creating a backup disk right away. (copy files from the GPS unit on to my PC and burn them into a disk.) All files and folder ~ 1.22GB. Make sure to back up your files/folders.<br><br> Disprite of the cons, so far, I enjoy using this GPS over the emap I own. I used to hesitate to go out of my directions but not any more. Today, it brought me home through a route I've never drove through before. The route has less traffic than one I normally used.
 
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Electronics > Car Audio & Video > GPS