Garmin Nuvi 260

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
Best dedicated GPS I ever used !!
Works great, super fast re-routing and long battery life. This is one of the easiest to use GPS units around. ...
Works great, super fast re-routing and long battery life. This is one of the easiest to use GPS units around. No flip up antenna, super bright screen, great voice choices (British Daniel is my favorite...very smooth),goes anywhere and really fits in your pocket. It does what a GPS is supposed to do...not play music or answer your phone. It's ready in a flash to get you where you need to go and does it very well thank you !! Read more
by frankwr (see profile) - October 12, 2007

14 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
Best GPS for the price!
I'll keep this short and sweet. Since I've had it, It's led me perfectly wherever I planned ...
I'll keep this short and sweet. Since I've had it, It's led me perfectly wherever I planned out, fit easily in my pocket (smallest car GPS?), and looks great, aesthetically. It has a charcoal body, not silver, and the screen is among the brightest out there (unlike the Nuvi 350). There isn't an mp3 player (who cares?) but you can still use an SD card for the jpg viewer. Grab the update online which increases the draw speed on the maps. What adds to the fun of this unit is that you can also download custom vehicle icons from garmin.com AND download various other voices for the Text-To-Speech. It comes with American English "Jill" but you can download both male and female voices for American, British, and Australian English. I have a Santa Sleigh with (a slightly robotic) Lara Croft telling me where to go. I love this GPS! Read more
by benchmarker (see profile) - November 23, 2007

12 out of 12 users found this user opinion helpful.

8 out of 10 - Excellent
Worth the price
Likes:

* Slim casing, rounded corners.
* Bright display
* Text to speech is a big plus. (i.e. speak street names) -



...
Likes:

* Slim casing, rounded corners.
* Bright display
* Text to speech is a big plus. (i.e. speak street names) - 250 and 270 do not have this.
* Accurate directions.
* Easy to use Web Updater program to obtain software updates.
* Decent price - but price is falling.



Dont' Like
* Many accesories left out to keep price low (i.e. Leather case, USB cable, home charger)
* Satellite display no longer there. (350 and 370 have this)
* Security feature is worthless. It is a four digit password that can easily be broken. Think about it 0000-9999. Won't take long to break this. Please, everyone send a complaint to Garmin to allow alphanumeric passcode.


Overall, this unit is a winner with me. It's slick casing makes it easy to carry around. Very easy to use.!! Read more
by x42384 (see profile) - November 19, 2007

5 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

8 out of 10 - Excellent
Great Text To Speech GPS
I have owned the Nuvi 200 and really like the 260 with the Text To Speech. I also owned a ...
I have owned the Nuvi 200 and really like the 260 with the Text To Speech. I also owned a Tom Tom One which I returned and bought a Tom Tom Go 720 for my wife. I like the Tom Tom but the time for the routes is not nearly as accurate as the Nuvi is. Also I love how the Nuvi has the trip option, the 720 does not have anything like that. Read more
by mjv1973 (see profile) - November 3, 2007

5 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
Does exactly what I want it to
This unit was an upgrade purchase - replaced a Garmin Quest.

My thoughts on selecting this unit:

* I want a



...
This unit was an upgrade purchase - replaced a Garmin Quest.

My thoughts on selecting this unit:

* I want a GPS to get me where I'm wanting to go - not play music, answer my phone, give me traffic/weather updates, or take my laundry to the cleaners. This unit does everything a GPS should without a lot of silly bells and whistles.

* I want complete North American database in the unit (with Quest, I was always off-loading/up-loading area maps for every trip).

* I love the touch-screen interface - far, far easier to use than the old button and pad search-for-a-letter-and-put-the-cursor-on-it-and-hit-enter method of entry.

* Small footprint - I don't need/want a big GPS unit. The new 200 and 700 series units are sleek and sexy. This was one of the reasons I didn't consider other major brands - comparable units were bigger or thicker or bulkier.

* Internal antenna - nothing to stick out - increases mounting flexibility.

I narrowed down my choices to the Nuvi 250W or the 260. At pretty equal price points, the trade off was the TTS ability of the 260 to tell me street/highway names along route and the wide-screen of the 250W. In the end I chose the TTS ability of the 260: the side-screen looks nice and fits well with the eye's appreciation of a wide view, but I decided this was really a useless feature - when using electronic navigation, I'm concerned with what's in front of me and not what's out to my sides - with the wide screen, you get more of the useless out-to-my-sides picture - not more trip detail or useful map detail or more data fields. And one thing that TTS does is eliminate much ambiguity when a unit would say "turn right" when there were three places to turn right in the space of a couple hundred feet.

It doesn't have a few features that my Quest did: true, it doesn't show the satellites and their relative position but that data didn't really do me any good anyway - I can't see them - I'm good so long as the unit can find the birds; I miss the ability to see my altitude in the map view as well as my distance from destination - small concession - I can still find them. Read more
by OMyMyOHellYes (see profile) - December 3, 2007

3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
Outstanding Value, GREAT GPS overall!
Outstanding service, clarity and sound. I have owned two other Garmins and for the money this is great. I am ...
Outstanding service, clarity and sound. I have owned two other Garmins and for the money this is great. I am considering buying the 370 Garmin for travel to Europe but if in Canada, U.S., Puerto Rico-this is the way to go! I also bought a great travel case for this unit-very portable, nice for walking in cities, bicycling or driving. Read more
by jrjbob (see profile) - July 22, 2008

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
The navigator I have used so far.
This is a wonderful product no doubt.

I preferred this over Garmin 250 for the Text to Speech feature. When

...
This is a wonderful product no doubt.

I preferred this over Garmin 250 for the Text to Speech feature. When you need to look at the screen to know the name of the street to double check it's often not so safe.

Honestly with this one you can reach your destination even without looking at it, that makes it unique.

I drove around DownTown Toronto to completely unknown places in the rush hour and it took me to every address without any hassle.

However the speech seems to be a little fading away, since the voice of Garmin nuvi 250 was clearer, I exchanged it but the fading seems to be there too. I guess this is because of the Text to Speeck feature, but it's not difficult at all to recognise street names or instructions.

Yes it doesn't have BlueTooth, MP3 and other fancy features, I guess we decided to buy a GPS, not a multimeadia system!!! Read more
by mygarbage (see profile) - April 10, 2008

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

8 out of 10 - Excellent
Great features for the price
I got this just before a business trip to Boston -- where I was stuck for 7 hours in the ...
I got this just before a business trip to Boston -- where I was stuck for 7 hours in the snow-induced gridlock on December 13. But I always knew where I was, and the Garmin was essential in helping me find a place to spend the night.
At home, the unit sits nicely in a spot in my Camry's console -- no mounting needed, and I can instantly unplug and stow the entire unit out of sight when I leave the car.
Don't get the Garmin leather pouch -- there's no way to close it -- look for a closable pouch at a camera shop. Cheaper and better.
I wish there were an easy way, such as a button, to mute the voice until I need it, and to adjust the volume while driving.
Overall, I'm sorry I didn't buy this ages ago -- it would have saved me many headaches! Read more
by lxtics (see profile) - January 2, 2008

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

8 out of 10 - Excellent
Excellent base line product
I?ve never owned a GPS but heard the Garmin (American brand) was the best so I bought 3 Nuvi ...
I?ve never owned a GPS but heard the Garmin (American brand) was the best so I bought 3 Nuvi 260?s for my wife and daughters at $250 each. I?ve now used it for 3 days. They worked perfectly right out of the box after charging. Satellite search and identification process took about 30 seconds from inside the house with good signal strength indicated. Instruction booklet is minimal because the device is so user friendly. The ?text to speech? and ?auto re-route? features work perfectly and are a must have feature to make following the turn prompts crystal clear. Battery life seems good after several days of intermittent use without a recharge. Device has excellent speaker volume and the female voice is clear and easy to understand. Mounting hardware provides windshield suction cup which worked great or alternatively a very permanent adhesive backed dash mount plate requiring a flat spot for mounting. The product is thin and easily fits into a purse, shirt or pants pocket. Then I went to a Christmas party where a friend had purchased a Tom Tom One. Wow!. The Tom Tom (European brand) had at least double the number total features available for route planning and identifying the points of interest along the way. The satellite sensitivity far exceeded the Garmin picking up 4 satellites within 15 seconds of turning on and then 3 more after several minutes while inside the house. My Garmin picked up none. Various voice type options are available and the speech seemed slightly smoother suggesting a faster internal processor. Tom Tom offers many FREE downloads for maps etc but I think there is a 30 day cut off. Worst of all, the cost at $150 was $100 less than my unit. My friend was already complaining the Tom Tom had a short battery life after only using it a couple days requiring it be plugged in during use much of the time. Probably not a good sign if you want to use the portability for downtown navigation on foot. This too suggested a faster processor and better electronics. Greatly disappointed, I went back home and did more customer feedback research on CNET.com. Based on my work, the Tom Tom appears to offer many more options but has significant quality and reliability issues where as the Garmin has better quality but fewer options. Garmin will have a real run for their money if/when Tom Tom gets the quality issues under control. Overall, I?m still glad I got the Garmin for it?s apparent reliability and basic features needed by my family.

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
I did my research
I really like this unit. I would recommend buying this if you are not looking to spend too much money ...
I really like this unit. I would recommend buying this if you are not looking to spend too much money and you want a GPS sytem to do exactly what it is made to do, get you from here to there. I am not interested in other bells and whistles that more expensive units have such as using it as an MP3 player etc. My other reason for posting here is for answers. I read a review on here from a person that says you can download various voices for the text to speech? If you review the second second review on here you can read what i am talking about and asking. They state that they downloaded Lara Croft's voice? For the life of me I can not seem to find any where on the internet (even the Garmin website) where you can download other voices. I would really appreciate it if anyone reading my review can email me with this information. My email address is fenway_08@yahoo.com Thank you all. Read more
by johnf8 (see profile) - December 28, 2007

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.