Garmin nüvi 780 GPS receiver

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 3 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 7 stars

  Great GPS in a Small Package

  by dentalrep on February 8, 2008

  Pros: Small size, Bluetooth, MSN Direct Enhanced, Bright Screen

  Cons: No Custom Avoidances, No categories under Favorites, No Attention tone while on the phone and a turn is coming up, Bluetooth issues with some Blackberries, no remote

  Summary: I have been a Garmin supporter for along time. I am coming from a feature packed 2820 and I have had to sacrifice a lot of features going to the ...

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  Summary: I have been a Garmin supporter for along time. I am coming from a feature packed 2820 and I have had to sacrifice a lot of features going to the Nuvi.I am going to start off with the negative first:
  
  I had a lot of issues with the Bluetooth version 3.0 with my Blackberry with disconnects. I called Garmin and they had me downgrade the Bluetooth software and now it works great.
  
  I also live in Houston and I used custom avoidances on my 2820. What was nice about that feature is a could tell the unit to NEVER take me a certain way. This was useful because certain roads look great on a map but are a pain to drive.
  
  I am also getting used to not having a remote. If I was on a call I used to be able to just push volume up on my remote. Now I have to reach over and go into the menu.
  
  I use my GPS for work and personal. Having categories in your favorite folder was useful for me. I had a work folder and a personal folder. So when I want to go somewhere with the wife I don't have to sort through 100's of doctors.
  
  My last gripe has to do with the handsfree operation. While on a call and you are following a route there is no longer a ding to let you know that a turn is coming up. I have already missed a ton of turns because I am in sles and live on the phone between going to Doctors' offices. Also the speaker is weak and tinny when you bump up the volume. If you are on a highway you have to be at 80% or above for it to be a comfortable conversation. I will be hardwireing my audio out to my car radio as a result of the poor performance.
  
  Now for the good, traffic alerts work well and so does the MSN info. The screen is bright and very readable. The vehicle icons are cool and you can download more. You can run a mic to the cradle base for better sound while on a call. The size od the unit is great.

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  6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Exactly what I needed, works great.

  by Bumba220 on April 10, 2008

  Pros: Small, speaks to you, nice screen, accurate and fast

  Cons: Speaker volume

  Summary: This is the first Nav unit I've owned so I don't have a whole lot to compare it to other than what I've seen and used in ...

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  Summary: This is the first Nav unit I've owned so I don't have a whole lot to compare it to other than what I've seen and used in other people's cars, rentals, etc. From what I can tell this is the same unit as the Nuvi 760 except it comes with the MSN receiver and 3 months of the MSN service free.
  
  It works right out of the box with little to no setting up. It initially took a few minutes to acquire satellites but after that it's been working perfectly. I love the MSN integration... if there is construction for instance on my route, it'll either calculate a route around it or in the least re-calculate my arrival time based on the delay. It even pops up a little yellow sign on the screen with how long the delay will be when you get to that area.
  
  I've been testing it a lot, purposely taking wrong turns and such to see how it would react and it's been GREAT in this regard. Recalculates within seconds. It also gives you the great option to re-route based on roads you want to avoid and allows you to plan routes with 10 waypoints along the way.
  
  One option I tried just for the heck of it was the Points Of Interest... this had little appeal to me when I was doing my research but after using it once I LOVE IT! You can enter in what kind of food you want, what kind of shopping, etc. it'll even tell you movie times nearby, concerts... pretty cool although not entirely a necessity for general navigation.
  
  It's small enough that you can throw it into your bag or even your pants or coat pocket, it doesn't weigh much more than a cell phone.
  
  So far the only drawback I can think of is the speaker. At the higher volumes it'll distort a bit and isn't really loud enough if you have music playing or if you're in a big rig truck. It isn't something that would deter me from buying this thing though, it's just a minor thing I've already gotten used to. For those times that you REALLY need to pay attention though, with a couple button pushes the Nuvi will be talking to you via your car stereo system, which works great... loud and clear, no problems with that (FM Transmitter function).
  
  Also as far as the MP3 player, I can't think of a more useless function in a GPS Nav unit, so I really don't even plan on testing it out... really makes no sense to me but I guess they're trying for this multi-media thing. But that's what my iPod is for.
  
  I highly recommend the Nuvi 780 if you're looking for small units that pack a ton of features and are able to part with the cash.

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 3 stars

  Don't buy this

  by raybee98 on August 28, 2008

  Pros: Navigation works very well.

  Cons: The MSN feature does not work.

  Summary: I paid a lot for this unit forthe MSN DIrect feature, but it does not work. I am in a major metropoltian area which should have a good signal, but ...

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  Summary: I paid a lot for this unit forthe MSN DIrect feature, but it does not work. I am in a major metropoltian area which should have a good signal, but it does not connect. After much time wasting wrangling they replaced the cable/receiver, which did not help. Finallly they had me send back GPS for repair, sent me instead another used one, with its own glitches, and still MSN does not work. Save money and get one without that feature. Or get a Magellan or Tom Tom. Poor quality product.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

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