Garmin Nuvi 295W
Manufacturer: Garmin Part number: 010-00916-00
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Garmin Nuvi 295W is a solid point-to-point GPS navigator with a few neat tricks that on-foot navigators may appreciate, but its secondary camera and Wi-Fi-connected features just aren't very useful from behind the wheel.
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CNET editors' review
Garmin Nuvi 295W price range: $124.99 - $174.00
- Reviewed by: Antuan Goodwin
- Reviewed on: 07/12/2010
The good: The Garmin Nuvi 295W features crisply rendered maps and quick routing/rerouting of trips. Its text-to-speech feature speaks street names when giving directions. The unit's autocorrect function learns frequently typed words and helps with entering destinations quickly.
The bad: All of the Nuvi 295W's connected features require Wi-Fi connectivity, which we found finicky to connect. Screen resolution is a bit low for Web browsing. The unit lacks traffic data, highway lane guidance, and Bluetooth hands-free calling, all of which are very useful features for in-car navigation.
The bottom line: The Garmin Nuvi 295W is a solid point-to-point GPS navigator with a few neat tricks that on-foot navigators may appreciate, but its secondary camera and Wi-Fi-connected features just aren't very useful from behind the wheel.
What do you get when you yank the phone parts out of the Garmin Nuvifone? The obvious answer is "just a regular Garmin Nuvi." However, that's not exactly the case, as the Garmin Nuvi 295W retains more than a few of its smartphone bits, including a 3-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Garmin 295W features nearly identical hardware and software as the Nuvifone G60 with a few mostly invisible changes, but is this new device raising the bar for portable navigation devices or simply lowering the bar for a smartphone that we've already judged as mediocre?
Design
Externally, the design is the same. The PND features a black, soft-touch finish that seems oddly impervious to all but the greasiest of fingerprints. The unit measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and features a 3.5-inch, 65,000-color touch screen with a 272x480-pixel resolution, which is a bit on the small side for in-car navigation. Still, the screen is of reasonable brightness with crisp colors and remains legible in all but the most direct sunlight.
Along the unit's top edge are a power/lock button and a headphone jack. Along one of the unit's black chrome-trimmed sides are a volume rocker and a camera button. Along the opposite edge you'll find a microSD card slot, Mini-USB port, and car dock connection point. The back panel of the device is home to the 3MP digital camera (no flash) and a removable cover, behind which you'll find the 295W's removable 1,200mAh lithium ion battery.
Holding the Power/Lock button powers the phone on or off, depending on its current state. Once powered up, pressing this button puts the 295W to sleep. Tapping the same button again brings the user to a lock screen, where a lock icon must be double-tapped to reawaken the phone.
The Nuvi 295W uses a version of the Garmin Nuvifone's "Breeze UI" interface with the obvious exception of the system's functionality. The home screen features a two-tiered design with two-thirds of the screen being dedicated to two large circular icons for selecting a destination and viewing the map. Along the bottom edge (or right edge, depending on orientation) of the screen is a scrollable list of icons for secondary functions such as Web browser, e-mail, music player, or camera.
The destination and map screen should be immediately familiar to anyone who's ever held a Garmin Nuvi-branded PND in the last decade. The unit's menus and maps feature bright, colorful icons and the maps, while fairly basic-looking, are crisply rendered and easy to understand at a glance. The unit's resistive touch screen doesn't allow for any multitouch gesturing such as pinch-to-zoom, so the map interface relies on buttons for all of its zooming needs.
Like the G60 that came before, the 295W features a built-in accelerometer and an interface that can be viewed in portrait or landscape orientation; the former being great for handheld navigation and the latter best used in the car. We didn't experience any of the accelerometer fickleness that was present with the G60. However, the change from portrait to landscape orientation did seem to take a beat longer than we were accustomed.
The onscreen keyboard, which is used for destination entry and in the 295W's various applications, also features portrait and landscape orientations. Landscape is the easiest to use, thanks to its more generous key spacing and QWERTY layout. Garmin's intuitive autocomplete function learns words that you frequently input and suggests them when it recognizes the first few letters being input. A dedicated autocomplete button allows users to select the suggested word and helps in quickly inputting information. However, we found that our inputs were slowed considerably when using the unit in its portrait orientation because of a combination of the onscreen keyboard being more cramped when in this orientation and, oddly, rearranged in an awkward alphabetical layout instead of the more familiar QWERTY.
Upon unboxing the Garmin Nuvi 295W, users will find the portable navigation device and its lithium ion battery, a suction-cup mount cradle, an adhesive dashboard disc, a 12-volt Mini-USB power cable, and a Mini-USB sync cable along with the usual assortment of Quick Start guides and user manuals.
Features
Under the hood, the 295W features nearly identical hardware to the Nuviphone G60 with the obvious exception of its lack of a cellular antenna and SIM card slot. The 295W retains its Wi-Fi antenna and can connect too the Internet to access data to fuel its various auxiliary functions. Unfortunately, we had a hard time getting the device to reliably connect to public hotmspots that required a log-in during testing, yet our WEP secured home network was accessed quickly and easily. Your mileage may vary.
At its core, the 295W is as solid a GPS navigator as any Garmin we've tested. Garmin preloads the unit with maps of the continental United States and Canada and offers turn-by-turn directions with text-to-speech spoken street and POI names. Oddly, the unit does not have any sort of graphic lane guidance for freeway interchanges, which seems like a bit of a step backward in navigation technology. Additionally, the unit features no traffic data technology, which is a bit of a black mark when many new PNDs in the 295W's price range are offering some sort of free FM traffic deal.
Outside of the core navigation functions, the 295W features a rudimentary Webkit-based Web browser, an e-mail client with POP3 and IMAP support, Google Local search, and weather forecasts. All of these features require Wi-Fi connectivity, so if you live in a free Wi-Fi desert, you won't get very much use out of them.
The digital camera can be accessed via the home screen icon or by holding the camera button on the unit's edge. The camera application features simple geotagging of photos and a basic gallery function, but no other options or settings. The camera automatically focuses before each shot and can be prefocused by half-pressing the shutter button. Photos taken under average office lighting levels were blurry and noisy with a bluish-green tint. Outdoor photos turned out considerably clearer.
Performance
With a cold boot time of nearly 2 minutes, we found that it was often best to put the device to sleep when we weren't using it, rather than fully power it off. Between its 250-hour standby battery life and the included 12-volt car charger, keeping the Nuvi 295W juiced shouldn't be an issue. Users who want to go untethered with the 295W can count on an estimated 4-hour continuous-use battery life. Despite the slow start-up time, it obtained a satellite lock in a mere 60 seconds from a cold boot and nearly instantaneously from subsequent restarts. Additionally, positioning fidelity was on par with the rest of Garmin's offerings, which is to say great when given a clear view of the sky and iffy on narrow streets tucked between tall buildings.
Without traffic data, the Nuvi 296W had a bad habit of leading us straight into bumper-to-bumper traffic. However, in a side-by-side comparison with Google's free navigation software, the lightning quick routing of the Nuvi made Google's cloud-based navigation option seem downright sluggish, particularly when wandered away from the land of strong 3G data connections. During our rerouting test, the Nuvi was able to quickly recalculate a path to our destination before the Google phone even realized that we'd strayed from our route. There clearly is an advantage to locally storing your map data.
The performance of the Nuvi 295W's non-GPS functions is, on the other hand, less than stellar. The screen's resolution, while perfectly fine for viewing a map from two feet away, is a bit too low-resolution for browsing and reading content on the Web. The Calendar, Tasks, and Contacts applications' legibility was better thanks to their larger font sizes. However, none of these functions offers any obvious way to sync with Microsoft's, Google's, or Apple's productivity software, which means users will have to manually enter all of their appointments and to-do lists.
In sum
When we took a look at the Garmin Nuvifone G60, we concluded that the device was a fine navigator but failed as a smartphone. Free from our high expectations for a smartphone and judged as a PND, the Garmin Nuvi 295W is painted in a better light and earns a higher score.
However, our experience with the 295W was still something of a roller coaster ride. When the device was guiding us from point A to B, the 295W impressed, yet whenever we found ourselves attempting to do anything else with the device, we were met with frustration.
Users who do a good deal of on-foot urban navigation will appreciate the way the Nuvi 295W fits in the hand in portrait mode and its easily accessed pedestrian routing options. They may also enjoy the unit's simple digital camera for quick snaps and, if they find themselves in an area where open Wi-Fi is plentiful, occasionally check their e-mail or do a quick Google search with the unit's Web browser.
However, for users who will primarily be using this unit for in-car navigation, we think that the 295W's biggest competition will come from simpler devices, such as the Nuvi 265WT, from within Garmin's own ranks. Sitting on the same shelf as this a simpler device, we find it difficult to justify the 295W's complexity. Both devices are equally good GPS navigators and are comparatively priced, but the 265WT invests in those features that would be useful to a driver behind the wheel: a larger screen, lifetime FM traffic, and Bluetooth hands-free calling. Comparatively, the 295W's camera and Web browsing features are neat tricks, but frankly they're not very useful in a GPS device that will likely live alongside a feature phone or a smartphone that will probably already feature these capabilities.
User reviews
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This unit is much nicer than my old Garmin
by nelsonj7725 on January 20, 2011
Pros: A smaller screen, but easy to see. picks up addresses quickly very happy with unit
Cons: Not too much maybe a larger screen.
Summary: small enough to carry in my pocket, easy to set up, picks up satellites quickly
Summary: small enough to carry in my pocket, easy to set up, picks up satellites quickly
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Everything I needed
by DonClark92586 on January 3, 2011
Pros: Memory resident maps require no data connection as my smartphone did. WiFi is great for street address and telephone number lookups, and local weather. Email works fine too. Camera is good enough to photograph an accident. No monthly fees- I like it!
Cons: Bigger screen would be nice, but I know from my 4.3 smartphone that websurfing is an illusion anyway. They only work "well" for retreiving the few small bits of data I mentioned, uless you "zoom" and "scroll" for days. Bluetooth would have been nice.
Summary: Nice device for us prepaid cell users who don't want to pay a monthly fee for the cellular data connection as a smart phone requires (I sold my HTC ...
Summary: Nice device for us prepaid cell users who don't want to pay a monthly fee for the cellular data connection as a smart phone requires (I sold my HTC G3 smartphone). As with any WiFi device, you need a WiFi connection to get your email, the local weather, and the phone number and address lookups from the internet. But you can get that connection if you stop at any coffee house while you are out on the road, or your friends house, whatever. Most of the other apps, even on an iphone are junk. You would go blind trying to read a book on any smartphone. And the leveling app- Who the heck uses that anyway? I think the Garmin 295W has the few apps that are useful, and leaves out the gimics. And an SD card to expand memory at my will? Sweet. I wish ipod would adopt the SD card slot!
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Has the features of any other GPS but gives you more
by astright on December 16, 2010
Pros: Lots of additional apps. in one package like a camera and internet.
Cons: What??? Can't use it to read books on? ***! The other thing missing from the box is an AC adapter and carrying case. And considering how much you get in this GPS, it needs to be larger.
Summary: Works like any other GPS but the screen is too small and has a weird look to the maps in comparison to a not so sophisticated model.
Summary: Works like any other GPS but the screen is too small and has a weird look to the maps in comparison to a not so sophisticated model.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Mainly used for gps with extras
by xophaser on August 23, 2010
Pros: It does a lot of thing most GPS can't do. Same interface of most Garmin GPSs. The same thing as a Garminphone without the phone. MP3 player is good. Nice to hold in hand with some rubber /metal body. Add memory by micro SD card.
Cons: No traffic compatibility. Every other stuffs it does is average to worse. Wifi works, but load time on big site like ESPN is too long. Camera is bad, but got geotagging. No video player nor flash support.
Summary: Get this as a small screen gps and to have added feature like a wifi web-browser, email, camera, and mps player. I might have to get a gps with traffic ...
Summary: Get this as a small screen gps and to have added feature like a wifi web-browser, email, camera, and mps player. I might have to get a gps with traffic and a tablet someday because thi sisn't really great at anything.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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No Warranty
by rufussy on October 13, 2010
Pros: Instructions suck and unit isn't as good as tom tom.
Cons: Everything
Summary: Garmin will not repair your unit under warranty. Forget the 1 year guarantee. I sent a 2 week old unit for repair as per their directions. 3 months later I'...
Summary: Garmin will not repair your unit under warranty. Forget the 1 year guarantee. I sent a 2 week old unit for repair as per their directions. 3 months later I'm still chasing them. Every time you contact them, they give you a different "specialist". Each time they want more info and different stuff. Now they want a letter from the Ford dealer where I bought the unit and a copy of the bill of sale for my vehicle. I gave up and bought a Tom Tom. I love it!
2 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Sailor's Delight
by jedlls on February 24, 2011
Pros: Good on the road, sat-compass-nav at sea back-up; and in port to access email, web and weather over wifi. Saves buying cell phone data access and compliments a cell nicely. Good battery life. Compact size mounts more conveniently on windows.
Cons: Not weather proof (pack in plastic bag). Keep a retracted ball point pen handy to navigate email, web sights. Do not expect more complex routines like Flash Player so some email attachments and weather anomations are restricted from use.
Summary: For $80 (on-sale) it's a steal! This is a real gem for sailors. Keep the laptop at home, dry. The sat-compass-nav allows you to find a city, point on ...
Summary: For $80 (on-sale) it's a steal! This is a real gem for sailors. Keep the laptop at home, dry. The sat-compass-nav allows you to find a city, point on the map or enter a Lat/Long then gives a dual point compass. One points in the direction of movement (>3 Knots) and the other the bearing of the target. In port you have a GPS for walking/driving, and a complete ports directory of services. All up to date vs older chart plotter data.
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Good for automobile navigation and Geocaching?
by sonirobinson on July 13, 2010
Pros: As someone who has only used an older GPS unit, I was impressed the this units functionality, build quality, and interface. As with any GPS there are some limitations.
Cons: As someone who has only used an older GPS unit, I was impressed the this units functionality, build quality, and interface. As with any GPS there are some limitations.
Summary: <a title="Buy Garmin Nuvi 295W" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DZ14EU?ie=UTF8&tag=forupend-20&********=as2&camp=1789&...
Summary: <a title="Buy Garmin Nuvi 295W" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DZ14EU?ie=UTF8&tag=forupend-20&********=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&************=B003DZ14EU" target="_self"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5" title="Buy- nuvi 295w_2" src="http://nuvi295w.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Buy-nuvi-295w_2.png" alt="" width="573" height="213" /></a>
<a title="Nuvi 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-295w/" target="_self">nüvi 295W</a> offers a new take on an old favorite with Wi-Fi® connectivity, a 3 MP camera with auto-focus, a dual-orientation screen that switches between portrait and landscape view and much more.
<strong>Get Connected</strong>
Wi-Fi connectivity on the <a title="Garmin 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-295w/" target="_self">Garmin 295W</a> provides a full desktop web experience with an HTML browser so you can surf the web whenever and wherever you choose¹. Check and send e-mail, including Hotmail®, G-mail®, AOL® mail, POP3 and IMAP, and view email attachments of Microsoft® Word, Excel®, PowerPoint®, PDF and JPG files. You can also search an abundance of customer-rated points of interest (POIs), such as restaurants, hotels and more, using Google? Local Search.
<strong>Get Going</strong>
With a single tap on the dual-oriented screen, you can avoid writing down addresses and go straight to your destination. <a title="Nuvi 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-295w/" target="_self">nüvi 295W</a> offers 1-touch navigation from your e-mail, address book and local search results. Additionally, the unique 3 MP camera geotags pictures so you can create routes to them. You can also send the picture to a friend to route to or upload to the web to auto-locate on a map.
<strong>Get Turn-by-Turn Directions</strong>
With an intuitive interface that greets you with simple icons and a scrollable menu, <a title="Nuvi 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/review/" target="_self">nüvi 295W</a> is the perfect travel companion for getting around town. With a quick tap on an icon or flick of the menu, you can easily look up addresses and services and get voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that speak street names to your destination. It comes preloaded with detailed City Navigator® NT street maps for the U.S. and Canada with nearly 6 million points of interest (POIs) such as stores, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, gas stations, ATMs and more, and speed limits for most major roads. cityXplorer? maps are also available for your <a title="Garmin nuvi 295w" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-295w/" target="_self">Garmin nüvi 295W</a>. cityXplorer maps provide the latest detailed roads and points of interest for metropolitan areas. Visit our cityXplorer page for more information regarding product compatibility.
<strong><a href="http://nuvi295w.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Garmin-Nuvi-295w_17.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-61 alignright" title="Nuvi 295w" src="http://nuvi295w.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Garmin-Nuvi-295w_17.jpg" alt="" width="267" height="193" /></a>Go Beyond Navigation</strong>
<a title="Nuvi 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-forerunner-205/" target="_self">nüvi 295W</a> isn't just for navigation. A quick tap provides access to the lengthy feature set, including a calculator, stop watch, calendar, check lists and more. Also included are travel tools such as a JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter and current and 5-day weather forecasts. With photo navigation, you can download pictures from Garmin Connect? Photos and navigate to them. Garmin Locate? automatically marks your position when you remove nüvi from your car so you'll never forget where you parked again, and <a title="Nuvi 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-forerunner-305/" target="_self">Garmin 295W</a> is compatible with our free Garmin Garage where you can download custom voices and vehicles. Enhance your travel experience with optional microSD? cards.
¹Wi-Fi connectivity is only available in select coverage areas.
<strong>What's in the Box:</strong>
<ol>
<li> <a title="Garmin 295W" href="http://nuvi295w.net/garmin-295w/" target="_self">nüvi 295W</a></li>
<li> Preloaded City Navigator® NT for North America</li>
<li> Vehicle suction cup mount</li>
<li> Dashboard disc</li>
<li> Vehicle power cable</li>
<li> USB cable</li>
<li> Lithium-ion battery</li>
<li> Quick start manual</li>
</ol>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong> </strong></h2>
<strong>Where To BUY</strong>
Amazon is the Right Place to Buy this product, because Amazon is the <strong>Biggest1 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Garmin
- Part number: 010-00916-00
- Description: nüvi 295W offers a new take on an old favorite with Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3-megapixel camera with auto-focus, a dual-orientation screen that switches between portrait and landscape view and much more. Wi-Fi connectivity on the nüvi 295W provides a full desktop web experience with an HTML browser so you can surf the web whenever and wherever you choose¹. Check and send e-mail, including Hotmail, G-mail, AOL mail, POP3 and IMAP, and view e-mail attachments of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and JPG files. You can also search an abundance of customer-rated points of interest (POIs), such as restaurants, hotels and more, using Google Local Search.
General
- Recommended Use Automotive
- Integrated Components Digital player,
Digital camera - Card Reader SD Memory Card
- Interface Wi-Fi ,
USB - Functions & Services Time/date,
Distance ,
Elevation - Traffic MSN Direct,
TMC (Traffic Message Channel) - Voice Street name announcement,
Navigation instructions - Included Software MapSource City Navigator North America NT
- Compatible Software Garmin CityXplorer
- Antenna Built-in
- Features Calculator ,
Clock,
Speed limit warning,
Fuel prices,
Emergency Help,
Garmin Locate,
Garmin HotFix,
2D / 3D map perspective,
Built-in microphone ,
Garmin Connect compatible,
Garmin Garage,
Preinstalled POIs,
Currency converter ,
Measurement converter,
Photo viewer ,
Custom POIs,
Automatic routing,
Built-in speaker ,
Web browser Display
- Type TFT - Color - Yes
- Diagonal Size 3.55 in - Widescreen
- Resolution 480 x 272
- Display Illumination Yes
- Features Anti-glare
Navigation
- Waypoints 1000
- Navigation routes 10
- Trip computer Street address search,
Fast/short route,
Trip distance,
Trip timer,
Quickest route,
Avoid toll roads,
Avoid highways Media Player
- Supported Audio Formats MP3
- Supported Image Formats JPG
Connections
- Connector Type USB
Battery
- Type Lithium ion
- Run Time (Up To) 4 hour(s)
Miscellaneous
- Design Features Touch screen ,
Camera - Included Accessories Power cable,
Vehicle mount,
Dashboard disc,
USB cable Dimensions & Weight
- Width 4.4 in
- Depth 0.6 in
- Height 2.3 in
- Weight 4.8 oz
Accessories
- 10" 800 Watt SUBWOOFER - KOLE MFW-10 (33578790)69.99
- 12" 2000 Watt DVC Legacy Red Series Subwoofer (34115176)59.02 - 80.63
- 15" 1400 Watt Legacy Red Series Subwoofer (34130241)37.45 - 74.60
- BOSS 765DBI - radio / digital player (33576708)115.00 - 117.00
- BOSS 822UA - radio / CD / MP3 player / digital player (34114862)104.75 - 119.99
- BOSS BV 7320 DVD player with LCD monitor, AM/FM tuner, digital player (34072763)86.09 - 115.00
- Alpine Type-S SPS-500 Car Speaker (32905977)43.44
- BOSS CHAOS EXXTREME CH6950 - car speaker (33577030)23.15 - 49.95
- BOSS DIABLO dc60.2 - car speaker (33578236)36.99
- Magellan RoadMate 3055-MU - GPS receiver (34755130)144.99 - 156.99
- Garmin nuvi 1490LMT (34168097)13.49 - 215.04
- Garmin nüvi 40LM GPS receiver (35022291)109.99 - 159.99
- Alpine KTP-445 (32856425)119.00 - 136.98
- BOSS BLADE BL1000 - amplifier (33576850)134.99
- BOSS CHAOS EXXTREME CX1250 - amplifier (33576878)96.75 - 144.99
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Garmin products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:Garmin
- Address:
1200 E. 151st St, Olathe, KS - Phone: 913-397-8200
- Fax: 913-397-8282
