Nuvi 205W - POI maximum ?

POI and waypoints are similar in that they both provide access to personal locations. However, the number of waypoints stored as Favorites cannot be increased through adding a memory card.

You can load up to 1024 custom POI files holding many thousands of locations in each file under Extras.

The 205W is the most basic of units and unless it is on sale at a very good price I would consider one of the higher level units. Good sales are currently under way that will provide a unit with capabilities far exceeding those in the 205W for about the same as the MSRP of the 205.

Thanks for the info.....so the 1,000 POIs that is references in the specs can actually be 1,000 files of locations such as Interstate Rest Areas ? And this can be done without the addition of an SD card ?

And the SD card could hold extra POI files but not waypoints stored in the Favorites such as Home, Work, and personal locations that you want to keep. Is that correct ?

Thanks again

Favorites is best considered as a separate database from user installed POI files. Favorites always reside on the unit while custom poi can be loaded onto an SD card using POILoader.

Favorites is limited to the 1000 locations, but under Where To -> Extras -> Custom POI you can build up to 32 categories each having 32 files. In short, two different databases having similar information.

I believe you're thinking of the 1,000 waypoint limit. As has been mentioned, you should be able to have thousands of poi's. On my nuvi 265T I am not using an sd card and have 12,000 to 15,000 poi's. This requires less than 5mb and I still have more than 300mb available. I also have custom topo maps taking up space. I don't know why you'd have worse experience on a 205.

I'd just start loading poi's and check the space available occasionally.

thanks for the info sailornorm.....now another newbie question....what is the difference between a waypoint (1,000 max) and a POI ? Is it just that waypoints are saved as Favorites ?

I consider favorites as those places we normally travel to frequently or are one-off locations such as in-laws or other locations we travel to infrequently. Custom POI are lists of locations, such as all the Applebee's or Cracker Barrel locations. You had also mentioned the Interstate Rest Areas and there are over 2000 of just those. Each of these would be a single file that would be loaded to the unit or SD card with POI Loader.

Personally, my Favorites list is very short - 15 to 20 locations but I have over 150,000 custom POI locations.

Another way of remembering the difference is that you create waypoints yourself and you download poi's from this site. If you want to save a particular location, usually a destination, in your gps and call it something that's meaningful to you, that's a waypoint.