Excellent Garmin nüvi 855 Review

Thanks for the reference.

Good info is provided with references to the map detail and other issues often missed by "pro" GPS reviewing websites which tend to "overlook" many features in their reviews.

I recently acquired an 855, simply as a low-cost ($199) backup unit but am finding that I may in fact be using it more than my 765 because of it's more advanced features and much greater map detail.

I strongly believe that Garmin is simply moving backwards in many ways in their newer unit offerings such as the 1xxx series.

i'm not a big fan of CONS but its always the first thing i look at when buying any product because those very flaws are what we have to go through.
im a bit annoyed that garmin cannot just make a decently PERFECT nuvi system. i see the whole marketing gimmick where they go, 'heres the latest one buy it cus its better than the last'. it applies to madden nfl video games, ipods, and nintendo handheld game systems.
i have a 765t and i hate seeing an 'upgrade' and seeing, damn.. why couldnt they get that one seemingly simple function for this one?? and when you think you've upgraded, it's still freakn flawful.
btw im surprised at seeing the 855 at $499.99?!! has it been that long ago>> i remember having a nuvi 660 maybe 2 years ago which i bought for almost $700!

Thanks for the referenced review. It was wonderfully informative.

I guess I'd shy away from it JUST for not being able to completely turn it off. I wouldn't want to have to remove the battery to do that.

Fred

Maybe a typo on your end but the 855 was recently $199 as a Cyber Monday deal. The MSRP for the 855 when it was released was $699.99

The 855 is my first Garmin, indeed my first dedicated GPS system. Until now I've been using laptop systems, primarily Delorme.

I like the 855, obviously there are deficiencies compared with a laptop. Screen size is one, however, the ease of mounting more than compensates for that!
The display is adequate; the voice recognition is better; getting used to a touch-screen, compared with a mouse, is difficult, however, the touch-screen is very good; zooming in and out is more difficult, possibly because I haven't learned the knack of properly centring the map; I wish the 855 would calculate the end-of-day stops and gas tank fill-ups, based on travel time and fuel consumption (manually entered), this would ease the problem of route planning.

I use the MP3 player extensively. Unlike many, I have no problems with playback through the radio. Fortunately, I have an older car with a tape-player deck, so I can simply use a cassette converter, nice! I assume those with the newer cars could use the MP3 input jack on the radio.

Having read many comments on the site, I am more than happy that I bought the 855.

Thanks!

I upgraded from the GPS V I used for many years to the 855 a few weeks ago. In general I thought the review pointed to here got many things about right.

As an experienced user of voice input on my PC (many versions of NatSpeak) I am surprised at how well the 855 voice input works in the noisy ambient of a car, but the ease of use varies greatly with function. Specifically, finding one of your favorites is pretty bad (if it is not nearby, you pretty much have to use the spell interface, which is touch screen only), but on the other hand address input is amazingly good. In my experience so far, it has always heard the street number right, and usually it hears the street name well enough to present the correct one as one of the choice options if it does not just go straight to the right one.

Overall, I am quite happy with my 855, but glad I paid only a little over $200 for it at Amazon.

The claim at the start of this thread, for "excellent in depth 855 blog/review by anne410157," is incorrect. In fact, that "article" is fraudulently copied from the first three reviews currently displayed for the Nuvi 855 at Amazon.com

The linked article, at the "Tricks & Tips" site, is actually a COMPOSITE of three Customer Reviews for the 855, posted at Amazon in May and June 2009: June 10, May 11, and May 19.

I am the original author of the bulk of this supposed blog/review by "Anne," which has been EXACTLY copied from the review I posted at Amazon on June 11, when I used the name "nuvifan."

Further, two succeeding Amazon reviews for the Nuvi 855, written by "fredf888" and "Robert Schroeder" have been exactly copied and added to the end of my original material, in this supposed "Anne" review.

I just wrote Gary Hayman about this phony "Anne" review this evening...and expect that he will be responding with some comment soon.

Bob Cohen, aka "nuvifan"
proud owner of the Nuvi 855, and also a contributing author of an article at Gary Hayman's website:
"Your Trip is at Your Command" (May 09)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I just received Bob Cohen's e-mail and checked it out.

It appears, as Bob sez, that someone using the moniker 'Anne410157' has plagiarized material from several reviews of the nuvi 855 appearing on Amazon.com, posting the material on the Blogowniczek page, without proper credit. In addition, this is a no no and a violation of copyright laws.

I direct your attention to the 'real' reviews on Amazon.com led by member Bob Cohen. They actually precede the 'blog' by six months.

You can find the reviews at:
http://tinyurl.com/yd4bocy

with the original authors identified.

[scroll a little more than half-way down to the Customer Reviews Section]

The contents of the writings are still extremely valuable for those interested in the nüvi 855.

Gary Hayman
Garmin Tricks, Tips...
http://bit.ly/garmin_gps_tricks

This entire site is plagiarized reviews. If you go back to the top page http://anne410157.blogowniczek.pl/ it has MANY reviews of products on Amazon. A look at a couple different products shows the exact same thing - they were copied and compiled from the user reviews on Amazon but presented as a more coherent "professional" review. The site is one of those "click to buy now" sites where the so-called "author" gets a commission if you do. It's plagiarism at best; I hope there is nothing else nefarious going on when the user actually goes to buy something. Looking at the web site address of blogowniczek dot pl, it's a site in Poland.

US Copyright laws are not necessarily enforceable in Poland unless the State Department has a treaty to that effect. We may cry foul, but unless there is a treaty covering the use of US copyrighted material there is little that can be done.

Great review. I have a 765t but was interested in the comment that you can "press the screen to re-hear an instruction." It is a great feature if true. I never knew that the NUVI could do this. Can someone confirm it.

bsp131,

YES, you can press the top of your Nuvi 765...and see a list of all upcoming turns...and press any chosen turn to have your Nuvi speak the instruction to you. I do this often, just to sure miles ahead of time that I clearly understand the instruction. [With complicated exits, I'll press it over and over...] I believe that this feature operates similarly with all recent Nuvis.

Additionally, if the selected turn has a "Junction View" picture, THAT will be displayed instead of the spoken instruction.

SPECIAL THANKS to Gary Hayman for revising the link on his site, to correctly lead to detailed Amazon reviews of the Nuvi 855, written by myself...and currently, 105 other Customer Reviews!

Thanks again, Gary, for adding the explanation and correction here.

Bob Cohen, aka "nuvifan" @ Amazon

And Amazon's response to the notice of the above activity:

Thank you for contacting us about this issue. I'm sorry for any concern this may be causing, but I can assure you that this website is following the terms and conditions set forth by our website in order for them to link to our site. This is an Associates site, where people can go and place orders through their site to be linked to Amazon.com.

Still seems a little sleazy to appear to claim credit for reviews that were written by someone else.

As a hotshot courier I use my 855 all day and have found a couple of ways to make the voice recognition more accurate. When entering in a street number such as 2340 it's much better to say twenty-three fourty than to say two three four zero. Even with larger numbers such as 10333 the unit does a better job with recognition saying ten thousand three hundered thrity three than saying each number individually. I don't know why but it gets it right on the first try most of the time.

Another member of this forum posted a tip on how to increase the mic gain on the unit and that has helped a lot. While at he Main Map page press the compass indicator which will bring up the Trip page. Press and hold the big circle that displays the speed to bring up a secret menu. One of the options is Mic Gain. It's probably set to 80% so increase it to 100% and save. If you're car has very little noise insulation this will actually make voice recognition worse. If your car is well insulated it will help a bunch.