Street Pilot vs Nuvi

Money was an issue for me also. The Nuvi was too new and Garmin was getting a premium price. The c530 was a bargain in comparison.

GPS prices will fall just like digital camreas did. My next GPS will have a large screen, a thin profile and be feature rich. ...all for a reasonable price.

Yeah, I hear ya. The only two things that I wish that I have that I don't, are headset jack and bluetooth.

My son has a Nuvi 350 and I got to used it when he was here. I liked it so well all I had to do was shop for the best price! I'm extremely happy with it because it is simple, small, and does what I want it to do.

If I had done a comparison I imagine that the Nuvi's small size would still have won out, but that is only conjecture on my part. The Street Pilot series are good GPSs, that's for sure.

Yea, money was also an issue with me. My friend suggested that I get a cheaper model than the Nuvi but realized that if I'm gonna spend that much on something, I want it to be as good as I can get.

I got my Nuvi 350 from BestBuy. I also saw it on newegg for $100 cheaper but it didn't include an extended warranty -- which one of my friends swears by.

I wanted all the bells and whistles with it. I figure, if I am going to get a GPS, I'm going all the way! The nuvi 660. Plus the reviews on it were better than a lot of the GPS's out at the time. Had to sell quite a bit on ebay though to get it.

The 2620 is bigger and heavier, but I really wanted the ability to store 50 routes. I generally keep about 20 pre-defined routes on my machine at any one time. It also has up to 2000 waypoints (not counting custom POIs).

When I travel, I like to make custom routing on my computer to plan scenic drives or trips. These tend to be neither the quickest or shortest, stopping at historical points or scenic points. It is nice to have both the option of using a custom pre-defined route from my computer or the on the fly routing the 2620 can make on it's own.

The screen quality is unbelievably excellent even in bright summer sun - much better than any unit I have ever seen - cannot even imagine a better screen.

I received my Nuvi 660 as a gift, but don't think I could've picked another I'd be more pleased with. I've got pix of the grandkids in resident memory, tons of MP3's, custom poi's and topo maps on a 2gb card, and now that I've got a bluetooth cellphone, I'm perfectly content. Everything works great. Every time I log onto this site I learn something new about my unit. What could be better?!

i was lucky enough to receive one as a gift. but if i had to buy one i would go with the nuvi, it's sleek and yet very simple look (outer shell). i like the features, I carry mine everywhere i go. Even for a walk in the city...

When I got my nuvi 350, I really wanted the 660. But the ability to slide the sucker in my shirt pocket outweighed the drooling over the 660!

RT all you have to do is get a bigger pocket!

Stan

I have the NUVI 350 and I HATE the screen. Buying this without seeing it use in bright daylight was a major mistake.

were you wearing polarized sunglasses? i wear polarized ones and they make it hard to see unless you tilt your head a certain way.

Is it possible you don't have the backlight turned on? gpsinformation.net did a review on the nuvi 350 and their comment was "The NuVi's screen is a high brightness and is very daylight viewable WHEN the backlight is turned ON." Mine is very readable in a motorhome; lot of light comes in with the large windshields!

RT

No I do not use polarized sunglasses, however it is quite interesting that you bring that up since I used to be in the business and I wear Transition brand lenses and they are not polarized.

I keep the back light on all the time.

I was not even considering a GPS unit but when my uncle and I took a small trip with it running, I was hooked! I bought the c530 because Sears had a $50 discount sale for this device. Believe it or not, this same unit cost my cousin $800 or so when bought originally. I am not certain what the Nuvi has over the Street Pilot but the c530 has very good sensitivity compared to the c330. So, price was certainly the major factor. Some of the higher priced models offer voice recognition of street names but I really do not need it. It is on the unit and the simple prompts of turn right, left, et cetera are good enough for me.

I love this unit, but if they had the TTS on some of the other models used for hiking/biking that have the maximum water proofing - I would have gone for one of those. But... without the voice I decided that the Nuvi had most of what I needed so went for it.

Not a lot of research went into my Streetpilot C510, other than the fact that it was nearly as cheap (new), as a 2nd-hand I3 on eBay (and that it wasn't a TomTom!).

However, in a moment of madness, I've just bought myself a Nüvi 310 to go with it.

At £158 ($300 ish) from http://amazon.co.uk, I thought it was a bargain - especially for the UK (known as 'Treasure Island' to the inhabitants!)

The reason I wanted a Nuvi, was

1. for the smaller form factor.
2. for all the extra features - e.g. ability to associate my own sounds with Camera Alerts etc.

However, I have to say that, at the moment...

I'm deeply disappointed with the Nüvi 310 :-(

There seems to be a major shortcoming in the firmware (which I will report to Garmin). It doesn't display the 'Rich Content' POI files, that work fine on the C5xx and Zumo series. It seems to truncate descriptions to 250 characters - regardless of their content. The C5xx does have a limit - but it's about 5K characters!

More importantly though, the audio quality and volume are rubbish compared with the Streetpilot. It's fine, if you're using it as a hand-held 'guide' -- but as an in-car Navigation System, it's pretty damned poor.