Nuvi 2350 first impressions

Well, a friend just dropped off a 2350LMT for me to play with - noting that I am extremely partial to the older GUI, I didn't (and still don't) have much hope for the product.

The unit won't be mine (I would want a 2360, but this was an early sample and all he had).

His perspective was that aside from the fact that it is a traditional Garmin navigator with a plastic touch screen, he told me that it is the same as a 3750, however lacking the ability to automatically change orientation.

He also told me that the traffic receiver that accompanies the unit (a GTM-35) does not seem as sensitive as the previous GTM-25 - he is using a GTM-25 with his 3790, but handed me a '35'. I will road test the 35, though I DO have a 25 installed on my Motorcycle that I can grab if I want to do some real side-by-side comparisons.

Well, obviously I can't comment on the Bluetooth implementation, but the rest I can;

First of all, this device starts up extremely quickly - it was asking for me to agree not to sue within 5 seconds of power-up and almost immediately after was displaying the map. This is real fast!!

The touchscreen is very responsive and the keyboard keys 'expand' when you touch them, a neat feature to confirm you hit the right hey.

The display is 3.8" diagonal - smaller than the, 6xx, 7xx and so on, but the same size as newer units like the 37XX and such . . . but the smaller screen is very readable and the map details display more attributes than my 760 or Zumo 660 do - for example, the paths in parks show up as dashed lines where they are simply not present on the 760 and show as gray lines on the Zumo. Probably related to the fact that this navigator supports a pedestrian mode, as does the Zumo.

I never had a unit with EcoRoute nor Garmin's adaptive routing - I'll need to drive around a bit with it to see how these work out - while I suspect they are more fluff than substance, I won't pass judgment yet.

However there is one interesting feature I've not seen mentioned; there is a '+' sign next to the speed limit indicator. Touching it allows the driver to specify a speed limit for the current stretch of road and once defined, the speed indicator will turn red when you exceed the limit - there doesn't seem to be any audible indicator, so it is of limited utility on city streets . . . but what the heck, better to have it and not use it than not to have it at all.

There is no tracklog that I can find - and I like having a tracklog. That's a huge minus.

The screen allows 'more map' and more data' settings and you can specify what will be displayed in each of the data boxes like you can on the Zumo 600 series . . . a very welcome throwback to the days of my 276c.

Also showing up again is the upcoming street information in the banner box. This has been one of my major peeves with Garmin's post XX0 navigators (the other being reduced screen detail when zoomed beyond 500 meters).

The bracket is a quick disconnect. The power connector goes into the bracket and the unit can be snapped in and out like my 760 (the 1400 series, 265 and such make you fumble with power cords . . . yecch). I think I'd prefer to have an external speaker like the 3700 series does, but again, I need to get out there are drive with the unit to see if it is loud and clear enough.

Now, and this one is new to me - what is with the map formatting? You can choose different countries (none of which is the US or Canada) and in the screen samples I can't see any change from one country to the next - I just left it at 'Garmin'.

One very neat feature is the new photo-real junction view displays - the signage for 3500 Canadian intersections is now displayed using real photographs and they look very nice!! Americans will be getting this feature 'soon' from what I've been told.

In conclusion, I perceive that the 2350 is most likely best considered as an update to the 755, but lacking a tracklog (unless there is a hack that will bring it out). It DOES add the newer ecoroute functions and such - it does not have an FM transmitter nor an MP3 player however.

Will I move to a 2360? Good question. I REALLY prefer the map display on the 760, but with the upcoming cross streets displayed in the banner box Garmin has gone halfway toward where I feel they need to be. . . put back the higher street detail when zoomed out to 1.2 km (the new units lose all secondary streets when zoomed past 500 meters) and they'll have done my second biggest annoyance.

I may just stay with what I have. But if I do decide to change, for now I think it would be worthwhile to spring the extra $$$ for a 3700.