Praises for the Nuvi 2699LMTHD.

 

After having my OLD 2699LMTHD GPS stolen (which I bought early in 2016), I needed a replacement. I also wanted to replace the oh so expensive 3597 that I have as it was only 5 inch, did not work with sunglasses, and would not remember the zoom setting.
I bought two new(er)Garmin 2699LMTHD GPSs. The newest ones have a round mounting socket in the back.
What a terrific GPS! The voice commands work way better than the old 3597 as I don't have to yell at it anymore and it understands what I am saying much better. The display is very sharp and crisp. Night mode works as well as day mode. The ability to change the "where to" screen shortcuts and the trip data sidebar have a ton of choices. It shows the (approximate) outside temperature where I am. It figures out that I am actually there and turns off the route when I arrive at a destination. The map screen will zoom out a bit to show where the next turn is then zoom back in to what I had set it for. It remembers the damn zoom setting that I left it at when I turned the car off (curse you 3597!) I have a Custom POI shortcut in the first screen on the "where to" screen now. The GPS tracks extremely well and keeps up with any route changes or turns and accurately shows where I am even on the map "more" setting. The "high Def" traffic was spot on when I got caught in a 3 lanes to one last night with night paving going on (took longer to get through than it said it would otherwise I would have taken the alternate route that the GPS popped up the choice on screen before I reached the construction).
Cons? The glass is somewhat reflective so it is a bit harder to see when sunlight is directly on it. The screen flickers a bit for 30 seconds or so when turning it on at 100% brightness setting. It's big and blocks part of my radio where I hard mounted it on the dash on my Matrix (Ody is fine).
Funny that I got my complete wish list for a GPS only after having someone steal my "new" one. Normally I would never bother to post a review on this site but this is my best GPS I have ever owned (and I have owned a LOT of different ones).

Glad

Glad your enjoying your new Garmin 2699LMTHD but wanted to make sure folks realize that a lot of the things you like about your new device are also available on the 3597LMTHD, even if you didn't realize it. These include:

The ability to change the "where to" screen shortcuts and the trip data sidebar have a ton of choices.
It figures out that I am actually there and turns off the route when I arrive at a destination.
Custom POI shortcut in the first screen on the "where to" screen now
The "high Def" traffic

--
Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

And. ..

... also available on pretty much every model after the 13xx/13xx series.

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Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

.

Thanks for the review.

sounds interesting

sounds interesting

2689

I went from a 2460 to a 2689, which is basically the same as your 2699 and, like you, I am very happy with the advancements the 2689 had over the 2460. One of many good features is the "turn at the drug store" type directions it gives, surprised me the first time it did that. GPS has sure come a long way from the 330c Street Pilot that was my first.

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. 2 Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Nuvi 2689, 2 Nuvi 2460, Zumo 550, Zumo 450, Uniden R3 radar detector with GPS built in, includes RLC info. Uconnect 430N Garmin based, built into my Jeep. .

2699

Strange that Garmin would make changes mid-stream on the exact same model.

Their M.O. has been to just release a new model.

I like the thought that the voice commands are working well.

Thanks.

maybe someday I might upgrade

maybe someday
I might upgrade

760

I'm still using the old nüvi 760. It has audio out, plays .mp3 and .aud files, and can play through the car stereo. It pauses my book for directions and then picks it up again about 1 second prior to the pause so it's seamless listening.

If Garmin would ever give me a unit with those features I would "possibly" upgrade but I'm not sure.

We plan to take a trip - probably next June - and drive from California to Montana, stay a few days at Glacier National Park, then drive the Rocky Mountain Route up through Canada and up to the end of the Alaska Highway. We'll come back via the Gold Rush Route. I'm told one can drive "the highway" up and back in about 10 days. We are talking about taking 8 - 10 weeks. My trusty 760 has full North America coverage. I've already done some testing for Canadian cities and such along the way and it seems quite happy to give me directions.

I'd love some of the wiz-bang features on the newer units but I really have a hard time hearing the dang things. I like my rest area alerts, turning directions, etc. to be loud enough to easily hear. I really wish Garmin would give me a unit that does what my old one can do.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

Audio

I agree thrak about the value of mp3/audio book player and stereo out jack on the old 7xx series. It is the main thing I miss from my 755T and I sure do wish Garmin would bring it back on their high-end models.

That said, I will say that the speaker built into the power mount of my 3597 is plenty loud for hearing navigation prompts and alerts, even above the sound of the radio. In fact, I keep the master volume at about 50%, because at full volume is much too loud for my taste. So I am using a separate mp3 player for audio books through the car stereo, but of course it doesn't pause for navigation prompts like the good old 755T did.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Can you check your PCB info?

johnpombrio wrote:

After having my OLD 2699LMTHD GPS stolen (which I bought early in 2016), I needed a replacement. I also wanted to replace the oh so expensive 3597 that I have as it was only 5 inch, did not work with sunglasses, and would not remember the zoom setting.
I bought two new(er)Garmin 2699LMTHD GPSs. The newest ones have a round mounting socket in the back.

I have a 2699LMTHD and a 3597. I bought both used so I don't know exactly how old each one is. I agree the zoom on the 3597 is messed up! It will not remember your last zoom setting. It defaults to a zoom level of 0.2 mile (in 2D view) if you do any of the following: turn it off, drive on a ramp, exit out of the guidance map screen, or get close to a turn maneuver while following an active route. This happens in 3D view too. The 2699 and the nuvicam will remember the zoom level if set to 0.8 mile or less for the 2699 and 0.5 miles or less on the nuvicam. However, if the zoom is set higher than that, the zoom will not remember and it will go back to 0.8 miles on the 2699 and 0.5 miles on the nuvicam.

My used 2699 seems rather slow when panning the map and when navigating a route. I'm actually pretty disappointed by this. I wonder if yours is different since it seems faster. The 2699 has always had the round mounting bracket in the back. But maybe Garmin changed the internals. One way we might able to check is the PCB info. Can you check and tell us the PCB info? This can be found by doing the following:

1. Go to the hidden Diagnostics menu by touching the Speed in the map screen. This will bring up the trip computer screen. Now touch and hold the compass direction (for example, NW) right above the speed.
2. The Diagnostics menu will appear. Touch "Developer Info", then on the next screen touch the down arrow to scroll down, then touch "PCB Info"

On my 2699, I get the following:

PCB Part Number: 105-02284-00
PCB Version: 5
PCB Description: V5 SA3 8GB 128MB W61...

Can you check what your says? Thank you.

Gamin nuvi 2689 vs nuvi 2595

Since, I just purchased a nuvi 2689, I am wondering if I could copy American-Jill from my old nuvi 2595 into the Voice file on the nuvi 2689? I can not locate American-Jill in the Garmin Garage for voices.

My old nuvi 2595 displayed the speed, present time, elevation, and distance at the bottom of the map screen. I also had two map buttons for volume and traffic condition. The volume could be muted or unmuted easily with the push of the volume button and the traffic condition button changed automatically with the changing traffic condition.
I considered these as safety items as this information could be obtained without taking your hands off the wheel and only glancing for an instant at the GPS. Now, the situation with this GPS is that you are going have to choose each one of the data you want to see, and also concentrated on driving too.

It seems Garmin GPS goes three steps forward and two steps in the opposite direction. Maybe this items will be reintroduced in the next GPS model , so we would continue to upgrade our GPS.

Only 3 stars out of 5 for the Garmin nuvi 2689.

All about voices and how to get them

macleadv wrote:

Since, I just purchased a nuvi 2689, I am wondering if I could copy American-Jill from my old nuvi 2595 into the Voice file on the nuvi 2689? I can not locate American-Jill in the Garmin Garage for voices.

My old nuvi 2595 displayed the speed, present time, elevation, and distance at the bottom of the map screen. I also had two map buttons for volume and traffic condition. The volume could be muted or unmuted easily with the push of the volume button and the traffic condition button changed automatically with the changing traffic condition.
I considered these as safety items as this information could be obtained without taking your hands off the wheel and only glancing for an instant at the GPS. Now, the situation with this GPS is that you are going have to choose each one of the data you want to see, and also concentrated on driving too.

It seems Garmin GPS goes three steps forward and two steps in the opposite direction. Maybe this items will be reintroduced in the next GPS model , so we would continue to upgrade our GPS.

Only 3 stars out of 5 for the Garmin nuvi 2689.

See:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/42708

Assuming your device uses the new TTS3 voices as I expect, it seems doubtful that you will find a Jill that works with your new nuvi. If adventurous and you try and find a Jill that works, please let us know. I strongly suggest making a full backup of all files on the nuvi including all in the .system folder before you start tinkering.

Jill was the best

macleadv wrote:

Since, I just purchased a nuvi 2689, I am wondering if I could copy American-Jill from my old nuvi 2595 into the Voice file on the nuvi 2689?

My old nuvi 2595 displayed the speed, present time, elevation, and distance at the bottom of the map screen. I also had two map buttons for volume and traffic condition.

Only 3 stars out of 5 for the Garmin nuvi 2689.

I tried copying Jill from my 3490 to these newer units and it does not work. I miss Jill as well. She was the clearest, most pleasant sounding TTS voice I've ever heard. Something about the tone of each word just flowed so smoothly. Even better than Australian Karen. In contrast, Samantha on the new units sounds really robotic and not as pleasant.

Your 2595 had different dashboards so you were able to set up 4 data fields along the bottom. These new units do not have dashboards or the custom map buttons. But there is a workaround:

Go to: Main Menu > Settings > Map & Vehicle > Map Tools

You will see options to add "Trip Data," "Volume," "Traffic" and some other things. Now when you are in the map view, touch the three bar icon in the lower right and you have access to these things. If you select Trip Data, it opens three new data fields on the right. The data fields remain open until you close it or until a Junction View or Active Lane Guidance appears (it will return once those are gone). One new data field that the 3490/2595 did not have is "Time to Next Turn," which is pretty neat. The three data fields can be different depending on whether you are navigating an active route or not and it will remember your choices.