2 Comments

1. Warren Merrill

   June 24, 2011

   9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

   
   No better choice for a connected satnav, December 5, 2010

   By 

   Warren Merrill –
   
     

   This review is from: Garmin nüvi 1695 5-Inch Portable Bluetooth Navigator with Google Local Search & Real-Time Traffic (Electronics)

   Rather than waste much space on discussing all the features of the 1695, many of which are common to the rest of the Garmin 1xxx models, I’ll instead talk about those that make it unique. Garmin’s nuLink 1695 is a cellular-connected pnd using AT&T’s network, the same general technology behind TomTom’s 740 and 340 Live models, and direct competition for them. But unlike TomTom’s quite slow and basic GPRS connection that also depends on AT&T’s network, Garmin’s 1695 uses the much faster EDGE technology, effectively tripling the gross data throughput that Tomtom’s Live pnd’s can accomplish. What this gives you is faster Google searches, quicker traffic updates, and more bandwidth allowing for double the services. Where TomTom includes a very few connected services, just real-time traffic, Google Local Search, basic weather, Buddies, Gas Prices (US and not Europe anymore)and optional add-on subscription Traffic Cameras, Garmin doubles that and more. Standard nuLink services include the same real-time traffic, Google Local Search, weather, Ciao (Buddies), Gas Prices. . . plus White Page lookups by name or phone number, Movie Times and locations, current Flight Time arrival and departures, Local Events for upcoming concerts, art, sports, and special community activities, SendToGPS using Google Maps or Microsoft Live, plus optional enhanced Weather Radar maps with Severe Weather warnings, and Safety Camera (redlight) Alerts via the nuLink Store. One year of the standard connected services is included with the device, $5 per month thereafter. Compare to Tomtom at $10 per month, with just three months free intro period.

   Traffic is particularly well-done on the 1695. One of the big complaints I had with my Tomtom 740 was it’s failure to show current traffic conditions if they weren’t worse than what might be expected for that time of the day (using IQR). Well how does that help me understand whether there’s severe congestion at the 95/295 junction right now if there’s always traffic problems there? I avoid bumper cars unless there’s no other reasonable way to get where I’m going. But TomTom won’t show me. The 1695 does. And even better, if a covered road is flowing more smoothly than expected you can see that too, another place TomTom falls down. Another 740 complaint is there’s often no way to tell where a reported traffic issue is from the traffic detail. Much of the time there’s nothing on the traffic detail page other than a too-far zoomed in view with an arrow, road name and delay time. But who knows where on the map that road segment is? Is that near Tampa? Wait, maybe closer to Plant City? Dang, it could even be Orlando. But the Garmin 1695 not only shows surrounding roads, it even tells you what city you’re looking at with a green dot and city name on the detail page. And you’re warned of upcoming traffic problems even if you haven’t set a destination, both audibly and with an on-screen icon. Another Garmin advantage lacking with TomTom’s Live traffic. And another nice GArmin touch. You want to see what traffic is like in some other region, perhaps your flight destination? Garmin’s 1695 can show you that too, but another Tomtom feature miss.

   Google Local Search is so well integrated on the 1695 it makes the Tomtom feature look like an afterthought. When you enter a Google Search term, the results are presented on a two-tabbed screen. At the top are the Garmin POI results, and tapping the bottom tab gives you the Google finds. And those POI’s are star-rated, with addresses, distance and compass direction from your current location. Select one, tap the on-screen icon, and you get the expected travel time and contact details. No need to request a route to find out how far away it is in real-time. And you can submit your own rating for those Points of Interest to assist others looking for a good place to eat or shop. If searching Garmin’s own built-in POI’s, you have a way of narrowing down the results. Looking for an Electronic’s store? There’s a category for that. Fancy some Italian food. Yup, a category for that too. Again things that no Tomtom has.

   A few of my other favored features include White Pages lookups for finding directions with just a phone number, Map themes for changing map colors and Prompted Navigation. This last feature is new to Garmin. You now have the option of computing and displaying three different route choices on the map along with travel times with one simple request, toggling between Fastest, Shortest and Less Fuel. No need to go back and try each routing method separately, canceling one to enter another, a time-consuming process on a Tomtom.

   If I have a significant complaint, it’s the map scrolling. It’s hard for me to scroll to a specific point, with the screen seemingly having a mind of its own. Very poorly done IMO, and apparently an issue common to all the 1xxx models. It doesn’t have any effect on the navigation screen at…

   Read more

   Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

   Was this review helpful to you? 
   

   
   |

    Comments (7)

2. HK "GK"

   June 24, 2011

   27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Lots of cool features, mediocre design and navigation, November 9, 2010

   By 

   HK “GK” (NYC) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Garmin nüvi 1695 5-Inch Portable Bluetooth Navigator with Google Local Search & Real-Time Traffic (Electronics)

   upd Mar 2011: Firmware update v2.6 released in Feb resolved issues with map scrolling and slow route calculation (so Garmin does listen to the customers). These improvements and the new price range makes it a much more reasonable purchase. Routing and estimated arrival time still remains an issue.
   Most likely, Garmin silently disabled TrafficTrends feature with firmware update with firmware update in Feb. Traffic trends don’t make any difference to routing, estimated arrival time or calculation time. This has been confirmed on GPS forums by some owners of 1695 and 3790. Garmin customer service rep did not think this is the case and I haven’t pressed the issue further.
   I lost the unit in March so this review might not reflect the most recent changes, let me know if this is the case.
   The review below is as of Oct 2010 with minor edits as of March.
   ******
   Bright side:

   – Surprisingly stable for a device that have been released only recently. No major functional problems like freezing or lost satellites.
   – NuLink traffic allows immediate traffic acquisition in most cases. Traffic data in reasonable. Coverage is decent. Garmin gets NuLink signal even in areas where my cellphone does not work.
   – Lane assist works very well. There are occasionally junction views for those who think they are helpful.
   – Google local POI search is sometimes helpful although I tend to use Garmin’s categorized POI more often. Both Google search and Garmin’s POI are much easier to use than POI search on TomTom.
   – I really like local event search (sports, music, arts, etc). Flight status, gas prices and movie times, weather (including weather radar) are also interesting features. Not that I really use them, but they are nice.
   – Safety camera information is available and you can report cameras on-the-fly by clicking on speed limit indicator. Reported cameras should become available to other users within minutes. However, according to Garmin customer service, you need to download safety camera updates manually from the website ( I checked twice). Their website suggests that camera updates should come from NuLink, so may be it was not done yet.

   – The screen is big and bright, the voices are loud (I have volume and brightness set at 10%). Icons and menu items in many cases look better.
   – There are map themes available. You can select one of the pre-defined themes, or you can copy and edit theme .xml files to create your own (you will need a couple of hours of time and at least mspaint to work with hexadecimal colors).
   – Pedestrian mode is looks beautiful, was much easier to use on older units.
   – Also route planner is very well done and you can drag-and-drop destinations to rearrange your route.

   ******
   Serious issues:
   (note: I’m not familiar with 1xxx and 37xx series, so some of the things I’m complaining about can be common to these units. All comparison is again 2xx/7xx or TomTom 930 or 140)

   – Traffic trends (historical travel speeds), advertised to provide better routes and estimated time of arrival, do not quite work (yet).
   My driving experience so far:
   In New Hampshire, Vermont, Western Maryland and Western Pennsylvania I don’t see any significant difference compared to 255W. TomTom has slightly better ETA on mountain roads where it might be tough to drive at 55 mph.
   In Florida (Orlando, Miami ) traffic trends worked surprisingly well. Have seen some meaningful detours and quite accurate ETAs on busy streets. Can see an improvement compared to non-traffic trend models.

   On NYC streets a route estimated to take 25 minutes normally takes 35-40+ , mostly due to failure to account for traffic lights. As a result, the routes are often not optimal and in some cases worse than the routes with traffic trends disabled. If it’s solely due to lack of historical traffic data, we might see an improvement as new map updates are released.
   UPD: As I mentioned above, the feature seems to be disabled in firmware 2.6 and everything defaults to standard Garmin routing, which is not necessarily a bad think unless you’re on busy streets. In NYC 60 minute actual travel time on estimated 25 is not uncommon, even without traffic jams. On highways the unit gives amazingly accurate arrival time.

   – Performance issues. Very long calculation times (UPD this is a non-issue since traffic trends are disabled. Without traffic trends route calculation is relatively fast. The times below are for firmware 2.4 where the TT was turned still enabled)
   200-mile NYC to Boston used to take 2.5 minutes on my first device. I exchanged the unit and it normally takes about 50 seconds on the new one. It gets longer if you’re driving or if traffic information is available (not yet sure what matters more). Last weekend it took it 2 minutes to…

   Read more

   Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

   Was this review helpful to you? 
   

   
   |

    Comments (14)

Comments are closed.