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1. JanSobieski

   September 7, 2012

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   454 of 463 people found the following review helpful

   
   Best All in One Solution Out There!, July 15, 2006

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   JanSobieski (United States of America) –

   This review is from: Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech (Electronics)

   This may be one of the slickest little gadgets I’ve ever owned. It is not without some relatively minor deficiencies which pale in comparison to this products overall design and function.

   First the good news. This is the smallest, most elegant and compact AIO (all in one) GPS navigation solution I’ve come across. The mapping details are excellent. The Nuvi 360 has map v8 updated from the v7 in the Nuvi 350. The voice prompts are loud, clear and timely. The ease of use is just fantastic and the visibility and quality of the display are very good. The 360 uses the low reflection screen and brighter display which were only found on the very latest 350s. POI access is excellent and can be navigated to much more simply than the TomTom unit which requires additional cumbersome steps. The attachment system for the Nuvi is superb and very secure. With the Nuvi 360 you can access your POIs directly by name rather than having to go through a cumbersome category menu and then only getting the POIs by proximity as is the case with the TomTom 910.

   The new screen display in the 360 is nearly as good or equal to the TomTom 910. The automatic panning is not quite as good as the TomTom. And bright light visibility is nearly as good as the TomTom 910. Despite these minor comparative deficiencies, all the other advantages of the Nuvi much more than outweigh the disadvantages of the TomTom 910 (their top of the line). As with all GPS units, you want to place the Nuvi so as to reduce the sun’s glare.

   This device is intended as an extremely simple point to point navigating AIO GPS navigation solution and is not intended to enable the use of way points or easily changing the course selected by the unit. You have essentially two options: the shortest route and the fastest route. Fortunately, the mapping program selects routs that are very acceptable. Personally, I like to look at the overall route and fiddle with it. This unit is not designed for such use. Microsoft Streets and Trips is ideal for this kind of tinkering, but terrible for point to point navigation while on the go at which the Nuvi has no peer.

   Make sure and get the most recent firmware updates on the Garmin website which will fix the known bugs and further improve the functionality. This unit is so easy to use that my 85 year old father purchased one for himself and he loves it to. He is, to put it kindly, technologically challenged but this unit is so intuitive and easy to use that he’s had no problems whatsoever. He doesn’t like to be distracted while driving so he plans his trip before leaving and simply listens to the voice prompts.

   The new bluetooth feature makes using hands free use of your bluetooth enabled phone a pleasure. If you don’t need or want the Bluetooth feature save yourself a couple of hundred bucks and get the most recent Nuvi 350 but make sure it’s got the low reflective screen, the bright display and map v8. Remember, only the most recent Nuvi 350s have the bright low reflective screen. I believe if you get a 350 with map v8 it will automatically have the brighter display with the low reflection screen. I give this unit a 5 star on form and a 5 star on the functionality for which it was designed. You will not be disappointed.

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2. Earl E. A. Dopter

   September 7, 2012

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   2,078 of 2,102 people found the following review helpful

   
   Lives up to its promise – update 6/26/09, July 22, 2006

   By 

   Earl E. A. Dopter (Louisiana) –
   
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Garmin nüvi 360 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech (Electronics)

   Update (6/26/09): A week ago, my Nuvi was stolen out of my vehicle (I know, my bad; all I had to do was take it with me, but it was a momentary lapse of reason). I replaced it with a Nuvi 885T. I can tell you that the new 885T is better in every way than the 360, which stands to reason. Nice job by Garmin continuing to update and improve their units. Noteable changes include elimination of flip-up antenna (internal now), much more advance warning of upcoming turns, real-view of on/off ramps at confusing highway junctions, posting of speed limit, with actual speed noted right next to that (VERY handy!), and of course the latest map version, 2009. If you want the best bang for the buck I still heartily recommend the Nuvi 360. But for the very best available right now, the 885T is now the device of choice.

   ———–Original review———–
   Previous to this, I had the Nuvi 350, which is also an excellent device. Since the function is identical in nearly every regard to the 350, there is little point in covering the basics in much depth, but it’s worth re-stating some of them. I will go into great detail on the Bluetooth functionality below.

   This is such a handy device, and is so well executed, that you would be hard-pressed not to love it. The first thing I noticed about the Nuvi was its incredibly small size and weight. I could not believe how light it was. I literally expected it to have at least twice the heft when I went to pick it up the first time – it was like picking up a deck of cards, but lighter.

   The antenna is a flap that is raised from the back, maybe about the size of a matchbook. When raised the Nuvi immediately starts locking in on satellites, when lowered, the unit knows you are through navigating for a while. Intuitive and effective.

   Navigation on the Nuvi is very good, fast, and intuitive. It’s no different from many of Garmin’s other offerings in that regard. Some buildings and businesses that you would expect to be shown as POIs are not there, but most are. One thing I would suggest: when a route is less than ideal, Garmin should allow you to correct it permanently so that it does not re-suggest the non-preferred route each time.

   I had a problem with my old Nuvi 350 that I have not observed on the new 360. Sometimes the 350 would not lock onto the satellite signal. Once it went into this mode of searching for, but not locking in, for over a minute it just never found anything. The only way I found to correct this was to push the small reset button under the antenna. I notice that another reviewer found that his new 360 had the same problem. This must be a bug in some Nuvi units that would be worth following up with Garmin on. I can tell you that my 360 NEVER has required a reboot, and I’ve been using it continuously.

   I did not test the MP3 functionality beyond verifying that it plays back the songs that are pre-loaded for demo purposes. I didn’t care about this feature; I’m very happy with my iPod for song management and playback. I can verify that you would not want to use the Nuvi’s internal speaker for song playback, though. It’s good enough to use as a speakerphone and for voice prompts, but it’s not a hi-fi.

   Now, for the fun part: Bluetooth functionality. I have been using it with my BlackBerry 8700c with excellent results so far. I had no problems with the initial discovery and mating process. The interface is robust. What happens is that once your phone has made the connection with the 360, a phone icon appears on the Nuvi. You can now use the 360 to call ANY POI directly from the screen! This is truly amazing; you are now walking around with the yellow pages in the palm of your hand, sortable by your current location, or any other location you choose. I just find the Point of Interest, and touch the phone number of that POI, and the phone starts dialing it. The sound comes out through the speaker of the Nuvi, and conversations have been natural so far. It’s working like an absolute charm, and this single feature moves the device beyond anything else available right now.

   When you select the phone icon from the main screen, several phone-related icons appear. From the phone screen, you can make a call manually, access your address book, call a POI, etceteras. The manual dial function works fine from the touchscreen. The really cool news: Nuvi automatically downloads your phone’s address book to its database when it makes the initial Bluetooth link. So, if your phone supports this functionality, you can use it for all dialing functions, since the display is so much nicer than most phones, and the touchscreen works really well. You can always break the BT connection once you get the number dialed if you want a private, non-speakerphoned conversation. I have done that many times already. Once your call ends, the connection to the Nuvi is reestablished automatically. One word of warning:…

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