Top Wifi Reviews

1. 

   Northern Traveler
   May 31st, 2010 - 05:46

   Review by Northern Traveler for Garmin nüvi 295W Wi-Fi Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   Just finished my first few hours with the 295W.

   Just received the 295W today to replace the 755T that was unfortunately stolen. I was thinking about waiting for the 3790T or 3760T, but needed something before that becomes available.

   ** UNIT DIMENSIONS / FEEL / RESPONSE **
   
   First impressions of the 295W are pretty good. Good fit and finish, has the right heft to it to where it does not have a “toy” feel. Fit and finish is nicer than the 755T I had. All functions process more quickly than the 755T did, and the touch screen is much more responsive. On my old unit, either the processor bogged down a bit, or the screen sensitivity was not quite there, but it did not respond like the 295W does. Scrolling with the touch screen is nice both in the menus, and in map view mode.

   ** ROUTING / DIRECTIONS **
   
   The routing seemed faster than the 755T. I will miss the lane assist when I travel to larger cities like L.A. and Atlanta, but for the vast amount of time, it won’t be a big deal. I did purposely take some wrong turns to check the rerouting capabilities, and found that to be very quick.

   That said, it did have one hiccup already. ( i.e.- when chose Lowe’s from the POI list, it showed it in two different directions, same address, 5 miles apart. There is only one Lowe’s in my town, and it is not a divided highway or anything).

   ** UPLOADS **
   
   I have not yet updated the map. It seems strange to have JUST released the unit, and the website suggests there is an updated map set available? I am going to see if I can figure out the version, and when the last one was released. Since I can upload over 60 days from initial use, I may wait a bit.

   That said, I did upload some of the extra voices and vehicles that you can get from the Garmin site. It was quick, and seems to be just fine. ( By the way, I did have the problem upload with my prior 755T that made it a brick, and I had to send back and forth with Garmin.)

   ** WEB / WIRELESS **
   
   Set up with my wireless network. Security settings were easy. The auto download weather is a neat feature, but I don’t see myself carrying this around every day in and out of the house the way I probably would with GarminPhone. The Google Local Search worked well though. The pre-loaded POIs were very good I thought, but there were a couple places I figured it wouldn’t know, and it didn’t. Connected through the web though, it found them in 5 seconds, and then they were added to the unit saved places.

   ** OVERALL FIRST IMPRESSION **
   
   After being used to the larger 755T screen, this seems a little bit small. Seems like I can’t just glance as quickly at it as the prior unit, but maybe that will change with some time. The spoken directions seem a little bit clearer than the 755 was The response of the unit is very good in my opinion. Not sure how much I will really use the wireless, but I can see it handy traveling when I head to the hotel and might be looking for all the food options locally that the bas POI may not have, etc….

   I am headed on a couple hundred mile drive over the next weekend and will see what other opinions arise. I know it’s an initial review, but at least I don’t have any buyer’s remorse at this point. I may still wind up with a 7300 series after those arrive, and put this in the other vehicle, but we’ll see.

   **As for the packaging issues mentioned by the first poster, (who may just have wanted to be the first poster, since it certainly was not a PRODUCT review), I can say that while everything did arrive in fine shape, the stuff did just kind of seem tossed in the box. I felt it actually cheapened the Garmin brand to send it this way.
   
2. 

   J. Mursuli
   May 31st, 2010 - 06:19

   Review by J. Mursuli for Garmin nüvi 295W Wi-Fi Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   GPS Experience:
   
   I have been a GPS user for over 10 years. I have owned Garmin’s, Tom Toms, Magellan’s, Mio, DASH, and others.

   Packaging:
   
   You get a brown box with all the Garmin pieces inside and most important it’s recyclable.

   Physical unit:
   
   The 295t has a power button on the top, it also has a 2.5mm headphone jack/audio line-out on top. It has volume up and down button on the right side and well as a camera button on the right side. The left side has the USB as well as the windshield bracket connection. The nice thing is that you can connect the power directly to the bracket.

   First Impression:
   
   I just received my Nuvi 295t and I have to say that I excited about the concept of being able to connect to the Internet to surf or to find POI’s. I believe that all future PND units will have some kind of wi-fi connection or a bluetooth connection through your phone. The PND companies are loosing market share to all the NAV phones that are on the market. The 3.5 inch screen is SMALL. If you like having a 4.3″ screen or even a 5″ inch screen you might not like this small screen. Remember this a similar size to most NAV phones on the market today.

   Navigation:
   
   It has spoken street names (e.g. “Turn right on Elm street in 500 ft.”). The directions given were similar to other Garmin units. The directions were accurate. The unit displays the posted speed limit, and your current speed on the bottom right. It displays your arrival time on the bottom left. On the top of the screen it displays the next turn arrow with the street name. The “Jill” directional voice is low and tiny…it must be a small speaker.

   Screen:
   
   3.5″ inches. Dual-orientation automatically switches between portrait and landscape view. The Scrolling menu option was a nice add-on.

   Wi-fi(web surfing, weather, e-mail):
   
   Web surfing: Connected to an available hot spot was fast a easy. The web pages display as full web pages. You have the option to enlarge or reduce the web pages with a (+) or (-) that displays on the screen. Loading web pages was average with some taking longer to load.
   
   Weather: while connected via wi-fi you can check your local forecast from the main menu. You would have to use the browser to go to [...] to view radar, and maps.
   
   E-mail: setting an e-mail account was fast and easy. Once you are connected via wi-fi you can check your email from the main menu. The email icon shows how many un-opened emails that you have in your inbox. I was able to setup 2 e-mail accounts. The screen qwerty keyboard is not the greatest but you can still input the URL’s and other info.

   Wi-fi (Google searches):
   
   Once you are connected via wi-fi and you have the option to use Google Search to find POI’s that were not listed in the 6 million POI database. The searches were fast and easy. Once they are found the unit can route you to your destination. You can also use 1-step navigation from contacts, e-mail, and local search results.
3. 

   Jeff Kraus
   May 31st, 2010 - 06:58

   Review by Jeff Kraus for Garmin nüvi 295W Wi-Fi Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   I’ve had some time to play with this navigator now, and overall I’m impressed with its capabilities. I’ve been a huge fan of the technology (and Garmin) for some time now, starting with the Garmin GPS II (link goes to the II+, but that’s the closest I could find ) that I bought in 1998, then on to the Garmin GPS III Plus, the Garmin Etrex Legend, the Garmin GPSMAP 60CS, and finally the Garmin Colorado 400T. We also have a TomTom One XL for one car, and now this Garmin nuvi 295W for the other.

   Obviously, a lot has happened to advance the technology since I got my first receiver, and the nuvi definitely shows up as the next-level receiver compared to the others I’ve used. It finds routes quickly and re-routes quickly when necessary, and of course being a Garmin the maps are top notch. Satellite acquisition is quick too. Faster than any other unit I’ve used.

   Build quality is solid, and the screen has a very subtle texture to it that feels better than a glossy screen. It’s also better at glare reduction. Brightness is excellent — way better than the TomTom. And the map drawing speed is a significant improvement over any of my other units. Its refresh speed is excellent. The suction cup mount is outstanding as well.

   On the other hand, the TomTom wins in two important areas — screen size and volume. The nuvi can get somewhat loud, but it’s a tinny and metallic kind of loud, and it’s annoying. The screen size, at 3.5″, is the size of an iPhone. The extra 0.8″ offered by the TomTom makes a pretty big difference. Not just in how easy it is to see, but it’s just that more stuff can be seen. At a glance, the TomTom will show speed, time, ETA, TTD, DTD, and distance to the next waypoint (maybe one or two others I can’t think of) all on the map screen under the map. The nuvi shows far less than this. Of course, the data is still available, but you have to leave the map page to see it.

   There is some (mostly useless) downloadable content on the Garmin site, including new vehicle icons that represent you on the screen, and downloadable voices. Most of those downloadable voices were fun for about 0.3 seconds before they got annoying.

   There are a number of “applications” on the device, such as a notepad, web browser, contact list, music player, etc. To me, they are merely minor annoyances because that’s not what a GPS receiver is for. And I include the camera in that list too. I can understand the cool factor of geotagging photos, believe me. But I use my Colorado to save my GPS tracks when I’m out with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Then I use a program that reads that track data and syncs it to my camera’s internal clock, updating all of my photos with the coordinates in the EXIF data based on the time the photo was taken compared to the time data in my GPS track. It sounds complicated, but while the built-in camera might be easier in that sense, as a photographer I need my real camera with me anyway. I’m certainly not going to use both. And by the way, this sort of automated geotagging of “real” camera photos is not possible with the nuvi, because it doesn’t allow you to save your tracks like the full-time handhelds do (like the Colorado, Oregon, 60-series, etc.)

   The WiFi was easy to set up and seems to work fine. There’s a Weather application that updates automatically whenever you connect, and it’s pretty nice. I don’t know how useful it is otherwise though, since I won’t be using it to surf the web or check my email.

   When it comes down to it, the nuvi 295W is a great little navigator. And my rating reflects that — build quality, accuracy, route finding, speed, etc. But I guess I’m sort of wondering who it’s for. It’s not really for hikers, geocachers, or boaters/kayakers, because it’s not ruggedized or waterproof like the Garmin Oregon series. It’s not ideal for motorcyclists like the insaaaaaanely overpriced Garmin zumo series because its buttons are too small to be pressed with gloves on and again, it’s not waterproof. If you’re a normal driver/commuter, there are other units out there with bigger screens that are easier to see and manipulate on the go. I guess it could be perfect for pedestrians, and there are downloadable pedestrian maps in certain areas, although that costs extra.

   And I’m not trying to say that its useless in the car… it’s just hard to adjust to a smaller screen when you’re already accustomed to a larger one.
4. 

   Douglas Aoyama
   May 31st, 2010 - 07:30

   Review by Douglas Aoyama for Garmin nüvi 295W Wi-Fi Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   I already have a GPS built into my car, but was thinking of getting one to have for when I travel and have rental cars. I ordered one of the other Garmins but sent it back when I saw this one. Though a bit more expensive I thought the GPS/Camera, and wifi capability would be fun. The camera is 3MP but quality is pretty good. Also, for you Mac people out there, the GPS tagging on the pictures plugs right into Iphoto and the “places” feature which is pretty cool for geo-tagging your pictures!
5. 

   George W. Ireland
   May 31st, 2010 - 07:38

   Review by George W. Ireland for Garmin nüvi 295W Wi-Fi Portable GPS Navigator
   Rating:
   Recently ordered and recvd a Garmin GPS from Amazon. The shipping was fast and the product was in great shape when it arrived. Packaging was in perfect condition.

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