Garmin Nuvi 765T - 4.4 in. GPS Receiver

I purchased a Magellan Roadmate 800T back in early 2006.  After almost 4 years of usage, the map is getting out of date.  Instead of paying roughly $100 for a map upgrade, I decided to purchase a new GPS.  After some on-line research, I decided to purchase Garmin Nuvi 765T.   Much of my review here will be comparing to my old Magellan GPS (Roadmate 800).

Some info about me that's relevant to this review.  I live in New York City, USA.  I've used 765T for 2 weeks now.  My car is a 2004 Toyota Camry, and I use a Nokia 6301 phone (bluetooth).

This is a long review, so if you don't wish to read the whole thing, Bottom line, Garmin Nuvi 765T is a TOTAL disappointment.  While the instruction and the GPS navigation/signal is superior to my 4 year old GPS.  The UI is less user friendly.  FM Traffic has not been helpful.  Bluetooth connection with the phone constantly drops thus render it unreliable.  FM Transmitter transmits very weak signal that it's practically useless. Hence, you might as well spend $100 less to get a GPS only unit.  I am returning mine.

When I opened the unit... my first impression was, very nice.  Unit is light, and it doesn't feel too cheap.  Turn it on, and my location was pinpoint quickly.  So far so good... As I tried to enter some addresses flat on the desk, I noticed the touch screen is not very responsive and not very accurate.  For example, pressing "u", I get a "3"?  How that happen is beyond me.  Although I notice if I enter the address "vertically" on a mount, it is very accurate.  There's a "gps simulator" if you lose satellite signal - very nice.

Let's head to the car for a quick test.  Hmmm, the window mount arm is short, unlike my magellan gps.   If I need to input a direction in the car, I need to lean forward.  Garmin includes an dash board "disk" so you may mount on the disk instead of the window to overcome the "short" window mount.  Here in NYC, a word of advice, thieves may likely to break into your car if they think you may have a GPS in the car.  Once, I left my mounting arm in the, and the car was broken into.  The police informed me, always remove the mount, wipe the mount print off the window.  Do not let the potential theif think you may have a GPS on board.  So I will not be installing the dash board disk.  I can live with the short arm.  Drove around NYC/Manhattan, and I noticed the GPS pinpoints my location much better than Magellan in the valley of the tall dense buildings in NYC.

Most important aspect of a GPS is providing you with proper direction from point A to point B.  Garmin and Magellan both use Navtech maps, so the directions both provided are identical.  After two weeks of uses and roughly 350 miles of driving, I feel Nuvi 765T is performing up to spec.  Magellan GPs provides something very useful that Nuvi doesn't, at the point of each turn, there's a "ding" to inform you to execute the instruction.   The lane assistance so far has been pretty good, but I didn't find it too helpful.  Many on-line reviews have complained about the loudness of the internal speaker, I find it fine at 80% in my Camry.  This GPS is also equipped to speak street names... frankly, it is not very clear.  For example, 2nd ave may be pronounced either as "two ave" or "second ave".  3D building display is equipped with this GPS, but I didn't find it very useful.

The UI on this unit is best described as comparing Microsoft Windows UI to Apple Mac UI.  Garmin is to Microsoft, and Magellan is to Apple.  Ironically, Magellan runs on Windows CE and if I am not mistaken Garmin runs on Linux.   For starter, on my Magellan, after I entered an address, I could have choices to select the "fastest time", "avoid high way", "fastest route", in addition to a checkbox if I wish to avoid tolls.   Not on this Garmin.  If you wish to change the type of directions, you need to go to the setting area, change the setting, then come back to the address/map area to recalculate.   My magellan, I may enter a destination based on a zip code.  Not the Garmin.  On the Garmin, the entry is based on your state then city...  Here lies the problem for me, I live in NYC, so I travel to New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania quite often.   Every time I need to enter a new address, I must make sure I am in the correct state first then the city.  On a Magellan, it's zip code, street address.  On Garmin, make sure you are in the right state, enter city, enter street address - extra effort.  On old Magellan, after I entered an address, it "stores" it temporarily, so I may retrieve it later.  I am not sure if Garmin has this feature...  POI is fine so far, I just hope Garmin can update these for free.  More complaint, on the good old Magellan, the display shows both estimate time of arrival and distance to destination.  Not this unit, it can only show only one.

Garmin offers new features that my Magellan doesn't have.  Frankly, they are ALL USELESS!  Let's start with FM transmitter where you may transmit the output to a radio FM frequency which your car stereo system may pick up.  According to the various websites, FCC regulation limits the FM strength.  Hence, here in NYC with so many FM stations, it practically renders this feature useless.  First, I receive plenty of static, and need to crank up the volume to hear the GPS.  Forget about bluetooth either, connection keeps dropping between my phone.  Luckily, I don't really care about the bluetooth anyway.

FM traffic routing... what traffic routing?!   GPS often shows traffic where there are no traffic.  On occassions, when there are traffic, GPS shows none.

Here's a scary incident.  It has happened TWICE.  Sometimes the GPS would "stuck" on map calculation at 99%.  After that, it won't be able to calculate route. The whole map then went BLANK.  GPS still picks up the satellite signal.  I can still enter new destination... but maps, directions do not show up.  On the Magellan, there's a "reset" that "reboot" the whole system.  It is not as clear cut on Nuvi.  It seems to "reset" the system, need to hold the power button for 8 seconds.  Who would have guessed, I have to find that out after getting back home.

And onto support.  I am entitled to a free map download.  Hmmmm first try, doesn't work.  Second try, doesn't work.  Called tech support, they say their server is down, so I can not update.  It's now 2 weeks and I still can't update the map.

I had a blast with Magellan, and thought it was an awesome new toy.  With Garmin Nuvi765T, I want to throw it out the window.  Totally disappointed.