Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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179 of 181 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the money, 17 May 2008
I spent ages in choosing my second device after my TomTomGO 300 failed following three years of heavy use.
I guess if you are on this page, you want a relatively advanced GPS as there are many machines which are cheaper and dont have the extras provided in 760 which has bluetooth handsfree, europe mapping, FM transmission (can transmit device sound to your car speakers when you choose same fm channel on both), wide screen, traffic services (lifetime subscription)
One can get a good garmin device for under 100 with UK maps and without added extras mentioned above (Garmin 200 is only £89 and appears very good)
now for these extras the main competition is with tomtom 720T as you may have found out already
both were priced near £220 when I compared
I looked at garmin 360t, 660t, 760 and TomTom 720T, last two being my final choices.
Glad I chose garmin 760 over tomtom 720T but both have good and bad points
the main issues in my view:
Garmin 760T: map accuracy greater, weight 176 grams, smaller (tomtom720T is 220gm, slightly bulkier)
garmin screen is not cluttered at all
But I definitely miss TomTom's screen display of distance and time to destination with a compass pointer, next turn in graphics like 2nd exit and other customizable bits that is lacking in garmin (760 only shows arrival time and next turn)
Not having a lot of info on Garmin's screen may make driving safe as you dont keep looking at it to check how far you are from your destination and what is your speed and comparing your speedometer with Satnav(speedo is less accurate than GPS devices)
Garmin only shows arrival time so no major reason to fix your stare on screen and this may be good for safe driving.
Nevertheless speed and distance details are available if you touch arrival time.
garmin's POI are great (much more accurate and useful than tomtom 720t)
its FM trransmitter can also transmit phone's sound (not in tomtom)
garmin's menu is a lot simpler and less cluttered than tomtom
garmin's traffic service also better than tomtom, but tomtom voice quality is superior and less synthetic and there are more choices. Even the speaker output is more in TomTom.
overall, both great but garmin is my choice for simpler menu, accurate maps and physical form but I feel none of them is a bad choice.
Good luck with your buy.
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great item, but warning over 'buy together' option, 24 Jul 2008
I have only had this satnav a short while, but have found it extremely straightforward to use and set up. Particularly the phone functions and FM transmitter.
On the phone functions there are a lot of neat tools, like being able to phone points of interest, such as restaurants and hotels. Also you can assign numbers to your favourite locations and phone them using the touch screen. The screen is excellent and the unit seems to pick up signal and recalculate routes very quickly.
One point against amazon though.... they offered this together with a leather carry case, which I went for only to discover an identical carry case was included in the Garmin box anyway...
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75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great unit ruined by appalling reliability, 22 Jul 2008
I've never seen the need for a SatNav before but as my wife and I are shortly going to be driving across Europe for our holidays decided to finally get one.
After much research I ordered the Nuvi 760 as it ticked all the boxes: superb European street-level maps, easy to use, accurate navigation, a last-position marker to help find where the car is parked (my wife has a non-existent sense of direction!), spoken street names, free lifetime traffic updates for the UK and France, and FM transmission so that I could use my radio to listen to the directions at higher listening volume.
Initial impressions were good although the instructions were extremely poor. Luckily it's not difficult to use and a little web-research gives all the info needed to access the less-obvious functions. Garmin do offer a downloadable user-manual but it still leaves a great deal out, sadly this is not at all unusual these days.
My first disappointment was the FM transmission facility; it needs a clear frequency to work, but in London there are none left across the entire waveband. All either have existing stations or interference from them. Luckily, the unit volume at maximum proved loud enough for my noisy car (an old Citroen 2cv) even with the roof rolled back and I can always use headphones to listen if I'm at motorway speeds. As an aside, one of the useful features not mentioned in any of the documentation is that the headphone socket can be set to "line out" mode for wired connection to a suitable external amp or car stereo. It's only available through one of the screens in the hidden diagnostic menu though!
The second disappointment is the traffic receiver; this is built into the 12v power adapter and has a long antenna which needs to be stuck to the windscreen, the adaptor lead then plugs into the suction-cup cradle. The troubles with this is twofold: I have to remove the cradle from the car every time I park to avoid advertising the unit to thieves. As the traffic receiver can be fitted to lesser models it also is attractive to thieves so I have to take that from the car each time too, but the suction cups which hold the antenna lead in place are very tenacious. When I return to the car I have to fit the cradle to the screen, plug in the adaptor/traffic receiver and then painstakingly re-fit the antenna to the screen. It's a shame that the receiver isn't built in to the SatNav unit itself, and that the antenna wire can't be unplugged from the receiver. The antenna is only a cheap bit of unbranded wire and otherwise could be fitted discreetly enough not to be noticed by thieves.
In use, the unit is excellent. It acquires and holds on to a signal quickly even amongst tall buildings, the display is clear and bright and only shows what you need to know when you need to know it. Routing is generally excellent too, but I did find it annoying that for a route from London to Spain it insisted that Eurotunnel was the only option. There was no way I could alter it to take the Dover to Boulogne ferry route. In practise, it's a minor point as whichever entry point I use to France will result in the unit recalculating the most efficient route automatically. The unit does recalculate very quickly, too. The traffic updates are the icing on the cake; it's one thing for a SatNav to simply churn out a route, but in London it's essential to be able to avoid the worst traffic from the start and a long (and dreaded) journey across the busiest part of the city during rush hour cut my journey time by half at the expense of a few worthwhile extra miles. I'd never now buy any Satnav without this feature.
The 760 allows you to set it to suit you as a motorist, cyclist or pedestrian, but it has no options to suit truck or bus drivers who are going to need to be able to avoid unsuitable roads and overhead hazards. Other SatNavs are available for professional drivers anyway, so it's not a major issue. It also allows the user to avoid ferries, tolls, traffic and main roads. Going back to my earlier comment, I wish it allowed me to avoid Eurotunnel as well.
The supplied protective case is a joke. It's OK as a freebie, but it has a permanently open end and care has to be taken inserting the 760 into the case as it will turn the unit back on if you're not careful. There's also no belt loop/clip and no way to operate the unit with the case on (like with some mobile phone cases). A cheapie neoprene zippered case would be preferable to the "leather" (actually leatherboard and leather-cloth) one supplied.
Finally, the major fly in the ointment. Up till now I'd be considering 4 stars but the first 760 I was sent would unpredictably turn itself off, sometimes in mid route. Software and firmware updates did not cure it nor did a system reset. Amazon were very efficient in sending another one out immediately, but it had the same fault to a lesser degree. I arranged to return it for a refund but yesterday morning changed my mind as it seemed to have stabilised and I didn't want to wait around for delivery/collection again. Unfortunately, it died completely later the same day and is being collected later today. Looking on the internet, I saw only one other report of a 760 unexpectedly turning off and no references to total failure so I've no reason to suggest the fault is widespread. The two units have serial numbers only a few digits apart so may be from a faulty batch, but nevertheless it does suggest a failure in Garmin's quality control.
I've now ordered a Nuvi 770: exactly the same as the 760 but includes North American mapping as well. It has a larger internal memory too and this means it will be from a different production batch so I'm reasoning that it's far less likely to be faulty. Note that the larger memory is purely for the additional mapping, it will not make the unit work faster or better.
Third time lucky? Fingers crossed...
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