Garmin Nuvi 760 Satellite Navigation System - Electronics / Photography (Garmin)

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Customer Reviews of Garmin Nuvi 760 Satellite Navigation System

hyperbolium
Earth, USA
28th December 2008

Top-notch unit weakened by interface issues
After using this unit for a month in both familiar and unfamiliar territory, I've found Garmin's excellent physical design and rich feature set undermined by a laundry list of usability issues. My issues aren't with the navigational information that's presented, but ironically, the lack of navigational flow to the Garmin user-interface itself.

QUICK PROS
* Physically attractive, solidly built.
* Bright, easy-to-read 4.3" screen with good iconography.
* Fast boot and satellite acquisition.
* Excellent selection of voices.
* Excellent night illumination mode.
* Excellent add-on friction dash mount.

QUICK CONS
* No warning chime to signal a maneuver.
* Small, tinny speaker.
* No volume control on map screen.
* No street exclusion function.
* No exit ramp points-of-interest preview.
* No voice test on voice selection screen.
* No wall charger or case included.

SUMMARY
On the plus side, the unit is physically attractive, with a bright, easy-to-read screen. It boots quickly, acquires and holds satellites well, renders the maps clearly, and has an excellent selection of easy-to-understand voices, both pre-recorded and synthesized text-to-speech. The latter function is very good in rendering street names correctly. The additional-cost friction dash mount is superb, highly adjustable, yet firm in holding the unit in position. These are all best-in-class functions.

Where the 760 (and most Garmin units) falls short is in its ease-of-use for common tasks. The lack of a warning chime to signal an upcoming maneuver is troublesome, as is the lack of a split-screen view to combine an overview and a detail. These problems are both magnified by the undersized speaker which clips the audio at 90 or 100% volume. Address entry could be improved, and navigational shortcuts could be added to the user interface to simplify common tasks. These problems will not be deal-breakers for many consumers, and may be outweighed by the unit's many positives.

It's frustrating that obvious usability issues haven't been addressed by Garmin after so many generations of their products. Garmin has neither borrowed the best solutions from their competitors, nor implemented solutions of their own. It's hard to imagine they doesn't perform controlled usage studies, so one has to wonder why their address entry remains so clunky, their interface remains so tedious to navigate and they refuse to add a warning chime (the last of these was the deal-breaker for me).

Unfortunately, all of Garmin's competitors (Magellan, TomTom, et al.) suffer similar mixtures of brilliance and disappointment. In the end, picking an automotive GPS is an exercise in deciding which disappointments you can live with.

SORTING OUT GARMIN'S MODELS
The 760 was an upgrade of the 660 in which multipoint routes, "where am I," and a few other minor functions were added. The 760 itself has been upgraded to the 765T, adding lane assistance. The 860 adds dual internal speakers, which may improve upon the 760's poor audio, as well as speech recognition and a remote control. Those looking for the latest and greatest may opt for the 765T or 860, particularly for the lane assistance of the 765T, but those looking for a bargain can find the 660 or 760, either new or refurbished at (as of this writing, anyway) significant discounts from their original list prices.


ADDITIONAL DETAIL

ROUTING
The unit's routing engine occasionally made choices that I knew to be suboptimal - choosing surface streets with numerous stop signs over expressways with timed lights, for example. Once in awhile it also declared a destination to be on the opposite side of the street from its actual location. Since routing inefficiencies will only be apparent in familiar locales - those in which you know better and can ignore the GPS - one has to wonder how well the unit's doing in areas that you don't know.

The lack of a street exclusion function is problematic, particularly when needed in conjunction with the traffic service, or when driving in a familiar area with known problems (e.g., construction). Garmin provides an approximation of this feature by allowing you to add an intermediate destination (a "way point"), but this doesn't guarantee exclusion of a particular road, and may be difficult to use in unfamiliar areas where you don't know a local way point.

ENTERING ADDRESSES
Garmin has you enter an address number first, then street. Other manufacturers have figured out that having you enter the street first allows them to show you acceptable number ranges before you enter the number. Second, when entering a city or street, Garmin leaves all keys on the keyboard available; other manufacturers offer adaptive spelling that grays letters that can no longer spell a item in the database. These seem like minor issues, but given the size of the letter keys on a 4.3" screen, they can each save you a great deal of frustration with "fat-finger" mistakes.

MANEUVER NOTIFICATIONS
More troublesome is how the 760 notifies you of upcoming maneuvers. Unlike their competitors, the 760 does not offer an alert chime to indicate when an action should be taken. Again, it seems minor, but given the resolution of GPS positioning, you can easily find yourself wondering if the street 10 feet ahead is your turn, or the one another 50 feet ahead. In addition, the 760 does not offer a split-screen option to show you a close-up of the next maneuver. At highway speed the 760 alerts you to your next maneuver one mile in advance, but at 65 or 70 mph this less than a minute, which, given the 760's lack of lane guidance (offered by some of Garmin's newer models) is insufficient.

GPS AUDIO
The lack of an alert chime, split screen, sufficient advance warning and lane guidance is made worse by the 760's weak audio. The voices themselves are very good, with numerous language and English accent choices, but the 760's speaker is too small and the resulting audio very tinny. At 90-100% volume the audio is often clipped and distorted, and at 70 or 80%, the volume is insufficient to be heard at highway speed in anything short of a quiet car with no other audio (e.g., radio) playing.

Playing the GPS audio through your car's stereo is an option, if you're willing to either surrender your car stereo to navigation or use the 760 as your audio player. To do so you'll either need to use the 760's FM radio transmitter, or use a cable or cassette adapter. In all three cases, the 760's audio will now be sufficiently loud, but the audio quality itself may not be up to the standards of your stereo. This is particularly true with the FM transmitter, which is an ineffective solution in most radio-crowded urban areas.

BLUETOOTH
I found the Bluetooth function very easy to use, but less useful than I'd hoped. My Blackberry paired simply, and the 760 provided access to my phonebook. But the 760's on-board microphone provides barely useable audio (callers described the quality with "tunnel" and "underwater"), and the unit's volume controls don't seem to provide a separate volume scale for the phone connection; hence I had to pick between GPS instruction volume too low or phone volume too high.

ASSORTED INTERFACE ISSUES
Many of the normal use patterns are poorly served by the interface. The map screen, for example, doesn't provide direct access to volume or mute. Instead you have to touch "Menu," which takes you back to the splash screen, then touch "Volume," then change the volume, then touch "Done," which again takes you back to the splash screen, then touch "Map." That's a lot of work when all you want to do is, for example, mute the GPS voice temporarily.

Numerous configuration screens would benefit from a "return to map" button. Instead, you typically have to navigate from the map up to the splash screen, down to the configuration screen, back up to the splash screen and then back to the map. I also noticed that on the voice selection screen there seems to be no preview. Instead, after picking a voice you need to navigate back to the map screen and press the button in the lower right corner to have it say the current instruction. If you don't like the voice, you have to manually return to the voice selection screen and start over. Perhaps I just missed the "preview" button (which would suggest it's insufficiently obvious). [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Metatarsal
London, UK
14th December 2008

It Aint That Bad
Being my first Satnav, I was a bit disappointed when I took it for a test drive in Luton and it asked me to turn into a one way street. I thought to myself, what a complete waste of money. I managed to download some mp3s and it can only take a few, you will need external memory to get that collection in. To create a playlist was a bit fiddly as you had to convert the playlist to an m3u version. I just leave it for my niece who is tech savvy. You will need to disable the fm transmission for you to listen to other radio stations. The volume from the nuvi speakers is not that great. I wish there was a way I could avoid toll roads or the dreaded congestion charge zone in London. It directs you right through it. It does take its time getting a position on the screen. There is an apparent discrepancy on actual car position and its position on the screen. I now know that if I am turning left and it's telling you 2 yards before you turn, TURN TURN NOW because it lags.

Now I have used it on many occasions I am afraid to say have become and Garminolic. I take it with me to go to the local supermarket, 3 miles away. I now mainly use it as a hands free device as the fm transmission works superbly. I am in the delivery business and it doesn't let you down. You get there alright. You get a choice to navigate using a shorter distance or the quickest route. The quickest route is not neccesarily the shorter distance if you know what I mean. It really is not a bad system and if you can live with the faults I have described, it does the job. Others have succinctly described its other features. BUY IT.

darrenSF
London u.k
13th December 2008

a Chocklate fish
its a chocklate fish

A few bad points to note the traffic report is next to useless i can guarentee you will be sat in traffic without a hint from the garmin (as i frequently am) those traffic delays it portrays your likely to chance cos its invariably got it wrong

The display gives you an arrival time on your planned routes but if you set any via points it only gives you the final destination which is pretty damn annoying

the menus can be fiddly there are no shortcuts so you have to cycle through the full menus which when your driving is just plain awkward

The FM transmitter is not vey powerful i've found it difficult to get a clear reception even in the middle of the french countryisde because of interference its real bad in london i've giving up and had to resort to a cable connection to the car stereo

Oh and if your journey takes you near london take the map book cos its always going to send you through the middle ( i'm not sure they programmed the M25)

On the handsfree side the microphone is pretty poor you have to shout alot

i originally bought it for the price included all the add-ons i.e traffic warnings-bluetooth handsfree and have to say its been a let down on these

that maybe was a clue

ps the voices all sound like a bad automatic answering machine makes you feel your always in a que

David Satchell
Tamworth
28th November 2008

Wont disapoint you, if you require a simple car sat nav, with a few extra's thrown in.
I've had a garmin car sat nav for some years and have found it very accurate when driving around the country and reliable. After having it stolen(gutted), I researched other makes and prices to replace the nuvi205 but wanted this time a nav with traffic and no subscriptions (tom tom new live versions upto £10 month) and a brand that is not likely to go bump in the near future, i'd never heard of garmin a few years ago but is a well known in the professional trades/services. The garmin is a steardy well made bit of kit, does what it say's with a few options which i'm not interested in, the traffic information is I believe a well proven source of info (blue looking camaras on bridges) Rac supplied a device free years ago which worked well from the same source. There were more expensive sat navs with additional features that I couldn't justify paying for and already having one sat nav nicked (not from car) couldn't justify having £300 to £400 gadget in car or dropping if carried away from car. So basically this model although not the best offers the best for the money for me. If money wasn't an issue I'd have the tom tom Go940 live model £400, plus £10 month subscription, you don't have to subscribe but what points that! just go for a cheaper model. The carry case ''supplied'' is a good quality one. Satnav charges once in the cradle and if you want you can charge from a usb port on any computer, but why would you want to charge out of the car unless you use it for 4-5 hour walks-recommend you choose another model suited to walking.

Andrew Johnson
Shifnal, Shropshire United Kingdom
14th November 2008

Excellent at what it does
I have now had the machine for 2 months and have done over 5,000 miles with it around the UK (Blackpool, Preston, Telford, Waterlooville, Portsmouth and London) so it's navigation and traffic systems are well tested.

The screen is clear in most conditions and even automatically zooms in as you reach a turn although I have noticed that with sun behind your shoulder the screen washes out, but this is where the voice commands, giving street names comes in usefull so while this can be anoying on a winter morning, it is not a major issue.

Features such as Bluetooth, MP3 player etc are good, since buying the 760 it is the first time I have ever considered leaving my phone on in the car. One point to make is the manual doesn't tell you the bigest SD Card it will take is 4GB, although this on the Garmin FAQ page and the plus is it will take HDSD.

This is the third GPS system I have owned, it's predecessors were essentially basic point to point GPS locators, although one had a map down load capabiliy. I bought this to combine GPS navigation technology with the liftime Traffic Master licence and it does it very well. I have had a Traffic Master Oracle for 10 yeras or so on annual subscription and wanted something a bit more inteligent, the Nuvi 760 fits this bill very well.

Mapping, so far, has been excellent I have not noticed any significant errors, just 1 mini roundabout has been a surprise. Journey times are based on the roads taken in by the remainder of your and the speed limit for those roads. This isn't particularly accurate over a long run, it does take in your elapsed distance and time but can't factor conditions ahead I don't there is a Sat Nav that can so this is not an issue. Be aware you can get routed down a lane where it thinks you can do 60 mph on a road where this would be suicide (or murder). Some routes are little odd, like directing me off the M5 at J7 through Worcester instead of going to J6 to avoid it (I ignored it and ETA came down by 10mins). However, the downloadble POI's are a realy usefull feature if you're in an unfamiliar town and hungry or low on fuel etc.

Traffic alerts are limed by the capability of the Trafic Master network. It covers most Motorways and selected major A roads. Alerts are only triggered when average traffic speed drops below 35 mph, so you could well find yourself averaging doing 40 mph on the Mx with the unit happily telling you there is no problem! (And your journey time will still be estimated on 70 mph) again this is no fault of the Sat Nav simply a network limitation.

When it does trigger an alert it is excellent, you get a delay icon up which tells you in minutes and you can ask to avoid it manually or use auto avoidance (default setting). I have turned this off, because all needs is one big delay on your route to re-route you. On a short journey this is fine on a long run the hold up could well be 100 miles ahead and could clear before you get there. Best go manual, touch the icon and the system will display a traffic map and where the hold up in your route, then you can opt to avoid. Avoidance will take you on the next direct route to avoid the jam. Be warned if this is a road that is unmonitored by Traffic Master you could end up on a minor road feeding the original jam.

As was written on the box of my first ever GPS "this is a navigation aid" it has some excellent features to help you get around and avoid jams, but it is limited by the information systems that it uses, and is no substitute for applying your inteligence and experience. This said it has proved to be a very useful tool in helping make those decisions.

If you're planning to buy this (or any other Sat Nav) so that you can switch off your brain and "listen to the voices" you're in for trouble. If you want a good travel and navigation aid this is definately worth putting on your shortlist.