Plug in Travel Guide: Garmin Nuvi-255

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great compact and easy to use GPS

Cons: Makes some wrong turns and has some difficulty between large city buildings.

The Bottom Line: 
I'd recommend the Garmin Nuvi 255 for anyone needing GPS navigation at a relatively cheap price.

Author's Review
The Why's and What My wife and I travel a lot, I MEAN A LOT, so when our 5 year wedding anniversary crept up a GPS unit was a logical gift choice. My In-Laws caught one on sale and purchased the Garmin Nuvi 255 for North America(SKU-010-00717-20), a nice sized car unit GPS(unit specs are 3.9"W x 2.9"H x .8"D weight is listed as 5.2 ounces) to serve as our guide. 200 dollars, a week through the Canadian and U.S. postal systems, we were able to kiss RandMcnally and Mapquest directions good bye(well not really,but we definitely lessened the relatonship down to a passing acquaintance).

Screen Size/Resolution and Input The screen measures 2.8 inches wide, 2.1 inches high and 3.5 inches diagnally. Resolution is given as 320x240 pixels on a QVGA anti-glare TFT with white back light. In other words, it's easy to see in all kinds of light(unless you're blind of course, but then again if you are, you wouldn't be reading this review and hopefully, NOT DRIVING! :) ). The screen also serves as the units user interface/input as a touch screen(besides the on/off switch there are no other buttons).

The Garmin Nuvi 255 also has options to use a MicroSD Card to upload custom routes, pictures or Garmin Travel-guides(features I have NOT as of yet, used so I have no comment other than to note that they are available). Also, the unit itself plugs into a usb port on your computer, for map updates and so that you can update the "vehicle" that appears on the nagivation map through Garmin's free http://www8.garmin.com/vehicles/.

Accessories It Comes With What's provided with the unit, itself, are a power-cord that plugs into the lighter plug or similar out-let in your car(plugs into the same place as the USB cord-not included), a suction cup mount and clip, as well as a disc with sticky backing to put on the dash-board to provide a better surface for the suction mount. The unit itself also has a built in rechargeable lithium ion battery, which websites list should provide about 4 hours of power when the unit's not plugged in(have not verified the actual time, yet).

Navigation In order for you to set your destination, the "Where to" function has a variety of options so you can either type in the address/city/state/province/country you're traveling too, locate points of interests(by spelling name, or selecting from a catergory such as food, fuel, transit, lodging, shopping, bank/atm, parking, eintertainment, recreation, attractions, hospitals, community and auto services). You can set it so that the unit searches for either locations near you OR a different city that you want it to search near. If you need to navigate to a specific point and you have the coordinates, you also have the option of setting your destination using the coordinates feature under the where to menu. Maps of North America and thousands of way-points ARE pre-loaded(over 1000 waypoints pre-loaded into the GPS's database).

If you're planning on making a lot of stops on your trip, the unit lets set multiple way-points. So let us say you're driving from Florida to Niagara Falls, Ontario(long drive, right? Right), you're going to need at minimum a few stops for gas, more than likely a over-night stay at a motel and something to eat a long the way. Before you get going, plan out your trip a little and pick gas stations, motels and restaurants at the interval that suits your needs and get step by step directions and make your trip smooth(or as relatively smooth as a road trip that long can be!).

Don't want to look at the GPS unit, or, on the flip-side can't stand to hear a voice talking to you? The unit provides text to speech that prompts you when you are approaching a turn or your destination and it also provides on screen text prompts. If you click on the top of the screen where the text prompts are, it'll also give you a list of directions and the mileage/feet left until each turn coming up.

Other Tools Navigation isn't the only thing Garmin Nuvi offers. Other software includes a world clock and map(map shows which parts of the world are currently at night and which are currently in the daytime), the clock tells you the time of 3 major cities as default(mine shows Tokyo(5:50am as of this writing),London(8:50pm as of this writing) and New York(3:50pm as of this writing). Clicking on any of the cities shown, will give you a prompt so that you can enter and find the time of any city in the world.

There's also a calculator(just in case you're as bad at math as I am and need to do some quick calculations without digging through the glove compartment), a Unit Converter which lets you convert between the U.S. system of measurement and the metric system. In the converter, it allows you to convert Area, Currency, Distance, Speed, Temperature, Volume and weight. For the conversions that are time sensitive(currency) the unit allows you to input current data manually and save it(not too sure if it updates through satellites or not when connected- will update this if/when I find out for sure).

For some fun, there's a picture viewer which comes pre-loaded with some pictures and you can also upload your own. The picture viewer lets you scroll through the pictures individually(thumbnails are provided that you can scroll through and then pick the one you want to see closer), set a slide show that goes through all the pictures on the unit and lets you select a photo to be displayed when the unit is started up. If you get lost frequently(like I tend to do, you know, absent mindedness and all), you can use the Where Am I? function, which displays the longitude and latitude of your location, the current elevation of your location, the nearest address and nearest interesection, additional options will let you view the nearest hospitals, police stations and fuel to your current locations.

On the navigation map itself a Spedometer tells you the speed your vehicle is traveling and often times, it'll show the set speed limit for the road you're on so you can determine if you're going over the speed limit or not(not always provided and sometimes the speed limit changes, it is UP TO YOU to know the speed of the road you're on via road-signs). In addition to the speed the unit also provides an estimated time of arrival, based upon the distance, the set speeds of the road, the current time, the speed you're actually traveling and the stops that you make a long the way.

A lot of technical crap, but how do I like the unit itself? Since getting the GPS around April/May, my wife and I have used it almost religiously. Whether it's trips into Philadelphia, Ocean City New Jersey or the greater trips up north to Canada, you can bet that this guy is likely riding shot-gun with us. It is certainly better than depending on printed directions from Rand Mcnally and the dynamic ability to set alternate routes(just in case of backed up traffic, closed streets...etc..etc), find parking near you, restaurants, gas and other necessities is a definite help to our extensive traveling.

However, the GPS isn't infallible and sometimes it has left us for wanting(as any GPS would). It has sent us around in circles to closed gas stations and sometimes has prompted us to turn where there were no roads(of course we didn't, but you know). Also, when driving in cities, it has a little trouble picking up the current location and gets kind of "confused" which has lead us to missing turns while the receiver tried to pick the location and where to turn next. Center city Philadelphia is particularly trouble-some for the GPS, though all other areas around city are fine.

In other areas, where there are a lot of inter-twining roads, it might prompt you to turn and change lanes "too fast" for you to actually get into the lane you need, thus causing you to miss your turn. So getting a little familiarity with the route it has set out before heading out on your trip, maybe advisable. One thing I must say is, the recalculating feature does so pretty much automatically and very quickly, allowing for quick alternate routes should you miss the turn that you needed.

Over all, the Garmin Nuvi has been above satisfactory for my wife and I, as we've used it to travel much of the North Eastern states(New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware). It's also been our travel buddy through Ontario(from Niagara Falls, Toronto on up to and past North Bay) for several trips. Despite the few challenges I've mentioned above, we've never gotten lost, or at least truly lost. Any mistakes we've made at the hands of the GPS, the GPS also rectifies relatively fast.

What Can Be Improved As far as I'm concerned, not much. Then again, I'm not a GPS expert, so (shrugs). It must be noted however, that the Nuvi 255 is pretty much meant as a GPS only(all the other extras aside), if you want extras such as blue tooth capability(for hands free capability on your phone) and mp3 playback ability, this is NOT the gps for you. This unit also does not provide the ability to use speech commands as some models do. If you have have no need for any of these, this model is the perfect option as it is relatively cheap and very easy to use(me, I have all of these, my wife provides hands free phone operation, obeys speech commands :) and my car has a cd mp3 player). Anything that can be improved on this guy, can be improved through a map update(which I believe the first is free through Garmin's website).

I'd Recommend.. This model for anyone needing a reliable GPS. For protection, my wife and I chose a Speck rubber "glove" with belt clip. I'd not recommend using the speck belt clip to carry the unit as it detaches far too easily from the unit(is separate from the rubber grip). The belt clip is necessary to hook up the unit to the units provided mount clip, so it is still necessary to attach the belt clip to the unit when using the rubber protector, however.