Garmin Garmin StreetPilot i3 GPS Portable Car Navigation Y

Reviewed by: JBParadiso

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Very intuitive to use. Great value. Easy to read day or night.

Weaknesses: Pretty short battery life. Suction cup mounting is problematic.

Overall Evaluation: Even though the StreetPilot i3 does not come with preloaded maps as do many of the more expensive GPS's, I don't expect that this will be a problem for the greatest majority of users. I downloaded maps of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington in about 15 minutes, and that should take care of all of my driving needs for a very long time. The system DOES come with maps of the other 43 contiguous states, so if I have the urge to drive to Texas, I can still download the information to the GPS. Programming the unit is easy, albeit a little cumbersome. The touch screen units would probably be easier, but also more expensive. I have found this unit to be very accurate thus far, even when trying to locate some fairly obscure businesses in Portland. It has a real hard time with tall buildings in the city, but I would imagine that to be true for most units without external antennas. It's a little slow locating the satellites when first turned on, but the delay is bearable. Battery life (requires 2 AA batteries) is pretty short (about 2 hours) so I would recommend using the included DC adapter whenever possible. Garmin realy needs to do something with the suction cup mounting. This has been a consistent complaint in all of the reviews I read before purchase, and they weren't exagerations. You can get it to stick, but you have to "baby" it. In spite of some shortcomings, I have found this to be a great unit and a great bargain, and I would purchase it again. Highly recommended for first time users.