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Garmin nüvi 680 Automobile Navigator

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20 User Reviews

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• Reviewed by: maui65

  Updated: 11-26-08

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: Size of display, portability, text to speech, mapping, ease of use, MSN... the list goes on and on

  Weaknesses: I haven't really found any yet

  Overall Evaluation: I purchased the Nuvi 680 after lots of research. I was looking for an affordable, text to speech, GPS device for a trip out of town after Christmas. I am so pleased with this product. It worked right out of the box and came loaded with the 2008 maps. The MSN feature is nice as it alerts for traffic and weather. For non-techies, it's simple to use but has enough bells and whistles for those looking for that little bit more. I've been using it around town to get the feel for it the past few weeks and it taught me a shortcut home that I didn't know existed (after living in my neighborhood for 8 years). It has made some left turn, right turn mistakes but the display has been correct and the speech has been incorrect in those few instances. It seems to get a bit confused when 2 roads, running parallel, are too close together. If that's all I have to complain about, then I am one happy customer. Thank you for making a sophisticated toy for this overworked mom.

• Reviewed by: menako

  Updated: 06-11-08

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:2 Months

  Strengths: Robust and solid, very easy to use. Intutitive!

  Weaknesses: The MSN Service was found a bit lame. When we travelled to larger cities that had the MSN service supported. We found it marginal at best for what it could/promise to deliver.

  Overall Evaluation: Easy to follow and setup directions. Going to the Garmin Internet web-site was easy. Downloading updates for maps and additional languages were a snap. We would purchase additional Garmin products again.

• Reviewed by: uriredlich

  Updated: 02-28-08

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:25 Days

  Strengths: work great

  Weaknesses: didn't see any

  Overall Evaluation: must have in in the car for going anywhere traffic report is very helpful directions is very clear can't get lost with the nuvi 680 any child can program the easy step by step directions

• Reviewed by: cnvrtble98

  Updated: 01-17-08

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: Acquires signal quickly, bright & detailed display, decent battery life, re-calculates routes very fast!, mp3 player, traffic/weather/gas prices/movie times is a great thing to have! Comes with a case

  Weaknesses: Text-to-speech voices are too robotic, you have to flip up the antenna (though it helps preserve battery life if you are not using the GPS mode)

  Overall Evaluation: This thing does everything you could want it to do in my opinion. I have it hooked up to my car audio system through an aux-in jack on my stereo and use it as an MP3 player...its easy to load it with songs with the 4gb SD card I put in it. The screen is excellent and much more detailed than any other brand of GPS I have seen and I did ALOT of research and comparing of models before purchasing this! You can load other vehicle icons from Garmin's website which is pretty cool. The MSN content has been very useful to me and I can see where gas is cheapest wherever I may be and I can find movie times and theaters at ease! I don't live in an area where I catch alot of traffic but it has alerted me to traffic ties-ups and asked if I wanted to be directed around it which is a nice feature. Another great feature that Garmin has ad most others DO NOT is that it tells you which side of the road your destination is on which I find to be very helpful in an unfamiliar area where there are three lanes of traffic. Knowing which side of the road you need to be on saves you from those last minute lane jumps!This is the unit to get if you want a great GPS with some extra features!

• Reviewed by: TheHobbit

  Updated: 01-02-08

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: Large 4.3 Inch Widescreen Bluetooth portable GPS Unit!!! MP3 player as well!!!

  Weaknesses: Weak FM transmitter

  Overall Evaluation: This GPS is accurate in bringing you from Point A to Point B. Pairing my bluetooth phone with this GPS is a breeze. I'm able to receive and make calls flawlessly. It also has phone numbers of business establishments. Once you look for a place, for example a pizza place, you can call ahead using your GPS while enroute to it and order for takeout. The screen is huge and bright. I haven't tried the MSN direct feature though.

• Reviewed by: sredbeard

  Updated: 12-23-07

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Easy to learn and use. Good screen and images.

  Weaknesses: Somethings on it I will never use.

  Overall Evaluation: This is my first GPS, I'm glad it's a garmin. It does everything I've asked it to do and in some instances, more. If it continues to operate like this, I will have many trouble free miles ahead of me.

• Reviewed by: sam19777

  Updated: 11-13-07

  Overall Rating: 2 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:3 Weeks

  Strengths: FM transmitter, big screen

  Weaknesses: weak reception, rediculous nevigation

  Overall Evaluation: I don't recommend this unit at all. I start to know Garmin since I bought my C320. That is a pretty good unit. Everything runs smooth and the instruction is correct except with some errors at the intersection of a bunch of freeways.But this 680 really sucks. I pay so much for it because I thought it might give me better instruction. But I am so dispointed with its performance. It always give me some rediculous instruction. The most serious problem for this unit is that when you drive straight on a little curved street, it tells you to turn left and then turn right at some intersection. Actually you don't need to make any turns and just need to drive straightly. If you follow the instruction, you will be on the wrong way. Or you might involved in an accident if you turn left really quick and then switch to turn right. Also,sometimes it doesn't bring me to the right exit on the freeway but bring me to the next exit and come back from the other side of the freeway. How ridiculous ! I try to switch the setting form "faster time" to "shortest distance", but it doesn't work. This might be caused by the new 2008 map or the change of navigation calculating rule since I don't have any problem with the C320.If you don't trust what I said you can buy it from a place which could be returned later. Test it for a few days and you will know what I am talking about.

• Reviewed by: gforce23

  Updated: 11-02-07

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Beautiful 4.3" wide-screen LCD, SIRF StarIII chipset, top grade routing engine, the integrated power cable and MSN receiver, MSN Direct, the usual Garmin stability

  Weaknesses: Not as solidly built as one would imagine, bland design compared to GPS units from other manufacturers, MSN Direct

  Overall Evaluation: I've been a long-time user of GPS units and this is certainly one of the best I've ever used. Upon switching on the device for the first time, you are immediately greeted with a large and super bright LCD. The screen literally dwarfs the LCDs found in lesser units, such as the nuvi 350 or the TomTom One. The flip-up antenna coupled with the excellent (but aging? More on that later) SIRF StarIII chipset results in top notch performance in the area that matters the most, routing and navigation. The integrated power cable and MSN receiver provides a simple solution to wires running all over the place. I hooked it up to a cigarette adapter port inside the center arm-rest and coiled up the rest of the cable. Rounding up the exterior, it seems the body shell isn't the strongest in the world and would crack were it not for the better than average suction cup. While the cup itself is pretty elegant, the suction mechanism seems to "pop" out during spirited driving. Imagine a 500 dollar GPS dropping into your lap while cornering at high speed. This is precisely why I switched to Garmin's bubble or friction mount which has been far better than I expected. Garmin's top notch UI is so easy, even a caveman could master it in a few minutes. However, I strongly feel they should provide a firmware update that'd change the current UI to the one found on their latest devices, the nuvi 7xx and 2xx. The only reason why most people consider buying a Nuvi 680 is MSN Direct's enhanced services, which include traffic and weather updates, gas prices and movie listings. While the weather updates and movie listings were accurate for the most part, gas prices and traffic services aren't upto the mark. Even though all the major gas stations in Atlanta are covered, the prices are often 2 or even 3 days old. The MSN Direct web site mentions they collect gas prices by observing credit card transactions at gas pumps around the country. If they can do this bit, why can't they go one step further and collect gas prices for transactions occurring on the same day? I've started using the gas price list as a rough guide to the cheapest pumps around me. However, one can only guess the actual price at that pump today. Traffic updates is the most important feature on the 680 and I'm sorry to say, while it is definitely impressive, the actual "updates" either take far too long to reach the device or are completely off the mark in terms of delay times. Almost every delay mentioned on the MSN traffic screen starts off as a "1 minute delay, x miles ahead". Upon getting to that spot, you are usually greeted with one of two scenarios: no traffic at all or a mind-boggling traffic jam. I've yet to see an actual "1 minute delay" traffic jam. Another pet peeve of mine is that it doesn't route you around the traffic jam if there's a single "one minute delay" on your planned route, even if that jam might be the biggest traffic pile up in the history of mankind, the result being that I end up with a decision based on my own instinct. Other features on the 680 are more of marketing crap rather than truly useful features if you ask me. The MP3 player, audiobook reader, dictionaries and other applications are best suited for laptops or PDAs. I would rather see a solution to integrate my iPod than fill a puny 1 or 2 gigs worth of music on an SD card. Overall, the Nuvi 680 is the one of the most feature packed GPS units on the market and with prices of such devices falling faster than gravity, it's only a matter of time before the 680 presents itself as a value for money device. At the moment however, unless you really want traffic updates and gas prices, your money is better spent elsewhere. Movie listings and weather updates are just tacky add-ons since they have no value in daily commute cycles. My next purchase will probably be a nuvi 760, assuming I can get my hands on one.

• Reviewed by: casstom

  Updated: 09-01-07

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:3 Days

  Strengths: the size of the screen and ease of reading

  Weaknesses: none that we can see

  Overall Evaluation: we checked carefully before making this selection. we are not disappointed. this gps will be very helpful to us as we travel up to the north. It is worth the money. the product is very reliable

• Reviewed by:

  Updated: 06-24-07

  Overall Rating: 3 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  Strengths: Excellent screen, navigation, and integration of music and phone calls.

  Weaknesses: MSN Direct coverage is spotty even within supposedly covered areas. Traffic data is unreliable, even when MSN Direct works. No way to tell unit to avoid particular roads or areas.

  Overall Evaluation: Garmin is a great brand, but the inclusion of MSN Direct on this model gives the unit the "taint" of typical Microsoft unreliability. I live in New York City, and even in the heart of supposedly full MSN Direct coverage, the Nuvi is often unable to get a signal. When the MSN Direct does come in, the data is very often unreliable, particularly on weekends. I have been routed directly into major traffic, when alternate routes existed. This is a major disappointment for me as the traffic was the main reason I spent so much on this unit.I have been in communication with Garmin about the MSN Direct problems, and they have been generally professional. I am currently waiting for a replacement MSN Direct receiver to see if this helps with my reception problems. But judging from comments I've seen from other Nuvi 680 users in the New York area, I doubt that this will actually help.Apart from the MSN Direct problems, the unit is very good. Although I am accustomed to a couple of features in my previous Garmin software (Garmin XT with the GPS 10 unit) that are surprisingly unavailable on the Nuvi 680. In particular, there is no way to tell the Nuvi 680 to always avoid a particular road. This is very frustrating and odd, since the avoidance feature existed in "lesser" software, and particularly in New York City there are certain roads that I never want to use due to congestion/road conditions/etc.Also, when the unit is routing, there is a Detour button, but it is unclear what pressing this button accomplishes. It seems to simply avoid the next turn in the current route. It's strange that there is no way to select a particular turn or leg of the trip to avoid (perhaps further away along the route), as was possible using Garmin XT.The clarity and simplicity of the unit make it very elegant indeed. But in streamlining the software, it seems that the user is now cut out of making some choices which would be very helpful in the long run.The main feature that I LOVE about the Nuvi 680 is the integration of all audio activity in the car. I can play MP3's, which will pause when directions are given, and then automatically resume playing. Plus, when a phone call comes in on my bluetooth connected Treo, the speakerphone feature on the Nuvi 680 is unsurpassed. And once the call is ended, the music resumes along with the directions. Very slick!I would caution that the internal FM transmitter is so weak as to be unusable. I ended up installing an auxiliary audio jack in my car, and plugging the Nuvi 680 headphone output into that. The sound is excellent with this setup, and the speakerphone still works beautifully, with even more clarity since it is coming through the car audio system.

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