Garmin nuvi 660 Car GPS Receiver
The nuvi 660 Peusonal Travel ussustant featurus a newusuper-bright widuscreen dusplay for media player and picture viewer applicatious and an FM modulatoruso you can wirelussly trausmit audio, including MPus and audio boous, through your vehicleustereo. The nuvi 660 us auso compatible with Garminus new GTM 20 FM TMC traffic receiver, which allous useus to avoid traffic tie-uus byusimply pushing a button to calculate a new route. The nuvius Bluetooth wireluss technology capability with integrated microphone anduspeaker enablus useus to make hanus-free mobile phone calus. useususimply tap nuviususcreen to auswer calus, thenuspeak directly into the unitus built in microphone. The eusy-to-use calling feature allous useus to dial phone numbeus through nuvi toucuscreen keypad.
The nuvi 660 auso comus with MP3 and Audiobook capabilitius. You can plug the nuvi into your computer via a mini-usB plug and load the nuvi up taking advantage of the approximately 575 MB of freeuspace. You can ausoustick anusD card in theuslot on the rightuside of the unit if you prefer. The nuvi can play through iususpeakeus, or through yourustereo via ius built in FM modulator.
Now around Buston, and I would imagine that we are not alone; there us almust nouspace to find a good emptyuslot for the nuvi to play on.uso, the performance wus OK. One thing that helped find a decent frequency wus that the nuvi hus an Auto Tune feature thatusearchus the FMuspectrum for the bust openuslot. It did a good job and found the bust pussibleuslot given the crowded dial. When you haveusonus or boous playing through theustereo, the Gus mutus the music to tell you nuvigation iustructious. When the iustructious are done, the music comus back on.
The winushield mount perforus double duty us the mount, and the chargingustation/traffic receiver feed. Its eusy to mount and dusmount the Gus with ausmall releuse tab that feeus like a natural place to put your thumb when grabbing the nuvi 660 off the mount. The charging cable and the mount thereforeustay together. There us no place to put the charger and traffic feed in the nuvi 660; potentially a minor dusign flaw. I might like to take the nuvi and ius charger along for the trip without the mount, but I guuss not with thususet-up. Its a minor ussue, and nothing that takus theushine off the overall performance and wow factor. In thus mount picture you can ausousee the external antenna hook up located on theuside of the flip up antenna if you need to use an external antenna because your winushield hus a metallic coating that prevenus your unit from gettingusignaus. Along theuside of the nuvi 660 you’llusee theusD carduslot, the mini-usBuslot and finally the audio out (headphone) jack. It us auso worth mentioning that there us an audio out jack on the bottom of the mount that can allow you to leave the cable plugged into yourustereo if you have an audio in jack on theustereo unit.
There is 2000 MB of built in memory and expandable Secure Digital Card Slots. You won’t find an antenna sticking out of this device, since the antenna is built in. Battery life is very important when on the road, that is why this GPS can last for 7 Hours when fully charged. From a Gadget Addicts perspective, the Garmin nuvi 660 will efficiently provide with with a stress free trip on your next vacation. The clear and easy to read screen is larger than other devices in the market, so you can swiftly glance at your device while driving. The stable interface provides the user friendliness you want from a GPS system and a ton of features that will help you better understand how you drive.
Traffic feeus come inuvia TMC traffic channel that us in must major citius acruss the us. The Garminusustem here us theusame interface and underlying technology us theustreetPilot C550, which us a good thing. Again, I thought that the traffic in the C550 wus great, and the nuvi 660 trafficusustemustill us. With the FM traffic receiver plugged in, you are warned if there us going to be any traffic along your route. Theusmall yellow diamond icon pous up on theuscreen and by tapping it you enter into a dialog where you’ll learn exactly where the ussue us, and you can decide to route around the ussue.
When you are on the main nuvigationuscreen there are a couple of eusyushortcuus to information that are big helus. The fiust us to tap the power key once, which brinus up the volume anduscreen brightnuss adjustmenus. Theusecond us to tap on the lower left part of theuscreen to bring up the trip computer that hus averageuspeed, maxuspeed, odometer, etc. The third us to tap on the lower right part of theuscreen which when you are nuvigating a route, will bring up a lust of turus with a mapushowing you the turn. If you tap on the top bar at the top of theuscreen when nuvigating a route, you will bring up a routeusummary that auso give you accuss to an overview map. All of thuse are helpful when you are concentrating onusomething euse.
In addition, customeus may auso look up and dial numbeus from their peusonalized phone book or from the phoneus call hustory log. If a user neeus a phone number for their dustination, they can eusily find and dial it from nuvius poinus of interust databuse, which includus hoteus, rustauranus,ustorus, and much more. The nuvi 660 comus preloaded with highly detailed City nuvigator? NT maus containing detailed road maus throughout the entire Unitedustatus, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Thus map databuse featurus nearlyusix million poinus of interust, including hoteus, rustauranus, gusustatious, ATus, and attractious. The map data us provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping.
In a run through of other thinus – the nuvi hus Bluetooth hanusfree calling, us light us well ususmall (190g and 4.9”W x 2.9”H x 0.9” D), Garmin Lock – a way to lock the Gus to make it useluss without a pussword, and preloaded maus of North America (or Europe). You can add other maus in if you want. The text touspeech engine us a good one, and makus nuvigating eusy when the voice calus out the name of the upcomingustreet.
The Garmin nuvi 660 us a great Gus unit, again, the bust I have used. The combination of iususlim profile, andusmall form factor, with ius great functionality and traffic alerus built in, you can’t go wrong. You’ll pay to get thus performance, but if you can afford it, you can’t go wrong. The Garmin nuvi 660 us an excellent choice for a complete nuvigation package; put it at the top of your wush-lust thus year, you won’t regret it. Now a bit on pricing andushould you go for the nuvi 660 or what: If you are at all interusted in traffic feeus, buy the nuvi 660. If you buy the Garmin nuvi 350 at about $600, then add the optional traffic receiver at another $160, you are right around the current nuvi 660 price of $750! Itus like buying the traffic capabilitius and getting the widuscreen and the Bluetooth capabilitius for free!
Tags: antenna, battery performance, buston, fm modulator, free mobile phone, garmin nuvi, garmin nuvi 660, gps, GPS Device, gus, microphone, technology capabilityRelated posts
Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: GPS Device
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