Garmin Nuvi 880
The Garmin Nuvi 880 crams in a number of features, including text-to-speech functionality, MSN Direct services, and Bluetooth, into a compact design. The portable navigation system offers the best and most accurate speech recognition capabilities we’ve seen to date. The bad: The Nuvi 880 is expensive, and route calculations can be sluggish. The bottom line: As we’ve come to expect from the Nuvi line, the Garmin Nuvi 880 offers an impressive feature list and solid performance, but it’s the accurate speech recognition that really pushes the Nuvi 880 over the edge and makes it one of the best GPS we’ve tested to date.
Garmin adds smooth speech recognition to its bestselling line of sleek portable GPS navigators. As with all nüvis, you get a slim, pocket-sized navigator with a gorgeous display, detailed NAVTEQ maps that let you search by name for more than 6 million points of interest like stores, restaurants or hospitals, and an easy, intuitive interface. All of the 800-series navigators also feature a rich array of features including spoken directions in real street names, integrated traffic receivers, MP3 player and photo viewer, and an FM transmitter that will play all the nüvi’s audio, including voice prompts, MP3s, audio books, and more, directly through your vehicle’s stereo system. The top-of-the-line nüvi 880 adds Bluetooth for hands-free phone calls, an integrated traffic receiver and enhanced MSN Direct content with traffic data, reas-time gas prices, movie times and more.
To start planning a trip, whether by using your voice or the touch screen, you can enter a specific address, choose a POI, or select a location from the Recently Found or Favorites list. The Nuvi 880 can store up to 500 favorites/locations. In addition, it supports multidestination trips and you can add waypoints on the fly. You have your choice of three route preferences (faster time, shorter distance, or off-road) and three usage modes (automobile, bicycle, or pedestrian). You can avoid certain road types if you choose, such as toll roads and highways. There’s also a detour function if you want to avoid a certain part of the given route and if you happen to get off track, the Nuvi 880 can do automatic route recalculations. If you don’t need guidance, you can just have the Nuvi track your movements by tapping View Map.
The POI database contains all the major categories (gas stations, lodging, ATMs, restaurants by cuisine type, and so forth) and more specialized interests, including golf courses, gyms, and nightclubs. On top of the preloaded entries, you can add custom POIs, such as safety cameras and school zones. In addition, the Nuvi 880 ships with a three-month complimentary trial to MSN Direct services, which lets you get traffic updates and movie times by title or theater, and searches for nearby gas stations by fuel prices. You can also plan your trip from your PC via Windows Live Local and send it wirelessly to the Nuvi 880 as well as get the latest weather forecast for your area, news, stock prices, and local events. After the three months are up, you’ll have to purchase a subscription plan, which starts at $49.95 for an annual plan or a one-time payment of $129.95. The MSN Direct receiver is built into the car charger, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing an extra accessory.
Maps are available in 2D and 3D view with day and night colors, and you can change it so north is always at the top of your screen or the direction in which you are driving. A plus and minus icon on the map screen lets you zoom in and out, and there’s a trip information page that displays your speed, direction, trip time, and so forth. In addition to the visual aids, you, of course, get voice-guided turn-by-turn directions with text-to-speech functionality. The Nuvi 880 also has a built-in FM transmitter so you can pipe the audio through your car’s stereo for better volume.
Like the more recent Nuvi devices, the Garmin Nuvi 880 has the “Where am I?” feature, which gives you the coordinates of your location, the nearest address, and intersection. It will also list the closest hospitals, police stations, and gas stations to your position, giving you a bit of peace of mind if you’re in unfamiliar territory and need access to any of these services, or if you need to give your location to a tow truck. You’ll be able to call any of these services or other businesses or POI directly from the Nuvi 880 since it has integrated Bluetooth. We’re happy to report that your phone’s address book and call history will automatically synchronize with the GPS for easy data transfer.
The Garmin Nuvi 880 includes a host of other tools that can be useful outside the car. There’s a Travel Kit like that included with other Nuvi models that consists of an MP3 player, an Audible book player, a JPEG picture viewer with a slide show function, a world clock, currency and measurement converters, and a calculator. It also comes loaded with a ton of games, including Solitaire, Sudoku, and Space Shooter.
The Garmin Nuvi 880 has a bronze/gray border around the display, and an all-black plastic case. Except for the power switch on the top of the case, there are no visible controls on the nuvi 880. All operations are performed either via the 4.3″ color touch screen or by voice commands. Say hello to the 880, the newest member of Garmin’s nüvi family. Unlike previous Garmin nuvi models, which had a single speaker located on the rear of the device, the 800-series nuvis have two front-firing speakers, located on the left and right of the LCD display. And when I tell you to say hello, I mean it. The $1,000 nüvi 880 is the first portable GPS product to boast full speech recognition capabilities. It’s true that other devices, such as the Magellan Maestro 4250 and the TomTom GO 920, offer limited speech functionality. But what really sets the nüvi 880 apart is that you can perform almost all of its functions using your voice—in fact, only a few tasks require the touch screen. I found it a truly amazing (albeit expensive) device that works surprisingly well.
Tags: compact design, feature list, fm transmitter, garmin nuvi, GPS Guide, hands free phone, impressive feature, intuitive interface, photo viewer, planning a trip, portable gps navigators, portable navigation system, recognition capabilities, rich array, speech recognition, time gas, traffic dataRelated posts
Posted on July 14th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: GPS Guide
Which GPS System? has personally tested and evaluated all of the leading GPS systems so to give you an easy and simple recommendation of which ones you should choose.
The nüvi 880 is one of Which GPS System?’s top picks with the following review:
The good: The Garmin Nuvi 880 crams in a number of features, including text-to-speech functionality, MSN Direct services, and Bluetooth, into a compact design. The portable navigation system offers the best and most accurate speech recognition capabilities we’ve seen to date.
The bad: The Nuvi 880 is expensive, and route calculations can be sluggish.
The bottom line: As we’ve come to expect from the Nuvi line, the Garmin Nuvi 880 offers an impressive feature list and solid performance, but it’s the accurate speech recognition that really pushes the Nuvi 880 over the edge and makes it one of the best GPS we’ve tested to date.
For more top picks and reviews, please visit http://www.whichgpssystem.com.