I remember reading somewhere that the top three things married couples fight over were money, family, and religion. Well, I’d have to believe the fourth is driving directions. “Where am I going with this?” you ask? Getting a Navigation System does NOT fix this. Instead of hearing things like:
“Do you even know how to read a map?”
“Make an immediate left… (5 second pause) … I meant right!”
“You have a compass in the car!” - “But, I don’t know what it means”
You’ll hear:
“Why didn’t you charge the GPS before we left?!”
“Are you sure you input the address correctly?”
“Why is it making us turn here? I’m ignoring it…”
So, without further ado, I present the Garmin Nuvi 350. Throw away what you thought you knew about satellite navigation systems. This is going to be the next iPod. For starters, the device itself is slightly larger than a deck of playing cards. This means, you can sit it in the change tray of your car, and it will work fine from there. It doesn’t need constant power, like other systems. So, you can take it with you, walking, biking or running. I even took it on the train to work with mw, which is why I now know the train hits a peak speed of 87 MPH. Another feature that makes the Garmin stand out is that its completely touch screen driven. The only hard button is for power or volume. I’ve spent about a month with this little guy and here’s how it rates.

Screen - The screen on the Nuvi is very clear and easy to see. The automatic night mode switches the display to darker colors for night use. The touch screen works quite well and is meant for adult sized fingers, not a stylus or your fingernail. You jsut pick it up and tap away with both thumbs. Any smudges can be wiped away with a cloth. The included leather carrying case protects the Nuvi when not in use.

Interface - The interface was designed with the novice in mind. Anyone can literally pick it up and navigate somewhere right away. It asks you a few first time questions like what time zone you are in, but after that, you’re all set. The operating system itself is responsive and intelligently laid out. I do prefer the option of a QWERTY style keyboard screen, but it’s a minor gripe. The address input screen is just A to Z tiled across the screen. From the map screen you can quickly jump to your current Trip computer (Speed, Odometer, etc) or review the complete trip in advance. Backing out of these modes returns you to the current navigation screen. Backing out all the way to the main menu lets you go into more advanced features, but continues to keep you on track unless you press the red STOP button or the orange Detour button, which will recalculate your route in case of a road closure or accident. I would also like to see a feature where you can edit any part of a mistyped address. Right now, you can’t move the cursor, you either erase back to the typo, or you start over.

Reception - The reception is a double edged sword for me. Once you get the signal, it is solid. You can toss the nuvi around the car, and it will continue to obtain signal, even if its directly in the center of the vehicle. Even going through tunnels, the Nuvi quickly regains its position. Taking it indoors or moving it from its last “known” position is a different story. It could take minutes, yes minutes, to regain the signal. It starts drilling you once it realizes something is amiss. Going from “Lost Satellite reception” to “Are you indoors?” then “Have you moved more than 100km since you last used the GPS?” It’s really quite funny, but I assume it has some memory of which satellites it was using and where it should find them again. My advice is make sure the GPS is locked in before driving into unknown territory. Oh, and if the signal displays 1 red bar, it means NO signal, not Low signal, so don’t get any false hopes. No bars should equal no signal, and maybe Garmin will realize this on future models.

Battery - I have not seen the 4-8 hours Garmin claims on the device. Maybe 3-4 typically, but I’ve probably been tinkering with it more than normal during my first few weeks with it. Which is why you should bring the charger with you! The nuvi charges off the USB connector, good! Any other USB charger but theirs wont work, bad! The battery signal meter on the main menu is not always accurate, and the device doesn’t have a “Low battery warning” I’ve had it just shut off on me a few times because the little guy just couldn’t go anymore. So, if I weren’t paying attention, I might have ended up in Florida. It should at least say “Low battery, GPS shutting down now.” Additionally it would be nice to see the battery/signal strength on some sort of status bar on top of the map screen. Currently the map fills the whole screen, to see anything more than 2 pieces of info on bottom requires you to back out to the other menus.

Features - On top of being an exceptional GPS, the device also plays MP3’s. You can stream a whole bunch of MP3’s either from the device memory (Mine is showing 838 MB free right now) or from an added SD Card. The line out on the device means you can plug it into an aux jack on your car, listen to MP3’s and have the MP3’s pause for directions, then resume. Very cool. I do wish I had the option to mute or lower the volume when directions are spoken, but they probably opted to have the audio pause because the device will also read audiobooks. Additionally, there is a JPG picture viewer, a translator, currency converter and more. I would have liked a video player as well, but I’m asking a lot. The MP3 player is decent at best. There are no adjustments you can make to the audio and it sounds a bit muffled at times.

Price - The device currently sells at a street price of $650-$800. This is not bad! Consider the advantage over a “Fixed” GPS system. You can take this one from car to car, even in a friends car. It cost’s much less than dealer installed systems which typically cost thousands. It works just as well if not better than the car based tracking systems, plus its easier to update.

Conclusion - This review was based on version 3.20 of the software. Garmin has been releasing updates quite frequently it seems, so be sure to update to the latest version. Plug the Nuvi into an available USB port and the drive with the software appears. Updates are painless, but will wipe user memory. Some additional features I’d like to see on future models are:
- Synchronization with Outlook Contacts for addresses
- Physical volume dial
- SD/USB slots moved to the other side of the unit. Right handed users will typically slide the Nuvi into its case from the same side the card is on, risking ejecting the card or having the open USB port exposed.