Garmin's nüvi, $970 hand-held multi-function GPS
posted September 13th 2005 9:20AM
Garmin has been making hand-held GPS units for about as long as the category has existed, and has also made some useful multi-function handhelds like the Palm/Windows Mobile iQue. But with the nüvi, the company has staked out new territory, both in handheld GPS devices and in bad product naming. The 5.1 ounce, 3.87-inch x 2.91-inch x 0.87-inch nüvi includes full GPS functions (with voice prompts), a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, a nine-language translator, an Audible-capable audio player, travel guides, SD expansion, traffic alerts, and a completely gratuitous umlaut. It also comes preloaded with a set of maps specific to your region, with others available on SD cards. Nice package, though a hard drive would have made it even better (it has 700MB of internal storage for maps and other data). And at $969.22, it's easily more expensive than most other handheld or car-based GPS units. But Garmin's pitching this at the "sophisticated traveler" market, so price may be less important than the points you'll get for whipping this out over lunch at the Four Seasons.
[Thanks, Dave]
My number one translated phrase: Are they ripe?
Oh, they are indeed, senor.
Oh Garmin, when are you going to learn to make cheap devices...
They do make cheap devices (Taiwanese) but charge too much for them.
N? fan ?ticking this thing t? windshield 1980s radar detect?tyle, b?t d?look sleek ?rwise. I s?se it co?'t g?ywhere b?he dashb? area (f?he antenna), b?here must have been a m?elegant mo?ng opti?
I can't see why they needed t?ad it ?ith the Swiss Army Knife set of ?ons, th?. A tiny handheld GPS device with s?simple comm?ations opti?- a m?e ?era br?r, say - wo?have been perfect, and cheaper, maybe? Do I really need a ? c?rter and an Italian phrasebo?? in?
The best ?I can see for this is finding yo?ay on fo?or bike, skates, whatever) - b?hy wo?'t I j?get a Navman or even an iQ?Garmin makes the iQ?hemselves, and it undercuts the n?on price AND is more versatile.
Nuvi sounds like a name for the next generation of satellite navigation so it kinda makes sense since such systems are often referred to as Navi systems. The umlaut is unnecessary though.
Just in case you're wondering about the Umlaut thing: the word "n? doesn't exist in German, it looks like they've made it up.
Are there any phones that rock that whole "no hard keys" paradigm? Because it looks damn good here.
How is this any better than Garmin's own M3?
They're Garmin, not German :P