Garmin nuvi 760 reviewed

The nuvi line has proven to be a big seller for Garmin -- we know half a dozen people who own a 300-series alone -- so expectations are obviously pretty high for the newest flagship device in the family, the 760. Luckily for nuvi diehards, the company has done just about everything right here, according to GPS Review, packing the 4.3-inch widescreen unit with nearly every bell and whistle you could possibly want in a PND while still maintaining the ease-of-use Garmins are known for. Specifically, you're getting pre-installed maps of North America, cellphone integration via Bluetooth, FM transmitter, text-to-speech, MP3 playback, and a cleverly designed traffic antenna built into the power cord that's capable of connecting to Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network. Apparently the biggest improvements over the 600-series are screen brightness, a "last position" feature to figure out where you parked, and a new routing function that lets you plot out a multi-stop trip or determine the best order in which to hit multiple destinations. Quibbles here are relatively minor -- wonky re-routing, too-late voice prompts -- and it seems the biggest barrier to purchase with the 760 is its price: at between $700 and $800, it costs quite a bit more than other models with nearly the same feature set.

[fgpx78 @ Oct 22nd 2007 5:19AM]

so...it's useless, keep on trying garmin!

[revdrtomb @ May 6th 2008 8:04PM]

What a useless comment. If you're going to offer something to this conversation, do so in a helpful, conscientious way. Otherwise, you have no business contributing.

[cordite @ Oct 22nd 2007 6:46AM]

Though their website lists Mac os support, Garmin's track record for support in software for anything but Windows is lacking. I bought one of their runner's gps units and was content to either log my data manually from the screen or use one of the workaround hacks for Linux and Mac. Just over a year later after many promises the company finally saw some light and squeezed out some software. Tom Tom had all users covered. Though they only make car and motorcycle gps units the barrier to entry was significantly less than Garmin for me. That and the fact that all those useless bells and whistles drive the price up and don't make the device any better. Get a Tom Tom One 3rd Ed. You won't be sorry.

[Goatweed @ Oct 22nd 2007 10:42AM]

The one thing I would like to see these GPS units allow for is saving a route as you took it - meaning if you deviated from the suggested course, allow the unit to save that route in case you decide to go that way again. Many times the course the unit suggests is not nearly the best one, especially when it diverts you off a highway onto a route to save you 20 minutes when in fact that route has enough traffic lights and normal congestion to add 40 minutes to your trip - and if you don't really know where you're going, this proves to be annoying.

[Reikon @ Oct 22nd 2007 12:09PM]

"Quibbles here are relatively minor -- wonky re-routing, too-late voice prompts"

The minor dings are to what's most important in a GPS, navigation?

[rajdude @ Jan 18th 2008 9:11AM]

100% correct! I really wonder why he calls it minor. Also:

Garmins fail on really basic functionality!

I don’t get it! This GPS (and for that matter all Garmin GPSes) fail miserably on the very basic thing a GPS is supposed to do and all these reviewers go ga-ga over them! Why?



Don’t believe me or like what I am saying?


OK…imagine this:

You have told the Garmin to navigate to somewhere. It has plotted a route and you are on your way. How do you know which way you have to turn next, right or left?
You look at the screen….nothing! Yeah it says turn in xx miles. But which way?


Sure you can click the top of the screen to get full details but why omit this essential arrow? The screen has plenty of space!


Another fatal flaw – Voice prompts are way too late!

This is not just my observation, just google it. You will find hundreds of pages mentioning about this problem.

Again, imagine this scenario:
You are barreling down a crowded 6 lane highway at 70MPH and a split is coming up. You wanna know which side of the road you should stay on so that you take the correct turn. You look at the screen…of course nothing! (see above) Then you calm yourself by thinking, “ok this thing is going to tell me”….you wait. The turn is 2 miles away…………silence………now the turn is 1.5 miles away…….everyone around you is changing lanes and trying to get into the correct lane……but you?.....listening to silence………you start sweating……..1 mile!........nothing…… silence!!....you are really frustrated now……..0.7 miles before the GPS FINALLY says “left turn in 0.7 miles”. Ooops ! But you are in the right lane. The split is coming up fast. You have seconds to go to the correct lane, but there are 8 lanes on the highway now. You have to go across 3 or 4 lanes in seconds. Man! You are toast! This can easily get you in an accident, I know because I almost got into an accident the other day.

Here is a similar situation:

You are in a 40mph 4 lane suburban road ….your turn is coming up. This thing will tell you like, 0.5 miles before the turn! And then right at the turn! That night I almost skidded off the road when this thing told me at the last moment that the turn is here.


Of course people will say this is user error but I’m not a novice. I am a power user of GPS. I have been using them for 5-6 years now. Most other GPSes tell you the next turn right on the screen with a simple arrow. Good ones start alerting you 2 miles before the turn comes. Then once at 1 mile, then again at 500 yards and then once again at the turn. But this one…only once before the turn and that too ……way too late!



Yeah some reviewers call this good feature “Too chatty”, yeah right!


I talked to Garmin about this flaw and basically the answer I got was the same answer others get…..they don’t care. Needless to say My Garmin 660 is going back to the store.


One last thing….it is missing an indication of the N direction on the screen. That is useful and is included by most other GPSes.



Pros:

Good interface.
Stable functionality.
Lots of features
Traffic data is awesome! You have to experience it to believe it


Cons:

Missing the very basic navigation guidance features.
Poor traffic info reception, the antenna design could be better/incorporated into the unit.
Suction mount keeps falling off.
FM Radio transmitter is very weak


Bottom Line:

Missing Turn direction and late Navigation prompts are fatal flaws in an otherwise awesome product.
I will NOT recommend any Garmin GPS until they fix these problems.

[Jack @ Oct 22nd 2007 1:26PM]

What a minimalistic review...

Besides the great improvement in the design compared to the nüvi 600-series, the extra route function is somewhat more interesting then mentioned in the review. Now you can download or create your own (touristic) route and add up to 99 'via points' in your current route. You can change these extra points in whatever way you like or let the nüvi recalculate it into the most efficient route.

Besides the fact that map display is improved compared to the 600-series and (finally!) there's also a QWERTY function!

The 'where am I' position is also new and quite nice, and (at least in Europe) we can now see the current speed limit on the road you're driving on. This also wans't available on the other nüvi's.

It also has a 'last position' function, where it will automatically remember the last position where it's taken out of the car (so you can always find your car back). This function can help a lot of people! ;-)

Add that to the fact that every 700 model has a built in FM transmitter and traffic receiver, I think it's worth a try! !

[Jack @ Oct 22nd 2007 1:42PM]

@ Goatweed

I forgot to mention that! The 760 also has a "track function" that wil leave a trail on your screen of where the device has been. So you can always see your trail wherever you've been!

You can load this trail into your computer and then save it as a route.

Another nice function of this, is that with the Garmin MapSource software, you can also take a look at your trail in Google Earth!

[Farrukh Siddiqi @ Jun 15th 2008 12:22PM]

Hi,


Can you tell me how can you save your trail as "track" in Garmin Nuvi 760 GPS to your mapSource Data and re-use it by loading it back on to the GPS

Thanks for your thoughts

Farrukh

[PEZ @ Oct 22nd 2007 6:03PM]

If I am paying for voice alerts, they better not be WONKY or LATE. This is why I am going for the Navigon 7100, and getting rid of my C340.

[Jack @ Oct 23rd 2007 4:05AM]

The Garmin devices have improved a lot since the StreetPilot C300-series... Besides the fact that they are still (amazingly) the best sold GPS units in the US, they are in fact more than 2 year old... Which is a lot in PND world....

[Ben @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:41AM]

Pex,
I have a Navigon 7100 and just got a Nuvi 760 and the nuvi beats the navigon hands down on all the core functions.

Voice alerts are more "wonky" on the 7100, the Text to speech performance is more variable than the 760

[SD @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:44AM]

Pez,
The 760 is no more "wonky" than the Navigon 7100. I have both and the 760 routes better. The 7100 also leaves off street names in TTS very often.

[JNS @ Oct 26th 2007 11:00AM]

Just bought the 760 last week. It's been taking anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes to find a satellite signal when I turn the device on. That's enough for me to want to return this thing. Anyone else having this problem or do I have a defective device?

I called tech support and they said there are no software updates yet to correct this since the device is brand new. Is this something that can even be corrected in a software update or is it because of the new internal antennae?

[eaglebrookfarm @ Oct 30th 2007 10:17PM]

I, too cannot get a signal. I just bought the 750 today and I'm ready to return it. I don't want to bother with updates or whatever is needed to fix it. I really wanted to use it right out of the box. I've used the TomTom and it is much better.

[eaglebrookfarm @ Oct 30th 2007 10:41PM]

Oh, forgot to mention that using the feature "Where am I?", the 750 found my location to be in Tam Tam, China. I live in Massachusetts!

[EUREKA @ Oct 31st 2007 11:03AM]

Hi Eaglebrookfarm,

Sorry to tell you this , but i think you dont know how to use the NUVI.You must press SAVE MY LOCATION before using WHERE I AM.

And you will see your actual position. The one you have in China was the last one press to save my location from the company who build your 750. CHINA

Please refer to your manual and read carefully before saying thoses wrong info.

And for your little problem of reception, please refer to your manual , you will see what is a cold start and warm start. First time you turn it on it takes less than 5 minutes, after that less than 60 sec and down to 30 sec.

So don't worry , the 750 and other 7xx series are working properly.

EUREKA
EUREKA

[RickM46 @ Nov 5th 2007 8:09AM]

Eureka,
I am considering the Garmin 760 for my first GPS.
Can you tell me what the difference is between a cold and warm start?
RickM46

[ekiebana @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:08PM]

Hi Folks, Question for your newly acquired Nuvi 760. Does it have the GPS signal info page like the other 6XX series?

[David @ Nov 3rd 2007 5:24PM]

I couldn't resist commenting on the prior comment about Tam Tam, China.. While that must have been frustrating it's sort of funny at the same time.

[David @ Nov 3rd 2007 5:34PM]

By the way, I do like the "Where Am I" feature. Have you found it useful?

This is a review of the Garmin Nuvi 760
http://cases-cradles-cables.com/57/reviews/garmin-nuvi-760-review/

[Mary @ Nov 6th 2007 9:16PM]

I just got my first gps 2 days ago. It is a Garmin nuvi 750. I love it. You don't have to press save my location to use the "Where am I". I have used the "Where am I" several times and it tells me just where I am. The 1st time I turned it on it had a satalite signal. The only time it is slow is inside my house and then it doesn't take very long. I love the take me home feature. You program in your home and no matter where you are all you have to do is press the "Take me home" and it mapes to your home. The 750 was about $300 less than the 760 but the only difference is the blutooth (thnk that is what they call it) and I traffic receiver (optional). By the way I am a female and 62 years old (this was a birthday present) and if I can use it out of the box it has to be easy to use!!

[Dutchman @ Nov 24th 2007 7:16PM]

I have had the nuvi 750 for about two weeks now. I previously had a smaller, much older Garmin, and use Delorme Street Atlas and Earthmate (two versions) in my motor home. The nuvi is in the car. I like it. It fits right into the little cubbyhole in my 03 Honda CR-V, and will acquire the satellites while in the cubbyhole after about 4 minutes or so. It acquires more quickly when I move the nuvi onto the cubbyhole door. Then it takes (cold) less than a minute. It has some idiosyncracies and some directions are puzzling, such as telling me to turn right off of an Interstate ramp and then immediately to turn left, when the proper direction is left. The screen is big enough and bright enough for use by my wife who has a macular degeneration problem--she's the nav and uses both the SA 2008 in the coach and the nuvi. She prefers the nuvi. The voice is reasonably easy to understand but seems to mispronounce the words "state route" for some reason. I think it's a decent piece of equipment at a reasonable price.

[partial @ Dec 19th 2007 10:01AM]

It's great that it has traffic information available. Anyone know how well traffic works on nuvis?

[brian @ Aug 19th 2008 9:38PM]

It works. Not much more I can say. I was driving the freeway the other
day, and it slowed down. Then my 760 said, "traffic ahead". Yeah, no
joke! YMMV

[tiger @ Dec 25th 2007 9:27PM]

and speaking of traffic, do i have to pay to subscribe to traffic information, or does the FM traffic receiver/car charger that came with my 760 do its thing without my giving anybody additional money?

on a different subject: if your nuvi is giving you late voice prompts, make sure it's in automobile mode and not pedestrian mode. i set my 760 to pedestrian mode when i took it out of my car at one point and forgot i'd done that when next i went driving, and i wasn't getting voice prompts until a few feet before i had to turn. switched it back to automobile mode and all was well again.

- tiger

[Jeff @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:04AM]

Unfortunately while FM traffic enabled you still have to purchase a service subscription for traffic reports. This includes the other models in the Garmin Nuvi 700 range as well.

One thing not mentioned in the post is the smaller form factor of the Nuvi 700 series to the Nuvi 600 series making it more portable.

There's a more detailed review at http://gpstekreviews.com/2008/01/02/garmin-nuvi-710-750-760-and-770-gps-auto-navigation-review/

[chris schaafsma @ Jan 9th 2008 3:08PM]

I just bought the nuvi 760, have managed to get POI data on the machine (downloaded from my PC), but I cannot download routes to the GPS. I can also not upload the tracks (to the PC) that have been recorded.
Do I need to have Mapsource loaded on my PC to do this? I did not receive this software with the GPS; apart from it being installed on the GPS of course (city nav europe NT).

[israel @ Jun 17th 2008 11:21PM]

GPS UNITS ARE TO BE USED WHEN YOU DONT KNOW WERE YOU ARE GOING. IF YOU KNOW A BETTER ROUTE THEN YOU KNOW WERE YOU ARE GOING SO DON'T USE IT .THE GARMIN 760 IS BY FAR THE BEST GPS UNIT OUT THERE I KNOW I GET LOST GOING HOME AND THIS THING HAS BEEN MY ANGEL IN THE SKY. I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN LOST WITH THIS THING. I USED TO BE SCARED TO TRAVEL ANY WHERE BY MYSELF UNTIL I GOT THIS UNIT KNOW I GO WERE EVER I WANT JUST GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS AND I'M THERE. WHEN I WANT TO GO HOME I JUST PRESS THE HOME BUTTON. BUT WHEN I KNOW WERE IM GOING I DONT USE IT BECUSE I WILL ALWAYS KNOW THE BEST ROUTE IT JUST MAKES SENSE.

[Bill Williams @ Jul 5th 2008 1:41PM]

Missing from the user's manual:

LAST POSITION FEATURE
The 'Last Position' feature only works if you remove the unit from the cradle while the unit is turned on, AND the car is running. It must detect that it has been removed from cradle power to store a position.

If you turn off your car first, Last Position will not store even if the unit is still turned on when you remove it from the cradle.

Also, the Last Position is stored in the Favorites; not in the Recently Found list as described on several website reviews of the unit.

MUSIC PLAYER
Although the unit will handle 16GB SDHC cards full of music files, the larger cards cause a significant delay before the music starts when you start your car - close to two minutes. If you want your music to start sooner after you start your car, you should use cards of 4GB or less.

[Brian @ Aug 19th 2008 9:39PM]

I use 8GB cards with no problem. The first time you put the card in
you'll see it "reading mp3s", and this does take several seconds. But
after that it'll just pick up playing where it left off.