Well, for the first time ever, this year I am knocking out some of my Christmas shopping prior to the second or third week of December. Maybe I am a procrastinator, maybe I like insane crowds, I really don't know- I haven't gotten around to trying to figure it out ;)

So, I know that my sister really wants a Garmin GPS unit. Should be simple enough, right?.....

Why does my sister want/need a Garmin GPS so badly? Yes, she specifically wants a Garmin Nuvi GPS unit.Not a TomTom, not a Magellan, but a Garmin Nuvi.

• She lives in a town of less than 10,000
• She drives less than 7 miles to work everyday
• Her travel radius is about 100 miles or so, give or take
• The nearest town of any sizeable population is about 65,000 people and is only 20 miles from her

Maybe I am stuck in the stone age, but do these units add fuel economy or perform engine diagnostics or give her unlimited discounts on shoes? I made it my mission to find out what the appeal was and you would be surprised at what I found these GPS units ARE capable of doing.

Ok, I am being proactive and doing my Holiday shopping early. I know that my sister specifically wants a Garmin Nuvi GPS Navigator. So I set off to purchase one online. I figure this should take 15 minutes, 30 minutes TOPS. Holy S#*t was I wrong!

To begin, I think Garmin has a different model number for every day of the year. You need an advanced degree from MIT just to make sense of all of the different models and options available to you.

Here is a partial list of the GPS units available from Garmin:

• Garmin StreetPilot c550
• Garmin Nuvi 350 Personal Travel Assistant
• Garmin Land & Sea GPS
• Garmin StreetPilot c340
• Garmin Nuvi 270
• Garmin Quest Portable GPS
• Garmin StreetPilot c330
• Garmin Nuvi 250
• Garmin Nuvi 250W
• Garmin StreetPilot i3
• Garmin Nuvi 200
• Garmin Quest2 Portable GPS
• Garmin StreetPilot i2
• Garmin Nuvi 200W
• Garmin nuvi 750 Portable GPS System w POI
• Garmin nuvi 760 Portable Bluetooth GPS w/POI

After extensive research, I narrowed my list down to 2 Garmin Nuvi GPS units, basically both ends of the spectrum. I'll go into detail on them below.

Many have speculated that this new series will be a replacement for the StreetPilot “c” series. Here is what I've learned about the Nuvi 200.

Physical Attributes

The Nuvi 200 is about the same size as the Nuvi 300 series. It has the same width and height and weight, but is just ever so slightly thinner than the 300 models.

Like its siblings there is a power button across the top, but the operation of this power button has changed. Rather than a push style button it is a slider. Perhaps they will use this on future Nuvi models which include an MP3 player. The Nuvi 200 does not include an MP3 player.

The right side and bottom have no buttons or connectors. The only other item is the USB/power connector that has been moved from the right side to the back of the Nuvi 200. Since there is no MP3 player there is no headphone jack.

The only other physical difference is that Garmin has finally gotten rid of the “flip up” GPS antenna. Being able to disable the GPS did have some advantages. Apparently the other Nuvi devices can only calculate routes starting at your current location unless you perform a weird workaround of disabling the GPS, setting a new location, and then calculating a route. Without a way to disable the GPS on the Nuvi 200 series, even that long workaround becomes impossible.

Mounting Options

Another interesting change in the 200 series is the suction cup mount. Many praised the mount on the 300 series as being the absolute best mount in the industry. The difference is that the power cord connects to the mount and then the mount feeds power to the Nuvi. That is gone in the 200 series and instead the power cord connects directly to the device.

Touch Screen Features

A 3.5″ touch screen display powers the Nuvi 200. This screen is very BRIGHT! It is brighter than the screen on the 300 series and is visible from a wider viewing angle. The whites are extremely white and bright sunlight never made the Nuvi screen difficult to read. The screen is one area where the Nuvi 200 apparently outperforms the 300 series.

A few of the menu items have been rearranged a little bit if you are used to other Nuvi designs, but not so much that they make an important difference in function. The “Where to?” menu has been changed to include a separate button for Points of Interest rather than cramming them all into the parent menu. This change makes it easier to access the buttons for intersections, cities, browsing the map, etc. And if you need to use the Nuvi 200 for emergency geocaching events it will navigate to a set of coordinates.

Navigating to an Address

Setting up Navigation to an address has changed very little. The buttons have a little bit of a more modern looking design and are more rounded than the squarish buttons on other Nuvis. After finding the address you click the ‘Go’ button and you are on your way.

Navigation to a Point of Interest (POI)

There is now a dedicated menu button for POIs. Though not arranged in alphabetical order, there are only fourteen primary categories to choose from. Many of the categories like ‘Food’ do include sub menus. In the case of food you can select from around 20 different categories of food to suit your tastes.

The display of search results has also changed on the Nuvi 200 series. The 300 series shows you five results on one screen, lists the name, and straight line distance from your location. The Nuvi 200 series only displays four results per page, but includes the street address (but not town) in smaller print below the title. Clicking on one of the results will display the phone number as well as town of that particular POI, along with a Go button to route to that location or a save button to save it to your Favorites.

Navigating in General

While navigating the next turn information is displayed in text across the top of the display. At the bottom left is a field showing you your estimated arrival time. At the bottom right you are shown the distance to the next turn.

Voice Quality

The speaker isn’t quite as loud as the speaker on the Nuvi 300 series, but it performs just fine. There is no text-to-speech option on the Nuvi 200 series, but the voice prompting was timely and of very good quality.

Advanced Features

Like the rest of the Nuvi series, the point of this device is simplicity. As a result there are routing features you might want that are not included in the Nuvi 200 series.

For example, there is no ability to specify a group of destinations or multiple via points and build them into one route. You can specify one via point per route, but no more than one.

Purchasing Advice

The Nuvi 200 series is a great simple device. It has an absolutely amazing screen, the voice prompts are easy to interpret, and the map is very easy to follow. If your navigation needs are simple and you just want to get a device that will remind you of turns and take you to new destinations, the Nuvi 200 would be a great choice.

It does have some limitations though. There is no advanced planning function, no multiple destination routing, and a detour function that is too simple to be utilized. It would be worth comparing the Nuvi 200 with the slightly older Nuvi 350.

They both have the same screen size, similar physical size, similar weight, nearly the same interface, similar battery life, and most of the same navigation functions. But the Nuvi 350 offers maps of all of North America (the 200 only has the US 48, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico), the ability to connect to a traffic receiver, an MP3 player, text-to-speech, and small case included. You get all of those extra features and based on current prices you will actually pay slightly less for the Nuvi 350 than the Nuvi 200.

With the possible exception of the 770 which includes European maps, the Garmin Nuvi 760 is the flagship GPS of the Garmin auto line. It has nearly all of the advanced features GPS connoisseurs look for, a widescreen display, Bluetooth hands free calling, live traffic reporting, and an FM transmitter. It also comes with a hefty price tag. If the success of the Nuvi 660 is any indication, the 760 is almost certain to be a winner.

Physical Design Features

Another improvement over the 600 series is that the flip-up antenna is gone. No more pulling up the antenna to activate the GPS chip. Across the top of the device is a slider which turns the 760 on and off, and can serve as a “hold” switch causing the device to ignore touch screen input. That feature can be especially handy for pedestrian use. On the left side is a headphone jack and SD card slot. Along the bottom is a USB port for connections to your computer, as well as the power/mount connector. On the back is also a connector for an external GPS antenna, should you need one, but you probably won’t.

In typical Garmin fashion, the mount and hardware design is nearly perfect. The mount is compact making it easy to stow, the ball and socket joint in the mount is perfectly tensioned for easy adjustability of screen angle, yet it holds tight enough to not bounce around on rough roads.

The power adapter for the car also serves double duty as the FM TMC traffic antenna. Integrating the traffic antenna with the power cord eliminates a dash full of spaghetti cable.

Of course the only way to make the traffic receiver even better would be to incorporate it into the device itself so you could still get traffic on trips less than 4 hours (estimated battery life) without needing to take the traffic adapter. But still the traffic solution offered with the 760 does beat the competition when it comes to convenience and other devices that have built in traffic receivers haven’t had great reception.

Perhaps the best part of the newer Nuvi devices is the screen. The screen is incredibly bright, brighter than just about any other GPS on the market. Text is crisp, and extremely readable.

It'd be nice if the Garmin 760 came with an AC adapter, but in all fairness most other GPS companies are skimping on this accessory as well.

Routing to an Address

Navigating to an address is really simple. Power on -> Where to -> Address -> State -> City -> Street Number -> Street Name -> Go. But to be picky, there are a few things I’d like to see changed. It's best to enter the street name first, then number. Also it isn’t at all accommodating if you make a spelling error. A few other devices on the market are much more elegant when it comes to spelling mistakes. The Garmin Nuvi 760 does offer a QWERTY option for you fast thumb keyboarders like myself.

Finding POIs

Finding POIs is just as simple. Where to -> Points of Interest -> select a category, a sub category if applicable, and then look through the resulting list. A nice bonus is that the list will tell you which direction the POI is in relative to your current location. The font size used is good and big, however we would prefer (again, being picky) that the address not be shown on this list instead making room for one more item on the list before you need to scroll. Once you click on a POI the address is shown, making it somewhat redundant in the POI list. Once you find the POI you are looking for, click ‘Go’ and you are on your way.

Multi Destination Routing

It took a few years, but Garmin finally heard the cry and has given us Multi Destination routing without the need for a big old bulky StreetPilot device. Thank you, thank you, thank you! To create a route with tons of points in it go to Tools -> Routes -> New. From here you can add a starting point, an end point, and lots of points in between.

After you’ve entered in your starting point, your ending points, and intermediate points you can calculate the route and go. You can manually reorder the points in the route, or have them “optimized” by using the ‘Optimally Reorder Points’ function. Yes, the Garmin Nuvi 700 series does include the highly sought after “route optimization” feature many people are looking for. However once again, Garmin gets this right and the feature they call ‘Optimally Reorder Points’ is in fact true route optimization.

Through the Routes feature, you can now also plan routes in advance by setting a starting location other than your current location. In most other Nuvi devices you could only do that through a complex work around which involves disabling the GPS and then browsing the map to find your starting location. Not anymore!

Traffic

As mentioned above, integrated into the power connector is a FM Traffic antenna. Here you can connect to The Clear Channel Total Traffic Network (TTN) to receive live traffic information as it pertains to your route. While we’ve put quite a few miles on our 760, we haven’t yet spent a ton of time in traffic. However there are not too many unknowns here. The TTN is used on quite a few devices, so we know the service works fairly well.

Detours, Excluding Specific Roads

The Detour function on the Nuvi 700 series unfortunately still leaves quite a bit to be desired. I don’t think it does what most people would expect from a detour function. With most other GPS devices if you use a detour function you can specify how far out you want to avoid. Hitting Detour on the Nuvi however will just create an entirely different route all the way to the destination.

In the ‘Next Turn’ bar at the top of the screen gives you a list of all of the upcoming maneuvers in the current route.

Where the hell did I park?

One of the other new features in the 700 series could only be called “Let me scratch my head look around and see nothing that resembles my car in this parking lot.” Instead of getting out the remote on your keys and trying to “light up” your car, you can use your GPS to find your car. The premise is simple. When you remove your Nuvi from the mount it will remember the coordinates where it was when it was separated. Then later as you are looking for your car you can go to ‘Where to’ -> ‘Favorites -> ‘Last Position’ and it will help you guide you to your car. Clever, simple, and only you will know how often you might use it.

Navigation

The navigation screen hasn’t changed much over prior Nuvi versions. The top still has a Green bar with the Next Turn information. At the bottom left is your estimated arrival time, bottom center takes you to the Menu, bottom right shows the distance to the next maneuver, and there are zoom buttons at the top left and top right. I still miss not being able to easily answer someone when they ask me “how long before we get there?"

Some of you older Nuvi users will notice something else on the screen, a speed limit graphic. When you are driving on a road where the Nuvi knows the current speed limit, that information will be displayed. When driving in an unfamiliar area it is nice to just look down and see what the limit is rather than just wondering to yourself when it last was you saw a speed limit sign.

While looks aren’t everything, the Nuvi series devices including the 760 have a beautiful, easy to read map. The colors are vivid, and the font anti-aliasing and shading of elements makes many other devices look like they were drawn by a kid with crayons. In contrast to other devices on the market your car icon tends to “hop” down the street a bit more rather than gracefully slide. However you won’t think much of that issue if you haven’t compared it to other faster devices.

Voice, Text-to-Speech (TTS)

As would be expected in a device of this caliber, Text to Speech is offered. The voices haven’t changed from previous Nuvi devices. You can hear them just find, however other people have complained that the TTS voices are difficult to understand and they end up using a non TTS (recorded) voice for their navigation.

The voice prompting frequency and instruction types were similar to other Nuvi devices. In general, the prompts are frequent enough, yet not to chatty in most environments. At highway speeds however (say 55 mph and above) you might have liked to have had much more advance warning of upcoming turns and exits…. say once at 2 miles out and then again at 1/2 mile out. When not watching the map and relying on the voice prompts, you might not always have enough time to switch as many lanes as you need to at highway speeds.

There is also an FM transmitter in the Nuvi 760. You can select a station yourself or, in a leg up on the competition, you can have it scan through and try to pick the best station for you, then reporting back what station you should tune your stereo to.

While FM transmitters sound great on paper, be prepared that they don’t always work well. Depending on where in your vehicle the antenna is, what type of an antenna it is, and the availability of “open” stations in your area– your results may vary.

Bluetooth

Don’t believe what you hear salespeople say in stores about “Bluetooth is Bluetooth, if your phone has Bluetooth of course it will work with this GPS.” Check the compatibility charts to make sure your phone is supported. Once paired, you can use the 760 to place calls to numbers in your Phone Book, POIs, or dial manual numbers. You can also receive calls through the 760. Like the FM transmitter, your results will vary depending on the phone you have.

The phone book transfer option is much, much faster than on other competing devices, requiring no waiting at all. The same goes for the call history list. The phone call sound quality was marginal– which is about as good as can be said for most GPS devices unfortunately. The tiny speaker and tiny mic just never leads to outstanding sound quality. However the convenience of dialing through the GPS rather than the phone and being able to directly dial POIs as you navigate to them might outweigh the marginal sound quality.

Purchasing Guidance

Quite simply, it is really hard to go wrong with the Garmin Nuvi 760. It offers a great package of features including Bluetooth hands free calling, an FM transmitter, included and semi-integrated traffic receiver, Text to speech, and multi destination routing in a product that is physically very well designed and attached to a mount which is second to none. While most have a few gripes with the interface here and there, the issues are small and often amount to little more than personal preference. A product like this has great expectations and is held to a higher standard than many others.

About a week ago, my sister got a speeding ticket and she wasn't able to flirt/ cry her way out of the ticket. I'm dead serious, she has no shame! So, now she wants a radar detector, not a GPS! Well guess what? I found a perfect solution and I can't wait to see the look on her face on Christmas morning.

So, in the end, I actually purchased the Garmin nuvi 750 Portable GPS System w POI from PhantomAlert. Not only does it come equipped with the features of the 760 reviewed above, it actually comes preloaded with US/Canada Red Light Camera, Speed Camera and Speed Trap database.

They also actually offer the actual GPS/Radar detectors but I think the speedtrap database will suffice.

If you are on a really tight budget, there is no better place to go than Amazon.