Brand Garmin
Product Features
* Bright 4.3-inch diagonal color touchscreen; 480 x 272 pixels, WQVGA TFT display with white backlight
* Sleek, ultra-thin design fits easily in pocket
* Preloaded with City Navigator North America NT
* Supports Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling when paired with Bluetooth-enabled cell phones
* NOTE: Model number on the box is 265WT because the traffic receiver is included; however, the model number on the device itself is 265W as the "T" in 265WT refers to the additional component
Product Description
* HotFix (Long Term Ephemeris Prediction) finds satellites faster
* Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Basemap shows 3D shaded terrain features
* Faster 333 Mhz processor offers faster, smoother map drawing and vehicle icon motion through turns
* Redesigned user interface offers more information
* Photo Navigation lets you upload geo-coded photos from a phone, geo-coding camera or photo site and navigate to them.
* Add Enhanced MSN Traffic and Content with the optional GDB 55 antenna and charger
* Send addresses directly to your Garmin from Google Maps or Mapquest
* Automatic Time Zone Transition
* Text-to-Speech gives directions with real street names
* 4.3-inch Widescreen shows you more of what's around you as you drive
* Memory Card Slots so you can add maps and travel guides, or store photos (MicroSD card slot on 3.5-inch units; SD card slot on 4.3-inch units)
* Preloaded Maps with Navteq data of North America + Hawaii + Puerto Rico, including 6.5 million searchable points of interest
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery for easy portability (up to 4 hours per charge)
* Custom Vehicle Icons let you personalize your navigator
* Integrated Antenna for a slim form factor
* Where Am I? -- instantly shows you all of the emergency services nearby
Product Details
# Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 0.8 x 2.9 inches ; 6.1 ounces
# Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
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Reviews Garmin Nuvi 265W/265WT Portable GPS Navigator
Accuracy is very good as well, and even in turns the unit isn't so laggy that it becomes annoying. And also unlike what I was used to with the MIO, when I come to a stop at the intersection, the map doesn't start rotating randomly on me.
Speaker is about as I expected, won't hear much over a loud stereo but crank it up enough you can at least hear it if you keep the music down a bit.
The option to easily download voices is also appreciated.
It did well with my testing of going point to point, following the instructions, and for the most part you're given the instructions in plenty of time. only once or twice did it not tell me "turn right on such and such" until I was about 20 feet from the street, but that was when I was coming up on stop signs and had slowed down, so it may be compensating for the speed factor.
Recalculation notice is a bit annoying, my MIO would say it once, sometimes this says it three times before it starts to display the alternate route.
Still has about 900MB free on the internal memory for additional voices, icons, maps, and such, and with the SD slot there's plenty of room to grow.
Touch Screen Interface
Very intuitive and easy to use. Touch screen is responsive but not instantaneous. What I particularly like is the ability to switch to a top down view by touching the screen. Once done you can use your finger to drag the map around at any zoom point. Once done you can hit the back button and resume your 3D view.
Turn by Turn
You have two options here. You can use one of the Text to Speech voices or one of natural voices. The text to speech voices will give you more information such as street names. This is what I use and even though you can tell it's a computer generated voice its quality is superb. The 265WT does a good job at keeping you updated. Also at any time you can hit the turn Icon and it will speak the distance to the next turn, giving you street name as well as direction. The audio is quite loud and in my noisy little Scion I have no problem hearing the messages.
Maps
I have found the map accuracy quite good. I live in Northern virginal and it seems to be very well updated as many of the very new streets included.
Automatic Routing
Very effective. You can choose between the quickest or the shortest with options to avoid U-Turns, Highways, Toll Roads, Traffic, Ferries. The automatic rerouting is faster than my TeleNav phone and my Laptop computers.
Points of Interest
On my TeleNav phone GPS system I can enter any business in the national database and I can get directions, address and phone number. This is where the 265WT falls short. The TeleNav system has the advantage of searching online. Since the 265WT is limited to onboard memory there is a limit to the number of points of interest. A good example is I was looking for "Off Broadway Shoes" and the unit could not find them. However a search for "Payless Shoes" worked very well.
Traffic Alerts
The lifetime free traffic comes at a price. You will get popup adds. These are very small popups that supposedly only come when you are in the menu. This is not true. I have gotten them while in the navigation screen. For now they it seems to be once per trip but there is nothing to say they wont start getting more frequent. The other thing I don't like about the messages is that you have to hit them to continue and doing so takes you out of the nav screen to a kind of favorites screen. You have to hit the back button to get back to your navigations screen.
How well does the traffic system work. I live in Northern VA and have coverage throughout my area. The included radio fails to pick up a single signal without using an external antenna. Sadly you can just go down and purchase an FM antenna.. The Power cable has a 3/32" jack. What I did was to pick up a 3/32" plug from Radio Shack and soldered a 4' wire to the tip pin on the connector. Once draped out one of the windows I get very frequent traffic updates.
Once you start getting traffic reports I found them to be accurate and they do help. You can automatically avoid high traffic arias or do it manually as they accrue.
I am still debating if the popup adds are worth the effort.
Bluetooth Integration
This is my favorite feature. I can keep my keyboard locked Motorola Q in my pants pocket and use my 265WT to make and receive all my calls at a touch of a button. All my phone features are available on the 265WT. Phonebook, Call history, Voice Recognition. The voice quality is quite acceptable on both ends. As a matter of fact the echo I get on my Motorola is not there when using the 265WT as a hands free set.
Picture Viewer
I found this to be a very useless feature. If the photos are very big it takes forever for the 265WT to load them. This may be due to the slow access to the SD card slot.
There are other features like the ability to connect the 265WT to your PC and automatically add favorite locations using GoogleMaps. All in all I am very happy with my purchase and would purchase it again.
FYI the Nuvi 265WT is the same unit as the Nuvi 255W without the Bluetooth ability and the FM reliever cable (GTM 25). You can even purchase the GTM 25 from Garmin. If you don't want the Bluetooth feature and don't currently need the traffic feature you can pick up the Nuvi 255W cheaper.
