Figure 16: Garmin nuvi 250W, Powered and Mounted in the Car

The mounting hardware is inconspicuous and barely noticeable when looking at the GPS head-on.

With so much that's right about the mount, it hardly seems fair to complain; but after using the nuvi 250W for a few days, I did find myself wishing that the 12v USB power cable attached to the mount rather than the GPS itself. It's a small gripe, but fishing around for the cable and connecting it to the unit each time is a minor inconvenience that would have been avoided if power cable connect to the mount rather than the unit itself.

7. The Map Page

Figure 17: nuvi 250W's Map Screen vs. nuvi 680's Map Screen

Whether navigating to a destination or simply driving around, you'll spend most of your time looking at the map screen. The map screen has been updated slightly on the nuvi 250W. Figure 17 (above) shows a side-by-side comparison between the nuvi 250W and 680 series map screens. Note that the nuvi 250 and 600-series use the same 4.3" display.

Compared to previous nuvi map screens, the 200-series screen is slightly more refined; the anti-aliasing has been improved, creating smoother lines along the map; icons have received a slight 3D bevel-effect treatment; zoom icons have been made slightly bigger, the text is slightly bolder, and the information bar has been made slightly thinner.

The nuvi 250W's updated map screen is an improvement over previous nuvis. Those familiar with Garmin's map screen will find everything where they expect (everything still functions the same way and is in the same position as it was on previous nuvi's/SteetPilots), but the visual presentation has been enhanced slightly. Let's hope the rest of the Garmin nuvi product line gets the new, updated map screen via free firmware updates.

Figure 18: nuvi 250W's Map Screen

The map screen is displayed automatically when navigating to an address, with your route marked with a magenta line, as shown in figure 18. The map screen can also be manually invoked by tapping on "View Map" from the Main Menu.

Figure 19: Using the nuvi 250W's Map Screen

Figure 19 shows the map screen, as displayed when navigating to a destination:

1. Text Bar - This text bar displays the current navigation instruction. Tapping on this bar opens the turn list (a list of all up-coming turns)
2. Zoom Out - Zoom out the map display
3. Highlighted Route - The highlighted route is "painted" in magenta
4. Vehicle icon - This customizable icon represents your vehicle on the map. Tapping on the vehicle icons allows you to save your current location (even if there's not a valid street address at your location)
5. Arrival Time - Displays your estimated arrival time. When not en route to a destination, your current speed is displayed here. Tapping this icon opens the Trip Information page
6. Menu - Tap the Menu icon to return to the Menu page
7. Turn In - Displays the distance to the next turn. Tapping this icon displays the Next Turn page (a detailed view of the upcoming turn) and repeats the last voice instruction
8. Zoom In - Zooms in on the map display

Figure 20: Trip Information Screen

Tapping on the Arrival Time area (#5 in figure 19) brings up the trip information page, which displays a running counter of various statistics about the "trip", or since it was last reset.

Figure 21: Turn List

The Turn List, available by tapping on the text bar (the horizontal green bar across the top of the Map Screen), displays a list of all upcoming maneuvers. Each turn can be selected to view a more detailed view of the turn (Next Turn page, shown below).

Tapping on the scroll arrows cycles through each of the upcoming turns.

Figure 22: Next Turn Page

The "Next Turn" page is available by tapping on the lower-right icon from the map view ("Turn In"), and displays a detailed view of the next turn. This split-screen shows a 2-dimensional drawing of the turn on the left side of the screen, and a text description of the turn on the right side. Also displayed are the distance and time to the turn.

Tapping the up/down arrows in the lower-right portion of the screen cycles through the remaining turns, one at a time. Voice prompts are also announced as each turn is viewed (note that the nuvi 200-series units don't have text-to-speech, so the actual street names are not spoken, just the basic turn information).

8. Finding an Address

The nuvi 250W allows you to input a destination address a number of different ways, but probably the most common method is to use a street address.

Figure 23: Accessing the Where to? Menu

It doesn't get much simpler than this: after powering on the nuvi 250W, the Main Menu screen appears, as shown above. From here, you can view the map, search for an address, adjust system settings (wrench icon), or adjust the volume (speaker icon).

This first step in entering a destination address is tapping on Where to? icon from the main menu.

Figure 24: Searching for an Address, Step 1

Most of the time you'll probably be driving to a street address (as opposed to a business name or intersection). After tapping on Where to? from the Main Menu, tap on Address to begin inputting a street address.

Figure 25: Entering the State

After tapping on Address, nuvi asks for the State the destination address is located in. By default nuvi displays the State you are currently located in, or gives the option of spelling out a different State.

In this example, I'm currently in Connecticut, but will be entering an address in New York State, so I'll tap on Spell State/Province to continue on to the next step.

Figure 26: Entering the State Name

Next the nuvi 250W asks what city the destination is located in (if you're not sure what city your destination is located in, you can choose Search All to have nuvi include all cities within the selected State.

Spelling the State is straight forward; use the on-screen keyboard to spell out the city name until the nuvi has enough letters entered that it can narrow the results list to just a few, then it automatically produces a list of possible matching cities to choose from.

Figure 27: Choosing a State Name From the Results List

In the example above, I'm entering a destination in New York State, so I type out N-E-W-space, and the nuvi automatically produces a short list of matching States (just one, in this case) to choose from. I tap on "New York" and continue on to the next step.

The nuvi 250W is zippy and responsive, allowing me to enter the city name as quickly as I can type, without any annoying delays or sluggishness.

However, I did find myself wishing that the text entry system were more like Magellan's QuickSpell system, which dims out various letters as you type, only allowing you to press keys that would spell a valid city name. TomTom has a similar text entry system. These systems reduce the likelihood of misspellings and make it generally easier/faster to input text.

Figure 28: Entering the City

The next step is selecting the city. If you know what city your destination address is in, you can enter it by tapping on Spell City and using the same text-entry method as we used for spelling the State name.

If you're not sure what city the destination address is in, you can choose Search All to have the unit search all cities within the selected state.

Figure 29: Choosing the Destination City

Entering the city name is identical to entering the State name; once you've entered enough of the city name that nuvi can limit the results to just a few, it will automatically product a list of matching cities to choose from.

I'm entering an address in New York City (note that you can enter either "New York" or "Manhattan" for the city name - nuvi will accept either), so I'll tap on "New York, NY" to continue on to the next step.

Figure 30: Entering the House/Building Number

Like most GPS units, the nuvi 250W asks you for the house number before the street name, which some people find disconcerting. Once you get used to inputting the house/building number before the street name, you quickly forget that this is counter-intuitive.

Some other GPS units allow you to specify the order in which you want to enter address information, although the nuvi does not allow the order to be changed.

One downside of entering the house number before the street name is that the nuvi cannot list the valid range of house numbers on a given street, as Magellan's GPS units do. For example, if you're trying to get to a house on South Main Street, Magellan's GPS units will ask for the street name first, then show you the valid range of houses along South Main Street, allowing you to pick a house number even if you're not sure of the exact address.