Figure 31: Entering the Street Name

The final step in entering the destination address is the street name. In this test I'm entering an address on "Central Park West" in New York City, so I start to spell out C-E-N-T-R-A-L...This is the step that sometimes causes confusion among first-time GPS users. When entering a street name, you only enter the main portion of the street name, and allow the GPS to search for possible matches.

For example, if you are looking for "North Main" street, you would only enter "Main" as the search criteria, and the GPS would product a list of matching street names, such as "South Main Street" and "North Main Street".

Figure 32: Address Confirmation

With the address successfully entered into the nuvi, I can now either view the address on the map (Show Map), save it to my address book (Save), or route to it by pressing the large green Go! button.

Figure 33: Viewing the Destination Address on the Map

Tapping on "Show Map" in the previous menu displays the destination address on the map. This is a nice feature as it allows you to see what the streets will look like at the destination address.

Figure 34: Navigating to the Destination Address

Tap on the green "Go!" button and the nuvi starts routing to the destination address.

9. Garmin's Automatic Map Scaling Feature

Figure 35: Garmin nuvi's Automatic Map Scaling Feature

As you approach an upcoming maneuver, the nuvi 250W automatically adjusts the scale, zooming in closer as the turn approaches. Once you've successfully made the turn, the map automatically zooms back out to show more distance.

Take a look at the two map screens shown above in figure 35. Notice that in the image on the left, the nuvi has automatically zoomed in to a close street-level view of the map to clearly illustrate the next turn. Having completed the maneuver, the next turn isn't for another 4 miles, so the nuvi slowly zooms back out to show more of the map, as shown in the map on the right side in figure 35.

Automatic map scaling works well on the nuvi 250W. Scale adjustments are made smoothly over a few seconds, and the zooming in and out seems logical as you drive.

10. Finding a Restaurant

Figure 36: Searching for a Point of Interest

In GPS speak, a "Point of Interest" is a business address saved on the GPS. You can think of the POI database as a pre-loaded yellow pages. Most modern GPS devices come pre-loaded with a Points of Interest database, allowing you to find nearby businesses, such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and more.

Garmin's nuvi 250W ships with around 6 million POIs pre-loaded onto the unit -- Magellan's highest-end GPS' only have 4.5 millions POIs, so 6 million is a respectable number. The accuracy of the Points of Interest (POI) database has been helped by Garmin's new 2007 mapping data. I found many new POIs in my area using the nuvi 250W new mapping data that my more expensive nuvi 680 could not find. Garmin is planning to make updated maps available to it's entire product line later this month (although the update will not be free).

To search for a "Point of Interest", tap on Where to? -> Points of Interest, as shown above in figure 36.

Searching the pre-loaded POI database is a simple affair requiring a few screen taps to choose a category (i.e. Restaurant), sub-category if appropriate (i.e. Restaurant -> Chinese), and how far away you want to search.

11. Expanding the Search Area

Figure 37: Expanding the POI Search Scope

When you search for POI's, the default behavior on the nuvi 250W is to search close to your current location. But what if you want to find a restaurant near your destination address instead? Or a shopping mall along the way to your destination? Tapping on Near... from the Where to? menu allows you to specify exactly where you want to search for a given POI.

My eyes skipped over this button the first few times I used the nuvi, and I had to read the instructions to find out how to get the nuvi to search near a different location other than my present position. This is the one area of Garmin's user interface that I feel could be made more obvious.

Figure 38: Telling the nuvi Where to Search

The nuvi 250W allows you to specify one of four options for setting the POI search radius:

• Where I Am Now (Show results in order of closeness to your current location)
• A Different City (Enter any city name and search within that city)
• My Current Route (Search for POI's along your current route)
• My Destination (Search for POI's near your destination address)

For example, if you wanted to find a restaurant near your destination, you would tap on Where to? -> Near... ->My Destination ->Points of Interest ->Food and so on.

12. Setting the Home Address

Figure 39: Setting the Home Address

The first time you tap on Go Home from the Favorites menu, the nuvi 250W will prompt you to input your home address.

Previous Garmin nuvi's had a dedicated Home icon on the main menu, making for one-touch routing to your home address. Unfortunately, the nuvi 250W (and nuvi 250) has moved the Go Home button to the Favorites menu, meaning you now have an extra click (or tap) in the mix. Not a big deal, but I do prefer having the Home icon right on the main menu since it's so frequently used.

13. Navigating to A Set of Coordinates

Figure 40: Routing to A Set of Coordinates

I was pleasantly surprised to see Garmin has included the ability to input a set of longitude/latitude coordinates as a destination address. I find this more useful than you might think. For example, some destinations don't have an official street address and need to be input as a set of coordinates. Routing to coordinates is also useful for Geocaching.

To route to a set of coordinates, tap Where to? on the Main Menu, and then scroll down to see the Coordinates icon, as shown above in figure 40.

Figure 41: Entering the Coordinates

Figure 42: Selecting the Coordinates Format

Garmin supports entering coordinates in several different formats.