Garmin nuvi 750 Review (GPSmagazine.com)

32. Pros

Super bright screen
Address entry system remembers recently used State, City, and Street names; a handy time saver when entering destination addresses
"Where Am I" feature provides one-touch access to your current location, as well as nearby hospitals, police, and gas stations
Best in class routing engine is better than Magellan or TomTom
MP3 playlist support
Ability to listen to MP3s or Audio Books while navigating
When listening to a song while navigating to a destination, nuvi pauses the song playback to announce navigation prompts, then resumes playback
Track log recording
Supports multi-destination routing with route optimization (ability to sort the locations by distance)
Speed limit information displayed on the map screen
Automatically stores the position where the nuvi was last undocked from the mount, creating a "where did I park the car?" waypoint you can use to walk back to your car
Garmin's WebUpdater software provides an easy way to keep the nuvi up-to-date with the latest firmware
Simplified interface is easier to use than previous Garmin nuvi models
Excellent windshield mount
Good text-to-speech delivers natural sounding text-to-speech (GPS announces actual street names)
Well designed map screen displays key information without being cluttered or hard to read
Excellent customer support

33. Cons

New embedded antenna design less sensitive than previous fold-out patch antenna design
Does not list valid house number ranges when entering a house number (e.g. Some GPS models from other companies display the valid range of house numbers for a given street)
Address entry system not as refined as Magellan's
Searching POIs can take a long time if you search all categories
Favorites are sorted by distance only, and cannot be sorted alphabetically
Off Road mode difficult to find (The Usage Menu allows you to put the nuvi into pedestrian or bicycle mode, but to enter Off Road mode you have to navigate to the Route Preferences menu)
Underpowered FM Transmitter is all but useless in areas with a crowded radio dial
GPS Simulator mode only runs at 1x time. No way to accelerate the simulation (i.e. 2x, 3x, etc.)
Detour function does not offer any options, such as how far to detour, or which roads to avoid
No way to exclude specific roads from a route
Silver color plastic case looks cheap

34. Conclusion

Garmin's nuvi 750 is aimed at consumers who want high-end navigation, but don't care about bluetooth or traffic features. And that's just what the nuvi 750 delivers: first-rate GPS navigation. The nuvi 750's routing engine is identical to the more expensive nuvi 760 and 780, so it was no surprise that the 750 chose the same routes as Garmin's more expensive models.

Compared to the nuvi 650, the nuvi 750 brings a new, brighter screen, multi-destination routing with the ability to optimize (sort) the stops by distance, displays the speed limit on the map screen, tracklog support, and a new "Where Am I?" and "Where did I park?" feature. The nuvi 750 is aggressively priced and delivers sophisticated GPS navigation with text-to-speech in a wide-screen format for under $400.

At its core, the nuvi 750 is an excellent GPS that continues Garmin's tradition of delivering top quality navigation in a simple, easy to use package. As an added bonus, the nuvi 750 includes a host of multimedia features that are well integrated into the navigation experience, including an mp3 player that automatically pauses to announce the next turn, and then resumes music playback.

There's still room for improvement in Garmin's underpowered FM transmitter, and POI searches could be faster. Also sorely missing is the ability to exclude a specific road from the planned route, a feature that Magellan has had for years. Compared to the more expensive nuvi 760 and 780, the nuvi 750's plastic case looks cheap. The nuvi 700-series' new slim case design loses the fold-out style patch antenna used on previous Garmin nuvi models, trading convenience for GPS receiver sensitivity. Garmin has compensated for this by issuing a free firmware update that brings SiRF's InstantFixII to the nuvi 750, which actually improves reception beyond the nuvi 650's capability.

Priced about $45 more than the nuvi 650, the nuvi 750 is a significant improvement over the 650, and well worth the incremental cost.