Garmin nuvi 880 Review (GPSmagazine.com)

26. Pros

Voice recognition works very well; virtually all functions can be performed using your voice, including entering a full street address
Slightly updated menus and map screen from previous nuvi GPS models
MSN Direct costs about the same as other traffic services, but includes additional gas prices, weather, news, and local events information
Support for importing .gpx files
Bright, sunlight-readable screen
User replaceable battery
Support for navigating to geo-coded photos
Well designed map screen is easy to understand
Easy to use
"Where Am I" feature provides one-touch access to your current location, as well as nearby hospitals, police, and gas stations
Best routing engine available (better than Magellan or TomTom)
Excellent Bluetooth compatibility (worked with everything I could find, including a Blackberry 8800 and Apple iPhone)
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
When using hands-free calling while navigating to a destination, nuvi suppresses all audio navigation prompts
Track log recording
Supports multi-destination routing with route optimization (ability to sort the locations by distance)
Includes everything needed to receive real-time traffic updates (comes with a 3-month free trial, then requires an $50/year subscription)
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
Excellent windshield mount
Good text-to-speech delivers natural sounding text-to-speech (GPS announces actual street names)
Excellent customer support

27. Cons

No arrow indicating the direction of the upcoming turn
No way to exclude a specific road from the route
Dual front-firing speakers are no louder than previous, single rear-speaker nuvi GPS units
Incoming phone call turns audio back on, even if the GPS volume is set to "mute"
Underpowered FM Transmitter is all but useless in areas with a crowded radio dial
Slight map delay when viewing upcoming turn details (when you tap "turn in" from the map screen, the detailed map view is slow to draw)
When entering an address, pressing "Back" from the "Enter House Number" screen returns you to the "Select City in <STATE NAME>" screen
Searching POIs can take a long time if you search all categories
Favorites are sorted by distance only, and cannot be sorted alphabetically
Cumbersome to set the GPS into off-road mode
Detour function very limited
MicroSD Cards less common than standard SD memory cards

28. Conclusion

Spend a little time with Garmin's nuvi 880 and it quickly becomes apparent why Garmin enjoys the lead position as the #1 GPS manufacturer in North America (by a wide margin). Featuring a slightly updated interface and map screen, the nuvi 880 displays the kind of refinement, reliability, and ease of use that comes from years of testing and fine-tuning.

The nuvi 880 succeeds where many others have failed, delivering speech recognition that actually works. Virtually every GPS function can be performed using your voice, including entering a complete street address and searching for points of interest. The well designed remote control mounts cleanly to any steering wheel, and is easy to use.

I also appreciated nuvi 880's multi-destination routing support as well as the ability to optimize (sort) the stops by distance, tracklog support, and a "Where Am I?" and "Where did I park the car?" feature.

Garmin's best of breed routing engine and unmatched ease of use make the nuvi 880 is an excellent choice for novice and power user alike.

At its core, the nuvi 880 is an outstanding navigator that continues Garmin's tradition of delivering top quality navigation in a simple, easy to use package. As an added bonus, the nuvi 880 includes a host of multimedia features that are well integrated into the navigation experience.

There's still room for improvement in the nuvi 880's underpowered FM transmitter, and the lack of an upcoming turn direction arrow on the map screen is annoying. I also wished the nuvi 880 could exclude specific roads from a planned route.

Priced at around $999, the nuvi 880 is Garmin's top of the line and most expensive nuvi. If money is no object, it's the best GPS you can buy, and you'll quickly wonder how you lived without the speech recognition. The safety and convenience factor alone is worth the cost. Those less enamored with the speech recognition features will find the nuvi 780 almost identical in its core navigation capabilities (albeit without the voice recognition features or slight interface enhancements that the 880 brings) at around half the price.


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May 22, 2008