5. Navigating With the nüvi 200

Figure 21: nüvi 200 Main Menu

Power on the nüvi 200, and within a few seconds the Main Menu appears:

1. GPS satellite strength
2. Battery status
3. Current time (Tap to change time settings)
4. Where to? - Tap to begin entering a destination
5. View Map
6. Volume
7. Tools menu

Garmin's menu is clean, uncluttered, and easy to understand. The text is large enough to be easily read from the drivers seat.

Figure 22: Map Screen

Whether navigating to a destination, or simply driving around, you'll spend most of your time looking at the Map Screen, shown above.

Let's take a closer look at the information displayed on the map:

1. Text Bar - This text bar displays the current navigation instruction. Tapping on this area displays the turn list (a list of all up-coming turns)
2. Zoom Out- Touch the plus or minus icon to zoom in and out on the map
3. Zoom In - Touch the plus or minus icon to zoom in and out on the map
4. Highlighted Route - The highlighted route is "painted", or marked, in magenta color
5. 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)
6. Arrival - Displays the estimated arrival time at your destination. Tapping this box displays the trip summary screen
7. Menu - Tap the Menu icon to return to the Main Menu page
8. 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

Sorely missing from the nüvi 200's map screen is an upcoming turn arrow that displays the direction of the next turn. Newer nüvi models, like the 205 and 705 have this useful feature. Also missing from the 200's map screen is speed limit information.

Figure 23: Next Turn Page

The Next Turn Page is available by tapping on the upcoming turn icon, and displays a detailed view of the next turn. This split-screen shows a 2-dimensional drawing of the next turn on the left side of the screen, and a text description of the turn on the right side. Also displayed are the time and distance 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.

Figure 24: Turn List

The Turn List is a list of all upcoming turns. The turn list can be viewed by tapping on the text bar (the horizontal green bar across the top of the Map Screen). Each turn can be selected to view a more detailed view of the turn, or the Lane Assist view if available.

Figure 25: Trip Computer

Tapping on Speed data field on the Map Screen (the left bubble on the information bar) brings up the Trip Information Page, shown above. This screen displays a running counter of various statistics about the current "trip", or since it was last reset.

Figure 26: Main Menu, While Navigating To A Destination

Tapping on the Menu button while navigating to an address brings up the Main Menu, shown above. From here, you can stop routing to the destination by tapping Stop, or detour around a problem area by (such as a traffic jam or closed road ahead) by tapping Detour.

Including the Stop button right on the Main Menu is a nice feature. I've tested a lot of GPS devices over the years, and have found that canceling a route can be a surprisingly difficult task. For example, looking at the menu screen of a TomTom GPS, one might conclude there's simply no way to cancel the route at all (you can make this option appear by switching the TomTom to "Advanced" mode, but under the default menu there's simply no way to cancel the current route).

Figure 27: Main Menu - Detour

In my testing I found the detour function worked adequately, although there are no options for specifying how far you want to detour, nor can you choose from a list of alternate routes. Also sorely missing is the ability to avoid a specific road (i.e. you can't view the list of turns, and choose a specific road or highway to avoid).

Still, the a basic detour function is better than no detour ability at all, and it does provide a quick and easy way to get off the current road if you run into a problem.

Figure 28: Map Screen - Day and Night Modes

The nüvi 200 automatically switches to "Nighttime" mode at sunset, darkening the screen brightness and adjusting the color scheme to better fit nighttime driving.

You can also manually force Daytime or Nighttime via the Color Mode menu.

Unfortunately, you can't create your own custom color scheme to use on the map, so you're limited to the Daytime and Nighttime preset color modes that Garmin provides