5. Entering A Street Address

In order to test the nüvi 885T's address entry system, and overall ease of use, I'll enter a destination address in New York City: 135 Central Park West.

Figure 41: Main Menu

After powering on the nüvi 885T, the Main Menu screen appears, as shown above.

To begin entering a street address, tap "Where to?" from the Main Menu.

Figure 42: Entering a Street Address as a Destination

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 43: Entering the State

The nüvi 885T automatically defaults to use the State you are currently located in.

If your destination address is in a State other than your current location, tap Change State or Country.

Figure 44: Entering the State Name

After tapping on "Change State/Province", the nüvi 885T prompts you to enter the name of the State or province of the destination address.

Spelling the State is straight forward. Use the on-screen keyboard to spell out the city name; one enough letters have been entered, the nüvi GPS will automatically produce a list of possible matching States to choose from.

Figure 45: Choosing a State Name From the Results List

I'm entering a destination address in New York State, so I type out N-E-W-space, and the nüvi 885T 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 nüvi 885T feels fast 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 was more like Magellan's QuickSpell system, which dims out invalid letters as you type, only allowing you to press keys that would spell a valid city name. TomTom also has a similar text entry system. These systems reduce the likelihood of misspellings and make text entry generally easier and faster, and would be a welcome addition to the Garmin nüvi product line.

Figure 46: Entering A City Name

Now that the nüvi 885T knows we'll be entering an address in New York State, we're ready to tell it what city our destination address is in.

If you know the name of the city your destination address is located in, tap on "Spell City" to enter the name. If you're not sure what city the destination address is in, tapping "Search All" lets you search the entire State.

I'll tap on "Spell City" to continue.

Figure 47: Spelling the City Name

Entering the city name is identical to the process for entering the State name; once enough letters have been entered the nüvi automatically produces a list of results.

Also, just like the State entry screen, tapping on the folder icon in the upper left corner displays a short list of recently found city names.

Figure 48: Selecting the City

After tapping N-E-W on the on-screen keyboard, nüvi produces the results list, shown above. I'll tap "New York, NY" to continue. Note that the nüvi would have accepted either "New York" or "Manhattan" as valid city names.

Figure 49: Entering the House/Building Number

Use the on-screen keypad to enter the house or building number of the destination address, and touch Done.

Figure 50: Entering the Street Name

The final step in entering the destination address is the street name. 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...

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 produce a list of matching street names, such as "South Main Street" and "North Main Street".

Tip: Tapping on the folder icon in the upper left corner displays a list of recently used street names.

Figure 51: Address Confirmation Screen

With the address fully entered into the nüvi 885T, the destination can be viewed on the map by tapping Show Map, saved to the address book by tapping Save, or the nüvi can start driving to the destination by pressing the large green Go! button.

Figure 52: Navigating to the Destination Address

Tap on the green Go! button and the nüvi 885T starts routing to the destination address.