Great review that I have been waiting for. Thanks

Another wonderful and detailed review, but an evaluation/explanation of the "pedestrian mode" would have been helpful. How is it different from "normal" navigation mode, and will the function work to return to a car (saved location)after leaving it parked on a street, large parking lot (mega mall), or at an airport?

You guys are the BEST....I learn more from your reviews than any other and your pics are right on the money. GREAT JOB!

The new maps aren't up for sale yet, perhaps you should have mentioned that in your article. Seems you can buy a 250W still with the old maps.

Macdawgg - the nuvi 250W isn't for sale yet either - it officially goes on sale next month, as do the new maps.

Great review as usual. I bought a Garmin Nuvi 660 a few weeks ago based on your review & love it.
I'm new to map upgrades. Will Garmin notify me of the new map for purchase if I registered the GPS? Can the new maps be loaded to the internal memory or will they be provided on an SD card?

I figured out elsewhere how to upgrade the maps when the 2008 version comes out. I also read that Garmin is quoting $75 to upgrade to the new maps when available.

Good review. I agree that this is too expensive. I notice that you compared it to the new Magellan Maestro 4050. I hope you review that one soon. I am very interested in your opinion on that. When you used it, did it perform as advertised or was it buggy? Thanks.

Excellent review. Very thorough and unbiased. I always find your reviews containing sufficient information to make a well informed decision purchase decision. Keep it up.

Another Garmin-Boy Review...

Many enjoy the Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS for the features it offers like Bluetooth compatible, Hands Free Calls, and the FM Traffic Receiver over Tom Tom and the rest.

See for yourself, GPS Poll: http://polls.hopto.org/polls.aspx?poll=17&partner=0&Desc=GPS_Auto_Navigation

Very thorough and informative review. I'm looking to buy my first gps and this balanced report is the best that I've seen in my research.
Thanks....

Very helpful review - thanks. Can I download 'waypoints' or 'favourites' to my PC laptop?

How well do Garmin maps work in Europe?

Great review! When do the 600 series nuvi's get the new maps and are they going to get the new body style? Thanks.

Reviewer - Where did you get the information that the map upgrades would cost $130? How recently did you hear that from Garmin?

The 250 has the same map qualities as the Nuvi 350 and is just as easy to use for turn propts.
The nuvi 250 was much brighter then the Nuvi 350 and more visible, without glare compared to the nuvi 350 hard to see screen.
I find visibility to be absolutely critical. In addition the voice clarity on the 250 was superior to the 350.
The nuvi 250 also has the advantage of the internal attenna which allows for easy mounting and dismounting.The 250 also is $70.00 less in Canada .
You have a great magazine and keep up the good work
I like the user comments section also
Teddy

How about a response to my question, please.

Rocket - it depends on the country. "Europe" is a big place... I've heard people say the maps aren't great in Italy. Although I think they're generally pretty good.

i am also looking to get my first sat nav.
my question is this, would you get the new 250w or would you spend more and get the 660fm?
cheers
dug

Thanks for all the info. My girlfriend has a Nuvi 200... we're diggin' on it. But, whenever we try to use it while connected to a power source [car, pc, or wall outlet], it just goes into charging mode and we can't use the device. Am I just missing a simple point, or is it really going to be this pain in the butt to charge it when I'm not using it, and vice-versa?

I just bought it. Really nice peace of GPS HW.
I am just having trouble with one major thing to me : where can i see time to destination (without calculating it)?

i having problems trouble with my garmin nuvi 250 having problems since i plugged somehow when i updated version done then unplug somehow itself probelsm it says " no detailed maps found that support routing. the nuvi cannot be used without them. i can't find on website anything how can be resolves please let me know ASAP! it 4 days old of this gps ... thx let me know.

costco now has the 250w on sale for $299, is this price to good to be true?

Great review. But you should have mentioned the great responce time when scrolling. I took back a Maestro because of it's sluggishness.

I have had the 250W for about a month now. I can only compare it to the 360 I had for a nice 8000 km trip to key west. Things I dislike:
SLOW to acquire sat (avg 2 min) sometime 3 from cold start
The touch screen is not very responsive
the window mount is much easier to "clip in" then the 360 but I miss the power pluged into the mount.
I am really not getting any value out of the wide screen (maybe less battery life)

Other then that its a Garmin and it does its gob well.

Harvey:

I would use the maps in Alaska, Yukon Territory,
and Mexico. Are those
locations supported?

Thanks for a great review; it has helped me understand how the Nuvi250w works. I tested it out in Sydney recently when my wife was driving in the Eastern Suburbs. She went left when the GPS woman said right! My wife is an Eastern Suburbs girl: you can take the girl out of the Eastern Suburbs but you can't take the Eastern Suburbs out of the girl! Well after about 10 recalulations the GPS woman caught onto the way my wife wanted to go. My wife agreed that the GPS woman was very understanding and very patient! Good grief!

Have 250W for Europe, used mostly in Ireland but also UK/Germany. Its the Apple Mac of Sat Nav with great map detail and very easy to use.

Great review. I bought a 250w after reading your review. I am a service tech. and I will never be without a GPS device again.

Excellent review! Even an average Joe like me could assimilate the salient points!!

GPS is going to be "in-thing" starting from finding out the location of stolen vehicles to location of abducted kids (sometime in future -- with implanted GPS :-).

My wishes for the blog team to not just remain in top-100 but move up to top 10!!!

A nice feature of this GPS is that includes mapping for Alaska and Hawaii. Also, many people are coming accustom to the wide screen versions of televisions, and some would like to see that in their GPS unit.

Garmin Nuvi 250W Review: http://www.bestnewreview.com/polls.aspx?poll=172&partner=0&Desc=Garmin-Nuvi-250W-Review

Awesome review!! I just bought one today based on this review, and got a great deal at Newegg for under $300!

Thanks!

Firmware 2.8 is out if you check with the WebUpdate. It makes the map screen update twice as fast!

I have recently bought a 250W and your review is exact in every detail. I live in Australia, and the purchase price here (including the latest 2007 maps) was $499 (=US$450) which was not excessive, although I have noticed them for AU$419 lately. I recently spent 3 weeks in the US and purchased the latest US maps on SD card, and the unit operated seamlessly while in the US - there was no setting up or installing to do - just plug in the card, and the 250W found my location on either side of the Pacific Ocean without anything to do on my part. One warning to other users though (which probably also refers to any GPS unit being used) - always remember to change back to VEHICLE mode BEFORE setting off in the car after walking around using PEDESTRIAN mode - it causes much confusion. Thank you for the excellent review.

I have a new Nuvi 200, which differs only in maps from the 250. I like using the unit, but it really doesn't know about some destinations I've put in. For example, addresses around 25301 I-45 N, Spring, TX (zip 77380) don't work, because the unit doesn't know that range of numbers in that area. Oddly, Google Maps (which uses NAVTEQ) knows about it just fine.

I'm trying to figure out why the unit behaves this way. Any thoughts?

Further, is there any kind of site, even at the individual manufacturers, that would let one test whether given points can be found using their mapping software?

Great review guys

Thanks for the great review. I bought a 200W after reading this review. Just had a trip to Disney World in Orlando. This little thing made the trip a breeze. No more frustrations. My wife was able to relax and enjoy the view instead of busy reading map and street signs. “In the old time”, miss a turn was like a disaster and now -- hmm, I never missed a turn on this trip. 200W announces next turn loud and clear. Sometimes it even tells me which lane to stay on.

I’d like to comment on your review section 8. Finding an Address. You mentioned 200W/250W cannot list a valid house number range due to its input order. Well it can with a little trick: in “”, do not input anything just press “Done”, then input street name, 200w would display one or more addresses with house number (starting block number). Go back and input a huge number as House Number (ie 9999999), then input street name, it will list the ending block number. Now we have the valid range.

To Basil, 25301 I-45, Spring, TX (without ‘N’) worked on my 200W.

I am a registered nurse adn I do alot of travelling. I purchased the Garmin because I wanted to be safe while travelling. I love my Garmin with one MAJOR exception, it fails to acquire satellite for more than 3mins each time that I start my journey whether it is sun or cloudy it is the same problem. I purchase a TOMTOM for my husband and as soon as he turns it on, it's ready to go. Unfortunately I can afford the luxury of a device that fails each time that I turn it on, therefore I will be returning my unit adn purchasing a TOMTOM.

I just recieve the 250W for Christmas. I've used now for about a week, and I love it. This is my first GPS unit.

I was out shopping today and used it to go to two stores that i have never been to. The first was about 20 miles from my home and it took me right infront of the store, I looked around and there was the store. The second was about 10 miles away and again, took me right there.

The only complaint I have about this is about the power connection. I too would like it incorporated into the cradle.

The maps may be new and updated but with construction constatly going on i have found some missing roads some that are built now and others that have been removed. Actually the address for my house when entered as the street address, puts me at the other end of the road, about 400 yards down the road. SO i just saved my home location based on the cordinates (really like that feature).

I recommend the 250W or any of the newer Garmins so far.

Hi Robert, me to also just facing the same problem... did anyone knows how to fix it pls do let me know :(

"Robert:
i having problems trouble with my garmin nuvi 250 having problems since i plugged somehow when i updated version done then unplug somehow itself probelsm it says " no detailed maps found that support routing. the nuvi cannot be used without them. i can't find on website anything how can be resolves please let me know ASAP! it 4 days old of this gps ... thx let me know."

Hi Robert,
I had the same problem with my brand new Garmin 250w. I connected it via USB cable to a powermac running OS9.2.2., to have the battery charged. When I ejected it, and restarted, it did not find any map (neither the preloaded one, nore the one on the SD card). The dealer in Bucharest told me that I have writed some files into the Garmin. He sent me 2 photos with the content; I haven't writed anything with intention, these files just appeared into the Garmin. If you want, I can send you the 2 photos. In one of them, there are more files into the garmin. Looks like there is a problem there, as you had the same problem.
Absolutely don't reset the device, as you'll lose all info in it!!!.
As i don't know how to upload photos, you may write me directly at the address
office@pantravel.ro
and i'll send you the photos; I think it would be enough to erase from the garmin the unnecessary items.
Tell me how did you disconnect the garmin from the computer, and what copmuter and operating system you are using. Perhaps I can help you.
best regards,
Andrei

For Canada: It’s the best GPS so far according to the price/efficiency and ease of use.
I work on the road as a Paramedic; it’s my third GPS, and by far, the best one. Is accuracy is absolutely breathtaking. The current review is accurate.

I am new to using a GPS. I was given the 250w as a gift and I love it. I am wondering, however, how long it should take to acquire satellites. I noticed in a couple of other posts that it was taking 2-3 minutes from a cold start. Is this about average? If I have not had it on in a few hours or more, 2-3 minutes seems to be about as good as it gets for me. There are times where it is taking 10 minutes or more, which is a definite problem.
I have tried reseting and placing the GPS out in the open for a half hour or more before using again, but no luck. When I reset I never get the start up screen I got the first time which asked me to do this. I do get the screen asking if I want to remove all data, choose language again, etc. but I am not prompted to place outside under open sky like I was the first time. I just do it anyway, but as I say, no luck.
Given that I am new, I am not sure what to expect, but it seems like 10 minutes in normal conditions is excessive. Is there something else I should try before taking it in to see if there is a problem?

Success! I did a third reset, this time leaving it out in a different space (wide open) for about 45 minutes. I waited until all bars were green and then left it there for another half hour. Now it receives satellite signals in less than a minute when starting up after an extended period of time (overnight) and almost instantaneously if restarted within a few hours.
With this issue now resolved, I love this GPS!

I was about to return the 250W due to the delay (as long as 10 min) but it seems after a few days and a dozen tries, it seems to find a satellite immediately.

One question, every time I connect a Garmin to charge through my lighter, I can't seem to use the navigator. Is this normal? Didn't have this issue with TomTom or Magellan. I get a small image that the device is connected to a PC (which is not true) and I have to unplug it to use the navigator.

I recently purchased a nuvi 250W from Amazon based on your review. You stated that it had a usb port for down loading from a computer. My 250W does not appear to have a usb connection. It does have a SD card slot. I went down to Circuit City and the 350W has a small connector that would interface. They showed me the cable that I would need it has a small connector on one end and USB on the other end. So tell how am I going to down load from the computer?

I Programmed a route with Mapquest 2008. Selected the download to device, the device being my Nuvi 250W via USB to USB mini cable, program indicated that it was succesfull. How do I go into the Nuvi 250 and tell it to go to this destination? I cannot seem to find the right menu to do this. thank you in advance

Nuvi 250 inserting adresses
in Edmonton,Alberta which has thousands of adresses the same, the only changes would be Ave. or street Eg.
5212 50 st or 5212 50 ave,
it will not at times let you choose between ave & st. and will send you on a wild goose hunt, and you have to revert to Phoning for directions. So please update this problem as I have called Garmin and they could not acess the adress either. I was told to post a complaint on this problem., but do not know which site to write to.

Nuvi 250 inserting adresses
in Edmonton,Alberta which has thousands of adresses the same, the only changes would be Ave. or street Eg.
5212 50 st or 5212 50 ave,
it will not at times let you choose between ave & st. and will send you on a wild goose hunt, and you have to revert to Phoning for directions. So please update this problem as I have called Garmin and they could not acess the adress either. I was told to post a complaint on this problem., but do not know which site to write to.

I bought the 200w two weeks ago and I am very pleased with this product.

It displays the information I need to know with a quick glance at the wide screen. The viewing angle is a bit disconcerting at first compared to the TT One. The nuvi presents its 3d view as if you are looking at the map from an airplane flying at 100 feet as opposed to the TT which puts you almost at street level. Once I became used to the Nuvi though, hands down this is the better of the two. I find it easier to spot major highways that runs parallel to or about to intersect my path along with the main roads that connect the highways.

It also gets me to where I want to go without the hassle of fumbling around for a map, remembering the street names where I need to turn, placing tabs on maps to mark the following page where the road I am on connects etc. etc.

One suggestion that would make it better is to show an arrow next to the distance to the next maneuver instead of having to glance at the text bar to find out if that next move is a left turn or right turn.

Another suggestion would be so place a button on the main screen specifically for brightness level next to the settings and volume buttons. I find it annoying that this often used button is buried under FIVE levels.

Overall GPS navigation has made life easier for this Limousine Driver and if had to recommend one, the nuvi 200 or 200w is a good place to start without leaving your wallet empty.

Works fine but is extremely slow to acquire satellites. It won't find them at all if I in my house even my Blackberry can do that.

I can live with that horrible alphabetical keyboard but I really hate the aquistion time.

John

Acquisition time is horrible.

It took my 250W gps more than half an hour to catch the signal, by that time I had already driven to where I was going as I had a slight idea about the area, however, if I had to wait until it caught the signal, I probably would have stood still for a long long time.

Are you all suffering from the same problem? or is it only my device?

Fred

Acquisition time for my nuvi takes less than two minutes from an extended cold start.

Subsequent start-ups after that with the ephemeris data stored in memory is instantaneous. :-)

Bad apple for you!

Just to let you know I read ur review after I purchased the Nuvi 250. I bought on line for less than two hundred (refurbished) looks and runs like new, same Garmin warranty. I agree about the street and Avenue mess, can be confusing, however better than anything else out there

Thank you for the very good instruction manual. I was very impressed with the depth of the article.
My brother-in-law has the Garmin 250 & suggested that I buy the 250W. On sale for $229. at Future Shop in Ottawa, Canada this week.
Just added the 2009 map as a free update when registering the unit.
Brother-in-law uses his unit on (1)a motorcycle (2)a car & (3)in a truck.
Garmin is a great unit.

OK,

as a follow up to my last comment...I found that acquisition time is a function of how far in between turning on and off your device takes time...in a sense if your device has good reception and turn off the car for a short stop somewhere..then turning it back on after a few minutes, the device will acquire the signals immediately...

In my experience also, as I used it extensively on my last vacation trip in 3 different canadian cities, I found that when I turn it off at night and then back on the following morning, it takes up to a 1 minute to acquire the signal, unless I attempt to turn it on in my hotel room to enter some addresses before hand, then there is a problem and it would take up to 3-4 minutes for signal acquisition to take place.

One other thing I experienced was that on two occasions, even though the destination was directly ahead of me, the 250W kinda got hung and started doing recalculations over recalculations all the time...and would take me to much longer routes, make u-turns before arriving to my destination which would be about 200 meters away...I figured it would be that it is trying to always get me to my destination, with the destination being on my right hand side...so that drove the device to act in a very weird fashion and this is something that is irritating (a feature of telling you that destination is on left would be a better solution).

One other thing that I suffered from a few times while using the device in new cities was the fact that sometimes you reach a junction of 4 ramps, and when the device tells you to keep right, it might mean that the device wants you to take the second (from right) ramp...so this is something I found annoying and could probably be due to me not reading the instructions well...because of the fast-pace traffic that leaves you no time to read the gps screen to know where exactly to go...here a text-to-speech option would be of great help..and now I regret not going for one with such abilities.

But all in all, I was very happy with the device, re-calculating time were quick too. and reception was good even when driving in downtown Montreal between all the high rise buildings

I purchased my Garmin 250W at Best Buy in Fort Worth, TX on June 6th as an early fathers day present. It was on sale at Cabela's for $169 and Best Buy matched that price plus all GPS units purchased at Best Buy include free set up from the in store Geek Squad techs. I figured it was good to get the unit out of the box to make sure everything worked so I wouldn't have to make a second trip if the unit didn't work. Plus they were able to walk me through the start up procedure and enter my home address. This was by far the best unit I could buy for this price.

We purchased the unit before fathers day because we flew to Boston and spent a week on Cape Cod. The unit directed us from the rental car facility at the airport to our rental on the beach without a single hitch. I was extremely impressed and was immesurably thankful not to have to read a map getting out of Boston and out to the Cape.

During the week on the Cape we used it everywhere we went since we were not familiar with the area. We did not have a single problem with the unit all week. We entered some locations directly and used the POI on numerous occassions. I was also impressed with the extent of the POI database that we used for shopping, dining and entertainment.

I would highly recommend this as -THE- GPS unit to buy under $200.

The Ave & St problem is very unhandy in Vancouver since lot of street name come with both ave and st. I highly recommand ppls not to get this GPS if you are living in Vancouver. It could take whole day long for this GPS to figure out in between ave and st.

Great review, any chance of reviewing the 2x5/W (205, 255, W/T) units? I can't find a decent one (ie. like this) anywhere, and am wondering whether it's worth the extra cost and exactly what's improved in detail.

I just bought the a 250w, it came fully loaded with N. America and European maps. It is also has a fully loaded map of Ireland which not many GPS systems seem to have. Its a great little starter device.

We just bought an Acura RDX but opted out of the in-car GPS because like its predecessor in our MDX 2004, the travel assistant has very little mentions of Montreal business. That wasn't worth $3K!
I am looking forward to buying a much cheaper Garmin unit as we live in Montreal and the information seems to favor NavTeq maps over TomTOm supplier.

Yet I am confused about the pricing issues for updated maps from Garmin. You need to have it registered before the Garmin website gives you pricing. A bit of a catch 22 here when TomTom seems to give free updates...

Anybody want to weigh in on this issue?

Just bought a Nuvi 250W and though I would have the same problem (after reading your comment) since when the unit is being recharged from the computer (USB connector) or the wall AC adaptor, it shows the same page and icon as you described. But I just tried it with the car DC charger provided with the GPS and I can use the navigator, as one would expect. You must have a defective car charger.

I recently went on a fishing trip up to La Verendrye Park in Quebec, and as I was driving through Maniwaki, my GPS still said that I was in Hull/Gatineau (130 km away from each other). It also had no clue that I was in La Verendrye Park. Is this a common problem? What should I do about it?

Thanks.

Gilles

Excellent review, though now a little dated. I purchased a 250W at Future Shop in the early summer just before heading out for a 7 hour trip to Pennsylvania. I purchased a black unit and was told it was exclusive to Future Shop. I was surprized to see that the 2009 North America map was already installed. Yay!

But I was suprised further when the 250W announced streets. I was under the impression that it did not support text-to-speach, but would only announce left/right turns etc. It seems that mine does announce streets (though QEW isn't normally pronounced like "queue"!).

Sadly, the address to which I was headed could not be found by the 250W. It seems that the neighborhood was unknown by the 2009 maps. Odd, since the streets have been there for at least four years by that time. Both Google and Streets and Trips have been updated with that neighborhood.

In general, I am very happy with my 250W with the exception of the outdated (albiet 2009) maps.