How do you keep selling GPS devices in a the midst of a crumbling global economy? You take a great product, make it thinner, cheaper, and pack it with full of features. Meet the Garmin nuvi 1200 and 1300 series.
The nuvi 1200 (3.5" touchscreen) and 1300 series (4.3" touchscreen) feature a new, thinner design (approximately 25% thinner than previous nuvis), and offer advanced features like text-to-speech, free lifetime traffic and lane assist at an affordable price. All the 1200 and 1300 models also feature a new "Enhanced Pedestrian Mode", and something called "Public Transit Mode". Read on for all the details and pricing information.
The focus of PND in NA will be $299 or less. Any PND that cost more than $299 went from a market share of 35% down to now 5%. There is no takers for expensive unit so you will see TomTom, Magellan and Garmin trying to stay below the $299 price point offering basic full feature such as TTS, NA mapping, tons of POI and Traffic.
I wonder how long these company can hold out at these price points. They are not making enough money to cover returns lol.
Dear Fletch,
I am still awaiting for the road exclusion feature on Garmin GPS. Five years ago I bought a simple Belkin F8T051 GPS for about $100 and it came with that very needed feature. To my surprise, after five years since I bought that archaic gps yet I still could not find even one $400 Garmin GPS with the exclusion feature. Will this Nuvi 1300 fulfill my dream? Or do I have to wait for another 5 years?
Herman
All the nuvi 800 Series and the nuvi 5000 have that custom road/area avoidance feature.
Wonder why Garmin doesnt release something really new.. I feel that same products come out again and again, only little changes. Only new thing is Public Transport mode. Does it work at Europe.. I am sure it doesnt work at Finland. Still waiting. I would really love update my Street Pilot C550 to something new..
I hope that they would release GPS where you can make folders for your waypoints.. I would like put my personal waypoints to one and work waypoints to other. Also it would be nice that when you choise route to somewere, it would show how long is fast route and how long is short route, then you could choise do you want take fast or short. Now you need go setup and change settings everytime when you check how long is this and that..
Garmins are good, but they lack several features like route exclusion, alternative route descriptions at a glance, sophisticated detour functions and route types like economical, scenic, most use of highways, etc.
Fletch never seems to ding them for that.
Actually, I list the inability to exclude specific roads from the route as a "Con" on every Garmin nuvi I review. Economical route options are now available via the ecoRoute firmware update.
I stand corrected....for THOSE.
One final note on availability: Amazon.com has the 1350 available for pre-order with a release date of May 20, 2009.
Wow, still nothing really new, same old. What's needed:
Longer battery life when using unplugged.
Better antennas like my pop up one on my 680 as I get 3foot accuracy (cruise missile accuracy!)
High def screen
Optional larger screen 5.3"
Included North American maps for 3 years no charge
Better POI integration
26 models on www.garmin.com between automotive and motorcycle. Not one has every feature, since the 8XX lacks some 7XX features, but the 7XX has no voice recognition, etc, etc, etc. It's why I gave up after my Nuvi 680. I couldn't figure out what was better from all the new models coming out. Too bad they gave up on the Street Pilot series other than the long in the tooth and $800 in cost 7200 - at least the top of the line Street Pilots had every feature in the series, and tons of customization to boot. I bought a Navigon. If I wanted to be ticked off all the time I'd find my Dash and plug it back in.
It IS annoying that one model doesn't have all the features, though I've been pretty happy with my nuvi 765T as an upgrade to my previous nuvi 660.
I understand Garmin will never offer all the features available in one unit!
If ANY manufacturer put ALL requested/desired features into ONE model then that will be it. No more R&D no more competition no more revenue. Everybody would buy THAT unit and will never ever think of another one.
So that is why you have to be teased all the time to desire better and better and spend, spend, spend.
I see on this one and another forums people have few reincarnations of the same unit; 660, 750, 755T? Well, if you are so dumb that you have to have multiple units which do essentially the same function, please do. YOU are the right sucker, sorry customer which keeps economy going.
I am still with great Legend HCx which has all I need; maps are free, very sensitive receiver, battery life 20+ hours (hello! Nuvi ‘pedestrian-friendly), color screen. Correct, screen is small, it has no high def mode, no 100000000W speakers, no sexy navigation voice, no hole for blow jobs but it does what is suppose to do – navigate you from A to B.
Price will stop all people buying that unit. Duh!
I dont think that everybody would but model that has everything. There is highend and cheaper models already now and many people buy that basic model. I just hope that Garmin would make something NEW, my old Streetpilot C550 still can do many of those things that new models offer. Ok. I would like bigger screen and route planing, but its not just enought when you have feeling that same models are released again and again with only very little updates. Something new please.
Compared to your c550, the newer models have:
1. Larger, wide-screen displays
2. Upcoming turn arrow on the map
3. Lane guidance
4. Lifetime traffic service
5. 3D junction view of highway intersections
6. Speed limit information displayed on the map
7. The ability to display the time, distance, elevation, or direction of travel on the map
8. 3D buildings when driving in cities
9. 3d Landmarks
10. A2DP Bluetooth support
11. Improved GPS sensitivity with HotFix technology
12. Faster screen re-fresh for smooth map scrolling
13. Improved routing engine logic
The larger screen display on the Nuvi 5000 was not a hit, so while some wish for larger screen, most will not buy one.
I think Garmin can offer a PND with everything for $899, so if they can't make enough out of the low end unit, they can make up the difference by selling a $79 hardware for $899. LOL
Well, the stupid 5000 series could not run on battery mode, like all other portable units. It looked like a portable, yet wasn't a portable. What's the whole point? So the 5000 series wasn't a hit for many other reasons, but for sure not because of the screen size.
Larger screen than Streetpilot C550 has :) Wasnt Nuvi 5000 for truck use.
I wonder what they'll do for those that like to use the bean bag mount. If the new models are thinner, they'll have to either make an adapter or more likely make you buy another bean bag mount to fit the slimmed down models huh???
I hope the sound and/or the speaker of the series 1000 will be better than those of the series 200 in particular. I used a 255 W( too much distortion in the output sound due to a not fitted speaker or bad mounting of the speaker on the case that produce a scratch noise added to the synthetized voice. At the end, the result is not very pleasant to listen). I preferred to return the item but they retained $40 for restocking fee because for them, the item is not defective. But I think these product were not marketable because of the sound quality. They really take people for idiots. The old and bulky Street Pilot series had a good and clear sound.
Is the 1300 going to be better than the 255W? I'm looking to buy one of the two but is the 1300 worth the $50 more
Is the 1300 going to be better than the 255W? I'm looking to buy one of the two but is the 1300 worth the $50 more
1260T at Costco currently retailing at $339.99. I am looking for a solid GPS system for my car. I wish to purchase one with
1. Easy to use routing options
2. Strong signal strength (the gps doesn't tell me to turn 50m after the I pass the street) ... to bad Garmin got rid of Sirf chips.
3. An FM transmitter that will reach to my car's rear antenna
4. Elegant display
I am eagerly awaiting a review of the 1260T!!!
Thx for all the great reviews!!
It is really unbelievable just how bad this navigation is. I do not mean navigation itself, but the user interface.
I had a tom-tom before but I wanted to try someting else and I cannot believe that this navigation is actually sold and bought.
One example-preparing your journey at home(no gps signal). Tom-tom goes to menu-navigation-navigate from A to B.Done. Garmin- go to menu, go to settings, go to satellites, choose satellite simulation ON. Huh? Then go to map, find the start location, choose "set position" and then you can continue. There is NO manual attached to this navigation, so you have to figure that out yourself. Took me 3 hours to figure that out. Man selling me this navigation in the store also gave up after half an hour. This is the most unintuitive thing I have ever seen. And why don't you have manual attached to something that cost over 100 EUR ???
Second example-while navigating battery gets low. In Tom-tom- sound signal and small flashing object on the screen. In Garmin- map gets off(!!!) and you get a warning with "OK" that must be pressed on the screen. Imagine that happening right before some big crossing. You are left without any help, not to mention how dangerous can it be to be forced to press the screen while driving.
Third example-connecting the navigation to computer with USB. You can not turn it on. There is no program to use in an your computer while connected. You have to hope that this thing is actually charging and disconnect it when you think that the time is right.
Fourth example- finding alternatives to the calculated route. No feature "avoid part of the route", no feature "road blocked in...". And "Find another route" ? I had set navigation from North Poland to centre of Czech republic. About 1000 km long. Plenty of possibilities to drive. And when I wanted to see what the other possibilities are, the system calculated alternative, when only difference was after leaving parking lot i should turn not left to the main street, but right and go around the block. So the only difference was on the first 50 meters. What is that supposed to be ? Joke ?