Great review! Questions:

- You say the 765T has more vehicle-centric functions than the 1390T. Can you elaborate? As a 7xxT owner and being a vehicle-centric guy, I'm trying to find a reason NOT to upgrade. I really like the revamped menus, overall GUI and thinner size of the new unit. I use an MSN traffic charger so I won't have to look at that awful rectangular thing on the cord, that would drive me crazy.

- Did you test the FM transmitter? Is it still woefully underpowered? Do they include freqs below 87.7?

- Is there audiobook or mp3-playing functionality? Believe it or not I do use this functonality to listen to spoken-word recordings (audiobooks and mp3).

- Is Garmin Lock still a feature on this device?

- What about Trip log, and the ability to show or hide?

I guess I could go to Garmin.com to get these answers but maybe others will have the same questions. Look forward to a reply.

Another great review - read your page all the time. Note I am not sure the comment about the sensitivity of the Traffic receiver between the 1300T series and the 7X5T series is accurate. I have a 755T which came with the old traffic receiver (i.e., the one with the pilot light in the cigarette lighter adapter that tells you when the unit is receiving traffic signals). On my 755T, once the unit has received a traffic signal the traffic icon on the map page stays green regardless of whether the unit continues to receive traffic info or not. In other words I can have a green traffic icon but have not received traffic info for quite some time. It appears that the 1300T series might indicate when the unit is connected to a traffic signal and when it is not - a definite advantage over the 7X5T series.

I recently started using the new traffic receiver (the one where the antenna assembly is in the wire, close to the GPS unit). I am hoping this will actually be more sensitive than the old one (where the antenna was in the cigarette lighter adapter)as the antenna in the new model sits up near the dashboard, rather than being lower in the car in the cigarette lighter. Don't know if it is better yet - time will tell (has anyone else compared the two?). The new traffic receiver lacks the pilot lights to tell you when the unit is receiving traffic signals though.

I'm also very interested on how the two traffic receivers compare since I'm looking for an additional GPS mainly for the traffic feature.

I recently bought a Magellan RoadMate 1470 with the traffic receiver. I kept it for only one day because the traffic receiver was only able to acquire a signal for about 10 minutes out of 4 hrs driving on major highways (495, 95, 295 and 128 near Boston, MA.

Hi Fletch , great reviews. This is my gps experience so far: Magellan 4350 - map would go in circles when I was stopped at an intersection or on a parking lot - Returned this unit.
Navigon 5100 Max - font size so small I could not read it - Returned this unit.
Garmin 265WT - I like everything so far with one exception , the lack of street names put on the streets - I still have this unit.
Tom Tom XL 340 S - much better at putting names on the streets ,but font size of street names is kind of small and speed limits only shown on major highways. Map colors seem strange and the screen washes out in bright sunlight - I still have this unit.
I use my gps mostly as a map , seldom do I ask it to route me somewhere. I have a hard time reading street signs at a distance or at night. Is there a Garmin unit that is better at putting names on the streets so that I know what streets are coming up ? Is the 755T or the 1350T better in this area than the 265WT ?

As an owner of NUVI 660,670,760 & 775 Garmin units I've used your reviews to help select the units listed above. Unfortunatly Garmin NUVI units and your reviews have slowly become less than desired.

The quality of the product that Garmin is now shiping is less than the benchmark NUVI 660. No SIRF Chipset, poor mount as compared to mounts of earlier NUVI's, Display instability, poor Keypad design (Need all imputs in large Caps) I could go on but that should be your job.

Your reviews of Garmin units are more of an Advertisment than a unbised review. The review above make's no mention of the Chipset that 1300 series NUVI's use. The review highlights the strenghts of the 1300 series but glosses over it's many weaknesses.

If your going to review unit's from Company's that make GPS navigator's your readers not only want to hear the good thing's about them, they also want to hear about the bad. In the case of Garmin we need to know of the slow erosion in qualty form what use to be the best GPS provider out there.

Fletch,

I just e-mailed Garmin Tech Support with a question about the lack of speaker volume on the Nuvis. Their reply was "The nüvi 705, 1200, and 1300 series units have our best speakers and have good volume".

Did you find the speaker volume on the Nuvi 1390T any better than the rest of the Nuvi line?

Hi, thanks for the review! My biggest beef with the 7xx series is that it feels *really* sluggish when you're moving the map around in 2D mode (compared to my old 350). Does the 1390T also have this problem? Also, did you notice any difference in the quality of the LCD screen?

Help..need to make a quick decision. Hubby's birthday.
He's wanted a GPS. Have it down to 2 choices. Garmin 765T or the thinner 1390T?

My new Nuvi 1390T doesn't retain the keyboard layout.
I have made some changes to the settings, such as keyboard layout (from QWERTY to ABCDE), avoidances, display brightness, map detail, etc to my Nuvi 1390T & saved them; however, upon rebooting the unit & turning it off, then on, it retains all the data I had changed, except for the keyboard layout, which
reverts back to QWERTY as opposed to ABCDE that I had selected.
I have performed a Master Reset to the unit twice & repeaated the operation, but to no avail.
I have performed un update my unit, but my Garmin Web Updater tells me that my unit already has the latest & greatest firmware & software version.
Has anybody else experienced this issue? I have emailed Garmin Support & am awating their response.

I was just informed by Best Buy that the NUVI 765T and 885T were recalled. Does anyone know why>

Answered the question: Important Product Information on Devices Purchased Before July 7, 2009
Garmin has released a free, mandatory GPS software update to correct a software issue that has been discovered to cause the this nüvi GPS device to repeatedly attempt to update GPS firmware, and then either shut down or no longer acquire GPS satellite signals. This firmware update may be downloaded using Garmin's WebUpdater program. Customers who are no longer able to power on their GPS device will need to visit Garmin's support site, and select the first FAQ titled "My nüvi 755T, 765T, 775T or 785T is giving me the message 'Updating GPS Firmware' or will no longer power on..." Customers will then need to follow the instructions to request a return authorization so that the device may be repaired under warranty. **NOTE: This software issue affects only those devices purchased before July 7, 2009.
› See more product promotions

I had the same (bad) experience with the 1390T's traffic reception sensitivity in Europe (DK) and a number of users report the same issue on a danish Garmin Forum. Some of them tested simultaniously with other Garmin units (who did not show the same problem) and at least one user reported good traffic reception with the power/antenna cable of another Garmin unit (which would indicate a problem with the cable/antenna.
No feedback from the Garmin support so far.

Called garmin & they confirmed that Nuvi 1390 has some software bugs that will be rectify once they release a software/fimrware update.
In the meantime, Garmin has agreed to my replace my device with another one, which I may receive either today or tomorrow.

Fletch, have you done a side-by-side comparison of the sound quality [both ways] of the bluetooth feature of a 7x5T and a 13xxT ? Fletch? Anyone else?

-dk

I'm concerned about one thing.

The 1370T doesn't have junction view. The 1390T does. Seems an odd omission; the code had long been written when the 1370T came out, and the problem can't be the Europe data per se, because the 775T has junction view. I'm concerned that the problem is that the 13xxT series has too small a flash memory to accommodate both Europe and Junction View.

Why do I care [assuming I don't care about Junction View for its own sake]?

Because I would probably buy a maps update package. Maps probably grow over time, as POIs get added and streets get added and the map data gets more accurate [with more inflection points in the data]. If the map data are shoehorned into the 1370T, will an update fail sometime in the future?

Fletch, do you know how much spare memory there is in the 1370T?

-dk

Received my replacement Nuvi 1390T from Garmin & it still has the same bug as the one I had sent back. The issue is as folows:
The unit doesn't retain the keyboard layout setting I select, which is ABCDE. It reverts to QWERTY once you power the unit down. I was hoping that Garmin would have released an update to fix the issue by now, but so far there's none.
One thing I find very impressive about the 1390T compared to all other Nuvis I have owned is the fact that it acquires satellite so FAST.

Does Nuvi765T have updates for ecoroute function similar to Nuvi1390T? If not, could it in the future?

Hi guys
I have just bought a garmin nuvi 1390T this week.After starting it up for the first time,all went well but along the journey it rebouted itself!Then the screen got frozen!It did restart itself several times!Is this normal????Has anyone else encountered this problem??What do i do since i have owned it less than a week??Please help

I have encountered issue (described above) with Nuvi 1390T. Mine never rebooted, but froze up few times. This is my 2nd one as Garmin had already replaced mine 3 weeks ago or so & I'm just waiting for Garmin to release a patch or firmware update to rectify the issues since the replacement unit is experiencing the same issues as the one I shipped back to Garmin.
In your case, I would start by calling Garmin & open a ticket & it's up to you to request an exchange or not.

Thanks for your comments ...i am on vaccation at the moment and dont have my receipt with me however i am tring to cotact garmin tech support.In the mean time my gPS still rebouts itself!!

I too have a rebooting problem with my new 1390T, most annoying. It seems to be related to the safety camera proximity warning, I get a warning then it starts resetting over and over until I am clear of the area. I had the same problem at exactly the same place on my outward and return jouney yesterday. I have turned off this feature and it seems to have stopped resettign itself. I need to either return the unit for a refund or log a call with Garmin support - I'll try that first.

I finally had garmin tech support and they asked me to download a version 2.70 from their website and it seems to be working!Apparently this unit had a version 2.4 which caused a reboot problem.My case was exactly like yours and each time approached a radar controlled area it beeped and then reboots!!Try to download this version ofcourse with garmin help and see if it works.Will keep you posted guys ...once again thanks for your response

The 765T does have ecorouting, as do the 2x5 series (at least the 265wt) do as well.

After updating my Nuvi 1390T with v. 2.70, my keyboard started acting up. For instance, if you pressed A, you would get B & if you pressed B, you would get C & so on. So, if wanted A, then you were screwed since there was no letter that would give you A.
Called Garmin Support & the friendly tech immediately said that the keyboard requires calibration.
Keyboard calibration is not as straightforward as it is on other Nuvis & is not documented on the manual either.
Here are the steps to perform for keyboard calibration:

To calibrate the keyboard:

1. Turn device off
2. Put finger on upper left hand corner & hold it
3. Power device on (may take up to 30 seconds)
4. You will get the keyboard calibration screen
5. Calibrate keyboard
6. Done
7. Test
8. Pray that it’ll work
9. In my case, thank God, it worked.

Hi Fletch,

Great reviews! I've been reading them for hours!

I was also curious about speaker volume for navigation and bluetooth. I know in your review of the 1490T you said volume is %35 louder. Is the same applicable to the 1390T?

Yes, the volume on 1390T is noticeably louder than my 680 & 785T I returned to Garmin.

Regarding 765 vs 1390: What about the new option to have tabs on the side on the 1390T? For those of us former owners of a 2610/2720/2820, that is a welcome addition that is a point for the 1390...

Also, the price difference of the 2 units is almost negligoble as of 8/31 on Amazon.

Purchased 765 but returned it because the screen was to dark. Called Garmin, they stated that screens were darker on some units. Anyone else have this problem and is screen brighter on 1390T

Got the 1390 a week or so ago, had had Navman until this one.

Good:
Maps are good
Speed/Red Lights are good
Operation is simple
GPS fix time and update of position are good

Great:
Spoken instructions are excellent
Junction view and lane guidance are good

Bad:
Bluetooth is not compatible with many phones, check yours FIRST
No marking of one way streets on maps!!!!!!
Can't separate Red Light from speed cams
Lack of detail on maps
No multi stop routing
No way to put "roads to avoid"
No warning of toll roads (only avoid altogether)

Worst:
Garmin's support sucks! (model not even on their website!!!!!)

I purchased the 1390T and whilst I have not had the problems identified above I have problems with registering the product as this item is not listed on the web site and have received no reply to email requesting help but a handout which does not answer the questions.
Has anyone solved this problem? As it would appear that registration is required to solve future problems this seems to be important.

I purchased the 1390T and whilst I have not had the problems identified above I have problems with registering the product as this item is not listed on the web site and have received no reply to email requesting help but a handout which does not answer the questions.
Has anyone solved this problem? As it would appear that registration is required to solve future problems this seems to be important.

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Does anyone know if the 765T is STILL having the issues mentioned about the software and are the models being shipped and sold now, ready to go without downloading any updates? I was going to buy one for my guy for Christmas and its between the 765T and the 1390T, but as someone mentioned, the 765T has more features, but I did read a lot of bad reviews on it because of the crashing problem and being unable to update it properly. I'd hate to give a huge problem as a Christmas gift! Pricewise, they are about the same from what I've found.

Given the initial reviews comments about the traffic receiver, does that information still hold true, or has their been a software update that improves reception?
Also, from what I here, given the latest firmware release the 765t seems to be a solid unit now.

Thanks for the great review.

You mentioned that the 1390 allows categories to be added to favorites. Does it support the ability to select favorites based on categories as supported on the 265w?

On my 1390 (version 3.3), I see all favorites listed but there's no option to list the favorites by categories. I found this quite useful on the 265W (default feature).

Thanks.