I’ve had a garmin 205 and garmin 1450, and both are on their last legs so i’m looking at a new one.
What features do the new ones offer that are an improvement over the older models? I know they have voice recognition software now, but what other improvements?
Is garmin still the best model? It used to be tomtom wasn’t very good, but I have no idea about the market now.
Some of that depends on the model - low end models have lower features. But the number of features available on most models is increasing over time.
Lane indicators that tell you which lane you need to be in to make a turn or during a complicated interchange. An interchange image simulator where it mocks up what the signs and lanes should look like, and shows you where to go - the image flashes briefly before you get there. Better text to speech (road names, more verbose instructions). Voice activation too. It claims the directions will be more human-like and reference things like landmarks.
Some have cell modems in them and can pull live data like traffic and google searches. The screen will be higher resolution and the responsiveness will typically be faster.
Glancing at newer models (the last one I bought was from 2012) it appears that they have things like linking with your phone to share destinations, make calls, data updates to the device if it doesn’t have its own connection like weather and traffic. Apparently newer models have actual images in addition or in place of the simulated images I mentioned above. The interface in general will be more refined too.
Which Garmin 205? If it’s the Forerunner sports watch, almost anything newer is going to be much lighter, smaller, and still provide more useful data.
Same goes for the Edge 205 bicycle computer. The old 205 didn’t have that good of a display. The newer Edge’s track much more data and sync up to a PC or smart phone easily.
However for cycling or use in a car, I’m afraid that Garmin and other GPS manufacturers are in for a hard time. Smart phones are rivaling stand-alone GPS units. I don’t think that the future is too bright for Garmin. That’s a shame as I’ve been using their car, bicycle, and running products for over a decade now.
If you have a phone that will run it, Waze is free. It is superior to any of the dedicated navigators that I have owned.
Except for specialized uses like cycling computers and backwoods hiking topography the standalone GPS receiver business is falling off rapidly. Cell phone / tablet apps are now good enough for driving and some do routes for biking, walking, and public transport, even showing bus schedules and routes.
I needed to replace my standalone GPSr a few weeks ago … tried out all the Android GPS apps I could find on a tablet I was rarely using for anything else. Here is the one I am using (note that Here is the name of the app, not just a clever link.)
It is usable offline, no data connection required after you download the maps you choose. It can do live traffic if you allow it to use cell data. It has a very spartan kind of Euro-modern looking interface but all the important info is there once you get used to looking for it in a different place than your old unit displayed it. And it is actually totally free; no gimmicks or gotchas or ads.
One thing that threw me a bit at first with Here is that I was used to having to enter a destination by first choosing State, then City, then Street, then address number. On Here, it just says “Set Destination”. Turns out you simply type in your destination; the autocomplete is very intelligent. I was going to Kmart and as soon as I typed in km it showed a list of the three nearest Kmart stores. When I was heading for a local park I knew the name had Memorial in it but didn’t remember the rest of the name; typed in mem and the park was the first thing on the list.
All in all, if you have a cell phone or GPS enabled tablet it is definitely worth trying out the GPS navigation apps. They have come a long way in the past few years.
They make a Nuvi 205; it was one of the lowest end Nuvis.
I’m actually looking to get a new Garmin (or possibly TomTom/Magellan) unit for the car. My old one died & I’m sick of being SOL when I’m somewhere w/o data on my phone. It’s happened a couple of times, including this past weekend when I was enroute/in Western NY, a sparsely populated area w/o cell service in places.
There are lots of cell phone GPS apps that work offline. Here by Nokia that I linked to above is one of them.
I’ve had several Garmin products, both Nuvi units for the car and Egde units for my bikes. While I like the products, my experience is that the units are not very robust, and not supported very long after newer units are available. Good software, mapping, and GPS functions, delivered on hardware with a limited expected life. I’ll likely pass on any new Garmin products.