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Garmin nüvi 205W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

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Garmin nüvi 205W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

(451 customer reviews)

SKU:

CH_32633

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The Garmin nüvi 205W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator leads the way with turn-by-turn directions and optional MSN® Direct services to get you there on time and keep you informed.

List Price:	$249.99
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Product Details

Product Length:	4.8 inches
Product Width:	2.8 inches
Product Height:	0.8 inches
Product Weight:	0.95 pounds
Package Length:	5.6 inches
Package Width:	5.5 inches
Package Height:	2.9 inches
Package Weight:	1.0 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 451 reviews

Features

4.3 in Touch Screen Navigator with 2D/3D Maps
Turn by Turn Voice Directions and Optional MSN Direct Services
Where Am I Emergency Locator / You Always Know Your Location
With HotFix, It Calculates Your Position Faster to Get You There Quicker
JPEG Picture Viewer, World Travel Clock, Currency Converter, Calculator and More

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.0

( 451 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

333 of 341 found the following review helpful:

Very good 'cheap' GPS if looking for basic navigation Dec 08, 2008 By R. Toro "Tech Junkie"
I have had this unit for about 8 months. It has given me no problems what so ever. The bad thing about it for me is how basic it is. If you want bluetooth compatibility, traffic updates, movie times, etc on your GPS, then this is not the device for you. But if all you want is to get around and find places, then this unit will work well.

The price seems a little high right now for what it does ($180). For that price I would expect bluetooth compatibility. This unit does not say the road names, it just says turn left or turn right in 200 feet(not a big deal). When you look places up, it has their phone number and address (usually) which is nice because if its late at night, you can call first to see if they are still open.

This GPS has an SD card reader on the side, which can be used to view pictures in slideshow mode when you don't need the unit for navigation.

The screen is very bright during the day, so you can easily see the screen. And a nice feature is that when it gets dark, the screen automatically changes colors to 'night' mode, which helps when driving at night (the screen dims and the bright white background colors change to dark blues and blacks).

The trip features are nice. It keeps track of your average speed, how long you spent moving, how long you spent stopped, total travel time, how many miles you've gone, etc.

It takes about a minute to a minute and a half to find your location from a cold start, but if you leave it powered all the time (with a car in which the cig lighter stays on when you turn the car off) it never loses the location (not sure if that is bad for it).

The battery life is very good (about 4-5 hours).

There are many add-ons that a technologically advanced person can add to it. Such as custom points of interest (you can download them or even make your own, and you can set alerts so that it warns you when you are close to a certain place or when you are speeding in a school zone). You can add different vehicle icons to use as the car on the screen.

Overall, it is a decent, but very basic navigation device. Not many bells or whistles, but it gets you from point A to point B well.

783 of 811 found the following review helpful:

Best I can find, but room for improvement Aug 31, 2008 By Brian Morris
[UPDATE 6/25/2011] I found a GPS I actually like! It's the Garmin nuvi 1690 4.3-Inch Portable Bluetooth Navigator with Google Local Search & Real-Time Traffic Alerts. My review is now there -- maybe I can get in the top reviews again... If you can't find it, comment here.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I have owned a Garmin c320 for a few years now and was looking for some new features, like coordinates and altitude. I first bought the TomTom 330 XL, which was a disaster. After lots of research, I bought this and kept it. Here is my long list of pros and cons:

PROS:

1. Best routes. (See my cons) This may be one of the main reasons Garmin dominates in the US -- good routing. Of course, I wish it had more a brain and could think about traffic lights and general traffic in certain areas at certain times (not actual traffic reporting), but I guess needing brains is good.

2. Where Am I? (See my cons) This will list your nearest street address. In this screen it also shows altitude and your coordinates.

3. Easier broad map access. On my c320, you had to dig in the menus to find a broad map view, so you could touch areas on the map and go to it. On the 205w, you can just touch the map while driving and it will take you to the broad map. You can then touch an area that you want to make a Via Point and change your route that way.

4. Speed Limit sign. You can set it up to show the current speed limit on the screen. It has been super accurate to the instant of a speed limit change in real driving. If the sign is missing on the screen, you also then know that it doesn't really know how to calculate arrival time from the road. You may want to use that information to take or avoid that road on your next trip.

5. Very compact. My c320 was much bigger, so this is super small.

CONS:

1. Touchscreen. This may change as I use it, but the touchscreen is no where near as sensitive as my c320. It requires some hard touching. It also shows fingerprints much worse than my old GPS unit.

2. Ball mount. This gives a better range of motion than the mount on my c320, but it feels like I need to push really hard on my GPS unit to get it to snap in. This may change in age, too.

3. Keyboard speed. When I'm typing in a city, street, etc., the keyboard is a full QWERY keyboard, which is an improvement over my c320 (I think you can choose ABC keyboard), but there are two things I don't like: 1) there is a delay from when you type to when it shows, so if you type fast, you can't see what you're typing, if you make a mistake, you don't see if very fast; 2)the spacebar is tiny and way off to the right, while dumb menus are in the bottom middle -- very annoying!!

4. Charging cord. On my c320, the charging cord would plug into the mount and there wasn't a charge jack in the GPS unit itself. This was nice because you could leave the power cord in the mount all the time and take the GPS with you - you never had to plug in, just clip the GPS in and out. Now, the power cord won't stay put and it falls out the door, etc. because it must be plugged into the back of the GPS. I suppose with the mount the way it is, it's not possible to have a jack in the mount and GPS, but I think they should work on that.

5. Current road. The TomTom XL 330 did show what road you are currently on and what the next road to turn onto was. Garmin only shows the next road name.

6. Routing pet peeve. Sometimes I won't want to take its routing because I know of a better way. Let's say I turn off of the normal route -- it will recalculate and have a shorter time than before I turned. What's up with that? Why didn't it take me that way to begin with?

6. Routing choices. I don't like the fact that I can choose either Fastest Time or Shortest Route. I would imagine that some of the time, the best route would be in between those to extremes.

7. Missing POIs. There are just so many cases where I'll be looking for something and it's not in the Garmin -- even for stores and restaurants open for years. I know you'll have this will all GPS units, but for the #1 seller in the US, can't they figure out a way to get the users involved? How about incentives for users to fix problems online and give them discounts on map updates? If you have the best maps and POIs by far, why would anyone buy any other company?

8. Tinny speaker. I'm not impressed with the speaker, it is much worse sounding than the deep c320, but you can hear it. It's just not pleasant.

9. Voice choices. It would be nice to choose your voice, but I don't see that option, unless you choose another language.

10. Nearest intersection. This is within the "Where Am I" place in the menu. It could be very useful in an emergency to have the nearest intersection in addition to the nearest address. However, I've found that they should have labeled it, "random intersection within a few miles." It will generally show me a major intersection, and sometimes ignore dozens of closer small intersections that would be much more beneficial to the police, fire, ambulance, etc.

11. Volume. I hate how they have the volume setup. On the c320 there was a wheel on the side of the unit -- that's best. On the TomTom, there was a place on the main driving screen that you touched and then moved the volume slider. On this 205W, you must hit Menu, Volume, move it, then back, then View Map. This is just awful. I want a Mute button on the driving screen and a separate volume button there, too. This is widescreen after all. I hope this doesn't cause accidents, because I think it will. When I answer my phone, I want fast access to mute!

12. Need customization! Let me choose 3 shortcut buttons for the driving map view. That way I can put Where Am I, Volume, and POI on the main screen. Please!! I also want to change my route color to red instead of light purple.

13. POI choices. This is something I've never found a GPS that does this how I want it. If I'm looking for gas or food, it is usually on a long trip. If I want to go to fast food, let's say (that wouldn't happen!), I would choose Restaurant, Fast Food. It will show me all the restaurants by how far they are from me now. That's not what I want, so I choose Near...My Current Route. That's closer to what I want, but it still shows how far it is from where I am now. I want it to show me that, but also how far I'd have to deviate from my route.

[UPDATE 6/5/09] 14. Battery life. The battery life is just awful in my unit. It might last a few hours, and if it is sitting idle for a couple weeks, it's almost dead. My c320's battery was far superior. It has been this way since it was new. I suppose mine could be defective..

Overall, this is an excellent unit and I would buy it again because I believe the Pros outweigh the Cons and no competitor has yet beat it.

[UPDATE 3/18/10] I'm still using this and it's working well, except for the battery life. I did find that you can add the EcoRoute features if you upgrade your firmware from Garmin's website. Sorry, I can't post instructions, but the feature is very cool. You add your car's miles per gallon and the current gas price and it tells you how much it will cost to get to your destination, along with other features.

150 of 153 found the following review helpful:

Back to Great Navigation ... at its BEST Sep 03, 2008 By W. Engelken
I agree with others that mp3, bluetooth, fm, announcing street "names," etc., is overboard and is NOT what makes a good GPS. Certainly Garmin has to make those for persons who want them; but for really just GOOD AND FAST navigation, the new series (205W etc) is all that's necessary and is awesome at that. What is a good GPS ... the Garmin handheld 60CSx ... which I have! So I compared the two which isn't really realistic since they both have different purposes, but both do navigation extremely well. Only the 60CSx will maintain its connection in extremely difficult areas (sky scraper buildings, overpasses, canyons, forest canopy, etc); but the 205W is not a slouch here either.

Satelite information ... Speed: the 205W is every bit as fast as the 60CSx, if not just a tad faster, and that, in itself is amazing. It gathers satellites easily and once obtained, reconnects almost instantaneously after being turned back on. Get off Interstate 35E in Dallas and try to get back on ... it's a nightmare. But for the Nuvie 205W it was easy and very clearly described and stated ... a great GPS.

I was skeptical at first about the new series until I read what Garmin accomplished here and other comments from reviewers: fast chip, storage for 1000 favorites, trip minder, clear directions and markings with distances given, road mph and your current mph (on screen) and time arrival at the objective (waypoint to go to), beautiful wide screen, easy mount dismount, etc. I could go on and on but ... if it is toys you want (mp3, bluetooth telephone, fm, etc.), don't buy this one. BUT if you want the absolute BEST for the BUCK navigation ... this series has it. The reaction speed of the unit is really impressive.

My wife loves this unit and how easy it is to do what she wants (that, my friend, is a good sales talk ...).

Garmin's back to great navigation is ... great and at a great price. Your friends will be impressed.

Only complaint ... no online operators manual ... yet? But since I already had the 60CSx, it was easy to figure out and Garmin menus are easy and direct you to what you need to know. I have owned and used the 205W Nuvi since July 14, 2008. Very satisfied!

54 of 55 found the following review helpful:

Nice Choice Sep 11, 2008 By G. Carlson
I am very impressed with this product and it sure is nice knowing I will never be lost again as I have in the past (just ask my wife).

If you could afford the extra expense, I would recommend choosing the larger 4.3 display (205W). The 205W's only drawback is the street name is not announced which is something I thought I might regret but it is easily seen at the top of the display.

A GPS power supply for the car is included. I mention this because it is not clearly stated in the product details.

This 205W model would be what the majority of customers would need in a GPS without all the useless features that the more expensive models offer.

51 of 52 found the following review helpful:

Best value in wide-screen GPS... plain & simple. Sep 02, 2008 By Rav
The Garmin nuvi 205W is simply a great GPS and the best value of any widescreen GPS. It has a no extra bells and whistles (no MP3 player -LOL, doesn't speak road names - annoying, no maps of Alaska or Canada - not needed, no FM transmitter to listen to MP3 - useless gimmick, etc.). The 205W is a useful widescreen GPS - plain and simple. It has over 6 million POIs (restaurants, lodging, shopping) and can be customized to add your own POIs. It has a trip computer which I used last week on a road trip to Hershey Park which was pretty neat (tracks time traveled, speed, distance, etc.). This newly released Garmin GPS has the new user interface which shows the road speed limit, your speed, next turn arrow and distance to next turn all on the main screen. The mapping information is the best available on the market and will provide you with clear directions on where you want to go. The Garmin 205 (regular screen) and the 205W (widescreen) are both highly recommended - just a matter of preference in screen size.

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