Pre-loaded with complete Navteq maps for all of North America and Europe
4.3-inch, touch-screen TFT LCD display with 480 x 272 pixels of resolution
Bluetooth for hands-free calling; Integrated receiver for traffic data
MP3 player, photo viewer, world clock, currency and measurement converters, calculator and more
Weighs 6.2 ounces and measures 4.9 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches (W x H x D)
This review is from: Garmin nvi 670 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS NavigatorI bought this to replace a Tomtom Navigator 5 system running on a Dell x51v with the external Tomtom Bluetooth receiver. The major issues with that were a terrible lack of POIs, terrible time and distance predictions, poor routing, no control of the map view and the receiver shutting off despite being on external power.First thing I noticed on opening the box is that the mains charger comes with adapters for all the countries I regularly visit, so I clicked the US two pin adapter in place, plugged it in then plugged the lead into the 670. It came on immediately and said it was loading maps. A few seconds later it showed a map. It was already locked on! That's a huge advance from the old days when it took at least 4 minutes for my GPSIII+ to find the satellites. I am in the middle of the top floor of a large open plan building, the position shown was accurate. Without looking at the manual I got rid of the touch beep, bound it to my bluetooth phone, set the timezone and voice and set it up to navigate to a restaurant for lunch. All in under 15 minutes with time out for work.In the car I mounted the unit to the windshield and plugged in the power conenction, it immediately lit up green to show it was connected to the traffic system. I was expecting to have to register and sign up for a service agreement, instead it came up and showed it was already enabled with 3 months to run. A few minutes later I looked at the traffic detail map and saw it already showed the local problem areas. Very cool.Apparently the 2.60+ firmware handles 4Gb SD cards so I ordered one and look forward to trying the MP3 player. (I have used three different 4Gb cards since I wrote this and they all work perfectly.)I tested the POI list by looking for gas stations and particular stores in the area, it had everything I knew of and more, so I am very hopeful at this stage.I'm looking forward to trying the hands free too, all we did so far is dial another cell phone in the car and laugh about the echo we got. Sound quality and volume seemed good. I'm going for a 1500 mile road trip to Utah this weekend, so I'll update after that.1685 miles later...Garmin certainly has accurate maps for CA, NV and UT, they seemed very up to date. The option to "avoid dirt roads" was especially welcome and saved me some nasty miles that the direct route would have taken on unpaved roads. Routing was mostly good, but could do with some more skepticism on the choice of rural state roads. I was happy to take route 88 into the Sierras from the bay area because I was on a road trip, but I80 is probably 50% faster. The one significant bug is a holdover from previous Garmin products like the GPS V, it is also an issue it shares with Tomtom. While heading down an interstate, let's take I880 from Oakland to Fremont as an example, with many miles of straight ahead to go, the 670 will direct you off at a ramp, it likes to take the I238 ramp towards Livermore, and then immediately back on. This is amusing to a local, but it could be very confusing to a visitor. It did the same to me in 395 south through Reno last night, that did confuse me. This is a bug that should have been eradicated years ago.Another issue with the GPS V is still present in the 670. When recalculating the map display is suspended, so right when you need to see what's going on you have a useless map. When routing resumes it gives the verbal instructions before repainting the map. Not good. In contrast the Tomtom always recalculates silently and just flashes up the new route. The Tomtom never leaves you with a dead screen. I don't like to be told every time the route is recalculated, when I go the wrong way, for whatever reason, there's no brownie points to be gained telling me off. At the very least there should be the option to disable this 'feature'.POI selection is absolutely outstanding, at least compared to other things I have used. It makes the Tomtom implementation look like amateur night. You can select the POI by type, gas stations, shops and restaurants are my favorites, then either go straight to the list of hit SPELL and type in part of the name. It will match on any part of the name, so you can include partial names, even partial words, and it will still show the matches. Once you have your list you can select by address, direction and distance, or see the POI on a map. The direction changes from compass direction when stationary to relative direction when moving, so you don't have to waste your time looking a...
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