To hell with buying an iPhone app for your satnav needs – nothing beats a standalone unit, and these latest nüvi devices from Garmin look pretty tasty.
Dubbed the 1000 series, the new nüvi satnavs measure in at just 15.5mm thick, and all come loaded with the latest version of WhereIs mapping. There’s a range of features and prices, all of which are detailed below:
nüvi 1250 – $299
3.5” screen
Ultra-thin GPS (15.5mm)
Preloaded Australia & New Zealand maps
Text to speech
ecoRoute – for fuel efficient navigation
Traffic compatible (with optional traffic receiver)
Preloaded Safety camerasnüvi 1260 – $349
3.5” screen
Ultra-thin GPS (15.5mm)
Bluetooth hands-free calling
Preloaded Australia & New Zealand maps
Text to speech
ecoRoute – for fuel efficient navigation
Traffic compatible (with optional traffic receiver)
Preloaded Safety camerasnüvi 1350 – $399
4.3” widescreen
Ultra-thin GPS (15.5mm)
Lane assist
Preloaded Australia & New Zealand maps
Text to speech
ecoRoute – for fuel efficient navigation
Traffic compatible (with optional traffic receiver)
Preloaded Safety camerasnüvi 1390 – $449
4.3” widescreen
Ultra-thin GPS (15.5mm)
Lane assist
Real View Advanced Lane Guidance
Preloaded Australia & New Zealand maps
Text to speech
Bluetooth hands-free calling
ecoRoute – for fuel efficient navigation
Traffic compatible (with optional traffic receiver)
Preloaded Safety camerasnüvi 1390T – $549
4.3” widescreen
Ultra-thin GPS (15.5mm)
Lane assist
Real View Advanced Lane Guidance
Preloaded Australia & New Zealand maps
Bluetooth hands-free calling
Text to speech
ecoRoute – for fuel efficient navigation
Built-in traffic alerts
Preloaded Safety cameras
Other differentiating features include colour-coding the units to represent Bluetooth capabilities (if it’s black, you can call back; If it’s silver, there’s no Bluetooth inside and there are few words that rhyme with silver so get over it) and the ability to enter an address without knowing what suburb it’s in (thank the Gods!)
[Garmin]
Dan Halford
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 9:47 AMAny news on whether they’ve dropped their stupid alphabetic keyboard layout or at least given the user an option to choose a QWERTY keyboard? Oh, and when it does its ‘time to destination’ calculation, it actually takes into account real driving conditions instead of assuming thatyou’ll be able to travel at the speed limit without stopping all the way.
John Martin
Friday, December 25, 2009 at 9:06 PMGot my new chrismas present today, a 1390T.
1. Querty is definitely an option (it seems to be the default)
2. The routing software seems to be oblivious to the presence of traffic lights (whereis maps ?) and tends to send you along say the princess highway rather than along the gore hill freeway .. go figure.
3. The ecoroute software seems to differ completely from any available documentation, I’m sure it works, but its annoying
4. The australian voices are the best of the bunch (more recent encoding perhaps), the british ones sound like a dalek ate a shakespearian actor
5. I now have three female voices that nag me in the car, my wife, my “mini-me” wife aka my lovely stepdaughter, and now “Karen”, who has a distinct note of disapproval whenever I choose not continue along the freeway when she thinks I should take an exit and she intones “recalculating route”. On the other hand I’m so used to this from my flesh and blood females that I may be expecting it
6. The traffic avoidance thing is pretty good for roadworks, but not particularly snappy with its updates otherwise (though it was Xmas, so maybe it was just that there was nobody entering updates that day), a accident in Sylvania that jammed up King Georges road was notes on traffic update signs but didnt show on the satnav
7. Yet to try the GPS
8. Overall, despite the odd little quirk with its routing decisions I’m pretty happy, so far.