Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic Reviews

July 14, 2010 Sclark 5 comments

Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic

Bright, 3.5-inch diagonal color QVGA TFT touchscreen with 320 x 240 pixels and white backlight
Sleek, ultra-thin design fits easily in pocket
Preloaded with City Navigator North America NT and Europe NT
Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling
NOTE: Model number on the box is 275T because the traffic receiver is included; however, the model number on the device itself is 275 as the “T” in 275T refers to the additional component

Rating: (out of 142 reviews)

List Price: $ 379.99

Price: $ 173.99

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GPS and Navigation 275/275T, 3.5Inch, Bluetooth, Garmin, Navigator, nüvi, Portable, Reviews, Traffic

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Written by M. K. Love about 2 years ago.

Review by M. K. Love for Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Rating:
I purchased this device a few weeks ago in anticipation of a trip to the UK. I’ve driven there before, navigating with the excellent AA road atlases, but being an American driving a right hand drive car with a manual transmission, sometimes in bad weather, I would often get task-saturated. I thought a GPS or “Sat Nav” as they call them, would make the job a little easier.

The only features that I really needed in a GPS unit were the U.S and European maps and text-to-speech, (“turn left on High street”), beyond that, additional whistles and bells didn’t matter to me.

Initially I looked at both Garmin and TomTom and decided to go with Garmin since it was less expensive to find a unit that had North American and European maps. I paid about $270 for my 275T, it was the least expensive unit that had European maps pre-installed. Buying the European map separately would cost you approximately $150 and the UK-only map runs about $99.

The 275T operation is fairly straight forward. It has all of the normal features that one would expect to find on a modern GPS unit to include a fairly robust POI (Point Of Interest) database loaded with gas stations, restaurants, airports etc… The touch screen works well and although the size is smaller, (3.5″ vs 4.3″ on some larger units), it was more than adequate to display all of the necessary information. The voice directions are very helpful, especially when driving in heavy traffic. Traffic updates in the US arrive via an FM transmitter in the charger cord, (in Europe you have to plug in an antenna wire which comes with the unit). You can also easily preload lots of destinations to your “favorites” on the device by using the Google map or Panoramio photo websites.

In the UK the 275T proved to be invaluable; you feel much freer to stray from the beaten path and do a bit of exploring knowing that your GPS will always get you to your appointed destination. The time to destination estimates were accurate and the routes were efficient. When initially turned on, the unit located satellites quickly and never lost the connection except when in parking garages, or tunnels. Sometimes when surrounded by lots of tall buildings, like in downtown London, the unit would appear to get confused about the direction in which it was pointing. Moving the car just a few dozen feet or so normally corrected this. The included Europe maps were very accurate with the exception of a new stretch of highway between Falkirk and Edinburgh which was not included on the map database. Road names, one-way streets, and parking areas were all up to date. I found the inclusion of “safety camera” locations, (read: “speed trap cameras”), to be very helpful; it even flashed a red warning when you exceed the speed limit in an area with a camera.

The only feature that I sometimes wish was included was a compass heading. If you just turn on the unit, but don’t program in a destination, your directional heading, (North, East etc…), is displayed in the lower right hand corner. However when it’s giving you directions, your estimated time to arrival takes up that area of the screen. Overall however, I thought the unit was great and I would recommend the 275T if your travels take you between North America and Europe on occasion. Renting a GPS with your car in the UK will typically add about $15 per day; use your 275T for a couple weeks and it’s practically paid for itself.
Written by Rudy Schlaf about 2 years ago.

Review by Rudy Schlaf for Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Rating:
First the good: The Nuvi 275T is a capable navigator that gives precise spoken instructions and seems to find good routes to specified locations. The display is nice and even readable in adverse lighting situations. The battery life could be a bit longer that one could use it on a bike or for hiking. It runs less than 4 hours, and the batteries cannot be exchanged (this also means it will die an ipod-style death in a couple of years). A great feature is that it can directly be fed with locations through Google maps, so one does not have to use the silly Garmin software anymore for this task. I summary, this is a pretty useful device.

Now the bad: It says on the box that the maps are guaranteed for 60 days after purchase to make sure one has the newest data in there at the time of purchase. Logging on to Garmin however yields a mechanism that only allows to update either the US or the Europe maps, but not both. If you want both you have to pay for the other one…I would call this procedure misleading. Also: ‘Lifetime updates’ (of course, typically Garmin, only for the lifetime of the device, i.e. for about two years) cost $149, which, considering the current price of the device of
Written by Derrick about 2 years ago.

Review by Derrick for Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Rating:
I am amazed! We got this device to use on our vacation driving though France and it made the trip. No stress about getting lost, or running out of gas. If we saw a cute country road, we took it, when we wanted to find our way back, the 275 would tell us in easy to follow instructions on how to get back on track. We went on roads without names, signs, or map instructions fearlessly. When we needed gas in rural nowhere, it took us right to it. Highway interchanges in the city, no problem, it tells you in advance if you are going to be splitting left or right. It also will take you right to your hotel, so don’t worry about directions, or if you need, it will find you a nearby hotel like the gas station.

I have only used it for the 2 weeks in France, but it far surpassed our expectations. Indeed I just gave up trying to follow where we were on the map and just relaxed. It even gives a rather accurate ETA, which it updates continuously.

Now we did try using it to navigate on foot in Spain with somewhat spotty results. It seems to work much better when you are in a car. It trys to navigate like you are in a car and has difficulty at street corners trying to tell which direction you are going…but it did find us nearby Chinese food in Madrid when we got a craving.

Really this gadget saved us so much stress, time, and fuel. The included car charger worked great in Europe, so don’t bother with the travel pack.
Written by Robert Traub about 2 years ago.

Review by Robert Traub for Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Rating:
I bought the Nuvi to guide me around Spain on a recent trip. I had my doubts whether the unit would perform as advertised, but overall it did well. Initially it took some time to find the satellites, and then afterwards it found them relatively quickly.

There were a few operational issues that I have come to learn are problems most GPS’ experience. For example, the voice would say turn left and the screen would show us having to make a right turn; the screen was usually correct. While driving, that uncertainty can instill serious doubt, and when you are in unknown territory, with road signs in a language other than your native tongue, doubt can quickly turn to panic. It also makes for intense conversation between the driver and passenger, whether to continue trusting a device that points you in two directions at once. Another instance of doubt: Even though I updated the map just before embarking on the trip, Nuvi insisted we were driving on a dirt road, haranguing us to get back on track, while we were driving on a new four lane superhighway that was obviously the correct route. What concerned me is that while the highway was new and it connected two major cities (Salamanca and Avila), I had updated the map a week before, so this should not have been too much of a surprise. While using the unit back in the States, it had me making a turn the wrong way down a one way street in Manhattan, which could have had disastrous consequences. I will advise Garmin on that one.

The amazing side was the technology, accurately keeping track of our speed, distance from and time remaining until we reached our destination. It was reassuring to have the double check against a printed map while en route. The unit is extremely well made, and accessories such as the window clamp, adapter and hard pillow that sits on the dashboard to hold the unit (rather than the window clamp) are sturdy and top rate. The unit is small and the screen size is perfectly adequate to read and guide you (I don’t really see the need for a widescreen one). It fit easily in my fanny pack or shirt pocket for security, so as not to leave it in the car.

One major downside that I would grade Garmin one star for is their map update policy. You pay a premium to get a unit like this that has both US and European maps. The flexibility is terrific, but if you want to update the maps you have to choose which set of maps to update. You want to update the other set too? That will set you back $70!! That is petty nonsense. As I understand, this unit is new to the market. Amazon claims their turnover is high, so you always get a current map. Yet, when I checked the Garmin website, there was an update available for the maps on my Nuvi. And by updating it, I used the one and only free update offered. Again, petty nonsense.

Using the menu system requires some getting used to, and if you are in a hurry to input something on the fly, you will not be happy; it takes multiple steps and tapping to spell out the cities and street names, or scroll the Points of Interest lists.

Still in all, the unit provided a peace of mind that I have rarely had while driving overseas. The accuracy to literally bring you to a doorstep in a foreign country is remarkable. Like all things technical, perfection is not possible. This is a useful tool.
Written by CK about 2 years ago.

Review by CK for Garmin nüvi 275/275T 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
Rating:
I purchased the nuvi 275T for a trip to France this past spring. After downloading the US and European map updates (it takes awhile) I practiced with the unit on a few local trips. Everything worked as expected, even the FM traffic updates (you won’t get these in Europe unless you subscribe to the service for that area — unnecessary, in my opinion). I was surprised how useful the info provided by the Garmin was compared to the two nav units (Nissan & Honda) in my automobiles. No more high priced OEM navigators for me! In France unit worked very well for walking around Paris in the pedestrian mode — just don’t expect to get more than four hours useful time if you leave it on continuously. The real “proof in the pudding” came in our rental car. Simply put, the nuvi 275T lived up to my every expectation. Of particular usefulness was the speed limit indicator and speed camera alert. On several occasions while driving in small towns with very narrow winding streets I missed a turn or two (well, maybe three), the Garmin always found a quick re-route to get us back on track — trust me in this — it knows better than you which streets are one way and which are not! I have read on a couple of travel sites that implied the Garmin was better in the US but the Tom Tom was better in Europe — I find it hard to believe that the Tom Tom could be better than perfect — because that’s what the Garmin was.