| Directionally challenged? Many people lose their sense of direction. Getting from point A to Point B can be so stress provoking that you hardly want to leave point A. The Garmin nuvi 785T helps get you from one point to another and helps you have fun at any point you choose. And you'll never be lost. The nuvi 785T offers full coverage mapping for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The preloaded map data features nearly six million points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and attractions. The map data is provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping. It features 3D buildings, lane assist and lifetime traffic alerts from NAVTEQ. Take advantage of Garmin's first premium traffic service without subscription fees. 3D navigation with lane assist provides drivers a clear picture of what lies ahead on their route, including road sign detail and arrows indicating the proper lane for navigation. Some areas even offer a 3D view of buildings. Steer clear of traffic with nuvi's integrated FM traffic receiver. Receive alerts about traffic delays and road construction that lie ahead on your route. The nuvi 785T features an MSN Direct receiver with a 3 month trial subscription that includes updated information about traffic conditions, fuel prices, weather reports, movie listings, headline news, stock quotes and local events. Auto time zone will automatically adjust your time zone while navigating Garmin Connect Photos - associate your favorite images with saved locations DEM maps show you shaded terrain contours at various zoom levels High-sensitivity GPS receiver for improved performance and reception Turn-by-turn directions with voice guidance Easy-to-use, Touchscreen interface Trip computer records mileage, max speed, total time and more Simplified PC connectivity, using USB mass storage Configurable vehicle icons allows users to select a fun, and cus |
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 Garmin + MSN Direct = MAGNIFICENT! |
| Review Date: September 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Joxxy, Long Island, NY United States |
Garmin + MSN Direct = MAGNIFICENT!
This GPS is just INCREDIBLE! It is by far the best GPS I have EVER owned! Better than any portable unit currently on the market and far better than any (over-priced OEM) in-dash GPS unit.
I purchased this GPS because it was taking me between 8.5 and 14 hours to travel from Long Island, NY (where I live) to Lake Placid, NY area (where my wife lives) bi-weeekly. The total distance is between 381 and 465 miles depending on which GPS you use. As you can guess, most of my travel time was spent in heavy traffics between long Island and upstate NY. I just wanted to try it and return it if it didn't fit the bill.
I have now owned this GPS for more than 2 months now and it has yet to fail me. My travel time is now consistently below 6.5 hours and the distance travel is usually around 380 miles (sometimes a little longer when trying to avoid traffic) . Even during Memorial Day weekend, it took me barely 7 hours to get back home with one of the heaviest traffic I have ever seen. I am so sold that I have already purchased the lifetime subscription to MSN Direct. And I already got my money worth!
I have an in-dash GPS unit (slow and lousy at best and that I hate dearly) in my 2006 BMW X5. There is a mediocre and useless in-dash GPS unit in my wife 2005 Nissan Murano. These in-dash OEM GPS units have the strangest routes, they are slow, and just take you from point A to point point B. It doesn't matter how they get you there... I have also owned 2 Garmin Nuvi (350 and 370 - both pretty good) and 2 TomTom (One and 340S (just OK).
Back to the Nuvi 785T. Sorry for getting carried way...
First, lets get the bad/suggestions out of the way:
- Does not display the speed limit/actual speed next to each other (and turning to red when over the limit) like the TomTom beautifully does. It displays mainly the speed limit on major highway and is accurate in most cases.
- The sound is just adequate, but need some improvement. Make sure to adjust the sound to 100%. The default 80% is too low and you may not hear a thing.
- MSN Direct receiver should be integrated in the unit itself, not on the charger.
- Rebooted on me once during my trip. I was checking traffic on my route and VLAM!
- I had to spend another $100 for lifetime MSN Direct!
Second, the GOOD:
- Extraodinary accuracy. The estimated time of arrival is almost always dead on.
- AMAZING display. The best resolution when compared to any other GPS out there.
- Gas Prices on MSN direct - very accurate information, but used it only once.
- Weather on MSN Direct - I love this feature and use it often.
- Bluetooth calling is nice and clear, people could not tell I was calling handsfree. But, the sound wasn't loud enough on my end.
- Great overall feature set.
Third, the GREAT:
- Traffic on MSN Direct - Simply AMAZING! highly accurate and reliable feature. I am no longer thinking about beating NY traffic. I just jump in the car and drive. This GPS really showed me what it capable of during Memorial Day weekend.
- Best routing engine on the market! Always the shortest distance and fastest time when compared to any other GPS.
- Garmin GPS re-route better than ANY other GPS by far. You will never hear "make a U-turn when possible" crap. It just recalculates the best route from your current position.
- Send To GPS - This is maybe one of my favorite features that I use almost daily.
- SUPER fast satellite acquisition and very Strong GPS signal anytime and almost everywhere.
- It is a GRAMIN!!!
My Recommendations to potential buyers:
- update the software and firmware as soon as you receive your unit
- update the maps to the latest as soon as possible
- set the volume to 100% before first use
This is simply a MAGNIFICENT piece of electronic. If you really want the very BEST in GPS technology, this is IT!
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Good Product!
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| Review Date: December 31, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Hello, |
I love the Garmin Nuvi 785t as this is a good unit. From what I am able to tell, it is about 99% accurate but those flaws will not let you miss your destination. Some of the directions around town do not make any sense but being that I know differently I did not take that advice. However, a stranger would not know the difference as gas will be wasted. For the most part, I am very satisfied with this unit.
For those of you that are new to the GPS these features are for you:
The first thing you want to do before routing an address is to connect the unit to a computer and UPDATE the Garmin software. It comes with a USB cable and it is easy to update.
It does speak the name of the street as well as the lane to get in after you make the turn.
U.S. interstates and roads speed is automatically displayed but not for local and state highways/roads.
Your personal speed is shown no matter what road or highway you are on.
The GPS has a mode for "automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian."
You are able to transmit the voiced directions through your radio to your automobile speakers without a cable by simply putting your radio on a FM station WITH static. The lower the channel the better but the lowest station that can be used is 88.1. The con to this is that you cannot listen to your CD's while you are using that feature and you will be able to hear some of the static.
Media card: the unit can take the regular SD card as well as SDHC card but not over 4GB. According to Garmin, anything over 4GB will make the unit slow and they do not advise using anything over 4GB.
It has a picture viewer so you can insert your media card to view your pictures as well as have a picture for the address listed in your favorites or address book.
When you input your address, let the unit find your location and save it as your home address because your location may not match your current address. It might find another address but your actual coordinates will match the location of your house.
The unit draws the map quickly as well as the re-calculation of the route. However, if you are on the interstate and you did not take the routed exit and if you have not passed the street that is attached to that exit, then the unit will not recalculate until you have passed that street especially when the exit is a long road. It will recalculate quickly if a street is not connected to an exit.
You can enter multiple destinations.
The "Where I am feature" is a good feature especially when you cannot find an address. You can pull in a driveway, press the icon and it will give you an address or what they believe to be address. I typed an address in the unit and the address could not be found. Therefore, after arriving at the address, I pressed the icon and it gave me an address which was different from the address that I had and I saved it for the future.
The current temperature is displayed on the GPS.
The "points of interest" is nice because it pretty much becomes a telephone directory.
I have not seen any 3-D buildings on the map.
MSN Direct: I love it BUT traffic reports are not in my area. All of the services of MSN Direct are not available in every area. All available features are available in the most major cities so if you live or travel to major cities, then just for the traffic reports is worth subscribing to this service. We traveled to a large city and were helped with the traffic information. It alerts of the traffic, the delay and how major the traffic has stalled as well as rerouting you passed the stalled traffic. The car icon automatically appears on the screen as you do not have to do anything which is great especially if you are driving alone. The information given gives traffic information for your direct route as well as traffic miles away from your location. You can push the car icon and it lists the location of the reports. Go to this link http://www.msndirect.com/coverage.aspx to find out if coverage is in your area and what features are available in your area.
The "Gas Prices" feature for ME is worth the [...] for the lifetime subscription. It is accurate and I got prices as far as an eleven mile radius of my location. I wish I had this feature earlier when the gas prices were much higher than they are now.
The "Stock Prices" is great if you do not have internet services on your cell phone. Enter the stock symbol and it automatically displays the information. The GPS does not have to be plugged into your car in order to get the update as the adapter has a battery so it continues to update the unit as long as the adapter is connected to the unit.
The "News Headlines" is just as it says. It shows the headlines and a brief summary.
The "Weather" gives you the current weather as well as weather in other cities in a certain radius of your location.
There are other features of MSN Direct but I highlighted some of the features.
Cons: There are two cons with this unit:
Lane Assist: It is not interactive and it looks like what you see when the lane assist is advertised. It flashes briefly across the screen so if you missed it then you missed it. However, you can touch the turn guidance icon and if the lane assist icon is highlighted then you can see the lane assist but if you are driving alone that is a bit much especially if you have to make a split decision. Lane assist is not every where all the time as that feature is very limited.
However, the plus is that the turns and the lanes are pretty much clear to understand without the lane assist.
Battery: The unit is too expensive for this to be a throw away unit. The battery is not replaceable and the guide gives you instructions on how to dispose of the unit but not return the unit to have the battery replaced. Therefore, it is imperative to protect the unit in making sure that the unit is not left in a hot automobile. Yes, the unit has a warranty but |
Good Navigation, traffic from MSN works well
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| Review Date: December 12, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Nick from NJ, |
I had an older Garmin C340 device and recently upgraded to the 785T for the wide screen and real-time traffic, weather, gas prices and other information from MSN. I was pleasantly surprised by how much better the 785T is compared to my old C340. I love how thin it is, and the wide screen is nice. I also liked the traffic information and found it to be fairly accurate. Even though the gas prices are going down, they will surely go back up and given how things are with the economy, saving a few bucks helps. I haven't had any problems, but just to be safe I upgraded the 785T's software using Garmin's Webupdater application. The upgrade is easy. After you get the device just install the WebUpdater application on your PC from Garmin's website, connect the device to your computer with a USB cable, and start the Webupdater application.
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Very Pleased
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| Review Date: August 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Amazonian, |
I have overall been very pleased with my 785t. I gave my 780 to my father, and struggled with whether to get another 780 or to upgrade. I made the plunge and went with the 785.
Pros:
* Faster screen update is really slick. It doesn't make the device navigate any better, but it does make it a lot nicer overall experience- it's almost like watching a movie.
* My 785 gets a satellite lock a LOT faster than my 780 did. After 10 hours at work, the 780 would take at least 90 seconds to get a lock. The 785 locks in within about 15 seconds.
* Maps, estimated arrival time, and speed limits have been absolutely spot on- much more accurate than I would have expected.
* I love the MSN Direct features. Some of them are novelty items, but I use the "Send to GPS" feature almost daily. This feature allows you to look up an address on Microsoft's map website and beam it over the radio to your GPS. I'll look up an address, beam it over, and by the time I get to the car and boot up the GPS, the address is right there, ready to navigate. VERY cool! The GPS doesn't even have to be plugged in to receive the data. The power cord (which doubles as the MSN receiver) has a battery built in, and receives the MSN Direct data. As soon as you connect the GPS to the power cord, all of the new MSN data is immediately uploaded to the device.
Cons:
* The Lane guidance feature looks really cool, but I have yet to find an intersection or exit in my area that has the data. I haven't traveled extensively, but have have been through a number of high traffic, confusing exit scenarios in central NC where no lane guidance or Junction View was available. According to Garmin's product description, "you'll never question which lane you should be driving in again." That is patently false until they get lane assist mapped out for every intersection in the US.
* I had hoped to use the GPS as a media player in my car. Unfortunately when you keep a large SD card > 4GB in the device, it takes a lot longer to boot up- sometimes a couple of minutes.
Overall I love the device. Lane guidance and Junction View are brand new features, and it will take some time for that data to be collected and fed into the maps. I feel sure that within the next year or two there will be much more broad coverage. I highly recommend this product. |
One truly great product!
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| Review Date: May 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Stephen D. Bacon, Colorado Springs, CO |
At first, I wasn't interested in a GPS unit, but since I will be traveling to several cities on vacation this year that I am not so familiar with and I travel a fair amount on my job, I decided to buy one. I spent some time doing research and decided on the 785T. The price ($399) couldn't be beat and it had the lane change and photo navigation which were what sold me on this model. It is exceptionally accurate regarding the milage and time calculations.
The refresh rate is extremely smooth and I liked the fact Garmin allows you 60 days after purchase to get a free map update (saves you about $200). Setup was a little odd since you have to power it up and use it before you can get it set up on your computer for registration and getting updates. A slight annoyance, but okay. MSN Direct will ONLY work in designated areas so if you are out in the middle of nowhere, you can't get stock updates, weather, best gas prices, etc... Not sure why this is so; especially, since this is tied to a satellite system which covers almost 99% of the world.
POI is another great feature for finding restaurants, banks, gas stations, etc.... But beware that the information on some POIs can be outdated. A restaurant in Salt Lake City was no longer there. Inputting an address in Salt Lake City was difficult due to the uniqueness of their address system. Maybe I wasn't doing something right, but I couldn't input a 500 West 9000 North address. The POI saved me on this aspect for the restaurant, but it was a little frustrating.
The 3D highway signs are pretty cool. Displays accurate wordage and symbols as shown on the actual highway signs. Bluetooth for phone works, but the receiving party has a hard time hearing me due to road noise. Overall, it is a great product and I am glad I purchased it. You can't beat the price compared to newer or comparable products. |
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