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| Garmin nüvi 270 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
List Price: $642.84
Buy New: $264.00 (On sale from $279.89)
You Save: $378.84 (59%)
New (57) Used (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 480
Platform: Not Machine Specific
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Native Resolution: 320 x 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 3.8 x 0.8 x 2.8
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: Nuvi 270
Model: Nuvi 270
UPC: 753759068080
EAN: 0753759068080
ASIN: B000OH26OM
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Preloaded with maps for United States, Canada, and Europe | | • | Easy-to-use colorful touchscreen and ultra-slim design | | • | High-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver offers extreme accuracy | | • | Built-in travel tools include the Garmin Lock anti-theft feature, JPEG viewer, world clock, currency converter, and more | | • | Measures 3.8 x 2.8 x 0.8 inches (WxHxD) and weighs 5.2 ounces |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Navigate both North America and Europe without loading more maps with the affordable nüvi 270. This entry-level Personal Travel Assistant makes traveling so simple. For even more mapping options, nüvi 250 and nüvi 200 offer less map coverage at a lower price. Like all nüvi 200-series members, the 270 features an easy-to-use colorful touchscreen and ultra-slim design--perfect for everyday navigation. 
The nüvi 270 comes preloaded with maps for North America and Europe, and features an easy-to-use touchscreen and ultra-slim design. | 
Configurable vehicle icons let you select car-shaped graphics. | 
nüvi 270 accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger. | Smart, Powerful Design
The nüvi 270 is built with a high-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver for extreme accuracy, as well as an SD card slot for storing your media and additional navigation tools, and a USB interface for loading data. All this is wrapped up in a package that measures 3.8 x 2.8 x .8 inches (W x H x D) and weighs just 5.2 ounces. The nüvi 270's 3.5-inch (diagonal) display is touchscreen-enabled, making it a cinch to control the device with your fingertips. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides up to five hours of battery life depending on use. Navigate with Ease
nüvi 270 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. In addition, nüvi 270 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs. Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nüvi 270 features many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and configurable vehicle icons that let you select car-shaped graphics to show your location on the map. Optional plug-in SD cards for our line of Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs. Note: Like most USB Mass Storage Devices, the nüvi is not compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me.
What's in the Box
nüvi 270, preloaded City Navigator NT for North America and Europe (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disk, and set up and go guide.
| Customer Reviews: Read 52 more reviews...
 Appreciated by "mapaholic" July 5, 2008
As a "Mapaholic" I was hesitant to surrender to a GPS. The Garmin has allowed me to be map-free! (Although I still keep them in the car.) I rely on "her" telling me where to turn - and if I miss the turn she will get me back on track immediately. What a relief.
 Great Unit with US & Euro Maps June 17, 2008
Advantages are relatively cheap, has all US and most European maps built in, Also has an SD card slot for other optional area maps.
It does NOT have all the fancy features which for me are fairly useless except to make you pay a lot of money, such as MP3 payers, bluetooth phone speakers, traffic reports for cities, etc. It also does NOT say which road to turn on. For example, much more expensive units might say "Turn right on Main Street", where this GPS only says "Turn right", and you have to read on the top of the display which street to turn on (but it's the one you are at!). This is not a big deal to me.
It is fairly small, which is good and not so good. It is not "wide screen" so it shows less information. However, I think has very acceptable readability, and does not obscure the road while hanging on the suction cup mount. On the other hand, the small size it is easy to pack and take overseas traveling. It is even small enough to carry with you walking around a foreign city so you can get back to the hotel if you get lost. You can walk to restaurants you pick from the unit, and you can even set it to "walk mode" instead of "drive mode" so it ignores one-way streets, etc. when you are walking or bicycling around. Of course, it only has roads programmed in, and not park paths, etc.
It has a built in battery that is charged through the included cigarette lighter plug. It lasts at least 8-10 hours I think? It has a USB charge connection on the GPS, but I think the voltage requirement is higher (1V?) than most laptop computers put out (0.5V), so it may not charge by plugging into a laptop?? I don't know yet.....
It has lots of "Points of Interest" such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels, etc, although some of the POI's in Europe are sometimes sparse. For example I was looking for a ATM cash machine in a little town in Germany, and it said the closest one was 12 miles away. However, there were a few actually in the small town I was in, just not listed.
Also, it has many languages built in for the voice commands. German, Spanish, English, French, Chinese, and many other obscure languages are included. The "British" vs. "American" english accents are entertaining.
Out of the box, it is set up to NOT allow you to program it while moving (Safe Mode). However, this CAN BE SWITCHED OFF to allow a passenger (or a danger seeking driver) to fully program addresses or find Points of Interest when the vehicle is moving.
In short, I would definitely buy it again.
Review updated 7/14/2008, after Italy trip. June 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's small, fits in a breast pocket. It's light weight, It doesn't have much of an instruction manual because if you work with it for a while, you learn all the things it can do. Sure, it might be nice to have the GPS say: "Turn right on Vine Street in .2 miles" instead of "turn right in .2 miles"... but the display shows the name of the street anyway. It does more than I thought it could because the Garmin site really doesn't elaborate on it's functions, such as multiple languages. It's fun just learning how to use it and I'm looking forward to using it in Italy soon. It comes with a suction cup mount and 12V car charger. I have purchased the leather case, a wall charger (for use in 110/220 volt) and a (off brand) 512mb memory chip. We already had two Garmin devices for sports, so the Garmin/USB cable we owned was compatible for downloading software updates and photo transfers on the Nuvi 270. I've already found and memorized my hotels in Italy on the map, but of course, it will not be able to plot out the driving routes until over there.
I will add to this review after the trip.
So far, I highly recommend the Nuvi 270 GPS. Seems like a good product and worth the money.
2/14/2008
Back from Italy safe and sound... What a great trip and it was made easier and safer by using the Garmin Nuvi 270. This thing worked great in Italy, with only a few hitches. 1. We learned quickly the "AVOIDANCES" needs to be disabled, otherwise it will not go on toll roads, make U-turns, things like that. We turned them all off and it worked better for us. 2. Remember to check your Pedestrian or Automobile modes. 3. Take the first several round-abouts carefully and listen to the Garmin lady say: "...then to round-about, turn right on 2nd exit..." 4. Be mindful of your battery supply. 5. Consider the satellite signal problems in very narrow city streets. 6. Because there is no detailed user manual, it will take time and practice to learn all the things the Garmin Nuvi 270 can do.
The Garmin in Pedestrian mode took us to our hotel in Venice. In the car, it found our way in and out of Florence. Got us to the Rome Airport and helped us day trip around Tuscany. The most impressive thing was going to a friend's house in Northern Italy. The Garmin navigated us from Venice to Valdagno, up hills above the town, rural roads got narrower, then one lane, then onto a gravel path, right to the front door of their home. They couldn't believe it when we drove up to the house. In Siena, we found our way back to the car by GPS. In Rome we really needed it with Pedestrian mode. This little machine made a huge difference in vacation navigating. It reduced travel stress,( very important factor on a vacation). As we used it each day of the trip, we learn another thing it does, then another thing, then another method of searching... you get a feel for the machine and learn to use it better as time goes on.
The Garmin Nuvi 270 perhaps is not the fanciest of the GPS units, but it worked great for us on vacation and now we use it for day trips or even finding places in our own city. Great product, very reasonable price.
 Not for Pedestrians in France and Switzerland June 1, 2008
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
I retired a couple years ago as a commercial pilot who dealt with GPS's on a daily basis and have a factory installed unit in my Acura TL.
I bought this unit to use as a pedestrian sight-seeing in France and Switzerland. This review is only my experience trying to use the Garmin Nuvi 270 as a pedestrian in European cities. I make no supposition how it would work in a car in the USA nor in a car through the narrow streets of Europe or as a pedestrian in US cities..
The Garmin Nuvi 270 has a pedestrian mode and is pre-loaded with maps of Europe. At slightly over $300 the unit was very appealing so I bought one for my trip in May 2008.
The Good:
1.The touch screen is very responsive
2.The screen is very clear and bright.
3.3.5 inch screen, in my view, is the perfect pedestrian size.
4.The database used is good by today's standards.
5.Physically the 270, in my opinion, is the correct size for walking.
The Bad:
1.The first bad feature and by far the overriding issue is the Nuvi 270's inability to acquire satellites in European cities . (Without Satlilite communication the Nuvi 270 is not able to navigate.) I read all the reviews posted on Amazon and elsewhere, although many mentioned this issue, none seemed to adequately drive this point home enough for me not to buy it. On our day trip to Strasbourg, France, I held the unit out at arms length for 1 1/2 hours while walking and saw only two screens, `Acquiring satellites' or `unable to acquire Satellites do you want to continue'. The unit never ever acquired enough Satellites in Strasburg to even show where we were, let alone navigate. I even stood on a round-about in the middle of a busy intersection for 20 minutes hoping it would acquire enough Satellites to be functional....it did not! I cannot over stress this enough....it was useless in Paris, where it would acquire for a short time and then lose them during the walk, in Geneva where it acquired them on the lake, but lost them in town. In Marseilles where it acquired them going to an island but quickly lost them in town.
2.Once acquired, satellite retention is very poor. Sometimes aircraft GPS', as well as my Acura will take a couple minutes to acquire satellites, particularly if the unit has been moved while turned off, but once satellites are acquired they seldom lose reception, if ever unless you drive through a tunnel. The Garmin Nuvi 270, on the other hand, readily loses reception.
3.There is no Operating manual available for the Garmin Nuvi 270 either in the box or on the web. Only 11 quick start booklets in 11 languages.
4.Once you have looked for a destination it now resides in Recently found places, but cannot be deleted unless all destinations are deleted. If there is a way I couldn't figure it out as there is no manual.
5.When charging, the unit says it is charging but never tells you when it is fully charged. I let it charge for over 24 hours and it continued to display, `charging'..
6.The unit has a segmented bar that let's you know how much battery charge is left, but Garmin obviously hasn't figure out how to correlate that to time. A total of 5 bars, one would think 2 bars would indicate 40% left. WRONG, 2 bars generally meant less than 20 minutes left of usage.
7.Does not use changeable batteries, so if you're away from your hotel, walking, you can't put fresh batteries in; coupled with not having any real clue how much charge you have left on the permanently installed battery, leads to a problem. (How much do I conserve, how much charge is left in real time, etc.)
8.You can't plan your trip unless you are there. For example: If I'm in the USA and I want to see what attractions are located around the hotel I plan to stay in in Paris, the unit will not do it. It will only show me the attractions located close to where the unit physically is at that point. (Assuming you can get reception).
9.The current satellite reception strength indicator is not visible on the map screen.
10.When walking, in pedestrian mode, you have two choices for screen orientation. One allows the map to orient in the direction you are walking, the other North remains at the top of the screen. For the short time my 270 was able to retain satellites, I tried both. The unit's computing speed coupled with current satellite available accuracy makes the mode where the screen orients in the direction you are walking near useless. The screen near continually `hunts' for correct orientation. (Perhaps when the next generation satellites are all up and SA has been removed completely, this mode will work) Best to leave it on North at the top although I could not fully evaluate this in Paris because I never had constant satellite reception long enough.
11.The screen is easily washed out by bright sunlight.
12. No place exists on the unit to attach a lanyard; this is a problem in that the unit's case is very smooth and can slide out of your hand easily.
All in all the unit is the right size for a pedestrian with a nice touch screen, but falls unacceptably short in Satellite reception capabilities and battery longevity (3-4 hours) given the batteries can't be changed. Assuming it found a few satellites where are you going to charge it during a 10 hour walking tour, or a hike, or a bike ride?
Smoothly through Europe May 31, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am an Idiot.
1) I get lost going out of my bathroom
2 I only speak english
My brother and I decided to rent a car and tour Germany. The 270 took us on our trip without problems. It made it most enjoyable. We even drove at 131 MPH the the Autobahn.When we needed to eat we just let the GPS find a resturant for us
This GPS does US, Canada & Europe without having to buy extra maps.
Cheers!
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