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| Garmin nüvi 680 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
List Price: $964.27
Buy New: $319.99
You Save: $644.28 (67%)
New (75) Used (4) Refurbished (7)
Avg. Customer Rating:  158 reviews
Sales Rank: 1211
Platform: Not Machine Specific
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 2.9 x 4.9
nv:Type: Receiver
Acquisition Time Cold: 38 Seconds
Acquisition Time Warm: 1 Second
Update Rate: 1/second, continuous
GPS Accuracy Position: 10 meters
GPS Accuracy Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec RMS
Inputs: USB
Inputs: Bluetooth
Display: TFT
Touch Screen: Yes
Voice: Yes
Expansion Slots: SD Card
Battery Type: Nonreplaceable Lithium-Ion Battery
Battery Life: 3 hours
Antenna: SIRF-GPS antenna
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Warranty: The Official Ford Licemsed Garmin nüvi 680 product features a full 3-Year Warranty from Garmin. The Ford Licensed Garmin nuiv 680 comes with a 3 year warranty certificate from Garmin in the box. This is a FULL 2-Years longer than the Garmin warranty offered by other retailers.
MPN: 010-00540-25
Model: 010-00540-25
UPC: 053759067992
EAN: 0053759067992
ASIN: B000MF4N42
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
4.5 out of 5 June 18, 2008
Wonderful unit! Love the new features such as gas stations with prices & traffic reports. I haven't used the Bluethooth yet so I can't tell you how it works. The fact that you get 1 year of MSN free was what decided it for me over the 660.
The only drawback for me was that my old Magellan was easier to switch between screens. I suspect, given time, that it will become a non-issue.
Excellent...but... June 15, 2008
The screen is bright and very responsive to the touch. It has many options including the bluetooth technology to encourage handsfree cellphone use. The Nuvi 680 comes fully loaded with MSN Direct and all other accesories that other Nuvi models do not such as the leather case. Addresses are found with ease with some exceptions. One exception is finding FL-40 in the state of Florida. Type it whichever way you like and it won't find it. A great improvement in the future would be to copy the turn by turn routes given by services such as Mapquest. The Nuvi navigator does NOT find the most appropriate route in certain instances. Quickest route and shortest route not necesarily mean the same thing, but the Nuvi seems not to know that as of yet. Perhaps in a future update. Outside of the minor shortcomings, the Nuvi 680 is the most complete in its family vs. cost. If the fancy extras do not interest you, then perhaps you should consider the Nuvi 260W. The two models are identical in the basic features such as spoken street names and screen size. Garmin has done it right.
 O.K. But not worth the generally high price June 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've owned several GPS units over the years, and while I've updated models because they have evolved, The Garmin nuvi 680 is a step back.
While the GPS works fine, it has some very bad annoyances that I wouldn't expect from a unit of this price. First, it doesn't default to the map screen, rather you have to select maps everytime, otherwise it just stays in its menu mode. In fact almost all screens eventually will go back to this page. I feel, that if you don't press any buttons for an extended time, it should return to the default map display, but it doesn't.
Second, the real function of this unit, navigation, is a bit sketchy at best. There are only two navigation settings, "fastest" or "shortest" and neither really accomplish their goals.
I live about 5 miles from work, and because of obstacles, there are basically three ways that I can get to and from work; the east way, the west way, and the center way. The center way is both the shortest and the quickest, but no matter what the setting, the 680 NEVER takes that route. And the road sizes are all about the same, generally 2 lane roads.
That alone wouldn't be so bad if the 680 truly thought that the other routes were shorter or faster, but it doesn't. Let me explain. I set the setting to "fastest route" for a test, and routed to work. On the bottom of the display is an ETA screen which estimates your arrival time. One day I followed the suggested route and got there about two minutes after it predicted. Not bad.
The next day, I repeated the drive, but instead of going the recommended way, I went the "center" way. The ETA was the same as the day before, but the instant I deviated from the planned route, the 680 said "recalculating" and the ETA dropped by about 5 minutes. I eventually got there 5 minutes sooner like it projected. So, in other words, the Nuvi knew that the center route was faster because when I turned on to it, the ETA reduced by 5 minutes, but yet it never recommends that route. How stupid.
Other routing decisions are plain stupid as well. When I need to make a left, it will often tell me to make a right then a u-turn, then back!! Other times it tells me to drive past my destination, make a u-turn, then drive back, almost like it doesn't think there is a turn lane in the road.
The MSN part of this device is O.K. but I don't know if its worth $40/year. Gas prices and movie times are helpful, but the traffic is a waste. I don't think it has ever given me traffic info that has saved me time. Either it reported accidents I never saw, or it doesn't find accidents that are there, and only SOME major roads in Phoenix (5th largest city) are even mapped. Nothing other than major highways are.
Other annoyances. When driving a routed course, the 680 gives you the distance to the next turn, and your ETA, but that is it. You CAN'T display the total distance to your destination, or the length of your trip, only the time you will get there. This is lame.
Its almost like this device was designed for idiots, that were too stupid to ever want more.
Here is another example of poor design. I live in AZ and we don't change our clocks for daylight savings. When the clocks did change in the rest of the world, my 680 time was off an hour, so an easy fix, right? I went to setting and there was a "Time" setting, so I pressed it and was offered two options "12-hour" or "24-hour." It was set to "12-hour" and I wanted "12-hour" so I just pressed cancel. There was no time-zone setting I could see.
I called tech support at Garmin, and after 60 minutes on the phone, we solved the problem. On the time screen, for "12-hour" and "24-hour" if you press Cancel instead of OK, you never get to the timezone screen, you have to end it with OK, even if you aren't changing the setting. How stupid and unintuitive?
After my experience with this unit, I don't think I would buy a Garmin GPS again.
 Added features worthwhile June 12, 2008
I have several other Garmin Nuvi GPS devices that are smaller and do not have the MSN features. All are excellent GPS devices and have become essential in finding meeting locations and baseball fields where my son plays, especially when the directions provided by the other coach are flawed or sketchy. The 680 is larger and easier to see, but the best addition is the MSN traffic. We live around a large metropolitan area so it is helpful and has already allowed me to avoid certain roads because the Garmin indicates there is a high traffic volume. If you live in a remote area of the country it is not much value. All in all I would prefer this device over the smaller 350 and 360 because of the bigger screen. It is not heavy though so it can still be carried around for walking tours.
Excellent June 5, 2008
It is a great navigator system, a great value for the money, easy to use and very accurate, I would highly recommend it.
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