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| Garmin nüvi 780 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator | 
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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
List Price: $699.99
Buy New: $375.99
You Save: $324.00 (46%)
New (78) Used (4) Refurbished (2)
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 2059
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Native Resolution: 480x272
Display Size: 4.3
Includes MP3 Player: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 4.8 x 2.8 x 0.8
MPN: Nuvi 780
Model: Nuvi 780
UPC: 753759077075
EAN: 0053759077076
ASIN: B0011UEUNG
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: FACTORY FRESH FIRST QUALITY MANUFACTURER WARRANTIED RETAIL GPS ...SOLD BY A VETTED 5 STAR SHOP * * NEED IT FAST? WE SHIP THE DAY YOU ORDER WITH OUR VETTED 24/7 STAFF OF PROFESSIONALS AND E-MAIL YOU A USPS DELIVERY CONFIRMATION NUMBER SO THAT YOU CAN TRACK YOUR ORDER FROM OUR DOOR TO YOURS, FOR WORRY FREE TRANSACTIONS!
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| Customer Reviews:
Great on the road, but not all it could be August 13, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've had several Garmin GPS units which I used mostly for hiking and offroad navigation -- for the most part Garmin has kept offroad and onroad units separate, you could have one or the other but not both feature sets in a single unit. My 60csx is an exception, it was the first unit I had that also included on road routing and I quickly became addicted to it. But the 60csx's screen is small and not terribly bright and it doesn't talk, so it's not great to use on the road unless you have a passenger to relay along the information. And it doesn't know anything about traffic, which I've been dealing with a lot recently. So I decided to try a nuvi -- I saw the 780 on sale and went with that. For the most part I've been quite happy with it -- it's not perfect, but it's a big improvement.
The good: overall I love it. I'm going to mention every little thing I've noticed that bugs me in this review, and I might end up sounding negative, so just remember that -- I have no regrets, I'd happily buy it again.
The screen is large and bright and easy to read, and can be read in full sunlight, although it doesn't seem to be the sort of reflective screen the 60csx has. With the spoken directions you don't need to look at it much while you're driving (although see my comments below about routing quirks). The interface is fairly easy to use, a lot easier than the handhelds. The speaker is loud enough that I haven't had any trouble hearing it, although I have to turn the radio down sometimes. The bluetooth is great for accessing my phone, and I've had no complaints about call quality from the people on the other end. Overall the routing engine seems much improved from the 60csx, although like all systems it has its quirks, and you should take a look at a real map once in a while just to make sure. What's nice is that you can easily add a via point to force a better route if you know better. I also like several of the MSN direct features, like movie times and local events, and the traffic flow information is really handy, especially in a city you're not intimately familiar with. For getting from point A to B on roads, this thing is great.
The not as good: the MSN traffic service is really not all you would hope it would be -- driving around both the San Francisco Bay area and LA, I have yet to drive by an incident it was reporting and actually find anything there, the incident data seems to be so far behind that it's useless. Possibly related, it seems to take the traffic data a long time to update -- in the SFBay area I'm often half way to work before I have any traffic data, and when driving into the LA area from the north on I-5 I'm also well into traffic before the traffic data starts to appear. The traffic flow data on the other hand seems reasonably accurate, and it has done an admirable job of getting me across LA far faster than I would be able to do on my own, occasionally even directing me onto surface streets to avoid traffic (or maybe non-existent incidents). However it's quite slow to decide things are bad enough to recalculate a route, I once saw the delay time go over 90 minutes (as in 2.5 hours for what should have been a 1 hour long trip) before it decided to find a new route. Yet in most cases when the delay listed is over 20-30 minutes if I force it to start from scratch it's immediately able to come up with a much improved route. So now I just do that.
One glitch in the routing engine that I run into occasionally is that it will tell you to get off and back on your route when you should just keep going. For instance at intersections it will sometimes tell you to turn left, then immediately right, when what it really wants you to do is go straight through an intersection. Or it will tell you to take an exit ramp only to tell you to get right back on the interstate when you should just stay on the interstate. When this happens it requires staring at the screen more that you should to avoid getting offroute.
When you're searching for something the categories are not always the best, they are often far too general. Maybe they do that to keep it simple, but finding a grocery store for instance can be a pain.
I've seen people complain about lockups, mine has only locked up once, when trying to display topo maps loaded onto a card zoomed far out. I haven't done this very often so I don't know how repeatable it might be, and whether it's a problem with the unit or the card. A power cycle cured it.
And I wish it came with a better mount, or that the mounts with arms (like they have for the handheld units) worked with the nuvi's. The windshield mount is useless to me (both in that it would not make the nuvi easy to use and in that it's illegal in California) as are any of the mounts Garmin sells for the nuvi. For now I'm using an aftermarket vent mount and working on my own adapter so that I can use one of the arm mounts, I'm not sure yet if that will work. But Garmin should be making those.
Finally, what's missing: first, more user configurable options. On the 60csx, on nearly any screen that displays numbers I can configure at least what numbers are shown, and on the map screen how many are shown. I'd love to be able to display elevation (which apparently this unit doesn't display anywhere?) and time on the main map screen, and be able to choose what numbers are shown on the speedometer screen.
Next, a compass on the main screen would be nice!
I'd also like it if some selection of points of interest could be displayed on the 3D map. Like if I'm looking for a gas station, or a movie theater, etc.
And finally, why do the nuvi's have to be limited to on road navigation only? What I really want is a more all in one/outdoor themed nuvi -- coming from the 60csx this feels like a dumbed down or crippled GPS. It could easily be so much more. For driving to work or finding my way around a city the 780 is really good, but when the weekend comes I'm left needing two GPSs. For instance, say I want to drive down to the beach, and I'm wondering what the tides are doing -- the 60csx will tell me that. Or if I'm driving down a long 4WD trail to get to where I'm going to start a hike -- I have to switch to the 60csx as soon as I leave the pavement. (The 780 will display topo maps, sort of, but it's not really meant to do that and doesn't do it terribly well.) And my earlier comments about wanting to know elevation and direction are along the same lines. I know a lot of people who would love to have a nuvi with the feature set of a 60csx, a nuvi for people who don't spend their entire lives in cities. If they made one tomorrow I'd buy one tomorrow, and I know a lot of people who would do the same. This and the iffy traffic data are the main reasons I'm only giving it 4 stars instead of 5.
A great device but not perfect July 18, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought the 780 for the MSN service only to discover that I barely need it. The fuel price updates are nice, but there is no way to sort the prices so I am stuck looking at them sorted via distance. Sometimes that gas station is behind me, and when I am traveling, I do not go backwards unless I must.
As far as finding movies, and the other features, they are fairly useless to me. I can find Starbucks and WalMart and all my favorite restaurants without that MSN service.
As far as gps technology goes, it is pretty good. Sometimes it tries to take me through gated communities or closed roads, and a couple of times, it has taken me in directions that make no sense whatsoever, but most of the time it gets me right where I am going. Sometimes it has directions that are better than the way I normally travel.
I don't trust it to plan critical trips without reviewing what it is going to do before I leave. I wish I didn't have to do that, but I think this is a reality with any gps.
There are several things I love about this gps above others:
1. Google maps lets you send points of interest to your gps. This is only available for Garmin or Magellan gps owners. This feature alone has made me love owning a Garmin. Nothing beats finding your location on satellite and sending it to your gps. Especially if you don't have an address. I found a friends property in the mountains via satellite imagery and sent it to the gps. Once you give the 780 your Google point, it takes you right to the door.
2. The audio out connects right to the aux plug on my stereo. While the audio is tolerable for navigation direct from the gps speaker, when I connect it to my stereo, the bluetooth phone conversations are crystal clear and the directions are pristine.
3. The database of poi's is amazing. I have yet to look for a store or restaurant that it could not find. While camping recently, I looked for a Wal-Mart in Flagstaff, AZ. It not only found one that I would not have been able to spot from the highway, but it took me through all sorts of streets to get to it so that I looked like a local in a town I have never driven in.
4. When navigating complex intersections, the 780 always tells me what side of the highway to be on. This has saved me many a frustrating experience of not being able to make a turn because of being in the wrong lane position.
5. The traffic monitor, which may or may not be related to the MSN feature, is pretty cool. When it is issues a traffic warning, clicking on the warning button gives you the option of rerouting. If rerouting does not save time, it warns you of that. So far, I have never rerouted. I have realized, unfortunately, that sometimes the traffic info is outdated. It has told me that I was going to have delays, only to arrive and find the roads crystal clear on more than one occasion.
After having had the 780 for almost 3 months and having put it through most of its paces, I am a very satisfied customer. I would have probably been just as happy with the 680, but I guess I will never really know.
 Do not buy this July 14, 2008
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
I travel in a major metropolitan area and should have no problem getting a signal for the live MSN content with this device, however its performance is extremely erratic and therefore unreliable. Who needs stock quotes that haven't updated in three days? I've made numerous phone calls to both Garmin and MSN and of course each blames the other. My last interaction with Garmin they told me it must be the tinted windows in the car that is blocking reception and I should be getting a good signal based on my location. Of course that doesn't help me. Then they said I could get better reception using the device outside the car, which is just stupid to suggest. Finally they replaced the power cable which houses the received for MSN, but it still doesn't work. You may not experience the same issues, but based on my experience I would recommend a less expensive model without the MSN feature to save money and frustration.
 Sit back and leave the driving to Garmin July 8, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
LOVE IT. Even my wife loves it. This is porbably the first electronic gadget I've ever bought where my wife wants to use it more. Very easy to use. It only locked up a few times because I was zooming in/out too fast as it was navigating. perhaps if I let it go it might have caught up . It was no big deal to turn it off and on to get me going again. The MSN is great. It actually gave me a thunderstorm warning and asked if I wanted to go around it. Traffic updates were good, gas prices were dead on, most of the time. Weather forcasts were great, The "text to speech" was cool. We chose the Ennglish mans voice and he would read any text messages I received on my (bluetooth) phone. Pretty funny. The FM transmitter isn't great at all. What else can I say, I've owned the Garmin eMap (VW bug)and thought that was nice, but this is like a Porsche. Garmin's website is also great for updates and software. That's all, now I want the voice recognition nuvi880 but really who needs that!!! Enjoy and buy this unit NOW!
 Great, when it works! July 1, 2008
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
I loved my new Garmin. Mapping and ease of use better than the GPS in my Mercedes. However, I was on a trip in Florida (nearly 2000 miles from home) when the screen froze with a 'firmware update in progress' message. Unfortunately, ....it never updated. I got in contact with support (took 2 days) and was told how to do a 'system reset'. Great, I lost all of the poi's and locations I had programmed in. I wouldn't buy one again, based upon this experience. For those of us who travel a lot, and who like to pre-program destinations, stops etc... The thing just has to work!
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