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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: $329.00
You Save: $635.27 (66%)
New (69) Used (4) Refurbished (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 635
Platform: Not Machine Specific
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
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:
Love It July 13, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just bought this item 2 weeks ago and love it. Fairly easy to set up right out of the box. I live in New Jersey and it has been great on all street directions. I did find it takes me about 50 feet past the exact address, but directions are always right on target. If you drive past a turn it REAQUIRES quickly and gets you a new route to your destination. The American female voice even sounds a bit upset as she announces "reacquiring."
Satellite acquisition is fast and the system loads up very fast. The voice quality is very good. I do like the American voices more than British or Australian. The Bluetooth phone link is great and once I set up my phone it recognizes it right away when I get anywhere near the car. It works great as a hands free speaker phone and I can speak in a normal voice and I am heard by anyone I speak to. I have read some reviews that said the speaker was not good. Mine is great and I can easily adjust it to the level I want. It even lists my phone menus on the screen with my phone book right at eye level. How great is that? If you have voice recognition on your phone, it works through the Garmin as well.
As for linking the system with your FM radio , I have not been able to make that work. Good luck with that.
I love the fact I can look up restaurants in my area simply by looking up by type of food. Scroll through list and click on restaurant you want. It takes you right there. How cool is that?
It works so well that my son has already taken it on his trip to NY where he is working for 3 weeks. He is driving to different locations every few days and he reports it is working like a dream. He never has to worry about when to turn as the Garmin Nuvi gives you advance notice when you have to turn and which way you will be turning.
I hope I get it back from him when he gets home.
The only other thing I would like to see change is a better way to mount it to the dash. The suction cup works great on the window, but dash device is not great. I only use the window mount.
 Good GPS, MSN not as good, know these issues before buying July 13, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is my first GPS, and I was excited that it looked like GPS's had evolved to the point they are now. I wanted the top of line and maximum coolness, and that looked like the Nuvi 680. I've had it now for 2 months, doing mostly local driving along with one vacation. I do enjoy what I got. However, it isn't as good as I had expected.
Mostly in this review, I'm looking at what makes the 680 special, the MSN direct features - are these worth the extra $150 or so you pay over a nuvi 660? I have my doubts. This feels like a first generation feature - there's minimal content/presentation and it doesn't work that well.
MSN Direct features:
The hardware:
- My MSN FM antenna built into the charger works poorly. I got quite used to seeing "no signal" even after many layouts of the cable and re-seating the plug. I would frequently do a 45 minute rush hour commute in the SF bay area down 101 from San Mateo to Palo Alto and not get a signal the whole time. Finally, with much experimenting, I found that if I unplug the charger, and lay the cable out in a straight line from my dashboard to the back seat it does reliably get a signal. Of course, that means it's not charging the battery...
- Possibly due to the prior issue, I do not get good updates while the unit is off and attached to the charger/antenna. Typically, it looks like it's starting fresh each time I turn it on.
- Even if I did get good updates while it's off, most of the time I don't want to leave it in the car or attached to the mount. There's been enough articles about GPS smash and grab thefts, and even Garmin recommends removing your unit and not keeping it in the glove compartment. I can stick the Nuvi in my pocket, but not with a mount and strung out antenna attached. The only place this feature is good for is in my garage.
- Keep in mind the mount is practically required to be attached for traffic and weather data. That data expires quickly, and if you are out without the mount attached, you can't even view recent data.
The content - traffic:
- I'm definitely disappointed. The data seems 15 minutes or so delayed, or at least it's not reliable enough to outright trusted. Today, with a signal a good 30 min before getting on 101, it showed 3 miles of yellow and 5 miles of green. For the yellow, it was 65 mph, and then right as I transitioned to green, it went to 40 mph, eventually down to 25 mph for the first 3 miles of green. Having issues like this is very common - at least half of my yellows are wrong, although I usually travel on the tail of the rush hour commute. I kept checking until I got to my destination and even with a reboot, the colored status did not change. If the status is red, I've found that to be fairly reliable, consistent with a ~15 minute delay.
- An annoyance until you learn you can't trust it is that the traffic time estimations for traffic delays are inaccurate. It looks like it assumes a fixed speed for a red (15 mph?) or yellow (30 mph?), and there's a huge time difference between a 20 mph red and 5 mph (or even stopped!) red.
- The incident alert detail is laughable, it's summary you'd see from the map, plus a word or too. If there were the detail you'd hear in a radio news report (5 car pile-up, road block, vs. minor bender off the side), it would have been so cool.
- If there's an incident it will usually flag where the backup for that incident begins, not where it actually is. This is fine, but surprising until you realize what's going on.
- It does give you a fair general idea of what the traffic situation is, but is not suitable quality for making 5-10 minute delay level decisions.
The content - gas prices:
- I knew going in that it only has ~50% of gas stations listed. Unfortunately, many of the ones not listed are the independents which have cheaper prices. The Arco at the Delaware St and 92 in San Mateo doesn't come up, and is often has the best in the area.
- I really wish it would let you sort by price. That would have been cool, and it would have been so easy to do.
- The gas prices are mostly reliable, although it's not beyond an error or two. That Shell station $0.20 cheaper than everyone else was not correct. Kudos for listing how recent the price is, although I found that old prices are equally reliable. It just means the station hasn't changed its price.
- How I use it, is that I look at all the prices to get a feel for what's a good price now and not. Then I look around at the ones I'm passing and see if I can beat it. Around here, Arco is almost always the cheapest (they don't take credit cards), along with a independents (which vary significantly). In a hurry, it's good to know I'm not getting a bad price.
- Around home, the gas stations I used previously were really the cheapest ones, so not as much benefit there as I hoped. It's definitely good for finding the cheap ones in a new neighborhood.
The content - weather
- Works reasonably as advertised, but for someone spoiled by weather.com, the content does feel small. Current/today, and the next three days, no more.
- At times it will report "San Mateo" instead of the more detailed Redwood City/San Carlos, etc. Probably it needs more time to download.
- Occasionally, it will come out with a "Severe weather warning", and the time that warning expires. That's cool, but what isn't there is detail on what the warning is about. I got one on a sunny clear day that was staying that way. Maybe it was for high winds? Something specific to Half Moon Bay? Not a clue.
The content - movies
- I thought I'd never use this, but lo and behold there I was, vacationing and wanting to see Ratatouille. Sad to say it never was able to pull up all the nearby theaters, even after I left the GPS in the car all night with the antenna attached (the manual claims 6 hours to download everything - ugh). I wound up checking the times on my Treo.
- It would have been cool if there was a sort by time/next showing feature. It's 1pm, and I want to catch the next available showing. What I had to do, is look at the each of the theaters to get the times and after looking at the nearest 8 or so, figure what the best time was. It would be so much better to see when the next showing is on the right side of the line that is showing the theater name.
MSN direct conclusion report card:
- Hardware/delivery mechanism of content to the device: D
- Completeness of the content: C
- Accuracy of the content: non-traffic B; traffic D
- Presentation of the content on the device: B
Non MSN direct features (i.e. Nuvi 660 equiv):
Regular GPS functional is very good. It has worked indoors, so it's great at keeping a signal, and usually warm boots to have GPS location within 30 seconds or so. Cold boots are more like 5 minutes.
Routing is good, with caveats. I use "faster time" for route preference. The caveat is the routing appears to use a fixed speed based on the road size. So it has no knowledge of traffic lights or local off-major highway traffic hot spots that can seriously change what route may be desired.
The map is good, but you can encounter one-way streets or road breaks that aren't on the map. GPS does not replace looking at the road.
Feature Loves:
- Bluetooth speakerphone - although it does have trouble staying connected to the when the phone is not a call
- Surprisingly, I love the ETA feature for a route, and it is extremely accurate if you mentally add the time you'll be sitting at red lights along your route.
- I love having an MP3 player in this, but see the notes about it under Annoyances.
- Great form factor
- Screen is nice bright and visible
Feature Annoyances:
- MP3 player playlists/searching - The songs/albums/playlist are displayed as a list, 4 at a time. No problem if you've got 10 to look through but put a $15 2GB card with 400 songs and 50 playlists. Some type of foldering/hierarchy setup would have been nice.
- A LOT of places of interest aren't listed. Just going down a main road, it has something like half of the restaurants and a third of the stores. It is better with the major chains, but not perfect.
- I wish the points of interest had a mode where they could display bigger on the screen. Say I'd like see all post offices near my route over the next 20 miles. Right now, I can only see all POIs in near max zoom in, and even then they are 8x8 pixels or even worse a 4x4 pixel dot. I have to try 3 or 4 times at my desk to get my finger exactly on that icon to get the info. Garmin could take a clue from Tomtom here.
- The FM transmitter is all but useless - The SF Bay area has no suitable blank spots, but even away from that, it didn't overcome the static suitably to make it an enjoyable listening experience. Best if you have a car that can use the audio out port.
Conclusion:
GPS functionality: A
Other features: A
Nuvi 680 Good but Needs Improvements in Several Areas July 12, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is our second automotive GPS. We also have a 2 year old Lowrance Iway 500c. We have been using the Nuvi 680 for approximately one month both locally in the Tallahassee, FL area and on a trip to Indianapolis, IN.
Pros: Fast satellite acquisition. Bright display. Internal battery permits operation out of vehicle as well as in vehicle with supplied cigarette lighter adapter. Intuitive operation for anyone with GPS experience. Lots of features. 12 month free MSN Direct traffic delay alerts and automatic re-routing works well for those cities covered. Built-in FM transmitter for routing audio driving instructions through a car radio. Bluetooth enabled.
Cons: Mapping not as current as latest Lowrance mapping for Tallahassee area. Noticeable (3-4 seconds) delay in re-positioning when making turns onto intersecting roads. MSN Direct service limited to major cities. Internal speaker not as good as Lowrance internal speaker. Voice driving instructions, specifically street names, sometimes unintelligble/mispronounced. Supplied suction mount works well on windshield but supplied dash-top mounting adapter tends to eventually pull loose with weight of unit.
 Mostly a disappointment July 7, 2007
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
I wrote a much larger and more comprehensive review, but Amazon somehow dedicded not to publish it. Let's try again.
I rate the device as two stars for the following reasons:
- The navigation functionality of the device is by far the best feature. (go figure) For the most part, it works well, reads street names correctly, and has generally good ideas about navigation. This is where my likes for this device end.
- The device, either when it gets lost or when you make a wrong turn seems to quickly recalculate a new navigation plan. The problem is, it makes impractical turn requests, such as turning in 100 feet when you are driving at 40 MPH! Of course, you miss that turn having not had the chance to cross 4 lanes of traffic in such little time and at that speed, it recalculates again, and the cycle repeats. Eventually you pull over or simply turn the thing off.
- The device gets lost, a lot. It frequently puts me on Main St instead of Elm (I live in Dallas, TX), or thinks I'm traveling north/south when I'm actually driving east/west. And, then the recalculation cycle begins, etc, etc.
- The device takes forever to find the satilites and seems to loose them easily within Dallas proper. It seems to take a lot longer on the high precision mode, but in low precision mode the device is so in accurate it can think I'm blocks away from where I actually am an the navigation becomes absolutely worthless. It works better in the suburbs.
- The Nuvi 680 has an annoying penchant for recommending you drive against traffic on one way streets the wrong way, in particular Continental ave in downtown Dallas. Ignoring the device's request to endanger myself and break the law, this, of course, begins the never ending recalculation cycle mentioned above.
- Unless set to "shortest path", the Nuvi will *always* direct you to a navigation involving expressways, even if it's miles out of your way. In Dallas, this is almost never the "fastest way" as we have many major surface streets that offer "green wave" stoplights and are better for navigation, in particular during busy weekday hours. Set to Shortest Path, the Nuvi does much, much better, but will recommend side streets with tons of stop signs and turns instead of a reasonable compromise of using a major avenue like Ross, Gaston or Live Oak that are only a block or two out of the way. I can only imagine the device has the same failures in other cities if it's this bad in Dallas.
- I bought the device to help me avoid traffic. Using the MSN direct and following the device's advice, I've been jammed in more bad traffic than I ever did before I owned it. Mid day last week, the Nuvi recommended 635 between the Tollway and 75. Now, anyone that's been in Dallas for 2 months knows this is a stupid move -- take Forrest instead. Well, no traffic problems were shown, so I took the Nuvi's advice and promptly sat on the roadway for 20 minutes. This is unacceptable that a decade-old piece of knowledge about the city isn't in the database. $10 says next month when I'm in Boston it routes me right through the big dig.
- The MP3 Player is a travesty. First, it will only play classical and jazz CDs that have a "low level". Pop CDs play very, very distorted. The output level to the FM transmitter is also very low, so you will find yourself *cranking* your radio to hear anything. Don't switch stations if you like your ears!
- The FM Transmitter is really weak. My antenna is only about 3 ft from where I mount the Nuvi, but the reception is noisy, has interference, is waaaaay less in level than other radio stations (I know that's unavoidable to some extent) and sounds so bad I just can't stand to use it. This is a real disappointment in the device.
My recommendation is to purchase a basic navigation system without the frills and MSN direct, which mostly don't work in a satisfactory manner, and save yourself the extra money.
 Excellent device -- hard to beat July 4, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I think this product works just as a GPS should work -- accurately and simply. The screen is outstanding. The computer is fast doing recalculations and so far, no misdirections. The only fault I find is that the device MUST be plugged in to the cigarette lighter to use the MSN traffic and weather functions. I did not realize the FM receiver was in the charger and not the device itself. This somewhat defeats the "cordless" aspect of the device. But it's so much better than OEM systems in cars -- not to mention quite a bit less expensive.
Update -- a little con: there is a flaw in the text to speech function. The computer voice reads "Dr." as "Doctor" not "Drive" -- that's understandable, except when refering to traffic directions!
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