Garmin Nuvi 785T 4.3 Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

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

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars A step backwards!
If this is your first Garmin, then you’ll probably enjoy it. If you’re thinking about upgrading from the previous generation, think again. I thought I would upgrade from my 760 because of the neat display features like lane assist and junction view. In 3 different cities, the features weren’t available. There was one very tricky interstate interchange on my route (in a major city) and the lane guidance would have been an extremely useful and safety-oriented feature. Garmin’s failure to mention the feature doesn’t work at every interstate intersection is deceptive advertising in my opinion.

I’ve always operated in “Track UP” view. With the 785, if you are driving a route and you slide the map to get a better view of your destination, the map magically rotates to North Up view making reading the map and adjusting your brain very difficult. If you zoom out past a certain level, the map changes to a relief map making it more difficult to see the few major roads it displays near your route. The sharpness of text and other symbols is a step down from the 760′s. The 785t has 3 selectable map detail levels vs. the 760′s 5. The 760 can display minor streets at a much wider map scale (zoomed out) than the 785t, making it much more useful to locate your own detours or shortcuts when on a route. 2 days after I got the 785t, I made a 400 mile trip navigating to 6 customers’ locations in rural areas. By the time I got home, I was thanking my lucky stars that I hadn’t gotten rid of the 760 yet. Another feature that attracted me to the 785t was the MSN service, especially the weather radar. I don’t have MSN service in my city but I routinely travel to cities that do. I had to be a lot closer to the metropolitan area than the coverage maps led me to believe. The signal coverage maps online are totally misleading in my region. On top of that, I could only see radar in the area I was traveling that had coverage. I couldn’t zoom out and view what was happening in my city so I had no idea what awaited me when I left the signal coverage area. The traffic map was nice but I prefer the way the FM traffic info displays on the 760 because of the unit’s sharper imaging. With the 785t, I think Garmin has traded solid, useful features for “gee whiz” map spins and twirls and the highly advertised lane guidance and building views that may or may not be available in your location.

4 Stars Works Great for Me…Lots of Features
Some background: I’m a Joe Salesguy who parachutes into unfamiliar cities to visit customers. I bought this to replace my trusty Nuvi 350, and I don’t know how I ever lived without GPS. I haven’t looked at a paper map in years.

I had this shipped to my hotel where I fired it up for the first time and got a satellite lock in the room without even trying. The unit is physically impressive with its rubber coating and solid feel, it’s very thin and elegantly simple in design, and it looks cool. Although the connection between the unit and the windshield mount is more complicated than my Nuvi 350, I have no problem lining up and clicking the unit in place with one hand. It doesn’t come with a case, so I bought one separately so I can protect it in my luggage.

In response to any software complaints in other reviews, I updated the firmware off the Garmin website right out of the box and haven’t had any problem whatsoever with the unit. Three days later I noticed that another update was available, so you may want to periodically connect to Garmin and make sure you have the latest to prevent any nuisance glitches others have described. I also got my free map update without any trouble. These updates can take a while, so plan accordingly.

I haven’t noticed anything slow about it. It keeps up with turns plenty fast enough, even in the city where there are lots of turns in close proximity. Screen has never `blacked out.’ Navigation is as good as I need it–no problems. The speed limit feature is nice. The unit updates right as you pass the signs on the highway for the most part. On a 500-mile drive this week on back roads and interstates it missed about five speed limit changes, so you still need to watch for signs.

I tried out the FM transmitter to play MP3s I have on the SD card. I didn’t think it performed as bad as some reviews would have you think. However, and it’s not the fault of the unit, it got old having to tune to a new frequency as I traveled along. If you stick around the same area this wouldn’t be an issue.

MSN Direct is great, and is one reason I bought this model. My favorites? Got to be the Doppler radar maps first and the traffic warning second. Here in the Southeast in the summer, thunderstorms can pop up in the afternoons. It’s handy to see what’s over the horizon. The traffic updates were spot on, except for one time that would have cost me a few minutes. The unit re-directed me off the interstate for one exit, but knowing the area I rolled the dice and stayed on my original track. Turns out there was nothing between those two exits. To give some credit, the traffic warning disappeared off the screen as I came closer to the first exit, but the unit didn’t change back to the original path. Perhaps it would have with more notice.

I tried out the “send to GPS” feature from Bing maps, where you can choose a point of interest on your laptop and then have it sent wirelessly to the GPS via MSN Direct. This will be helpful to input customer locations without having to use the tiny keyboard on the unit. It just takes a few minutes for the GPS to receive after you send.

So far I’m impressed with the 785 and would recommend it. I’ve had it for less than a week and will update this review if it causes any trouble.

4 Stars Great upgrade from my nuvi 370
Prior to buying the nuvi 785t, I owned a nuvi 370 (basically a 350 with Europe maps) for more than a year. I found myself wanting some of the “neat” but non-essential newer features in the new nuvis that were becoming less expensive to acquire.

PROS:

* One of the biggest reasons I purchased this unit was the MSN Direct service. It was a crap shoot as many reviewers were negative on it, but I am EXTREMELY happy about my experience so far. Traffic updates (probably what is most used) are fast and just about as accurate as the FM service I had on my 370 (meaning, don’t be surprised if they’re right only about 60% of the time, nothing in this arena I’ve found is very accurate). The way the 785t integrates the MSN traffic it will alert you when you are not navigating (by saying “traffic ahead” and changing the screen to show the traffic) and it also routes you around traffic that is too heavy. On a road here in Orlando, US-192, which is often busy, the traffic also updates constantly on my 30 minute ride into work. Delays go from 1 minute, to 3 minutes, to 5 minutes as conditions appear to change in real time. This never seemed to be the case with the FM receiver, it’s almost as if the traffic backups caused by all the stop lights cause this number to fluctuate. It gives me a great idea of whether or not I should take that particular road each morning or find an alternative route.

* The Send to GPS feature included with MSN Direct is absolutely amazing. Even at my office, which has one signal bar of MSN Direct coverage, I get destinations and routes I send to the GPS in 10-20 minutes. This feature makes trip planning a breeze. Locations and routes sent to the GPS are treated almost exactly like any other destination you would enter in on the GPS, and you can even edit them once they get on the GPS, change their names, etc. I only wish it worked with Google Maps, but of course MSFT wouldn’t ever have that!

* The weather feature is pretty cool, especially the radar pictures. It’s an animated radar. On a recent trip, it allowed us to estimate how long we’d be driving through heavy rain, and it gave a great indication of this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t update quite as well as other features (like traffic) and sometimes falls behind a bit. But a new map is sent out about every 10 minutes, and as long as you have about 2 bars of MSN Direct coverage you should receive it. I love seeing the weather at my destination, but this usually only works when the GPS has been on for about 10 minutes (and received the most recent weather update); don’t expect it to work right when you get in your car and enter in a destination.

* Gas prices with MSN direct work pretty well, I’ve used it frequently to find that station that is nearby that is just a few pennies cheaper than other places. The prices so far have been 100% accurate almost everywhere I’ve used it. I wish the gas prices application would be subject to the “Search Near” options you can use when using the Where To menu (ie, near destination, on current route, etc.) The gas price app will only show you stations near your CURRENT POSITION.

* Other MSN Direct features are less useful but work just as well. I tested out the flight time application. The stock application works okay, but many of my stock symbols weren’t in its database. The news application is neat, but it provides very little of the actual news story.

* Satellite acquisition is faster than with the 370, and I receive stronger signals from the satellites even while in buildings or with obstructions.

* Lane assist works as advertised. When approaching a maneuver, the upper left corner of the screen will let you know what lane(s) you need to be in. This works on almost all roads I’ve driven on, sometimes it is more specific than other times. There is one intersection where you need to be in the leftmost right turn lane to make an immediate left, and the nuvi failed to predict this, but it did at one other time inform me to be in the leftmost left turn lane to make an immediate left. So in that respect it’s hit and miss, but it usually does steer you in the right way.

* Along with lane assist, junction view is a great new feature for me. Almost all major expressway/expressway junctions are covered, even major state roads (like the Turnpike, SR-417, SR-408, SR-528 in Orlando) are included.

* 3D building views aren’t real noticeable at normal zoom levels. The modeled buildings are pretty impressive, but I noticed most buildings don’t appear unless you are zoomed most of the way in. In most conditions, this means I don’t see the buildings on the GPS unless I am approaching a destination or turn as the GPS zooms in.

* Screen refreshes! This unit refreshes very quickly, much more so than my 370. It slowly zooms in on upcoming maneuvers (such as turns and exits), focusing your attention on the upcoming turn. It’s very smooth, and I run it in the highest detail mode.

* Volume. I believe this GPS is louder than the 370 was, and the volume is more than adequate for me.

* The screen is very clear and easy to read, it reflects glare once in a while but isn’t too reflective. When turned off, you will see tons of fingerprints…these don’t affect operation when on though.

* Multi-destination routing is AWESOME! It’s something I wish the 370 would have had, I am very happy with this!!! And having the nuvi figure out the most efficient way to order my destinations is very smooth.

* Eco Route is fun to play with. It gets relatively close to my actual gas mileage for trips, I have been calibrating it every time I fill up. I like how Eco Route can use the current MSN Direct gas price in its calculations when it tells you how much it will cost to travel to a destination.

* I tried using the GPS in a parking lot to find my way back to my car. It worked pretty well, but I couldn’t figure out a way to route myself to the car (ie, where do I find this in the Where To section?)

* MP3 player works just the same as in the 370. It’s no iPod, but it’s pretty handy and since I don’t have an iPod I will often use my GPS on flights to listen to my music (with a 32GB SD card, I can store a lot of music).

CONS

* My old 370 would show me names of lakes and other waterways, this GPS doesn’t seem to show this information at all.

* The 785t takes almost as long as the 370 to turn on and boot up. I was hoping this initial wait would be decreased.

* On the nuvi 370, I could turn it on, and very quickly navigate the menus and have it navigating me somewhere within a few seconds of turning it on. The nuvi 785t needs to “rest” for about 10 seconds or so before you should use it to start navigating, otherwise it will “forget” your input. Example: I turn on the nuvi 785t, quickly navigate the menus and tell it to take me home. I am then brought to the map (which is probably still loading) and nothing happens. I must wait for the map to load before going back through the menus and telling it to take me home. This is a little annoying, I wish it acted more like the 370 in this regard.

* There are some options the 370 had that you could customize that it seems the 785t does not have. I also liked the wider range of vehicles available back when I went to the Garmin Garage after I got my 370. Luckily, I was able to copy the vehicles over to my 785t from the 370. I wish the 785t would allow me to specify a backlight timeout.

NOT REVIEWED

* Bluetooth: I have an external bluetooth hands free set, and as my phone cannot share its address book, I saw no reason to switch and immediately turned the bluetooth off.

* Automatic time zone transition: I was surprised my 370 did not support this, and I haven’t had the opportunity to try it on my new 785t…but I hope to on my next cross country trip!

* FM Transmitter: I wouldn’t expect this to work too well, and I have no need of using it, but it’s available at least.

FINAL WORD

In all, this GPS was a great upgrade from the 370. I am really enjoying the MSN Direct capabilities, enough so that I purchased their $19.95 special for 9 months of service. I am considering a lifetime plan. I was not disappointed with MSN Direct, but check their Web site prior to purchasing to make sure they provide coverage in your area AND that the features you want are available in your area.

This is probably one of the most polished pieces of Garmin hardware I’ve seen in a while, and it all seems to work very well together as advertised. Thanks Garmin!

1 Star Don’t buy
When my Garmin Street Pilot 2720 finally died after several years of trouble free use I had no problem going back to Garmin for a new unit. After research I determined that the Garmin nuvi 785T would probably be the right unit for me. WRONG!!!!!! From the first time out the voice direction mode never worked. I contacted Amazon with the complaint and they overnighted me a new unit. You can not beat the service from Amazon.com and the way they back products bought through them. The new unit lasted for 400 miles on the first trip I took with it and it just shut off never to be turned on again by me. I contacted Amazon again to learn that I’m not the only one with this problem and that Amazon would not send a replacement, only give a refund. I contacted Garmin who informed me that there are several problems with their receivers but they would fix the problem. All I had to do was send it back for repair. Unlike Amazon.com who provided a “Call-Tag” for the first unit I sent back, Garmin did not do that and it cost me $14.00 with insurance to return the unit to Garmin who had acknowledged that the problem was a software problem on their end. This is not right. Then in the email they sent me with the information about sending the unit back they inform me that turn around will be 14 to 30 business days. They sure must be busy in their repair department. I’m leaving on July 3rd on a 4 week road trip and I feel I will be doing it less a GPS receiver. Don’t know what is going on with Garmin these days. What I do know is I will be very careful in the future before I buy another one of their products. One other thing to be noted. My Street Pilot 2720 was much faster than this nuvu 785T. Something you might want to consider.

5 Stars Very Pleased
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.

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