Model: 1300LM with Lifetime Maps

909 of 922 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars good but . . . ., October 16, 2009
By mitch53 (Bridgewater, NJ) See all my reviews () This review is from: Garmin nvi 1350/1350T 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic (Electronics) I have the unit for ten days now and in general I’m happy with it. For its mainstream feature, navigation, it’s excellent. I had a Garmin 350 before this which I loved but it was stolen from my car. I had a Magellan after that which was crap. The price on this unit was great ($247 Amazon).

I chose it over the 1390T because I opted to not get bluetooth. It’s the only difference between the units. I felt the bluetooth quality could be poor depending on other reviews of bluetooth overall on GPS units. The major reason was in the way majority of people use bluetooth. In a common day I’m in and out of my car frequently. I generally need my bluetooth now in case I get a call. I do not generally need my GPS. And since my last unit was stolen, and theft of these units is a big problem everywhere, I keep the unit hidden or on occasion remove it from the car. If you’re like me but you get this unit for bluetooth, you’ll have to stop and mount your gps everytime you get in the car if you need it or not, just to have blue tooth capability. If you forget and the cell phone rings, you dont have bluetooth. So I bought a separate bluetooth speaker phone from Jabra (very good unit# which is generally attached to my visor, pretty good quality, and generally there when I need it. I saved about $75 by opting for the 1350T over the 1390T.

A not many minor disappointments. The Lane help feature works great but isn’t available everywhere. I used it around NYC and it was useful. I drove through Pennsylvania and upstate NY and it wasn’t available. Marketing material hypes this feature but they neglect to tell you this one point. But when it’s available, it’s a great feature. That brings me to traffic. Same story here. I drived through PA and hit a one hour traffic jam. No warnings from the traffic feature because it wasn’t available in that area. When I got to the Scranton, PA area the traffic alerts started working. It alerted me of a big traffic jam ahead and it rerouted my trip automatically. The reroute could have been a important addition in miles but could be worth it to avoid the traffic, right? I decided to disregard the re route just to test the unit to see if the alert was correct and I was wanting to endure the traffic. As I drove my original path, no traffic anywhere. So had I listened to the traffic alert, I could have driven 50 miles out of my way for nothing. Bottom line is, do not let the traffic feature be a deal breaker for the unit you decide. But then again, I got the 1350T for about the same price as the 1350 #same unit without traffic). Updating the map was more hard than it should have been. I think about myself a technical person with computers and gadgets but the map update didn’t go smoothly and took me some number of tries. I could see where many people will have difficulty with this if they try to update the map.

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605 of 614 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of five stars charging issues, July 25, 2009
By mark goresky (New Jersey) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Garmin nvi 1350 Series 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator (Electronics) I have used this GPS for some number of weeks now and when it’s completely charged it’s totally great. The voice is deafening and clear, the maps are correct and in depth. It acquires satellites quickly, in less than best situation with trees overhead or tall buildings close. It’s easy to program and the onscreen menus are convenient. It’s thin and reasonably light and movable and the screen is big. But it has one big problem: the cigarette lighter charging system doesn’t supply enough current to charge the GPS while it’s turned on. It’s unbelievable that Garmin could let their unit to be sold under these conditions.

When I received the unit I totally charged the battery (by connecting it to my computer using a USB cable which Garmin doesn’t supply, but I happened to have one anyway). Then I used it in my car, generally plugged into the cigarette lighter. It turns on automatically whenever you start the car, and it turns off automatically when the ignition switch is turned off. But, over this two week period the battery gradually discharged (without my knowledge) till it reached a point where the unit could not turn on, when plugged in to the car charger. Presuming the unit was faulty, I called Garmin and (after 20 minutes on hold) learned that the car charger isn’t up to the task, and that the GPS will gradually lose its charge when it’s turned on, if you have it connected to the cigarette lighter adapter. I believe that means that if you have a long drive, possibly eight hours or more, then the unit may not remain operational during the full trip. Other people have made alike complaints about many of the other Garmin GPS units.

The tech support people clarified how to recover from the low battery situation: you do a “soft reset” which simply involves holding down the on/off button for ten seconds. Then the unit will turn on, but the battery will need recharging. I was told to do this by connecting it to my computer using a USB cable, which Garmin doesn’t supply with the GPS (fortunately I already had one), but I assume you could do the same by connecting it to the car charger and making certain that the unit is turned off while it’s charging.

What a shame that Garmin has made a superior product with a deadly defect. I’ll keep mine for now, but I am going to investigate other charging solutions. Possibly after reading this review, the wizards at Garmin will redesign the charging system for this GPS.

Update (Aug 1/09): I discovered the reason for these charging issues: In the User’s Manual, under “Troubleshooting”, Garmin states that the Nuvi won’t charge if it’s in direct sunlight or if the temperature is more than 113 degrees F (45 deg C). Since I had my unit attached to the windshield, and since I only drive throughout noon, it’s generally in sunlight. This charging rule applies to many other models as well; for any given model you may be able to download the manual from Garmin, turn to the Troubleshooting section, and see if or not they describe a alike charging rule. (The rule is meant to avoid overheating the battery: lithium batteries can sometimes catch fire if they’re overcharged or overheated.) I think this explains why many people encountered charging problems and others have not: it depends on if or not the unit is generally in direct sunlight while you’re driving. Many people use the friction mount and their Garmin sits on the console. Others drive afterward in the day or at night.

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323 of 325 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars usually remarkable But many Quibbles, June 30, 2009
By R. Anderson See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) () This review is from: Garmin nvi 1350 Series 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator (Electronics) Overall, I’m pleased with the Garmin nuvi 1350 but I do have a couple of minor complaints.

First of all, I do recommend that owners/potential purchasers visit the Garmin website to read through all of the product info and to review the FAQs. Many people have made an issue of Garmin not as well as the USB cable with the device but this didn’t matter to me. The obliged cable is a regular type “A” to mini “B” USB cable. Many other devices use this same cable and I already own a couple of them. (I also heard that if you contact Garmin buyer service, they may send you a cable at no charge.) Other reasons to visit the Garmin site: to register the product, to download the full PDF manual and to install the “my Garmin broker Plugin” for web updates.

Next, my quibbles:
When the 1350 is plugged into a charging device (PC or vehicle), there’s no way to find out when the unit is completely charged. This is inconvenient. To view the charge level, you must unplug the device and turn it on. Only then can you see the battery level. As indicated by the Garmin FAQs, charge time is about four hours using the car cable and eight hours using the PC cable.
One of the features of the 1350 is the speed bound display. But, I find this to be of restricted value. The speed display is usually five to ten mph too high compared with the real posted speeds on the roads being traveled. Consequently, this throws off the estimated destination arrival time.

Finally, why I’m impressed:
When driving with the 1350, I never had any doubt where I was at any given time and I never had any doubt what my next maneuver could be (and is not this the bottom line of any GPS?). The voice commands have lots of volume, are easy to understand and they also give you adequate lead time for forthcoming turns. The commands will also repeat but the voice isn’t annoying. Some number of times, I intentionally missed a turn to test how the 1350 could react. It quickly calculated a modified path depending on my current place.
I also found the screen to be clear and easy to see while driving (in bright sun, shade and at night).
The full manual states that a PDA type stylus may be used for the touch screen. I found this to be convenient (I’m really using a stylus from a Nintendo DS.) While you may be able to surely use your finger on the screen, this will leave fingerprints and smudges on the screen.

Other notes:
I have the 1350 sitting on my dash with the Garmin “Portable Friction Mount” greatly suggested.
My 1350 came with a free case the Caselogic MGPS 2. This case adequately guards the 1350 when it is not being used.

Overall, this was a great buy for my business travels and I could rate the unit as four and a half stars.

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Model: 1350LMT with Lifetime Maps & Traffic

788 of 797 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars good but . . . ., October 16, 2009
By mitch53 (Bridgewater, NJ) See all my reviews () This review is from: Garmin nvi 1350/1350T 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic (Electronics) I have the unit for ten days now and in general I’m happy with it. For its mainstream feature, navigation, it’s excellent. I had a Garmin 350 before this which I loved but it was stolen from my car. I had a Magellan after that which was crap. The price on this unit was great ($247 Amazon).

I chose it over the 1390T because I opted to not get bluetooth. It’s the only difference between the units. I felt the bluetooth quality could be poor depending on other reviews of bluetooth overall on GPS units. The major reason was in the way majority of people use bluetooth. In a common day I’m in and out of my car frequently. I generally need my bluetooth now in case I get a call. I do not generally need my GPS. And since my last unit was stolen, and theft of these units is a big problem everywhere, I keep the unit hidden or on occasion remove it from the car. If you’re like me but you get this unit for bluetooth, you’ll have to stop and mount your gps everytime you get in the car if you need it or not, just to have blue tooth capability. If you forget and the cell phone rings, you dont have bluetooth. So I bought a separate bluetooth speaker phone from Jabra (very good unit# which is generally attached to my visor, pretty good quality, and generally there when I need it. I saved about $75 by opting for the 1350T over the 1390T.

A not many minor disappointments. The Lane help feature works great but isn’t available everywhere. I used it around NYC and it was useful. I drove through Pennsylvania and upstate NY and it wasn’t available. Marketing material hypes this feature but they neglect to tell you this one point. But when it’s available, it’s a great feature. That brings me to traffic. Same story here. I drived through PA and hit a one hour traffic jam. No warnings from the traffic feature because it wasn’t available in that area. When I got to the Scranton, PA area the traffic alerts started working. It alerted me of a big traffic jam ahead and it rerouted my trip automatically. The reroute could have been a important addition in miles but could be worth it to avoid the traffic, right? I decided to disregard the re route just to test the unit to see if the alert was correct and I was wanting to endure the traffic. As I drove my original path, no traffic anywhere. So had I listened to the traffic alert, I could have driven 50 miles out of my way for nothing. Bottom line is, do not let the traffic feature be a deal breaker for the unit you decide. But then again, I got the 1350T for about the same price as the 1350 #same unit without traffic). Updating the map was more hard than it should have been. I think about myself a technical person with computers and gadgets but the map update didn’t go smoothly and took me some number of tries. I could see where many people will have difficulty with this if they try to update the map.

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337 of 339 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars Good but many problems!, February 19, 2010
By Cheryl M. Todd See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Garmin nvi 1350/1350T 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic (Electronics) After using my friend’s Nuvi in Scotland last year I said I have to have one of these! It worked great and saved us many lost hours while effortlessly helping us through hundreds of badly signed round abouts. He had a basic but dependable Nuvi without many features other than direction finding, which is the major idea. I wanted a dependable Nuvi but with some of the more interesting features. After reading reviews I eliminated the 700 & series because of all the stated freezes. I eliminated any with bluetooth functions for the same reason. After many of reviewing I went with the 1350T. I wanted lane help and I wanted cityXplorer mapping because we go abroad many and I wanted to have improved pedestrian potential. I live in a rural town so free traffic alerts was not too vital but I do use up time in Phoenix, San Diego and LA sometimes so it was a plus.

I ordered the unit just previous to a trip from Phoenix to Sacramento. I am a manual reader so I printed a copy of the information from the Garmin website and read them completely before messing with the unit (the fast start information included with the unit are worthless). Before doing anything else I bought a USB cable so that I could connect to my computer. Everyone should have the cable and it is ridiculous that Garmin does not supply the cable with the unit because you need it to register and get current software. Once I had the cable I connected to Garmin’s website and registered the unit and updated the maps and firmware. It is a little difficult but not too hard.And I am not technical. I also bought and downloaded radar detection software because Phoenix, Tucson and most of Arizona is filled with scum sucking radar detectors. I also did the screen calibration on page 47 of the manual because some number of reviews indicated that it made the touch screen interface more dependable. I wanted to take many out of the way highways on my trip so I programmed in many “via points” to use along the way. They are points that let you to divert to another place or highway while keeping the same final destination programmed. The night before the trip I played with the unit looking into the “browse map” function. It seemed to be a worthless function and it was not responsive with the screen being too small to be useful anyway. Just as I was about to get out of the browse mode the screen went black. The unit was completely charged but I couldn’t turn it back on again. I tried with the car plug adaptor, the USB cable, the on/off button.Everything. The next morning before my trip it still would not start. I sent the unit back and requested a substitute. After to get the substitute I went through the same processes again as outlined above except that I will not use the “browse map” function again. I took the unit on a trip from No. Arizona to Orange County then San Diego and back again. For the most part the unit worked well. It did freeze once and the screen went black again when I programmed in a place. I waited about ten minutes and to my great break it did restart but I was about to toss it out the window if it did not restart. One time in a complicated freeway interchange in San Diego it lost position and started “recalculating”. If I hadn’t recognized where I goed I may have easily taken the wrong offramp.

While traveling through Riverside, CA the Garmin indicated that there was many traffic ahead. I touched the screen to see the traffic map and the screen indicated the length and time of the possible delay. It was a short delay so I continued on and it turned out to be correct. I has been impressed but another time in San Diego it indicated a short delay and there was no delay at all. Just be aware that it is only as good as the info it receives from the reporting station.

For fun I also wanted to load many thumbnail pictures for my home and family destination “favorites”. I could find no directions on how to do this, in the full manual printout so I called Garmin. It is easy to do. Just connect your Nuvi to your computer, double click the Garmin icon and open the Garmin folder. There’s a jpeg folder in the Garmin folder. Drag your jpeg photo and drop into the jpeg folder. Then eject and disconnect your Garmin. To add the picture to a “favorite” choose “favorite”; “press for more”; press “edit”; “change photo”; choose a photo and you are done.

I noticed that when going to a place and returning the directions to and from aren’t generally the same. It on occasion sends you somewhat out of the way either coming or going. I think that is because it looks to have a penchant for giving you right turns instead of left turns when starting out from a place. For example, when departing from a shopping center it may have you make a right turn leaving the center, rather than making a left turn, if it is somewhat out of the way. It is not a big deal but I find that inquisitive.

I know many of people do not want to read the long manual but I believe it’ll save you many of early aggravation and will assist you use all of the nice features this unit has. I have also found that if you take your time and do not start pushing functions before the unit has made a calculation or transitioned to another screen the unit is more dependable.

Pros:
1. Volume works great. I am hard of hearing and 70 is plenty deafening.
2. Satellite answer time is fast and recalculating time is usually responsive
3. Lane help is a great feature particularly on big thoroughfares and freeways.
4. Speaks street names obviously and is amazingly close on correct articulation. (Spanish street names may be fun though). Male & Female voice available.
5. Shows posted speed bound and real driving speed which is a great feature.
6. Turn list looking at is a nice feature particularly in unfamiliar regions with many of turns ahead.
7. I like the time or distance to destination feature. The time estimates to a destination have been quite correct. It is a nice feature particularly on long legs.

Cons:
1. No USB cable included
2. No manual (you must print from website and it is over 60 pages).
3. May lose power and not restart for many time (or not at all as with my first unit). This is the reason I gave it four stars instead of 5.
4. Though I made the screen calibration, when typing in addresses many of letters do not answer as easily as they should.
5. Browse Map feature glitchy and worthless.

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274 of 275 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars usually remarkable But many Quibbles, June 30, 2009
By R. Anderson See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) () This review is from: Garmin nvi 1350 Series 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator (Electronics) Overall, I’m pleased with the Garmin nuvi 1350 but I do have a couple of minor complaints.

First of all, I do recommend that owners/potential purchasers visit the Garmin website to read through all of the product info and to review the FAQs. Many people have made an issue of Garmin not as well as the USB cable with the device but this didn’t matter to me. The obliged cable is a regular type “A” to mini “B” USB cable. Many other devices use this same cable and I already own a couple of them. (I also heard that if you contact Garmin buyer service, they may send you a cable at no charge.) Other reasons to visit the Garmin site: to register the product, to download the full PDF manual and to install the “my Garmin broker Plugin” for web updates.

Next, my quibbles:
When the 1350 is plugged into a charging device (PC or vehicle), there’s no way to find out when the unit is completely charged. This is inconvenient. To view the charge level, you must unplug the device and turn it on. Only then can you see the battery level. As indicated by the Garmin FAQs, charge time is about four hours using the car cable and eight hours using the PC cable.
One of the features of the 1350 is the speed bound display. But, I find this to be of restricted value. The speed display is usually five to ten mph too high compared with the real posted speeds on the roads being traveled. Consequently, this throws off the estimated destination arrival time.

Finally, why I’m impressed:
When driving with the 1350, I never had any doubt where I was at any given time and I never had any doubt what my next maneuver could be (and is not this the bottom line of any GPS?). The voice commands have lots of volume, are easy to understand and they also give you adequate lead time for forthcoming turns. The commands will also repeat but the voice isn’t annoying. Some number of times, I intentionally missed a turn to test how the 1350 could react. It quickly calculated a modified path depending on my current place.
I also found the screen to be clear and easy to see while driving (in bright sun, shade and at night).
The full manual states that a PDA type stylus may be used for the touch screen. I found this to be convenient (I’m really using a stylus from a Nintendo DS.) While you may be able to surely use your finger on the screen, this will leave fingerprints and smudges on the screen.

Other notes:
I have the 1350 sitting on my dash with the Garmin “Portable Friction Mount” greatly suggested.
My 1350 came with a free case the Caselogic MGPS 2. This case adequately guards the 1350 when it is not being used.

Overall, this was a great buy for my business travels and I could rate the unit as four and a half stars.

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