GPS Reviews and Prices

Go large with the ultra cool nüvi 260W that speaks street names. This widescreen navigator is attractively priced and easy to use. Like the rest of the nüvi 200 series, you’re just some screen taps away from anywhere.

Navigate With Ease
Nüvi 260W comes prepared to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator® NT street maps, as well as a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. It states the name of exits and streets so you never have to take your eyes off the road. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2 D or 3 D maps and turn by turn voice directions. Also, nüvi 260W accepts custom points of interest (POIs), like school zones and safety cameras and allows you to set closeness alerts to warn you of forthcoming POIs.

Take It With You
Like the rest of the nüvi 200 series, nüvi 260W sports a sleek, thin design and fits comfortably in your pocket or purse. Its rechargeable lithium ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot.

Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. Nüvi 260W will include many travel tools as well as JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock™, an anti theft feature, and is matched with our free Garmin Garage where you may be able to download custom vehicles that show your place on the map. Improve your travel experience with optional plug in SD cards like Garmin Travel Guides for in depth data on attractions.

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What’s in the Box
Nüvi 260W, preloaded City Navigator NT for North America, car suction cup mount, car power cable, dashboard disk, and fast start manual.


All nüvis come with in depth NAVTEQ maps containing more than six million pre loaded point of interest places.

1,779 of 1,795 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars surprisingly correct, February 25, 2008
By Auto Buff man 2008 (Overland Park, Kansas) See all my reviews This review is from: Garmin nvi 260W 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator (Electronics) I bought the GARMIN nüvi 260W to help with work and family travels. After broad research with Magellan, Mio and Tom Tom, I bought the Garmin for three reasons. 1) easy use. 2) Screen clearness. 3) Amazing accuracy. And no, in spite of where I live, I dont have affiliation with Garmin. I do not know anybody that works for them. I’m in the architectural business.

I tried some number of GPSs while traveling with business associates, friends or in rental cars. As such, I have seen them in real world action. All of the devices saved me time and most found the place I required to be. I could used any of them and been somewhat pleased.The problem: I’m a perfectionist. As such, I want the unit to be the best. After using a text to speech Garmin GPS unit earlier this year, I knew that was a characteristic I couldn’t live without when I pulled the trigger on a buy. Text to speech is a must have on GPS. A MUST. If you have never used a GPS, trust me, you must have text to speech. It removes the frustration of urban driving and having the non text to speech units tell you to turn right in 200 feet, only to find two roads that are 200 feet away and have to pick one and hope it’s right.

I decided to wait till a large screen GPS came out that did not have so many bells and whistles and has been priced pretty. The GARMIN nüvi 260W 4.3 Inch fit the bill. Pulled the trigger still knowing that GPS units drop in price every month it looks and I could knowingly be mad in 90 days when the unit was 20 cheaper (oh well).

Back to the GARMIN nüvi 260W.I am amazed how it can find the driveway of my house at the end of a cul de sac directly bordering to a road that’s named the same. It’s so correct that it lets me know if I pulled into the wrong driveway 15 feet away from mine (I know, I tried it). It’s so easy to use; I did not use the manual once. It’s that user friendly. I downloaded new voices via the Garmin site without a manual. I like the fact the screen is clear and refreshes quickly. I can use my polarized sunglasses with the Garmin 260W screen and it doesn’t distort the screen colors or have many horizontal lines (if you use polarized glasses, be sure to attempt out any GPS screen before you purchase. Many look blank when using polarized glasses).

The POI seem to be pretty good, but I really have not used it long enough to assess POI depth. I do know that the maps seem to be pretty correct by new roads since I have still to find a road that doesn’t exist on the map.

Not everything is perfect with the Garmin 260W. The downside is the time to get a satellite. The 260W takes longer than I like.Sometimes up to one minute. But, once it gets a hold of the satellites, it never looses them. Plus it gets such a strong signal (with no external antenna); I can use the device on my lap in the passenger seat (when I’m not driving and after it finds a satellite). Another couple of downers are it has not many voices that work with the text to speech feature. I hope Garmin increases the choices via a web download at some point (I want celebrity voices.Please). Plus, I could liked a case, any way to be included for the price I paid.

Overall, the unit is amazing and the bigger screen size of 4.3 inches really helps those with fat fingers and those that do not want to squint to read a map. I’m just sorry I had to wait this long to own one. It’s a must have for those that travel to unfamiliar regions.

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1,172 of 1,195 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of five stars Problems with Satellite Acquisition and other Issues, June 7, 2008
By P. M. Gross See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Garmin nvi 260W 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator (Electronics) I received the Garmin Nuvi 260W as a gift. I have subsequently read comments about various GPS units and have finished that:

A hand held GPS is a complement to, not a replacement for a good road map and many common sense. All GPS units have positives and negatives; none are totally perfect. These aren’t toys, but they aren’t self enough navigational tools either. Given enough time, every owner of every unit will have a story about how he could not find a specific point of interest, or has been directed down a dead end street or across a 4 lane divided highway!

Considering screen sharpness, easy use and other features, the Garmin 260W is one of the best in its price class.

Garmin also has the best buyer service of any of the businesses.

The function of this review isn’t to repeat what others have written but to discuss workarounds for the different restrictions of this unit.

COMPUTER ACCESS: To download firmware, software upgrades and maps, access to garmin.Com is a virtual need. Since a computer cable is unfortunately not included with the unit, the user will have to purchase a USB 2.0 A / mini B cable. It may be found on Amazon.

At garmin.Com, download the web updater and whatever updates it prompts and as well, remember to download the updated TTS (Text to Speech) voices. We find that “British” English is on occasion easier to understand than the American counterpart and propose that it be downloaded also.

The USB cable will also charge the Garmin’s battery but the unit doesn’t operate when plugged into the computer. The optional AC converter is only obliged if the user wants to operate the unit on 110 volts.

SATELLITE ACQUISITION: failing to reliably get satellite is the biggest single weakness of the Garmin 260W and the reason for the 3 ranking. The user never knows in advance if, after the 30 second boot up, it’ll take 15 seconds or 15 minutes to find a satellite.

Customer service suggests that the preferable satellite acquisition position is the top edge (NOT the face or back) pointed straight up to the open sky with the unit held still (which means you shouldn’t be driving).

When the unit is powered up out of the box and acquires a satellite for the 1st time, leave the power ON for an hour to download almanac data.

If the unit is moved to a new place with the power off, powering up the unit is alike to an initial power on, and it can take 15 minutes to find new satellites.

If all else fails, do a hard reset (see the information for “clearing user data”). Note that all user data (favorites) is in the gpx file in the gpx folder so save it to your computer and restore it after the reset. Again, leave the unit on for an hour after satellites are assumed.

POINTS OF INTEREST: many of the data isn’t current. If a specific restaurant, etc., can not be found, enter it by its street address , then change the name.

MODIFYING A ROUTE: This unit is less adaptable than many. If a favorite place is selected and the GPS simulator mode activated, the proposed path will be highlighted. “Sliding” the screen with an proper magnification will let the path to be compared with a computer or road map alternative. To push Garmin to choose a specific road or direction, add a VIA point (gas station, motel, whatever). Because Garmin only lets one via point per path, some number of such points can be needed and the driver may have to skip stop between them.

ADD: June 26th. The Garmin 260W won’t display routes downloaded from Mapquest. That feature is reserved for costly units.

ADD: June 26th. Failing to arrive at a particular house number may relate to mistakes on the part of developers, subdivision planners or mappers rather than the GPS. If needed, give an address TWO favorite places one labeled (per gps)that has the wanted address; and one labeled (actual) determined by touching the car icon when standing in the driveway.

ADD: Aug. 4. Polarized sunglass lens fix: If you have the light set low (to conserve the battery when walking or biking, for example), polarized sun glasses may make it hard to read the display which is polarized. But, if you turn the display VERTICAL, the polarized settings will align and the display will now brighten up.

BATTERY LIFE: we have run two hours on battery without losing a green bar. Battery life may be expanded by decreasing the light level to the lowest satisfactory.

In summary, the Garmin Nuvi 260W will do pretty much everything it’s supposed to do EXCEPT get satellites quickly every time. If the company fixes this problem with a new firmware upgrade, the 260W deserves four stars. If the unit were also to let many via points and path selections, then it could, in our opinion, earn five stars.

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381 of 396 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars happy but many Nuvi glitches, May 5, 2008
By Autodidact See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) () This review is from: Garmin nvi 260W 4.3 Inch Widescreen movable GPS Navigator (Electronics) I have used this product for some number of trips and I have never used another GPS. I love the text to speech feature, which is natural; the information are typically clear, but it’s worth glancing at the green bar at the top of the screen to see the full instruction. The map with the graphics can frequently clear up misunderstanding. The other great thing about the map is it labels forthcoming streets so you aren’t peering at street signs.

I bought the friction mount, which is great because I can take it off my dash and put it under the seat easily. Around here, there have been many of break ins of cars with suction marks on the windshield.

A couple of glitches so far:

1. The Nuvi didn’t know the street that I has been headed to in West Virginia.

2. Once in West Virginia in the mountains, the Nuvi couldn’t pick up a satellite signal.

3. Out on a road trip, I stopped at a restaurant. I restarted my car and turned the Nuvi on again; I have the security feature on, so it asked for my pin. I misentered the pin AND IT LOCKED ME OUT till I RETURNED TO MY HOUSE. That is it one shot get it wrong, and no navigator for you. My ATM machine lets me attempt more than once. I will check to see if you may be able to set the number of tries, but I do not think you may be able to.

4. Sometimes it gives information that can not be followed like when it wanted me to get over four busy lanes in 0.2 miles.

5. Note that when it says “Keep Left” it doesn’t mean, get in the left lane. It means do not take the swerve to the right choice by mistake. I got over to the left and was then told to exit right.

6. If the next turn is coming up quickly, the Nuvi will give you the next instruction now. But I turned onto a highway where I had to go 40 miles; and the Nuvi didn’t give me the next instruction till we were nearly over the exit and it was late to get into the lane to make the turn.


I’m still really happy with my buy and it’ll be endlessly useful navigating in more urban environments. It recalculates routes quickly. It also tells you on what side a turn or ramp is, which is great.

LATER: Maybe I missed this in the instruction manual, but there are many other neat features that I discovered by playing around. 1) If you touch the car symbol, you get the choice of saving your current place as a favorite destination; 2) If you touch the green bar at the top that holds a direction, you may be able to see and scroll through all of the directions so you may be able to see which way you will be going; 3) I stumbled into a way to set a way point (although I do not remember how). There is no specific reason to have a waypoint that’s, you may be able to path to your 1st destination , then path to your second, so no difference; except possibly if you’re trying to produce an alternate path to your destination by possibly keeping away from a closed road.

Would like to have, but do not think it does, a feature that allows you to choose a specific turn or direction in the list to path around.

This is the only GPS I have ever owned, so my next comment is most likely related to GPS systems everywhere, but I have found that the Nuvi is silently changing my life by making me bolder about going to new places, especially if it involves night driving. Trying to drive to a new place by yourself juggling your complicated handwritten information or your printout from Mapquest was generally a challenge; doing it at night was downright stressful. You still need your directions just in case, but with the Nuvi I have not had to look at them still. I did not realize how narrowed my world had become because I hesitated to drive to many place I had never been.

LATER: See user comment below that claims that if locked out you may be able to simply power Garmin off and on and attempt again. I have not tried this, as I disabled the security function.

Also, I was in an insanely complicated intersecting freeway knot and I took a wrong turn. Garmin’s recalculation was sufficiently slow that I had real problems to get back on the right track, as I had to keep making decisions to turn long before it finished its recalculations. I had to decide many random direction and go in it long enough to let Garmin to recalculate the path. So it is not perfect.

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