The Garmin Gremlin is back! (Garmin nuvi 250)

Member Name: scuba_angel

Product:	Garmin nuvi 250
Date:	02/01/09 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: takes me where i want to be

Disadvantages: a bit quiet

Satanic Navigation systems have become a common everyday item for many people who drive on a regular basis, but as with anything else technological there are hundreds on the market and a bewildering array of options to choose from.

Luckily for me I bypassed this confusion by winning a satnav in a raffle at work last Christmas, so after 12 months of near constant use it was time to review the unit.

I have the Garmin Nuvi 250, Garmin have a well established reputation for making good quality GPS receivers and many of my military and outdoor activity loving friends have them for use when hiking, boating, or even just a short ramble throug unfamiliar territory (though one friend has his soley to record the locations of his favourite pubs). So I had high hopes that my little unit would be a good product to use.

In terms of its looks typically for a satnav it is a dark grey colour with a silver inset around the screen, the screen itself is I would say the most important part of the unit and is a decent size with no buttons around it - unlike my fathers older satnav - as it is a touch screen model. On one side there is a slot for an SD memory card so you can download new maps to increase its range, though stored in its internal memory are maps of the entire UK (and EU according to the box but I havent tried this yet). The on off button is a slider on the top of the unit, though when you plug it in to the cars power socket it is turned on automatically.

Removing the unit from the box setting it up is very simple, a short calibration test ensures that the screen settings are working correctly, then a 'Warning' screen which suggests you make alterations only when stationary, then on to the planning screen.

Clicking the 'Where to' icon gives you the option of inputting an address - postcode and house number, recently found - if you have to return to a location you have visited previously, food, hotels, etc to find the nearest cafe, restaurant, petrol station lodgings, airport/train station etc, or shopping centre among others and favourites. Once you have selected your method of finding the destination it simply confirms that this is where you want to go and plans a route, this can take from a few seconds to a few minutes once the unit has aquired the satellite feeds.

Once you start driving it will predict the time you will arrive at your destination, generally I find this is a pretty generous estimate arriving a couple of minutes earlier than it predicts even on relatively short journeys (and without speeding), but throughout the drive it will recalculate this information which is great in free moving traffic but if you get stuck in a jam it reasonably obviously cant calculate accurately so tends to blank out until you are moving again.

The power cord plugs in to a slot on the back of the unit, I find that in my car it is very long and the dangling cable is an annoyance when changing CD but in my other halfs somewhat bigger car its less of an issue - moral of the story small cars are a pain! The cradle it sits on is the easily removed suction cup to the screen type and there is no permanent fixing option on this model (at least none that I know of).

Since having it I have had to drive almost the length and bredth of the UK and on journeys to places are far afield as Lydd, Stirling, Skeeby (a tiny village near Scotch Corner), and even on drives through Manchester city centre (where I almost always get lost) it hasnt sent me the wrong way once, yes admittedly it does occasionally miss mini roundabouts but this could be due to them being built since the last update of the stored maps, but vitally it has never missed a turn and has always taken me directly to my destination address, on journeys where I know other routes it quickly recalculates the routes according to the turnings I have chosen mid drive though you can set it to avoid certain roads, types of road or towns if you want it to.
Personally I have a loatheing of the A1M which is unsurpassed by virtually anything else so the Skeeby drive was one I dreaded but when asking it to not put me on 'that' road it suggested a route via Harrogate avoding the majority of 'it' which was around 10 miles shorter but 20 mins longer which suited me just fine!

The display is big enough and bright enough to see clearly, and automatically switches from day to night mode at an appropriate time - I presume triggered by a satellite signal as it is a different time in summer and winter.

My single complaint about it is that the voice instructions arent loud enough, when driving my rattle trap of a car along a motorway or fairly bumpy road with the radio on at even a lower than normal volume it is hard to hear what the nice lady is telling me to do, which at times does mean I miss turnings when it isnt safe to look at the display. It doesnt have things like jam avoidance as other high end models might but thats what we have traffic bulletins for.

Overall I have to say I cannot recommend this highly enough, it is an entry level unit which I has all the functions the typical motorist might require on a day to day basis, while being small enough and light enough to fit in the typical handbag or decent sized jacket pocket without being obvious. While I will never drive long distances without my road map on my passenger seat as a back up and a general idea of the overall area I'm in I also wouldnt want to drive anywhere new with out my satanic.

As this model is around 18months old now you can pick one up for around £100 - £150 which to my mind is an absolute bargain.

Summary: Garmin's basic satnav