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Garmin nüvi 850 customer reviews

Global Rating: 4.83 from 6 reviews.

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rating title date name city state/province country
Love this unit! (5/5) Aug 2, 2008 Kathleen Lossau Austin TX US
  I love this unit. I have a couple of other Garmin's. This unit size and display is great. The voice commands, surprisingly, work very well.

I like to position the unit on the dash tucked away left of the steering wheel. doesnt block my view and very easy to keep an eye on the unit and road. The MSN Direct power cord can be tucked away under the dash and still reach the cigarette outlet. Wonderful! The only complaint I have so far is that I can not find a convienent place to put the voice activation control.
The Best Ever (5/5) Jun 15, 2008 Fred Elkins Seaford NY US
  Replaced my 2620 Street Pilot with the 850. It is a major improvement over the 2620. The 850 is faster, easier to use and portable. Can't get over how fast it is to find a location or create a route.
Definitely 5 Stars, but not perfect (5/5) Jun 13, 2008 Mel Etheridge Reston VA US
  The display is visible in the brightest sunlight and automatically turns to a black background, not just dim, for night. The graphic directions are very intuitive and easy to follow. They will guide you through the trickiest, most convoluted route literally to the front door and quickly recalculate when you miss a turn.

Mount it directly in front of the driver - it's distracting and you don't want to take your eyes off the road.

But . . . Once the graphics directed me to turn right and the speech told me to turn left (the correct path). Street numbers must be spoken one digit at a time. It thinks for a couple of seconds, confirms what it heard, then you speak the next digit. It's not like talking to another person.

The points of interest data base isn't perfect. I was sitting in front of a Safeway when it told me the closest one was 1.5 miles away.

My biggest complaint is that it comes with only a quick-start guide. The owners manual must be downloaded from the Garmin website and there is a lot of information that the quick-start doesn't have. For example, there's nothing that tells you that holding the slide switch to the power-on position for 8 seconds will turn it off - my car plug is always on and the 850 was staying on.
Two Thumbs Up for Garmin Nuvi 850! (5/5) Jun 12, 2008 Ericson Lopo Glendora CA US
  This is my 2nd GPS Navigation unit and I was greatly impressed by its performance and user friendliness. The fact that the Nuvi 850's user interface is almost the same from its 6xx and 7xx series predecessors, the Nuvi 850's voice command recognition system is what sets it apart. It's very accurately responsive to the commands or instructions given by the user/driver. I was able to navigate the menu interface and divert my driving destination by just dictating the address while my vehicle is on the move. This feature greatly minimizes driver distraction. Another improvement that I notice is that its GPS fix or acquisition time grealy improves from its previous 6xx and 7xx predecessors. The moment I powered-on the Nuvi 850, it instantly acquires GPS signal even with the presence of tall buildings in downtown Los Angeles. I guess the fully functional voice command recognition system will let Garmin to stay ahead from other competing brands.
Great GPS unit (4/5) Jun 11, 2008 Charles Elder Clarkesville GA US
  I replaced my old, bulky gps unit for the nuvi 850. It is a wonderful, compact unit with all the features I need. The voice activation is a real plus and it works perfectly. Addresses are easy to add and I have found that the guidance is pretty close to correct (I go to some out of the way places). No more restarting when stopping for gas or lunch and I can just slip it in my pocket and not worry about who will be the next owner. I hadn't wanted to put quite that much money in a new unit, but now I am glad that I did. I did have a little problem with registration and the unit communicating with my computer but that is all resolved.
nuvi 850 rocks with voice recognition! (5/5) Jun 10, 2008 Gregory Day Wintersville OH US
  The nuvi 850 is a great unit! I got one of the first ones available from gpsnow.com and am quite pleased with it. I am a long time Garmin user (back into the early 90's).

The receiver is very sensitive and tracks well even in hilly terrain and valleys using the built-in antenna.

The screen is plenty bright in sunshine even at the default 70% setting.

Full voice recognition is what sets this unit apart from all others! It is very good considering you don't have to train it to your specific voice. You will, however, need to be sure any passengers are quiet and and all audio systems are off/muted when speaking commands. Road noise is not a problem with the windows up, but I would guess having windows down could be a problem. Speaking slowly and distinctly helps assure accurate input.

The Garmin user interface is standard for all the nuvi (and other Garmin) GPS units - it's pretty intuitive and easy to use even without access to a manual. Speaking of manuals, there is no full user's manual in the box or online at Garmin.com (probably because the unit is so new), but the downloadable nuvi 700 series manual at Garmin.com pretty much covers all of the info needed for the 800 series operation. A Quick start manual is included and covers basic operation.

Map accuracy is fairly decent, but errors should be expected (like wrong way turns onto one way streets and turns onto non-existent streets that have sections missing due to railroad tracks, etc.).

I only have one complaint other than the missing full owner's manual. Insertion of the battery door and battery into the remote control voice activation unit is a real problem. The door won't turn in properly as described in the manual. I found that placing the battery + side onto the door, holding it straight up with the battery on top, and inserting it into the remote while holding the remotre above the door and battery works best. The door should turn easily and be flush when it is fully closed.

The nuvi 850 is a great GPS, and the voice recognition makes it even better and safer with hands free operation for nearly very command and data input!

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