Garmin - Nuvi 680 Review

I deliberately waited until GPS receivers were well past the fad stage before getting one. I knew I wanted a unit with at least a 4.3-inch wide screen and also didn't want the cheapest model. So, when Costco put the Garmin nuvi 680 on sale for $350 -- including a year's subscription to Microsoft's traffic routing and local information service -- I decided to get it.

What it is

The Garmin nuvi 680 is a self-contained GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receiver with built-in maps for the USA and Canada. You can punch in an address and it will give you a highly detailed map that takes you to that address. At each step of the way, it will verbally give you directions, alerting you well ahead of time so that you can prepare for turns and freeway exits.

The unit has a 4.3-inch diagonal touch screen that you use for entering all information. The side has a slot for an SD memory chip, which is the cheapest and most common type of memory card available. The base unit has 2 GB of memory, about 1.5 GB of which is taken up by its maps. (My unit came loaded with the latest 2009 version of Garmin's maps.) Also on the side is a mini USB port and a mini-stereo audio jack.

In addition, the nuvi 680 has an MP3 player and sound files can be saved in the portion of the memory that's not used for map storage. In the base unit, that leaves about 500 MB for MP3 memory but you can easily add to that by slipping in an (optional) SD memory card. The back of the nuvi 680 has a flip up antenna and internal loudspeakers, and the back also has a clever system to mount the unit on a couple of different mounts.

The Garmin nuvi 680 comes with a suction cup mount that worked pretty well, but we quickly got a "sandbag" mount for $25, which rests on top of the car's dashboard. The sandbag mount works very well, unless you are going steeply uphill on a bumpy road, in which case the whole assembly can bounce off the dashboard.

As I mentioned earlier, the Garmin nuvi 680 came with a year's subscription to a Microsoft service that gives traffic warnings. It also lists gas prices at nearby stations, gives movie listings and has weather updates. Although I haven't actually needed any of this information yet, I've looked at it and it's pretty neat. A subscription to this service from Microsoft costs $50 per year and $130 for a lifetime subscription. As I said, my Garmin nuvi 680 came with a year's subscription.

The nuvi 680 can speak directions in a wide variety of different languages and accents, including English in American, British and Australian variants. You can also choose either a man's or woman's voice. My wife immediately set it to a man's voice, and there it stays.

Using it

I was impressed with the Garmin nuvi 680 right out of the box. Without looking at the manual, I had it turned on, plugged into power in my car, attached to the windshield with the included suction-cup mount and all set to give me step-by-step directions to my home. This took no more than five minutes, including unpacking the box -- and I had never used a GPS receiver before. Big kudos to Garmin for creating such a simple-to-use product.

We just took the nuvi 680 on a long (1,300 miles) road trip and it worked very well. It is absolutely brilliant for finding restaurants on the road, especially if you want a specific restaurant. For example, want to know where the nearest Wendy's, IHOP or Cracker Barrel is? It is no problem for the nuvi 680, which will lead you right to the restaurant's door. The unit took us right to parks, homes, hotels, stores and museums -- it is absolutely astonishing how much data is stored in this thing. We looked for the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, NY, and there it was in the nuvi 680's database. Touch one button and the unit gave us step-by-step directions on how to get there. Leaving work one day, we wanted to find the nearest Potbelly's restaurant (a local sandwich chain). The nuvi 680 listed several, including a couple we didn't know about. I really enjoy this unit's ability to find homes and businesses, and give detailed step-by-step directions on how to get there.

The size of the unit is excellent. It easily fits in a shirt pocket, making it a snap to carry if I don't want to leave it in the car.

I haven't used the Garmin nuvi 680 for music playback but have used it extensively for playback of audio books. It is very good for this, with easy-to-see on-screen controls. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the audio jack on the unit to work, so I can only use the built-in speakers on the unit. These would be awful for music but they are intelligible for recorded books. So far, I'm a satisfied camper in this regard, if not overly enthusiastic. Loading recorded books was easy, by connecting the nuvi 680 to my computer with a USB cable.

Oddities

Routing with the Garmin nuvi 680 is sometimes very strange. For example, it really wants to take people on a rugged and bumpy dirt road when going to my house in the Virginia mountains. There is a much better way that is both faster and smoother, but the nuvi 680 prefers to route the other way. It has done a few other odd routings, ones that I would never use because I'm familiar with the roads. However, although it may choose an occasional odd route, it has always gotten us to our destination.

The voice -- male or female, American or British -- is quite synthetic and sometimes garbles pronounciations. Giving me directions to a local address, it told me to use the "Failfax County Parkway." It should have been "Fairfax." The speech synthesizer seems to rush words together, causing some odd pronounciations. If it could be slowed down slightly, it would be better.

Summary

I really like the Garmin nuvi 680 and recommend it. It is easy to use, wonderful to take on trips and very good for navigating in busy suburbs. Its screen is bright and clear, and the built-in voice is patient if I miss a turn. I also enjoy the Microsoft subscription service and will probably renew it.

I recommend the Garmin nuvi 680.