Garmin - nüvi 200 Portable GPS

I bought the Garmin Nuvi 200 from Best Buy about two weeks ago. It has been the best 300 dollars I have spent so far. I am a new college student so I bought it so that I would know where everything was in Charlotte. The POI's on the Nuvi are amazing. You just search by type such as fast food and then you can narrow it down to a specific place by typing in the name on the 3.5 in. touchscreen. Using the address function is great to. Just type i the numbers and then click done and most of the time as you are typing the street it automatically finds it for you. The screen is incredibly bright and is easy to see, even in direct sunlight and the spoken voice prompts are loud and clear when the volume is turned up. With it turned up to 100%, you can even listen to the radio at a pretty good volume and still be able to hear the Nuvi loud and clear. As far as accuracy is concerned, the Nuvi is on it. 99.9% of the time, it is almost exact with my location. As you get closer to a turn it says on the screen how much farther you have to go....500ft, 400ft, 100ft, 50, 40, etc. Depending on how fast you are going will determine when the gps tells you how far until your next turn. At highway speeds I always get a prompt to "keep right" at least 0.2 miles in advance. The battery life is great for such a bright screen. I have gotten about 4-4.5 hours out of it so far. Another great thing about the Nuvi 200 is that it has an sd card slot on the side so that you can view pictures on the go and you can update the maps for free as long as Garmin has not discontinued it. Its size is great for just throwing it in your bag or in your pocket or to just take it to another car to have great navigation. Overall it is a great gps for anyone who wants to travel in confidence knowing you will get where you need to be. The Garmin Nuvi 200 will get you there guaranteed.

I recommend this produt. I bought it about 2 weeks ago, I travel because I'm a sales rep. and it's totally changed my driving experience! It's priced fair and works great! My father liked it and bought the Nuvi 350, I DO NOT recommend that one!! It has MP3 player and more extra's but Garmin outdone themselves by trying too hard w/ it. It comes with all the accessories which MAY be worth the price, but I found it too complex compared to the 200. It's supposed to be better because it says the name of the road in which you are to turn on, but I found that to be annoying! I like it better when it tells you when to turn, you can look at the screen and it tells you the name of the road you are to turn on. The less these things talk, the better IMO. Also, I have an MP3 player already in my car stereo and who doesn't anymore. No need for the GPS to have MP3 playback as the audio quality is barely acceptable, although surprisingly loud. I also didn't like the pop up option on the 350 'cause whenever you pull up the map for your route, it has an option to simulate the drive. The worst thing is you can't bypass this option, it always pops up but you just hit "no" and it will not simulate the drive. Also DO NOT get the 350 (or possibly several others) if you wear POLARIZED SUNGLASSES!! I am an Optician and an optical frame sales rep. and this is VERY important 'cause the screen will appear a different color and VERY, VERY DARK. It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to see the screen, I do not have this problem with the Nuvi 200 and it's at least $100.00 less! Get the 200 and don't worry about all the useless extra's that the others offer. I would have liked to get a wide screen GPS, but you'll never know the difference anyway. This unit is great but you'll have to buy accessories separately, i.e. leather case, usb cable and ac power cable for home, still worth it IMO. Get it!

I have had this GPS system for a couple of months now and I love it. I use it to find houses that I'm interested in buying. It is very easy to use right out of the box. You can also go to Garmin's website and download more vehicles to display for personalizing it. It doesn't have bluetooth or the ability to play mp3s though. I think that those things are personl preferences but not necessary for getting you from point A to point B. It also doesn't have speech to text, meaning it doesn't say the name of streets. Instead, it tells you to turn in so many miles or feet but in plenty of time to do so. This feature is also sufficient. I don't miss the "speech to text" because the street names are displayed on the screen of the GPS. It also has suffcient volume so that you may have a conversation with someone in your car or listen to the radio at decent levels. I'm very pleased with my unit and would recommend this GPS to anyone who doesn't care about having all the bells and wistles that comes with a lot of other GPS systems.

I bought this GPS wanting just that - a basic GPS unit for the car that would calculate routes for me, get me to unknown/unfamiliar addresses easily, and serve as a good map to always have on hand. It performs these tasks well. It usually takes anywhere from a very fast 5 seconds or so up to a couple of minutes to find the satellites, depending on weather and terrain. But it's always located them, and almost always very quickly. The car mount is very sturdy and well designed. The screen is clear and easily viewable in bright sunlight; night mode is equally nice after dark (background changes from white to black), and when set to "auto" it will change the background from day to night for you when it gets dark. The preloaded maps (NT 2008, I believe) are very accurate, at least around here, and I have been suprised at the level of detail (dirt roads, jeep trails, private roads, etc). Rerouting is fairly quick if you leave your main route. I didn't need/want any bells and whistles as on the higher priced models (I don't really care about Bluetooth to my cell phone, viewing pictures, or listening to MP3s on a GPS unit). It would be nice to have the full text-to-speech capability, but again, with the next model up that offers that feature being a good $50-75 more at the time of my purchase, it's just not worth it. Only two complaints - I would have preferred if the car charger could plug into the base of the unit rather than the unit itself. But this is a minor quirk and may not make any difference to most. Secondly, the battery life is not quite as good as some other models. (Advertised five hours - I can get about 3.5 - 4 hours out of it). But since I rarely need to take it out and put it into another vehicle other than my daily driver, this is not a big issue for me. If you want a good entry level GPS that does GPS well, and you won't miss the "extras" of the higher priced models, this one is highly recommended.

Just received the Nuvi 200 for Christmas. Wasn't expecting a GPS system, so didn't even know much about them. I drive a lot for my job and it's great. Now that I have a Nuvi, I wonder what I ever did without it. Keep learning about more and more cool features everytime I play with it. I've found that the maps are accurate and up to date, and I've had no problems with satellite acquisition. My favorite component (besides from accurate directions) is probably the "points of interest" feature that you can use to locate a starbucks, panera bread, an atm, or whatever your heart desires. You can even program it to pick up your latte near your starting point, en route, or near your destination. Now that's cool!!! Also like the "avoidances" feature... I hate toll roads and I try to avoid them like the plague!!! I like, too, that you can avoid expressways during high traffic times. I also like that you can program it according to whether you're driving, cycling, or walking around the city. I've read that the Nuvi 200 is supposedly "basic" and considered an "entry level" system. I can't even imagine what the more "high tech" versions do, drive for you? I guess if I had any complaints (and I'm really reaching), it would be that you can't charge it in the wall w/o making an extra purchase. And I wish the "avoidance" feature included avoiding routes with railroad tracks (but in Chicago, not even sure if that's possible). And, I think the Garmin website could be a little less confusing. Kind of hard to navigate for making purchases and updating maps (in the future). All and all, it's one of the coolest and most useful gifts I've ever received. I think everyone should have one. Definately worth the money and I can't wait to use it on a long distance trip!!!

Decided to finally breakdown and buy a GPS as I travel frequently in the Eastern US. This was on sale and told being discontinued for a new model that tells me street names at the turns instead of displaying them. All for $200 more. I like the size and portability and battery life (5 hours) so I don't need to take the power cord and bracket with me when I fly. Very easy setup. Literally 2 minutes and good to go. Finding restaurants very easy by spelling. Needed a "Mighty Taco" in Buffalo. Punched in the name and in seconds, came up with a location 1/2 mile away. So far has been 98% accurate. Software could be updated as some locations have been out of business for two years, but all in all, this is a great unit if you don't want all the bells and whistles of something much more expensive. Only downside is no reroute capability from your starting location. Must go a different direction, or skip a turn and will automatically reroute, but if you know a highway is blocked before you leave, and have to find another route, you'll need a map, or just start driving a a different way and it will then recalculate

I was tired of getting lost in Indianapolis during Thanksgiving and thought I would check the Black Friday GPS prices. I chose the least expensive one that was in stock, the Garmin Nuvi 200 ($169 special deal!!!!). I opened the package in my car and in less than 2 minutes the thing was displaying my mall location! It worked even though I had in in my hand, thus the receiver is very sensitive, picks up the satellites in built up areas. Leaving the mall, it gave me instructions to turn right instead of what I thought should be a left. I decided to go for a joy ride and see what happened. The thing got me back to my relative's house 50% quicker than the route I had been taking, amazing (I should have had the device the day before when I was driving for an hour hopelessly lost!). It is VERY easy to use, navigation is via easy to understand touch screen prompts. There is no external antenna to connect , an unexpected pleasant surprise. I was also surprised it has a rechargeable battery that enables portable use . The manual does not describe how to update the device via the USB port, I am still working on this (though most items are not in need of an update). I have not mounted the device in a vehicle yet but have found that suction cup mounting systems do not fit mini vans, the center of the windshield is too far away from the dashboard. I suspect the same will apply to the Nuvi 200. A dash board clue-type mount would have been helpful. A very good GPS device.

This is a great GPS system that can be used immediately out of the box. It is portable, and can be used in different automobiles or as a personal GPS out walking. What I like most is the fact that you do not have to pay a cell phone company a monthly fee to use it. It is guided by a satellite rather than Cell phone towers, so it has less dead spaces. It tells you your speed, distance traveled and estimated time of arrival. In the several trips we have used it for, the ETA was right on the money. There was one location out on a four lane that required passing the destination and making a U-turn just down the road, it told us to U turn at the first available place (certainly not a feature one would expect to find on a street map). This is a unit that is good for beginners and those that do not have a lot to spend on high tech items. The only draw back is that you cannot program it to keep the directions on major roads (it will send you down country roads on occasion) but if you decide to stay on a major road the unit will recalculate and give you directions from where you are at!