Introduction
Not only does the Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS give you directions in visual form on it’s large 4.3 “ color display, but it can also give you step-by-step directions via a high quality text to speech voice for nearly hands free operation and ultimate convenience. It has a powerful integrated WAAS antenna and FM wireless transmitter; the transmitter is used to broadcast the text to speech voice over any FM channel you choose. With the help of the finest map databases available courtesy of premium map services like Navteq and the Mapsource City Navigator software, you get street level information for the USA and Canada. For the USA you also get coverage of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
The street level information sets include useful locations such as places to shop, gas stations, Bank ATM’s, restaurants, parks, and much more. Your favorite feature of course will be the real time traffic information that will allow you to avoid traffic jams and change routes adaptively to avoid other congestion and trouble spots (Only available in major metropolitan areas. Check the manufacturers current list to see if your home city or destination travel city is on the list). Finally it has an impressive battery life that lasts for up to 7 hours thanks to a durable Lithium Ion battery.
Reviews
Here are links with summaries to some of the available reviews for the Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS:
- C|Net
Both the editors and readers belonging to Tech & gadget site C|Net gave this GPS high marks with the editors giving the unit an 8.3 out of 10 and the readers giving it a 7.4 out of 10. The editors said it was a good looking full featured unit, but felt it was a bit expensive and complained about the lack of an external volume control and support for multi-destination route creation.
Click here for the full review.
- Amazon Customer Reviews
The reviews on Amazon were somewhat more positive. Amazon has a 5-star rating system and the breakdown of customer ratings out of the whopping 838 reviews for the unit was as follows (Rating / Percentage of Total / Count):
5 star: 61% (518)
4 star: 26% (224)
3 star: 6% (56)
2 star: 2% (23)
1 star: 2% (17)
It’s worth reading the bad reviews because they go into great detail with some of the usability issues the owner had during real life navigation and location-finding scenarios. However, the positive reviews were nothing short of glowing.
Click here to go directly to Amazon’s Review page
- GPS Magazine’s Review
For a truly in-depth review the review on GPS Magazine’s web site can not be beat. They cover everything from: how to enter an address, evaluating the text to speech quality, entering your own Point Of Interest (POI) markers into the system and a lot more. They gave the unit a 2.9 out of 5. They loved the features but on the negative side they echoed the same complaints as C|Net did as well as complaining about the FM transmitter strength, and some minor usability complaints with the interface. Definitely a good read.
Click here to read GPS Magazine’s review of the Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS
Tips for getting a good deal from a solid vendor
One of the best ways to find a good price and at the same time evaluate the reputation of a vendor for the Garmin Nuvi 660 is to look the unit up on BizRate. By following this link you will get a list of prices for the unit along with links that give buyer opinions on the vendor. Be sure to follow the buyer opinion links on a potential vendor before making a purchase.
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