Review: Garmin nüvi 765T

The nüvi range has been impressive for some time for its navigation performance, although recently the software has fallen behind some of its competitors in the market. The 765 addresses that, introducing features such as motorway lane guidance, geotagged image navigation, 3D landmarks and road speed warnings.

While the 765T is stylish in its own way, it looks almost identical to 2007’s model (the 760), with the only major difference being the rubberised coating that wraps around the casing. This does reduce the weight, and indeed makes the product more robust, but the company could have done more in terms of removing the frame surrounding the 4.3” screen and replacing the ageing SD card with a microSD one. Likewise, it’s a pity the TMC receiver is attached to the cigarette lighter alongside its mass of cabling. It needs proper placement, otherwise – as in our case – it could interfere with gear changes.

Delving into the interface unveils the familiar  ‘Where to’, ‘View map’ and tool icons as seen on the entire Garmin range, but the majority of menus now give off a slight animated effect when scrolling. Also, you get the 255WT’s ability to add your own custom POI (with adjustable icons that appear on the map) or navigate using geotagged images (downloadable from Google Panoramio).

As per the 760, you’ll find Bluetooth support, route simulator/planners and safety cameras, and the FM TMC receiver can also be used to pipe multimedia (MP3) or text-to-speech voice directions through to your car’s speakers. We found the FM receiver a bit fiddly to set up, but this may be down to our car radio as much as the product itself. The only thing missing is voice recognition, as seen on the top-of-the-range 860. On the plus side, the GPS receiver has been joined by hotfix technology, which speeds up the location acquisition time, even indoors.

During testing we found that initial route calculations were quick, but the recalculation of routes could be faster. The screen was easy to view in bright conditions and the maps were still simplistic in nature, but additional driving aids are now on board to enhance your experience. Garmin has provided 3D landmarks in major cities, a speed warning symbol identifying the correct road speed (map-dependent) and a motorway lane guidance feature.

The latter will show a real-time representation of the junction you need to head to, alongside a large arrow pointing towards the correct lane. On the one hand, we liked the fact that the view didn’t appear on the screen for long, so it was less of a distraction, but on the other hand the sign posts were a bit small and there was slight corruption to the graphics at the base of the display.

Our only major concern was when the Garmin would occasionally freeze and then reset itself. This seemed to happen when Lane Guidance view was activated. Downloading a firmware update appeared to fix the problem, so you’d need to check for updates if you use this device.

The 3D landmarks kick in when driving around major cities, and while the view does enhance the sense of elevation, we still feel they are too much of a distraction while driving, since we tend to look at the screen more than the road. Luckily, the text-to-speech voice directions were more than capable of directing us to our destination. We did notice, though, that without the charger in place, the volume – even at 100% – was too quiet for us to hear the directions clearly with heavy background noise, such as heavy rain.

With the TMC enabled, a small icon will appear on-screen that you can press to search for all traffic surrounding you, as well as switch your screen to a dedicated Traffic Map view, which displays problems on your route. We compared the traffic reports generated by the receiver to a live traffic website. For the most part the reported problems were identical, but out on the road we felt the warnings weren’t filtering through fast enough.

On the surface, the 765T is almost identical to other models in the Garmin nüvi range, but with the upgraded software bringing the kinds of features we have seen on other premium satnav systems, it now stands as arguably the best in the range. It’s a good value package and a reliable performer as well.

Map coverage: Europe
Price: £329
Web: www.garmin.com

Performance: 8
Design: 7
Features: 9
Value: 7

Overall verdict: 8

Review originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine. Words by Brett James.

Popularity: 1% [?]