Garmin nuvi 780 GPS Review (GPSmagazine.com)

38. Pros

MSN Direct costs about the same as other traffic services, but includes additional gas prices, weather, news, and local events information
Bright, sunlight-readable screen
Well designed map screen is easy to understand
User Interface is uncluttered, easy to use
Address entry system remembers recently used State, City, and Street names; a handy time saver when entering destination addresses
"Where Am I" feature provides one-touch access to your current location, as well as nearby hospitals, police, and gas stations
Best routing engine available (better than Magellan or TomTom)
Excellent Bluetooth compatibility (worked with everything I could find, including a Blackberry 8800 and Apple iPhone)
Well-designed cell phone integration via Bluetooth
MP3 playlist support
Ability to listen to MP3s or Audio Books while navigating
When listening to a song while navigating to a destination, nuvi pauses the song playback to announce navigation prompts, then resumes playback
When using hands-free calling while navigating to a destination, nuvi suppresses all audio navigation prompts
Menu items only appear when needed. For example, the telephone button only appears on the Main Menu if the nuvi is paired with a cell phone. Less clutter and simpler interface
Track log recording
Supports multi-destination routing with route optimization (ability to sort the locations by distance)
Includes everything needed to receive real-time traffic updates (comes with a 3-month free trial, then requires an $50/year subscription)
Speed limit information displayed on the map screen (when available)
Automatically stores the position where the nuvi was last undocked from the mount, creating a "where did I park the car?" waypoint you can use to walk back to your car
Garmin's WebUpdater software provides an easy way to keep the nuvi up-to-date with the latest firmware
Excellent windshield mount
Good text-to-speech delivers natural sounding text-to-speech (GPS announces actual street names)

39. Cons

New embedded antenna design less sensitive than previous fold-out patch antenna design
No arrow indicating the direction of the upcoming turn
No way to automatically display split-screen view of upcoming turns
Slight map delay when viewing upcoming turn details (when you tap "turn in" from the map screen, the detailed map view is slow to draw)
New virtual keyboard layout more cumbersome than previous version
Touch-screen not as sensitive as previous nuvis (you have to press a little too hard sometimes, which can be annoying when driving)
Underpowered FM Transmitter is all but useless in areas with a crowded radio dial
Searching POIs can take a long time if you search all categories
Favorites are sorted by distance only, and cannot be sorted alphabetically
Cumbersome to set the GPS into off-road or pedestrian modes
Detour function very limited
No way to exclude specific roads from a route
MSN Direct data can take up to several hours to download before it is available for use

40. Conclusion

Garmin nuvi 760

Spend a little time with Garmin's nuvi 780 and it quickly becomes apparent why Garmin enjoys the lead position as the #1 GPS manufacturer in North America (by a wide margin). The nuvi 780 displays the kind of refinement, reliability, and ease of use that comes from years of testing and fine-tuning.

Functionally identical the the nuvi 760, Garmin's nuvi 780 adds MSN Direct services to an already outstanding GPS. If you already own a nuvi 760, there's little point in upgrading. However, if you're considering the nuvi 760, the nuvi 780 is only slightly more expensive (about $60 more, as of this writing) and adds some handy MSN Direct features, such as local gas prices, movie listings, weather, news, stock quotes, and local events.

New to the 700-series nuvis are multi-destination routing with the ability to optimize (sort) the stops by distance, tracklog support, a "Where Am I?"feature, and "Where did I park the car?" feature. Combined with Garmin's best of breed routing engine and unmatched ease of use, the nuvi 780 is an excellent choice for novice and power user alike.

At its core, the nuvi 780 is an outstanding navigator that continues Garmin's tradition of delivering top quality navigation in a simple, easy to use package. As an added bonus, the nuvi 780 includes a host of multimedia features that are well integrated into the navigation experience.

There's still room for improvement in the nuvi 780's underpowered FM transmitter, and POI searches could be faster, but Garmin has done a good job listening to customer feedback on earlier GPS units, and added some top-requested features to the nuvi 780.

Conspicuously missing, however, is a route exclusion feature -- the ability to avoid specific roads or highways from a planned route. I also found the new on-screen keyboard design slightly more difficult to use than previous nuvis, as the keys are smaller.

If you don't care about the new features the 700-series brings, the nuvi 680 provides identical routing and still has the MSN Direct features for about $100 less. But if money is no object, and you're simply looking for the best GPS available (or you've been waiting for a Garmin nuvi that finally has multi-destination routing support), the nuvi 780 is unbeatable in terms of quality, features, and ease of use.


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April 19, 2008