The touch screen capability is a common feature now in nowadays GPS devices, you can even find it available in the cheapest products line-up in every major GPS manufacturers. Like when I was browsing for an entry-level portable GPS unit not long ago here in Indonesia, I found out that Mio 220 also has touch screen. But a voice recognition is still a rare feature to find in GPS products, few have it but then again the feature is not working the way it meant to be. Either it’s because of the noisy environment (maybe you’re playing that Barry Manilow collection of yours too loud than usual?), or perhaps because it’s still a new feature that hasn’t mature yet to process every words you said.
This is what separate Garmin’s newest GPS device, it’s the nuvi 880. Looks like Garmin didn’t make many changes to its physical appearance, and more boasting about its full speech recognition capabilities. You might mistakenly think this is nuvi 700 series, which only slew accessories to differentiate these both siblings. The nuvi 880 has two forward facing speakers & a microSD card slot at the side.
A special additional speak-up button device is connected wirelessly to nuvi 880 main unit, which you can attach it to the steering wheel so you may turn on/off the nuvi 880 Listen mode (also in the picture above). A speech icon can be seen in the main menu screen, if not in use or you say something that it doesn’t understand; the icon turns into red. And while not in use, it disappears & only touch-screen feature is enabled.
How superb is the nuvi 880 speech recognition that Garmin is so proud of? Craig Ellison (PC Mag) has tested it, and Craig was surprised on how accurate it is. Not to mention how was forgiving it is too, like when Craig said 3245 as “thirty-two forty-five” or when the smart device confirmed 151 from “one hundred fifty-one”.
While nuvi 880 still sports 4.3-inch, display with 480x272 pixels at WQVGA resolution screen. Apparently Garmin is thinking like Palm, their menus are made to be simple to access and to use. Two big icons: Where To & View Map at main menu, below them are volume controller & tools.
Just like nuvi competitors in the same market, nuvi 880 has built-in Microsoft’s MSN Direct service to provide useful informations such as:
- live traffic
- weather
- movies
- news
- stocks
- local news
- gas stations & the price
The above cellular services offered are not new features at all, just like the previously buzzed Dash Express, which also has it. But Dash Express has limited search feature in it, unlike nuvi 880 where you can add deeper search categories such “Italian restaurants” or “pizza parlors” when you’re looking for a specific place to eat.
If those entire database search features are not enough, nuvi 880 is geared along with other traveler’s tools like:
- currency & unit converter
- 4 zone world clock
- 4 function calculator
- 11 games
- music player
- Audible audio book player
- picture viewer
I can tell you’re etching at your seat right now, feeling that this nuvi 880 sounds like your dreamed GPS device all this long. Cause me too ;-D, but here’s the catch: it’s priced at $999.99 (the horrific numbers that resemblance to evil being ;-p). Surely with all above mentioned features, especially the speech recognition feature, such luxury experience you can get from nuvi 880 is questionably worth it. Time will bring the steep price down, and other competitors will too. Perhaps the less more than $250 priced of nuvi 700 series, is now more suitable for your budget?
To find deeper review of this PC Mag Editor’s Choice for GPS device, read the article here. Other sources are from Buy.com, Bhinneka.com & local stores.
[blogged with my Treo 750v]
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