GPS Devices Life

As easy as 123, Set up and GO!!!!!! - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver The Garmin Streetpilot c330 is awesome and a valuable tool for those of us that are geographically challenged, lik...

Easy to use but buyer beware - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver I just purchased the c330 over black friday. I purchased it at a really good price so I thought I was getting a g...

I drive a lot. I’m always going to client sites all over the state. For a while I’d satisfied myself with mapblast for directions, but eventually when Christmas 2006 rolled around I knew what I wanted: a GPS. I received the Garmin c330 Streetpilot.

The Garmin Streetpilot c330 is ready to use out of the box. It comes with a driver CD, a USB cable, an A/C cable, a suction cup mount with a cigarette power cable built in, and a dashboard disc mount. This last attaches to your dash in a suitably flat place and provides the suction cup with the ability to sit on your dash. This is important, because some states, mine among them, forbid attaching anything to your windshield (it’a considered obstructing your view.)

I did install the software, but haven’t used it. You simply don’t need to: the c330 is ready to go out of the box. Plug it in, give it about ten minutes to figure out where it is, and you’re ready to go.

The c330 uses the Global Positioning System, a system of twenty-four satellites put up by the US government. The receiver connects with a few of these satellites, and uses that data to triangulate in and locate itself. Your tax dollars at work.

It’s a relatively small unit, measuring up at 4.4″ X 3.2″ X 2.8″. The mount is adjustable and the screen can turn on the mount. This is a nice feature; my wife’s Magellan Roadmate 2000 is not as easy to move sideways. The c330 is accessed through a touch screen, and it doesn’t get much easier. The most common way to use it is to key in an address. This is done sort of backwards from the way you’d expect: first you put in the state, then the street number, then the name. This is weird the first few time you use it, but that’s just how the program works.

There are also points of interest. Let’s say your fuel light is on and you’re about to run out of gas. You can select ‘Fuel’ and it will locate the nearest gas stations for you. These can sometimes be out of date; on a few occasions the c330 has led me to a closed gas station. Food, hospitals, parking, intersections — the c330 is easy to use and can find you anything at the touch of a button. You can also search by name, like you would on the web.

The screen is very bright and easy to read in sunlight or in the dark. Your car is represented by a triangle that is vaguely reminiscent of the turtle from the LOGO programming language. The roads are shown in a detailed view that can be zoomed in and out as you like. Your route is shown as a big arrow, making it very clear where you are supposed to go. A pleasant female voice will also advise you when to turn and what the next street on your route will be.

Ease of use, in general, is excellent. Whether you punch in an address, search by category, or by name, it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Anyone could use the c330. I particularly like that it will show the street names of streets as you pass them, as well as show how long you have to go before your next turn. At a glance, you know if it’s four miles or five to the next turnoff.

You can also hit ‘View Map’ and simply see a map of where you’re going. When you use this mode, the c330 will tell you how fast you are going and what direction of the compass. I like this feature, and wish Garmin had found a way to incorporate it into the routed mode.

The c330 has a few flaws. It tends to ‘jump the gun’ a bit, telling you to turn when you’re not quite there yet. On occasion, it has politely told me “You have arrived” when I still had a few hundred feet to go (on a busy street.) It’s only gotten confused on me once, when I was traveling to another town and, unbeknownst to me, one of the streets I was crossing had the same name as the street I was going to. On four-lane highways where there are many exits and turnoffs, it can get confused and count each exit as a waypoint, telling me to ‘keep left’ every time there’s a traffic light or an exit. While it does get me there, it means I have no idea how far it is until I actually have to turn instead of keep left.

The suction-cup mount does also have some issues. When you first mount it it will stick very firmly and has a latch to provide a little more suction. Over time, it will lose its grip, and you will return to your car to find the c330 on the floor. This can be alleviated by cleaning the bottom of the suction cup and the dashboard disk with an alcohol pad.

All in all, the c330 is a good choice. It’s tremendously easy to use and user friendly. It’s priced competitively. The c330 was built to make GPS navigation easy to use and trouble-free, and it succeeds very well.

The C340 is not as good as the cheaper C330. Ready why… - Garmin StreetPilot® c340 Car GPS Receiver A few weeks ago, my Garmin C330 was stolen, so I decided that since I loved the C330 so much, I would take the opp...

Close, but don’t break out those cigars quite yet… - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver The Streetpilot c330 reminds me of an old joke about a high-tech building -- conveniences, luxurious appointments,...

Well Designed - Nicely Done, Garmin - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver Though I've only had mine a few days, first impressions are terrific. The screen clarity is superb, the user inte...

Simple - Great for the Non-Technical Person - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver Features - A Database with nearly six million points of interests including hotels, restaurants, gas station...

Garmin c330 - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver My husband and I bought this Garmin for christmas 2007 we got it home and opened it before christmas we LOVE it , ...

Great GPS unit, real user friendly and Costco.com carries for $599! - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver I'm writing a review here at the C330 location because I feel I can shed some light for you whether you end up buy...

Garmin C330 GPS - Easy and simple to use GPS - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver

Good buy!! - Garmin StreetPilot® c330 Car GPS Receiver

Tags: car gps, Casio, Garmin, Global, global positioning, global positioning system, Magellan