GPS Devices Life

Garmin StreetPilot® 2620 Car GPS Receiver Product 010-00357-03 Key FeaturesDesignationAutomobileForm FactorFixedMap capabil...

Helpful, but not Flawless - Garmin StreetPilot® 2620 Car GPS Receiver Overall, I'm happy with my purchase of the Garmin StreetPilot 2620, but the unit isn't as flawless as Garmin would...

I have had a StreetPilot 2620 for over four months and have used it to get around unfamiliar cities and to drive from Florida to California. Overall, it has been excellent. Its directions are clear, the display is very flexible (you can change what information is displayed and move the map around easily), and it has nice options, including options to avoid specific roads. I have used three or four GPS devices or programs with street directions before, and StreetPilot 2620 is the best of them. (That includes the Magellan RoadMate 700, which I did not like and returned.)

The interface is a bit awkward. Pushing the wrong button can take you out of a search you were doing, losing your work. I found the interface somewhat unclear and annoying at first, but it has been mostly fine since I got used to it.

Also, the option you want isn’t always there or isn’t always immediately available. E.g., some of the searches give you the option of searching near another place, but you have to enter the other place by pointing to it on the map — that’s awkward if the other place is not near your current location.

However, these annoyances have proven to be minor. The Garmin GPS has a lot of nice features, like listing gas stations or hotels ahead on your route. Search results are displayed in a list sorted by distance from your current location with arrows indicating the compass direction to them — that is very nice for picking one of the results that suits your plans best.

Reception and accuracy have been generally very good. The device generally figures out its location within a minute or so. Better yet, it resumes tracking after a short interruption VERY quickly, usually within seconds, which is great when you stop for gas or shopping. It also registers small movements of the car; even a few feet may show up on the display. (Generally you don’t need to know you’ve moved a few feet, but the motion helps the device figure out which way you are going and orient the screen in the correct direction, which is important when you need to know whether to turn left or right out of a parking lot.)

Another minor flaw is that the case should be white, so the device is less likely to overheat on a dashboard in hot states like Florida, particularly since the manual says there is a temperature limit that can be exceeded inside a car on a hot sunny day.

As with any map database, there are omissions or errors. That is inevitable, because the roads change but the data does not, unless you update it. They have proven so far to be minor. I’m happy with my purchase.

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