Picture 1 of 7
Stock photo
Picture 1 of 7
Stock photo
Garmin nuvi 855 Automotive Mountable
Price:
$12.99
+ US $10.60 shipping
Returns:
Condition:
- Buy It NowGarmin nuvi 855 GPS With Accessory Bundle & sleeve
 | Shop by category |
{"delay":300}
|
This is my second nuvi 855 as the first was recently stolen "atleast they did not think to grab the steering mount remote to activate the voice recognition feature" It has a good many features that I never utilize, but with a job that requires I need to find 5 to 7 addresses a day, it works great. I love the voice recognition which keeps my eyes on the road though it has problems with background noise. No problem with quieter vehicles. I have also utilized the Audible.com feature and like how it pauses the book when it needs to give instructions, but continues afterwards. I would say that the only thing I don't like about it is it's "Lane Assist" feature often comes up much too late at times. I was told that it was due to it lacking the processing power and why Garmin stopped making it after only 2 years. I understand that Garmin is coming out with several models around the end of 2010 which also have the voice recognition but is enabled by the user saying an activation word instead of a remote as the 855 uses. I also see they are not making it compatible with Audible Books and have dropped the FM modulator feature which was nice. In louder vehicles, such as the work van I drive each day, it was nice hearing it's voice prompts over the stereo speakers as it's built in speaker can be hard to hear.Read full review
The 855 has a big advantage and big disadvantage. Big Advantage: Voice activation. Commands can be spoken instead of being entered on the touch screen, so it is not necessary to stop. For a RVer pulling a travel trailer, this feature is very useful when approaching a freeway on-ramp and not knowing whether to use the right or left lane. The average motorist would rather die than allow you to pull in front of him at the last moment, and if you guess wrong in heavy traffic, you must continue down the road and make a U-turn, Blocks ahead of the on-ramp, I push the mike button and say “where to”, “cities” and give the name of a town or city in the desired direction. After entering the freeway, I say “stop navigation”............................................................................................... Voice navigation commands are listed in the user’s manual. Voice commands work fine in my car, but the ambient noise level is too high in my truck. Mike gain is provided in a hidden screen. Access this screen by going to the screen giving distances, times, etc., and press the speedometer screen for about 10 seconds to reach the hidden screens. I reduced the mike gain and hold the mike close to my mouth when speaking.................................................................................................. Medium advantage: Removable battery. The battery will fail after a while. I will not purchase another Nuvi that does not have a removable battery. The GPS works with a bad battery, but…...................................................................................................... Big Disadvantage: Overheats and malfunctions. When kept on the dashboard on a warm day, operation slows down to a crawl, and the voice activation stops working. Operations other than voice activation return after the unit cools down, but the last update must be reinstalled for voice activation to work again. I used a Nuvi 750 on the same dashboards without heating issues.................................................................................................... I resolved this problem by purchasing an aftermarket vent holder. I used the Akron mount (search for Arkon). It’s flimsy, but holds the GPS ok. However, you need a separate mount for each car. It clamps to the vent fins with long plastic fingers (horizontal fins are required). After repeated removals, the fingers stay in the open position. Fortunately, the 855 can easily be removed from the base...................................................................................................... The air conditioner does not need to be running for adequate cooling; the fan on low speed works fine...................................................................................................... I added periods to force paragraph spacing. I don't see spacing in the preview screen. JimRead full review
My 855 is my third Garmin, after the venerable military-grade brick "GPS V Deluxe", and a more recent Nuvi 350 I received as a Christmas gift when the GPS V could not compete with San Francisco navigation. My writeup incorporates my experience with my previous Garmins ease of use, adaptability, capabilities and etc. PROS: The 855 was a top-of-the-line unit with an MSRP of a cool $500 a few years ago. The unit now sells for less than 50% of that. This is a good example of buying last year's models for greatest benefit. The 855 includes features which other, newer, Garmin units have foregone even though they are the same price range or more. Namely a few nice things such as: - voice recognition - removable battery - external antenna input - lane assistance (where available) - exit diagrams (where available) - capability of backup-camera integration (with compatible backup camera and VIB10/11 "Vehicle Integration Box" (now discontinued) - routes and route waypoint optimization - "guided detour" (specify your own avoidances if you don't like the route picked) I have found the navigation/routing capabilities of the unit are completely on par with my excellent Nuvi 350. The mapset is fairly up to date, and the custom detours is a function I had _always_ wanted on the 350. (No, I am _not_ going to take the 101 in the SF Bay area, dear Nuvi, because that road is crap.) The voice recognition works actually pretty well once you train yourself to the "secrets", and the lane assistance has proved to be useful more than once. Coverage for the lane guidance has been good in the SF Bay Area, with most major multi-lane roads supported, and about 50% of all highway exits I've seen documented with the exit pictures. BTW, not sure how Garmin "did it", but the exit pictures are often uncannily accurate, showing not only the over-passes you'd see at the exit, but also often hills, embankments, retaining walls and other features which aren't strictly related to the road. This could be called gimmicky, but it gives a nice level of assurance when navigating unfamiliar exits. Multi-point routing works as expected... which is fine. CONS: As great as the 855 is, there are some definite shortcomings that can only be attributed to "progress" in the product line. My biggest gripes in comparison to older Garmin units would be as follows, and aren't necessarily specific to the 855. Many of the newer Garmin units seem to have similar faults: - menus/interface could do with some polish/rethinking, my GPS V was ergonomically amazing, always felt intuitive, the 350 coped well in interface design, the 855 menus feel "overloaded" sometimes, but workable - touch screen is not nearly as sensitive as the 350, but this seems to be common across all Garmin's newer units, more of a "fingernail drag" rather than a finger touch Conclusion: Ultimately it comes down to "would I buy this unit again?" and I would give that a qualified "Yes". The set of features on this unit is a good one, and from my research not available as a package on any other unit. From a feature standpoint, the capability is dead-on, and certainly on par with any unit I've used to date. That being said, there are certain things noted above that still make me like my Nuvi 350 a little better. The 350 was Garmin's very first Nuvi, and I think they spent extra time with the fit, finish, and interface, getting it right. "They don't make them like they used to." ;)Read full review
Likes - small size easy to store or take with. Screen size is bigger than the C550 StreetPilot I had. Better details on the maps. The product was well packaged. Registration went very easy with this unit and the 2010 road maps were a free download. I can download Audible books to this unit to make long roadtrips more bearable, however I use my XM Radio for that now so it is just a nice option. Once I get the correct power attachment for the car I can get lifetime traffic for a one time low price. Dislikes - the volume could be louder. Also I'd like a southern dialect selection versus the vanilla midwest dialect that comes with these. This product did not come with a users manual, although I downloaded one off the Garmin website. I haven't found a lot of custom POIs for this unit. This unit did not come with the traffic connector to monitor traffic problems in the cities. It's an option I'll need to purchase later. Why I bought it - I travel throughout the midwest a lot. I used my old C550 StreetPilot mainly for the Bluetooth capability but my clients said it was hard to hear. I found someone who wanted the old StreetPilot so I took the opportunity to get a bluetooth earpiece, which works better, and upgrade to a bigger screen. I was enticed by the lifetime traffic capability, just wish the option would have come with this unit. Over all I'm well satisfied with this unit. No problems, no complaints.Read full review
I bought this GPS knowing that Garmin is a good brand regarding GPS-s. I didn't expected to get the satellite signal so fast, the way that you find you way around with it and how easy the menu is. In my travels I notice something that I , personally consider that is a bad thing, the time is missing when you driving and you looking at the map, you either have to type to see it or probably talk, I didn't try to see if is working with voice command. Another bad thing is that is giving you the time when you reach the place where you ant to go but is not showing the actually mileage and how many mile you have left till there in case that you make a short stop. As well the blue tooth is missing so no hands free calls ... Anyway, I consider this GPS a great companion for the road, a great asset to find your way around . Hope this review is not to harsh is just personal opinion and I am still using this GPS and beside the few negatives I am satisfied with the qualities that it has .Read full review
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in GPS Units
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on GPS Units
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
