Garmin nuvi 360 Review

The Garmin nuvi 360 will not be a stranger to those who have used its near-identical twin, the nuvi 350. But though they may look pretty much the same on the surface, there are subtle differences between them. Well, there is one not so subtle difference: the price, because the Nuvi 360 is at least $100 more expensive.

One pleasing difference is the Nuvi 360 interface with any Bluetooth-enabled phone. If you want to pair your cell phone with the Nuvi 360, just look for the Bluetooth icon on the Settings menu. You should have no problem establishing the Bluetooth link. On the GPS settings menu, simply tap the Bluetooth icon; select Change and go on to Add Device. Leave the Nuvi 360 alone a minute while it automatically searches for a device. In the meantime, activate the Bluetooth function on your cell phone to make it detectable by Nuvi 360. It should not take a minute for the device to detect your phone, exchange electronic codes, and pair up.

Garmin nuvi 360 GPS Navigator

You can verify if the phone has been properly paired by looking for the phone icon that should be on the Nuvi 360 main menu (right-hand column). Tapping this icon leads you to its various submenu features. Remember that some cell phones may not support particular features, e.g. voice dialling. You can check for Bluetooth phones compatible with the Nuvi 360 at the Garmin website.

Functionality of the nuvi 360 and your phone is beautifully integrated. For instance, if you get an incoming call, the GPS screen converts to a display of the caller ID, which allows you to decide whether to take the call or not. Another example is the way the MP3 player in the Nuvi 360 automatically mutes the music when you are using the phone. One last illustration is the seamless integration of the Nuvi 360 POI database and your phone. When you want to make dinner reservations, simply touch the phone icon that appears beside the restaurant's POI number. It will call the number for you. That is the beauty of fully integrated functionalities.

The Garmin 360's dimensions are similar to the Nuvi 350 (3.9 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches), just a tad larger than a playing card deck. At 5.1 ounces, it is small enough to slip into the pocket. Its 3.5-inch screen is blissfully bright, and it is quite easy to read the display even on a sunny day (although in direct sunlight the display may dim some). Of course, Nuvi 360 features not only the usual MP3 player but also an audiobook player, a JPEG image display that converts into a slideshow, converters for measurements and currency, a calculator and a world clock.

It has a very helpful Travel Kit. In addition to its first-rate maps, it provides extensive travel information (restaurants, museums, galleries, and more) from Fodor's travel guides and its language guides originate from the Oxford University Press. There are 5 different languages and 4 dialects, for a total of 9, plus 5 bilingual dictionaries.

Garmin seems to have made the extremely sensitive SiRF Star III GPS receiver its standard chipset for its newer Nuvi models. This receiver is just the ultimate! It is able to maintain its lock on satellite signals even in areas with the most difficult conditions, and GPS receivers from an older generation will already lose tracking. The time-to-first-fix (TTFF) zips through quickly in less than 50 seconds. I was really impressed by its cold-start first fix which took well under two minutes.

Actual user review:
• "This is a great unit for the cost. We replaced a Quest 2 with this unit and were blown away in every facet. The nuvi 360 is super fast at calculating routes, and quickly reroutes if you stray off course. It has enough memory to hold all the maps, whereas the Trail Guide did not and forced us to choose and load other maps if we were traveling. The text to speech feature is great, works so much better than the Quest 2's vauge "turn right" directions. My Jeep has built in navigation, and she definitely wanted text-to-speech for her car as well. My wife did not want a wide screen because of size, so she was very pleased with the 360's dimensions. The Bluetooth feature works great, and she is no longer jealous of my Jeep's built in Bluetooth as she has her own now. All in all I would highly recommend this unit to anyone looking for an affordable unit with a great set of features." - J.Wilson (VA,USA)

Route choices from the Nuvi 360 were excellent and very much like all the Garmin GPS models. Well, Garmin has installed Navteq mapping data in all its units. As you may be aware of, Navteq is the source of mapping data for Google maps and virtually all online map services. The combination of Navteq mapping data and Garmin routing software has resulted in quite probably the best routing options in my experience, both in timeliness and accuracy.

Let me say, though that I thought Nuvi 360 tended to be a bit late in giving out final turn instructions. I mean the instructions seemed to come just as you get to an exit ramp, for example, while I would have preferred for this to come while still a hundred or so feet away from the ramp. But still, navigation becomes so much easier with its text-to-speech function that actually announces the name of the street where you are about to make a turn instead of simply giving the distance from the turn.

You can certainly use Nuvi 360 outside your car. But be aware that it does not have a pedestrian mode that would give you data on pathways inaccessible to cars. There are no speed warnings or school-zone alerts, and I sorely missed a dedicated volume control button (there is only one button - the power on/off button) on the device. You orchestrate control entirely through its touch screen, which Garmin thoughtfully designed to accommodate even my large (well, okay, fat) fingers.

In sum, the Garmin Nuvi 360 is definitely impressive: very compact, very accurate, lots of features. The speakers are not that great, though. Don’t get me wrong … I like its speakerphone capabilities with Bluetooth, but I think the quality of the sound issuing from the speakers is lacklustre, especially for its price.

More user reviews:

• "This product works exactly as advertised. It is easy to use and it maintains contact with satellites very effectively. The battery life is over 4 hours, which is adequate for our purposes. The screens are intuitive to use and the Bluetooth works properly with both of my family's phones. This is a very good buy for a great product." T.Bennett (OR,USA)

• "This is my first GPS device, and so far it's been a delight to use. In the San Franciso Bay Area where I live, I use to find optimal routes to the the places I often go, and it invariably finds routes that I wouldn't have thought of. Even more amazing is that the predicted arrival times are within a couple of minutes of the actual ones, and they adjust in real time if you get stuck in traffic. The device is also useful in finding restaurants and stores in the vicinity, although many of the listed ones have moved or are out of business." - C.Marut (DC,USA)

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