Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS Review

The Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS Navigator is one of those top-of-the line products that really earn their rank. It comes from Garmin, one of the respected names in the GPS industry. If you liked the Garmin Nuvi 350, you will marvel at the added improvements in the Garmin Nuvi 660.

Garmin 660 Car GPS
Garmin nuvi 660 GPS Navigator

In addition to its highly accurate GPS capability, the device comes with an even bigger 4.3-inch screen (versus 3.5 inches for the Nuvi 350) with a 480x272 resolution that provides extra sharpness and clarity to the map display (including readability in direct sunlight). It is bigger (4.9 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches) than the Nuvi 350 and a wee bit heavier at 6.2 ounces. Despite these, Nuvi 660 is ultraportable and usable inside or outside your car.

All access and entries to the Nuvi 660 are done through its touch screen. There is only one button, for power on/off, on the upper screen which results in a very sleek, uncluttered look. Too minimalist, in fact, that I longed for a separate volume control button, so I could adjust volume instead of having to go to its Settings page. But a quick tap on the power button will bring you to its Quick Settings page where you can set screen brightness and sound volume to your preferred levels.

All told, the touch screen provides a clean interface, and the intuitive, well-defined menus make it very easy to learn how to operate the Nuvi 660. The large icons are helpful, as with the onscreen keyboard (arranged alphabetically, however, instead of the more familiar QWERTY layout that I prefer). Perhaps more important, it is easy to navigate through the device, especially because of its excellent colour display and easy-to-read onscreen controls.

GPS Performance

Despite its rather old-fashioned foldout antenna, the Garmin Nuvi 660 gives you a decent time to first fix (less than a minute). Well, it was just a tad slow at times, but on the whole you get pretty straightforward navigation assistance. What may be surprising is its 2-minute cold-start fix time (that is, the time it needs to get its first fix after having been unused for over a day and has to retrieve GPS satellite data).

Like the newer Garmin GPS models, the Nuvi 660 comes with the high performance SiRF Star III GPS chipset. You are virtually guaranteed steady signal reception with this SiRF chipset, even in the most challenging navigation situations.

The unit comes with a WAAS-enabled (Wide Area Augmentation System) GPS receiver, which is designed to provide you more precise position accuracy. But WAAS may not really be necessary because the SiRF Star III chipset is already more accurate. Perhaps Garmin included WAAS because many users are more familiar with it; but really it is not needed anymore. Garmin ships the Nuvi 660 with WAAS disabled, so I would suggest keeping it that way (doing this also helps conserve batteries).

Travel and Entertainment

The Nuvi 660 comes with a lot of extras which, surprisingly, are very well integrated with its primary GPS functions. Its onboard Travel Kit is pretty much like the Nuvi 350 kit. The usual MP3 player is there plus an Audible book player and a JPEG picture viewer. There are converters for currency and measurements, a calculator, and a world clock.

You can purchase any of the three optional packages that expand the Nuvi 660 capabilities. A Language Guide provides you a multilingual databank of words and phrases in 9 languages and dialects, plus 5 bilingual dictionaries. As a bonus on the Nuvi 660 basic text-to-speech functionality, the word bank can return to you the spoken pronunciation of each word. The Travel Guide gives information and succinct reviews on restaurants, hotels, attractions and many others - all of which are included in its over 6 million points of interest (POIs). Savers Guide can point you to generous discounts available at participating merchants.

One nice feature is the ability to use the built-in FM transmitter with your BlueTooth-enabled cell phone. This means you can convert your car stereo speakers into a speakerphone. This is pretty convenient when you're driving at highway speeds, when the speakerphones on most GPS receivers get drowned out by the noise. But since it is hooked onto your car stereo via the FM transmitter, you can hear your caller without any trouble. The integrated FM transmitter also makes it possible to listen to your MP3 player over the car stereo speakers.

Routing Engine

Garmin has provided its Nuvi 660 with NAVTEQ mapping data. GPS companies seldom discuss their mapping data in detail, but this is the heart of the navigation system along with the manufacturer's routing engine. It is the routing engine that ultimately makes the route decisions, using the mapping data and other variables programmed into it. For example, it may want you to make more left turns and less right turns because there are statistically more accidents with right turns; this could result in a safer, albeit longer, route. But the Garmin Nuvi 660 handles all the routing tasks very well because of its excellent routing engine.

In sum, the Nuvi 660 is a solid performer with all the navigation basics, travelers tools, and entertainment extras you could need … and more.

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