Garmin nuvi 885T Reviews – navigation device with voice recognition

Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 4:15
Gadgets
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garmin-nuvi-885t Measuring 3.1 inches high, 4.9 inches wide and 0.7 inch deep, the nuvi 885T is addition to Garmin’s lineup of portable navigation devices. The device sports boasts of 4.3-inch WQVGA screen which is similar to the one that you will find on its previous years model, 880T. The display has native resolution of 480×272. Both the devices not only look similar and sports same screen but they have lot of common features. Both the devices are equipped with MSN Direct receiver which is built inside the power cord. Being the latest device, the nuvi 885T has some additional features that utilize the MSN Direct. The first notable enhancement is the Doppler radar view of local weather provided by 885T. The second feature is the ability of the device to provide information like Flight Status, which include the status of flight arrival and departure from nearby airports. Rest of the features includes live traffic information along with fuel prices, movie times, stock quotes, local events, and news.

The Garmin has also added the Bluetooth calling interface to the device which allows you to keep both the hands on steering. You can access the contact list and call history from the GPS device. Another improvement over its predecessor is the inclusion of lane assistance with junction view. The Lane assist features provides you with the information of an upcoming turn or exit and the junction view shows the actual road signs of complex interstate junctions.

The 880T was the first device to support the voice commands for most of the functions. The 885T also support the feature of voice recognition. The device comes with a small, wireless two-button switch which can be attached to the steering wheel and it puts the device in Listen mode. The 885T follows all the commands except, the text can not be typed by voice commands.

The menus and user interface are same on both the devices but there are very small improvements to the navigation screen. The Zoom in/out icons are located in the upper right corner of the screen. The “Main Street” is displayed on the top of the screen along with a graphic on the left which shows a directional arrow along with distance to an upcoming turn. The current speed is displayed on the lower left corner.

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smartvergin

My 1st GPS "experience" occurred a couple weeks ago when I drove a friend down to Long Island and he brought his Garmin Nuvi along for the trip. Prior to this I had never given much thought to the whole GPS thing. I mean, I'm a guy, I don't need directions, right? True. But a GPS makes driving so much more fun and interactive. It's like going from automatic to manual transmission. You're not just driving anymore. . . You're navigating. So I started researching the whole GPS thing. I even found out that civilian GPS got the green light from Reagan due to the Soviets downing a commercial 747 flight way back in 1983. OCD, I was obsessed with GPS. I had to have one. So I got the nuvi 885t.