NaviGadget

Garmin Nuvi 350 Review

Apr 10, 2006 garmin, gps navigation, reviews

By making its latest model as tiny as possible without compromising on features, Garmin hopes to tailgate TomTom on the satnav motorway.

No bigger than a pack of cards, the front is filled by the 3.5-inch screen, leaving no room for buttons. In fact, the only button on the entire device is for turning it on and off – everything else is operated via the spiffy touchscreen.

Menus are well laid out and plotting a route is simple. Just enter a postcode or street name and house number, press Navigate and you’re off. Picking up satellites takes about two minutes, route calculation a few seconds and unlike similar satnavs, a text-to-speech function calls out street names.

Maps are clear in 2D and 3D, although having to go back into the menu to switch between the two is a pain. As well as the 700MB of space for MP3s, Points of Interest and the like, there’s also an SD card slot for adding extra memory.

The £580 price tag is a touch steep, but if you can do without maps of Europe you can save yourself £230. Even at the full price, though, this nüvi rivals the best satnav devices around. In fact, it’s fabüloüs!

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