garmin nuvi 880 (and 860)
Published on January 2nd, 2008 in garmin, gps navigation
We have rumors regarding a new 800 series of Garmin Nuvi GPS navigation systems. The first two models from the 800 series will be the nuvi 860 and the nuvi 880 which will cost $1,071 and $1,178 respectively and latter will have MSN Direct capability.
The most fundamental additions in the 800 series is the addition of voice recognition, picture navigation (routing to a geocoded point in JPEG files), web drop (create favorites in a PC browser and send to nuvi via USB), digital elevation maps, and of course the embedded Linux OS.
For a full list of specs:
- Text-to-speech
- Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) capability (screen control)
- Bluetooth wireless technology (pair with phone or headset)
- FM transmitter
- Picture viewer: supports JPEG, L View Pro Image, PNG, BMP, GIF
- Picture navigation: routing to a geocoded point in JPEG files
- Audio player (MP3, OGG and FLAC)
- Audio book player
- Included traffic receiver: MSN Direct receiver (nuvi 880, NA); GTM 20 (nuvi 870/860, NA); GTM 21 (nuvi 870/860,Euro)
- Alarm clock
- “Where Am I?” feature: find the closest hospitals, police stations, gas stations, nearest address and intersection. Also see your exact latitude and longitude coordinates
- My Data: allows users to change home location, delete favorites, delete routes, import GPX routes and clear trip log
- Last position: unit automatically marks your position when you remove it from the windshield mount, so you can navigate with nüvi on foot and find your way back to your vehicle
- Location and Text messages
- Instant on
- Web drop: create favorites in a PC browser and send to nuvi via USB (.gps files)
- User data import (.gpx files)
- Route planning with via points
- Track log
- High-sensitivity GPS receiver
- USB 2.0, high speed connectivity and mass storage
- SD card slot
- MCX connector (external antenna)
- Digital Elevation Maps (DEM)
- Custom POIs
- WAAS/EGNOS support
- Integrated GPS antenna
- Bright WQVGA TFT landscape display with white back-light & touch screen, 480 x 272 resolution
- High quality, dual speakers (stereo)
- Embedded Linux (OS)
- Replaceable battery, high capacity Lithium-ion (up to 5 hours use)
- Headphone jack
- Unit size: 4.9W” x 3.1H” x 1.05D”
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Magellan already has “Find nearest [XYZ type] restuarant]” voice recognition.
The 3 biggest problems with the Nuvi 700 series are:
1) can’t remove a particular road from a route
2) detour function is useless
3) speaker/mic for bluetooth is worthless (like most PNDs)
Did they address any of the three above?
January 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Magellan does already have ASR, yes, but I understand it is fraught with invoking (Garmin’s ASR invoking is entirely different) and other problems. I would trust a Garmin unhesitatingly and personally, am going to sell my Nuvi 660 and trade up to the 880. It is a HUGE leap forward safety and convenience-wise.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I have used all three brands of GPS. TomTom 920, GARMIN 660 and Magellan 4250. The Garmin 860 does sound interesting, but what I cann’t understand is that TomTom and Garmin offer a combination of the USA, Canada and Europe. Why Europe. Not everyone goes there, but would like the choice of another country like Australia and maybe New Zealand for myself. I like the extra storage space but seriously do not want Europe. The Australian version of the Magellan 4250 does have the Usa, Canada and Australia at http://www.magellangps.com.au but when you ask Magellan in the Usa the teck support said that you can not load Australia onto the Usa 4250 as it is not compatable!! Someone wrong there. The Tech Support hours are parthetic. Only day time Monday thu Friday. I do like the split screen, the voice POI and the POI catergories and sub caregories and Icons. The TomTom 920 is good mostly except the maps are not up to the other two. Also it will continue to tell you to stay to the left on the freeways and continuously talks to you more than the other two. The map and visual direction are good, but an altimeter would be great to have. It will also sound a school eventhough you are on a freeway, eventhough you have turned the sound when on the actual road on. It fortunitly doesn’t say recalculating when you miss a street and just does it fairly fast too. The 920 didn’t come with a built in fm antena and no trial traffic time and so I was not able to judge that feature. The garmin 660 traffic was not that impressive here in Seattle and at the time I used it The maps were not that good in the Redmond Ridge area eventhough the the version in 9/2008 did gets a little better there. There is no split screen like Magellan and the screen direction colors somtimes blend into each other. Voice commands are good and are given in feet before the corner or turn rather portions of a mile that the TomTom does, which is rather hard to immagine. All in all, They all have good and bad, with much to improve. Curious to know some about the Garmin 860
March 28th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
tutto ok pero manca la mappa con i rilievi
June 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I have had good success with the Garmin Nuvi 880 but I have not tried the 860.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:20 am
I just purchased the Garmin 880 and have had many GPS units in the past, including TomTom (x2), Magellan, Alk CoPilot (on the Motorola Q), TomTom on a Win Mobile 6 phone, and Garmin 660 . I like many of the features of the 880, but not much has improved over the 660.
1. No way to power the Nuvi 880 via the USB and also use it. This requires carrying the proprietary 12V cable AND the bulky bracket (can’t plug the cable directly into the Nuvi) and the mount. THIS IS A MAJOR NEGATIVE FOR ONE THAT USES GPS WHEN FLYING TO A DISTANT DESTINATION.
2. Cannot connect a bluetooth headset, everyone in the car MUST hear the directions.
3. Cannot activate voice commands from the unit (no hard switch or soft switch on the Nuvi itself), you must carry a relatively large remote control that “connects” to the steering wheel via a strap (looks like a very large watch). Another thing to carry when traveling.
4. Comments to Garmin support to forward to the company exects were met with inane comments about how the lack of features were “features.”
4. I’m on a trip now, and the Garmin died, powering it via USB and using it was not possible, so my granddaughter is playing games on it (after I charged it) while I use VZ Navigator as my GPS. The Nuvi 880 is a very expensive gameboy.