920 Extremely Disappointing....

[PurdueBoilermaker]

I have had my 920 for 2 days and the 920 has failed to impress me. Keep in mind, my last GPS was a Nuvi 660.

1st - Is it just me or is the default North America really really, yes really poor? I mean even my 3 yrs old Lowrance 500 had better and more accurate maps. I live in the Chicago suburbs in a community about 4 yrs old and my street isn't even on the map. What gives? My Nuvi 660 found it, and so did my 3 yrs old Lowrance. Even the roads in a small town where I work doesn't show all the street names. What gives?

Is this because the default map is just crappy and I have to order a new North America map costing me, what 49 Euros? I was seconds away from buying it, but didn't and instead wanted to get opinons from forums like this.

Blank street names, wrong Interstate numbers, and wrong POIs. Is this what Map Share is for? How do I add new roads or correct interstate numbers?

The map and driving directions is the most basic function of a GPS and this 920 really really disappoints.

Somebody tell me I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Nextourer]

Which map version do you have?

 

[Boyd]

From reading threads like this I have to assume that map coverage varies a lot based on where you are. I also have a Nuvi 650, and in my area (Philadelphia, Southern NJ) I see very little difference in the maps.

Mapsource can't be used to add roads unfortunately.

 

[Spyder]

Users have been saying for years there is a noticable difference between the Tele Atlas maps (that TT uses) and Navteq that Garmin uses. I believe Mapquest routes with Navteq maps and quite often a Garmin route will be exactly the same as a Mapquest route.

My TT920 is going back as I like the look and feel of this little cheapo Mio C320 I just got. But in my quest for that "perfect" GPS I have strayed further afar and just ordered the Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U from Costco ($399 + S&H) which uses Navteq maps and also has a 5 inch screen.

JB


You can check out the Strada here: http://tinyurl.com/2bavqt and http://tinyurl.com/2hclh8

 

[PurdueBoilermaker]

Which map version do you have?

My 920 is brand new so I guess, it's the latest map. After downloading some user corrections, my steet name did show up, but the 920 couldn't find my house number. Rediculous!

920 vs Nuvi660.

User interface: 660 is much much more user-friendly
Finding POIs: With the 660, I was able to search POIs by much more deeper categories than the 920. For instance, I could go under "restaurants" and pick from "American, Chinese, Fast-Food, Barbeque, and much more." With the 920, it's just restaurants for example.

Map Detail: With the garmin 660, I could select the level of detail of my displayed map. Meaning, when I'm not using the GPS, I could see more details like for example rivers, cross street names, ponds, etc. With the 920, all I saw in detail was the street I was on. What? Am I in the middle of nowhere away from civilization? I can appreciate learning steets, POIs, and such when I pass them by. Again the 920 map is soooo horribly withou detail.

Main GPS screen. 920 screen is wayyy to busy with numbers towards the bottom. This takes away map space. With the 660, only important specs were on the main GPS screen like distance to next turn, time of arrival, and current speed. The trip counter, max speed, avg speed, and a whole lot more is a click away in another screen.

Automatic on/off: With my Nuvi660, it turned off automatically after I turned off the car and turned on automatically when I turn on the ignition. Of course, I can always do that manually as well.

Night display: This is automatic with the Nuvi660. The nuvi660 has black background with white roads which is a lot better than blue background of the 920.

Oh and the suction cup. It has dropped on my dash 3 times already. The garmin660, the suction cup is like super glue.

Saving POIs by coordinates. With the Garmin660, I could save a POI by coordinates since there is no address. Although there are no streets to get to the coordinate due to map limitation, it would at least take me to the nearest location of the coordinate. Well guess what, I saved a coordinate in the 920 (my work) under favorites. I then tell it to take me to that location and the 920 tells me it is unable to because the address does not exist. Are you kidding me?????? I thought that's why you have the coordinate function. Isn't that what it's for when you don't have an address? You have got to be kidding me. Even my Lowrance500C was able to do that.

Will be returning my 920. It really really disappoints!

 

[sam0329]

I own both GO 720 and Garmin Nuvi 760 right now.
You are right, the Garmin interface is very clean, or I should say dummy proof. My mom can use it without problems however if I want to avoid part of the road thats impossible. TomTom can do that very easy.
The Garmin screen is very clean and bright same as TomTom however Garmin is not showing any POI and didnt use the screen very well. TomTom show more info but some find thats annoying.
The Auto on/off is very nice on the Garmin and I wish TomTom have that soon.
The night mode on both are good. You can actually change the color of your TomTom! I dont use blue but green instead.
And so far I dont have any problems with both suction mount. Make sure you clean your wind shield!
Speaking of POI, guess what? They both made errors but garmin have more build in POI but TomTom have mapshare so I can add any new POI I want any time and no need to wait for an update.
Garmin can take you to whatever address/coordinate you type in but TomTom will not allow you to navigate to anywhere thats not "a road". However if I save a off road favorite Garmin will try very hard to route me there in a super werid and funny way so thats basically useless IMO!

Theres no prefect GPS ... different people have different needs. I enjoy both and I can find bad route from both very easy too

 

[KOTULCN]

is there anyway to use the Garmin POI data base for out TT 920?

 

[sam0329]

No idea and for me I dont see the point. I can add the POI I want or use Goolge Map and send it to the 720. Gamin is not always have all the POI I want anyways. For example I was looking for a indoor soccer field. TomTom show me 4 and Garmin show me 2.

 

[joey301]

No idea and for me I dont see the point. I can add the POI I want or use Goolge Map and send it to the 720. Gamin is not always have all the POI I want anyways. For example I was looking for a indoor soccer field. TomTom show me 4 and Garmin show me 2.

None of them list gay bars, so what good are they ?
j

 

[Boyd]

I have a Nuvi 650 and a TomTom 920T. Both have their own strong and weak points.

Map Detail: With the garmin 660, I could select the level of detail of my displayed map. Meaning, when I'm not using the GPS, I could see more details like for example rivers, cross street names, ponds, etc.

I wish you could select detail levels on the 920 also, but in the end it's not such a big deal. You just need to zoom in farther and you'll see as much detail as the Nuvi. But on the 920 it's like you have detail set at NORMAL on the Nuvi while driving around.

However in BROWSE mode the 920 behaves like the Nuvi with detail set to MOST. In fact, I think it shows even more detail - meaning you can zoom farther out and still see the small streets at a level where the Nuvi wouldn't show them.

Main GPS screen. 920 screen is wayyy to busy with numbers towards the bottom. This takes away map space.

Have you tried putting the status bar on the right side? I like that much better because it provides more vertical space and shows more of the road ahead. The Nuvi can't do that.

Night display: The nuvi660 has black background with white roads which is a lot better than blue background of the 920.

The choice of different color schemes, and the option to design your own puts the 920 way ahead of the Nuvi in this regard. I agree it would be nice to have it switch automatically, but that isn't such a big deal, and there's a 3rd party app which can do it also.

Saving POIs by coordinates. With the Garmin660, I could save a POI by coordinates since there is no address.

Did you try saving as a Favorite instead of POI? Not sure if that matters, but it might. This has been discussed elsewhere around here.

But hey, if you don't like the TomTom then there are plenty of others to try. None of them are perfect unfortunately...

 

[sonjohn1]

Joey301

You mean you didn't order the gay 920T version when you got your TOMTOM. That explains your POI problem. (-:

 

[joey301]

Mio

Users have been saying for years there is a noticable difference between the Tele Atlas maps (that TT uses) and Navteq that Garmin uses. I believe Mapquest routes with Navteq maps and quite often a Garmin route will be exactly the same as a Mapquest route.

My TT920 is going back as I like the look and feel of this little cheapo Mio C320 I just got. But in my quest for that "perfect" GPS I have strayed further afar and just ordered the Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U from Costco ($399 + S&H) which uses Navteq maps and also has a 5 inch screen.

JB


You can check out the Strada here: http://tinyurl.com/2bavqt and http://tinyurl.com/2hclh8

When I was shopping, I really liked the Mio too. It has nice features and a nice size and shape. Plus, it gets good reviews. My fear was support. I have read some poor support reviews about them. When I look at their website, I did not see as much going on as with TomTom and Garmin. Plus, there does not seem to be an active forum like this one. I was afraid I would get a Mio unit with no support and not very many opportunities to update maps or firmware for improvements. And, in that regard, I have been happy so far with TomTom, althought the MAPS part of their website has been down for a long time. I am planning a trip to the Baltics and the smaller Mio would be very nice to carry around for walking, but I am hoping I can get TomTom maps for that too.

 

[Boyd]

I am planning a trip to the Baltics and the smaller Mio would be very nice to carry around for walking, but I am hoping I can get TomTom maps for that too.

Have you tried walking around with your TomTom? That's one of the few things which disappointed me. At walking speed the map pointer doesn't update very often. You need to move perhaps 100 feet before it will suddenly jump to your position.

If this is important to you then try some tests before your trip and see what you think.

 

[PurdueBoilermaker]

Yes, it all comes down to one's preference.

I'm not here to bash the 920 and say you're all wrong for owning it. The reason I have been so "animated" with my 920 is mainly the map. Again, to me a GPS navigation system's most important quality is map accuracy. I returned my Nuvi660 after 4 months of undisappointed use was because I was, how should I put it, "greedy" with map accuracy. To sum it up, there have been a couple of times, my nuvi660 didn't have the correct POIs or routed me using an reasonable route. But again, it was minimal and I was still happy with it.

Then reading the 920, and MapShare, I thought POIs and map accuracy would be even better. Well, I was completely disappointed. I guess if you start out with a GPS that had good map accuracy and regressed with the 920, I can see why I was so animated. So I guess if map accuracy and POIs is acceptable to you currently then the 920 is fine, but if you're a Nuvi660 then be prepared for map regression in the 920. Be warned!

 

[Boyd]

Well I think it's more about personal likes and dislikes, as well as your geographic location and NOT about Nuvi versus TomTom. I also have a Nuvi 650 which has the same maps as your 660. I drove about 12,000 miles with that GPS and it does everything it's advertised to do very well. Before that I used a StreetPilot 2620 and put around 100,000 miles on that. I used to have a Garmin eTrex Legend C and upgraded it to a Garmin GPSMap 60csx which I'm fairly happy with.

So the reason I like the TomTom isn't because I'm not familiar with Garmin products. I'm a big fan of theirs and have "voted with my wallet" as you can see. I was all set to upgrade to the Nuvi 750 (giving my old Nuvi 650 to my daughter this weekend in fact) until I spent awhile playing with it in the store.

I was very disappointed that dragging and zooming the map on the 760 was noticeably slower than my 650 - something that baffles me, I thought new models were supposed to be faster. But aside from that, the 700 series is a nice upgrade from the 600's with the addition of routes, tracklogs and QWERTY keyboard. The inability to create and store your own custom routes on the Nuvi series (except the top of the line 7x0) is a major limitation of that line.

But while I was at the store I starting playing with the TomTom and it really surprised me. The older TomTom units really didn't impress me, but the 720 and 920 have a lot of the features I missed on my Nuvi - like being able to disable autozoom and all the customization.

I really don't see any significant difference between the TomTom and Garmin maps in my area. Depending where you're located you may like one or the other better though. One thing I do like on the TomTom maps are the directional arrows for one way streets in downtown areas, that's very helpful for me.

If you want to see people "extremely disappointed" with the Nuvi, just read some of the threads in that forum over at gpspassion. I take it all with a grain of salt and have spent enough time to form my own opinions. Sounds like you've done the same thing, and that's great. I'd encourage everyone else to do their homework before spending this much money on a GPS!

 

[PurdueBoilermaker]

Well said Boyd. Do your homework is the key. One thing I have learned in all this is that not all high end GPSs are the same. Meaning, there might be much more differences than one might think from one manufacturer to another even though they might be in the same category, price wise.

Another advice. Buy your GPS at either Costco or Sam's club. They have great return policies. Sam's, you can return within 6 months. Costco, I believe it's a year. More than enough time for one to try out.

As a previous post, one feature I really do like from the 920 is the ability to eliminate a particular street from the route. I was stuck on the freeway last night and went for an alternate route. While on this alternate route, it became jammed with cars. I then tell the 920 to exclude the current street and it gave me another one, avoiding the traffic. This isn't available in the Nuvi660. So yes, I do have something positive from my 920 experience.....LOL.

 

[KOTULCN]

how do you guys charge your 920? do you leave it plugged in all the time?

 

[bseidner]

Charging the 920

I do not keep mine plugged in. I charge it when it is necessary. Almost all of my mini USB plugs supply 5 volts and they will work. Some are 750ma and some are 500ma. Ohms law tells me either will work, although some have said use the lower power one.

 

[KOTULCN]

i like having mine charged all the time, so I dont have to use the car charger - so I always have mine docked with the usb cradle. I am wondering if there is a step down built into the cradle so not to over charge, does anyone know?