Garmin Nuvi 300 GPS Navigation System With UK Mapping

The touchscreen is large, clear and responsive and the operation is so intuitive that you don't really need a manual to get going. I have had it a week or so now and have found the navigation to be precise and on the one occasion it led us astray I discovered the "include unmade roads" option was engaged. Once adjusted it was fine. Also, if you deviate from the suggested route it recalculates an alternative in seconds.Compared to other devices it is also equally quick at "cold fixes" e.g. finding enough satellites to get up and running from switch on - many of my friends tell me their units can take several minutes - the Nuvi is "locked on" in less than half a minute.

Battery life on internal batteries is around 3-4 hours and the quality of both the maps and the voice is good - although no doubt a bigger unit would probably have a more "mellow voice" (but of course wouldn't be pocketable). The volume is adequate even at speed.

I was sceptical of the quality of the other functions such as the picture viewer etc. - my thinking being - "jack of all trades and master of none" - don't be fooled, this is a top flight product. Yes, to meaningfully replay MP3s the internal speaker is no good but you can get lots of solutions to connect it to your car audio. The unit also accepts speed camera databases that can be downloaded from the internet - they work really well.

It comes complete with quality mountings, leads including a cigarette lighter adapter and a neat little leather case (although I decided to buy a Lowe Pro Rezo 15 case which could have been made for it).

Truly, you won't regret buying this small, perfectly formed, versatile and high performing device. Well done Garmin!


WOW   February 12, 2006
D. Bruce (Cambridge UK)
128 out of 131 found this review helpful

Well, where do I start. I will keep this short as Ive never felt the need to do this before but I was sooo impressed with this device (and so is my husband who bought this for me) I had to share this.
It is simple to use, dynamic, will correct a course automatically if you decide to go a different route, instructions are clear... again 'simple to use, your granny could get it to work'.
My husband is a courier and he though he knew most routes in and out of London, until now. He was using this for a trip to a place he kinda knows but the Nuvi took him a different route, he was tempted to not take that route and follow his instincts but gave it a go... it only found him a dual carriageway past all the traffic he didn't know about. He has since used this for other more remote drops and cant praise this enough.
Reason I am impressed, its easy and quick to use, I can get lost at the drop of a hat OR I go the longest route as its the only one I know, using this for a recent shopping trip took at least an hour off my journey as I found a parking space outside the shop I wanted to visit and it took me home from there, Im just so please and can honestly say, it has changed my driving life, I wont worry about travelling to any unknown place ever again.


A little gem   September 11, 2006
Pizza (Guernsey, Channel Islands)
110 out of 112 found this review helpful

Ok, so I'm a satnav newbie - what do I know?

Well, I know enough to work out that I only want to pay for the the features I need and that I should read as many reviews on the net about my shortlisted potential buys.

So now you know what led me to the Garmin 300 - how did it turn out for me?

Well, the unit was actually bought by my daughter who was moving from Guernsey to Liverpool and wanted the in-car reassurance of knowing where she was going. Out of the box, the unit was everything the reviews promised. Small, portable, and incredibly easy to set up and use.

We trialled the unit in Guernsey for a week - yes, Garmin is the only company to cover the Channel Islands as far as I know - and got used to how it works. I even deliberately went off route a few times but calmly and quickly got given new directions to my destination, even if it did sound a little tetchy about recalculating. Some reviews moan about the 3D maps but we had no difficulties. Like everything new, it takes a little getting used to but the effort is minimal.

On the big trip up to Liverpool the unit quickly picked up it's satellites as we emerged from the ferry and took us the 349 odd miles without a hitch. Well yes, we did have one small power down panic ( battery low) but that was our fault in not checking the lighter power lead was plugged in properly. We had been running it on battery for about 4 hours prior to this event without any problems.

As soon as we sorted out the lead and reset the unit, it remembered where we were going and continued on as if nothing had happened. It did direct us to about 10 houses away from the actual address but it was based on a post code entry and what is a few yards inaccuracy over nearly 350 miles. Anyway, buying a satnav doesn't mean switching off your common sense.

A brilliant piece of kit and well worth the price if you are looking for a basic satnav unit. I was wondering why less and less visitors are getting lost in Guernsey these days!


Very good piece of kit, but not foolproof   January 22, 2007
N. Wilkinson (Manchester, UK)
104 out of 107 found this review helpful

As a HGV driver I was looking forward to owning a sat-nav system - lets face it, juggling the tasks of steering, changing gear, indicating, texting (only joking) and holding an A-Z with just one pair of hands can be a little dangerous when you're in control of 25 tonnes of machinery.

Upon first inspection the unit felt good in hand with a nice leather wallet, a good sized colour screen with easy to use touch screen buttons.
Once a destination has been selected and depending on the weather, a satellite is usually found in about 30 seconds, but sometimes it can take 3 or 4 minutes. The mapping is really easy to follow with clear voice commands and almost instant re-calculation should you go off route.
BUT, it does have plenty of annoying points - In the first 15 hours of use I've found:

*Whilst navigating there's no battery power indication so if you don't want to keep it on permanent charge or have a faulty cigar lighter it'll suprise you and just switch off mid navigation - there's also no home charger so when I can't charge it in the HGV i.e of a weekend I can't use it.
*There's no volume control on the side of the unit, you have to mess about a little to adjust it.
*The voice commands can be wrong especially on roundabouts, you should rely on what's shown on the screen here.
*Just yesterday it tried to send me the wrong way down a one-way street.
*It's crashed twice already and had to be reset.
*For some reason it won't always let you enter a full post-code - you have to go down a long list to find it or it won't be there at all - however it found any delivery address I entered eventually.
*It does have an option to enter what vehicle you are in/on, but this appears to be completely ignored by the rest of the system as I have already had to squeeze and scrape thru the tightest village road and a single track road it sent me down.
*A number of roads near me built at the end of 2005 aren't on the system.
*The flip-up satellite receiver at the back has started to feel a little bit loose

Having said all that it has made my working day a lot easier, but you have exercise caution in unfamiliar areas and not to take too literally all the instructions it gives you - use with common sense, it isn't foolproof.


Good   October 5, 2006
M. Baig (UK)
76 out of 80 found this review helpful

It is no doubt one of the best sat nav available at the moment. Its light and compact design enables you to put it in your pocket when you leave the car. Garmin is frequently upgrading the software (about 5 upgrades in last 12 months) adding new features and fixing the bugs. The only problems I have felt with are related to maps and voice directions (telling you to take 3rd exit when you should take 2nd and the map itself shows 2nd). It would not give you advanced warning for roundabouts many times especially if these are less than 0.5 miles apart and you dont know which exit to take until you reach the roundabout which of course makes it very difficult to keep appropriate lane. Also route calculation for long journeys is not that great. At times it would prefer to take you through village roads when main highways are available. Also it does not offer feature of avoiding a particular road so if the road is blocked because of road works etc, you can not calculate an alternate route. Another problem is satellite fix. It might take more time to get the fix though recent update claims to have addressed that. You may not find your location as precise as claimed. It might show junction 50 feet away when you have actually reached there. I bought this unit mainly because of its portability as I did not want to leave unit in my car. Updating software is quite easy though its preferable to download updates and then install rather than using the webupdater which led to technical problem with my unit on recent update.