Garmin Nuvi 250 Satellite Navigation System With European Mapping | 
 enlarge
| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
Buy New: £98.95
New (12) Used (1) from £90.00
Rating:  32 reviews
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 4 x 8
MPN: 010-00621-02
Model: 010-00621-02
UPC: 753759065553
EAN: 0753759065553
ASIN: B000OV16MQ
Release Date: April 9, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
| |
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Garmin has brought out an ultra-compact GPS for easy transport with high-performance functions: it's the Nüvi 250! This GPS was designed to meet the ergonomic standards and practicality that drivers ask for. Thanks to the Nüvi 250?s large 3.5? touch screen, you?ll be able to follow its clear, precise directions easily. All you have to do is type in the postcode or the name of your destination to get your itinerary calculated in a flash. Garmin has also equipped the Nüvi 250 with Navteq maps of 33 European countries and a pre-installed speed camera alert. Plus, this GPS gives you 1,300,000 addresses with restaurants, petrol stations, bars and points of interest. You?ll be able to organise your holiday or family excursion easily. In addition, the Nüvi 250 includes a JPEG image viewer, a currency converter, and a PIN security lock system. Doubling up as a GPS navigational system and a portable entertainment centre, the Nüvi 250 GPS is a true in-car computer. Maps included: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Monaco, Germany, Greece, Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Sweden, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Portable and easy to use August 18, 2007
Humphrey (Isle of Man)
94 out of 95 found this review helpful
I've used one of these extensively on the Isle of Man, in the UK and in France (obviously, I have the Europe edition but the only difference is the additional maps). I also have a great deal of experience with Tom Tom.
As the Nuvi 250 not a top-of-the-range unit, there are some shortcomings - and overall I would prefer the Tom Tom interface.
But it is extremely neat, lightweight and easy to set up (which means you're not tempted to leave it on display in the car when you park up for a few minutes and nip into a shop). Actually using the unit for the main purpose (getting to an address) could hardly be easier. It's never locked-up or crashed despite some multi-hour sessions and varying temperatures. The windscreen mounting is excellent: the best I've seen and very easy in any car. I have to admit that I bought it for my wife, who prefers such things to be extremely straightforward (any why not?): she is very happy to use it.
The biggest weaknesses are the voice (very robotic, and can't say "right" correctly which is irritating)(later edit: this has now been fixed by a download from the Garmin web site) and the 3D map display (no indication of movement, and confusing where there are many streets tight up against each other). Also, the location of junctions takes some getting used to: if you wait until "zero feet" before turning off the motorway you'll have missed the junction by a long way. I think that this is partly the mapping, and partly that the countdown of distance to go is a little slow. Moving at 30 mph, a left turn will be indicated ahead but the actual turn takes place whilst the unit is still indicating 50 feet to go. If you stop at the junction it catches up a few seconds later. Tom Tom on my PDA (admittedly a high-power one) seems to stay in sync better with the position of the vehicle.
It does hold satellite lock very well (as you'd expect with this chipset), and generally starts up quickly.
Sometimes the route chosen seems a little odd: in France we were directed to use a rough mountain path at one stage, of the type that would be a challenge on foot. But that's a weakness of the mapping, and despite having better coverage, the Navteq maps seem slightly inferior to the Teleatlas product (as used by Tom Tom). A quick press of the nifty "Detour" button eliminates rogue routing so it's not a real problem.
Also, if you've changed settings to request the shortest route to a destination - don't forget to change back before your next journey (it isn't obvious that this is set) or else you'll be touring tiny back streets unexpectedly!
There are lots of pre-loaded POI's: sometimes it's a little awkward to see these on the map. It is easy to load custom POI's yourself (I do this a lot) using a PC cable (you may have to buy one of these, but it's a standard mini-USB which many digital cameras use: so check whether you already have one). The feature "go to coordinates" (where you enter the Lat and Long) is a great boon: I use it in conjuction with Memory Map on a PDA, and I can then be directed to the exact point on a detailed map.
Overall, pretty good if you like portability, simplicity and ease of use.
 Garmin Nuvi 250 December 6, 2007
Anp Slevin
82 out of 82 found this review helpful
Like a lot of the other reviews I was looking for something which was cost effective, cheap if thats the way you want to read it but the Nuvi 250 does not have that cheap feel about it, it looks and feels solid.
I tried it initially around Milton Keyenes which is a good test for anything and it coped very well, it locks onto the satelite well and re routes itself very quickly. It has plenty of built in functions such as favourite address, recently visited, shopping, petrol stations, travel etc etc as well as the vehicle mode - automobile, bicycle, pedestrian. There are certain niggles which other reviews have highlighted such as no mains charger ( a car charger is included ) lack of search detail for some addresses, lack of USB leads and so on but for me these are just niggles and no more and should not deter you from buying it. If you like your phone to be your phone, your camera to be your camera and your GPS to be your GPS then this is perfect - it also means your in your forties !.
Garmin Nuvi 250 Satellite Navigation System November 10, 2007
Mr. J. Brown (Yorkshire)
69 out of 69 found this review helpful
Very pleased indeed
My first sat nav and after reading reviews took the plunge with this Nuvi
Very impressed...this unit has been designed for ease of use and I don't think it could have been done any better
It has the Sirf chipset...(verified on the second page after switch on) which locks onto satellites within a couple of mins tops and destinations are found in less than 30 secs routinely
Also being so sensitive it works sat in my sunglasses case near the gearstick without needing to use the mount
This negates the need to install/uninstall every time I leave the car and does not give thieves a clue with tell tale sucker mount marks on the windscreen....this should not be underestimated and makes using it so easy and quick
Post code search is first class and very accurate and favourites work really well
I have been astounded at the places included in the searches for POIs
Bought at 137 a couple of weeks ago but at 119 this is a steal!
I am getting another for the wife for Xmas
I cannot think of anyone who could not use this it is soooo easy!
Does what is says on the tin ....brilliantly!
Sat Navigation Made Easy January 21, 2008
JJ
59 out of 59 found this review helpful
I looked at various different brands, specs and models when choosing a satellite navigation aid. From what I gathered from the sales person in a Halfords store was that the Garmin units are far superior to the likes of Tom Tom or Navman on their build quality, usability and the shear amount of faulty units they have returned from Garmin's rival brands.
So once deciding what brand to opt for I found myself in the mine field of which product. The sales person explained the benefits of each individual unit from which I gathered some could almost drive the car for me! As I didn't require my mobile phone to be linked to the sat nav purely on the basis I struggle to send a text message as best, this unit suited me down to the ground. Even for someone as un-technically minded as me I found the Nuvi 250 extremely straight forward to use.
I have been on various long road trips and excursions and have noticed that it is very accurate and reliable when finding a location. I am very pleased with my purchase and have recently bought the same unit for both my wife and son for Christmas.
Great value unit that gets the job done! April 16, 2008
Dr. M. Cinnirella (Surrey UK)
42 out of 42 found this review helpful
Most in-car Sat Nav experts agree that these days it is largely a two-horse race between Garmin and Tom Tom. Just like the decades old feud between Mac and PC users, some swear by Tom Tom, some by Garmin. I don't feel any special emotion towards Garmin, but I think this unit carries on their tradition of no-nonsense good value units that get the job done. The Nuvi 250 comes with maps of the UK and most of Europe built in. Annual upgrades to the maps are available once a year at a cost, from Garmin. Many feel that the maps Garmin uses are better than Tom Tom, but I haven't owned a Tom Tom so can't comment on that.
The 250 is a `basic' unit in the sense that it has few extras. But ask yourself this: do you really need an MP3 player built into your Sat Nav, or a wireless Bluetooth connection to your phone? Higher end, more expensive models have these, and some will argue you need them - but it's interesting that this is usually people who want to justify to themselves why they spent the extra cash on more expensive models. OK, so the 250 does not have TTS (text-to-speech) for street names - so you will hear it say "Turn left" and not "Turn left on Chapel Street" - but the street name is displayed in a large font at the top of the display, so I really don't find this an issue. What this unit does, it does well. Like all Sat Navs, including Tom Toms, sometimes the route planning and mapping suggest routes that are sub-optimal. EVERY in-car Sat Nav will occasionally send you down a dirt track or on a route that you, with your local knowledge, know is not the best, quickest or optimal one. But this unit doesn't do this any more than units from other manufacturers in my experience.
The 250 is a very slim, sleek unit that fits in a breast pocket comfortably and is very light. It has an excellent, bright screen, with a very clear display, and mapping is shown clearly with good quality anti-aliased fonts. I have found satellite lock to be quick and that the unit holds lock pretty well - better than my old Garmin i3 did. The in-built speaker produces a pretty clear sound, and my experience is that although a small, thin unit, the spoken directions are audible and loud enough even when motorway driving. The unit has an in-built rechargeable battery that charges up either via the supplied in-car cigarette lighter charger, or else when plugged into your USB port on your PC. The supplied windshield mount is quite good - it seems to stay on pretty well and articulates nicely so that you can angle the unit as you wish to maximise visibility of the screen. Garmin doesn't offer alternative (e.g. celebrity) voices for the unit, but there are some hacks that those confident enough with computers can use to modify and change the voices (see PocketGPSworld web site).
The unit has all the features, in my view, that you need in a basic in-car Sat Nav, and they all work pretty well. Driving around Surrey and the south east I have not had any real issues with this unit apart from one time when the display started to lag behind my actual position. Contacting Garmin led me to know that sometimes the unit's downloaded satellite information can become corrupt and cause this kind of lag, and this can be rectified by a hard reset - hold down the bottom right of the screen and while doing this, turn the unit on. You may lose your favourites, but if you have backed up the favourites to your PC using a USB lead prior to this, you can copy them back again. Unit firmware can be upgraded via the Garmin web site and you can backup the entire contents of the unit onto your PC as it loads as a drive in Windows when connected via USB (Garmin sadly, skimped and did not include a USB cable in the box though). You can download regularly updated Speed camera databases (at a price) from the PocketGPSWorld web site (for those confident with PCs) or else from Garmin's own web site (an easier option for technophobes) and both work well.
At the current April 2008 price for this unit, it is excellent value. Of course, it is cheap at the moment because Garmin are about to launch new models, including entry level ones, and the 250 may be replaced by one of these. Even so, I have no hesitation in recommending it as an excellent entry level unit - definitely a step up from my old i3.
P.S. to owners of French cars - some of these (e.g. some Renaults) have athermic windscreens which MAY cause weak Satellite reception with any in-car Sat Nav. If you have such a car, you MAY find problems with this unit and any other in-car Sat Nav. Your choice is either to change car (!), give up the idea of in-car Sat Nav, or install an external antenna (but I'm not sure you can use the latter with this particular unit).
**UPDATE on 7th May 2008 ** - this is now at an unbelievably good price on Amazon of 94.95. BUT - as I said above, there are new models just coming out, one of which is the 255, which now has full text-to-speech so it pronounces the street names, is compatible with optional traffic receivers, and has a faster processor so should draw the maps quicker (in theory). But of course, the new model is around the 150 mark. I still say for this price, the 250 is fantastic value.
|
|
|
|
