Brother is looking for some advice on all the portable GPS units as opposed to an in dash setup. Never even looked at these before, looks like some have supposed traffic services - are they as good as something like XM Navtraffic?

Price not really an issue, looking for a reliable unit, touch screen and hopefully one with traffic service.

 

I got the Garmin nuvi 660.

I've owned the Garmin iQue 2600 and Pioneer AVIC N2 for a couple of year now. I borrowed a friends Cobra with a 5" screen for a few days. The five guys at work I work with all consider themselves GPS geeks.

It's all about the user interface. The Garmin nuvi has a wonderful and simple to use touch screen interface. It just works as you would expect it. It's got a traffic interface using Clear-Channel's radio and gives traffic conditions from Los Angeles, San Diego, and out to the Inland Empire. When you make a route and you approach traffic the voice says "traffic ahead" and up pops an icon which if you touch it you get an alternative to re-route around the traffic. The thing knows good traffic, poor traffic, and stopped traffic/lane closures.

You can also designate areas to say away from. There's a highway project going on on the 60/91 freeway exchange with tons of traffic, lane closures, and rocks/gravel on the roads. That's on my avoid list.

The voice now has the ability to use a rather nice computer voice to give you the name of the street. Here in LA streets are sometimes so close that it's hard to know which "turn left in 500 feet" she means ... but "turn left onto Nason street in 500 feet" is better. You get your choice of male or female voices in English, Australian, or American accents. I have a female Aussie.

But the best is yet to come.

Bluetooth! I have a BlackBerry 7100i and this thing automatically locks into the nuvi when I turn the car on. I use the nuvi's speakers (more later) and built-in microphone to do hands free calling. The phone book is also sucked into the GPS so I can read the caller's name on the large 4.3" screen vice the tiny one on the Bluetooth. Two button call home too.

The GPS has a built-in FM transmitter which will link to your FM radio. There's a gigabyte worth of MP3 storage which will play into the radio. If a phone call comes in the song mutes during the call. The music also lowers for the GPS voice prompts.

You can also use the storage for pictures and there's a built-in slide show viewer. There's a SD port which I've slide a gigabyte worth of storage in adding to my pictures.

The built-in maps are the entire US and Canada.

Some of the things I don't use are the calculator, currency exchange, the coupon finder ... there's a bunch to this thing.

Have a look at GPSnow.com for some comparisons. The nuvi 660 is the most expensive unit but it's a heck of a gadget.

 

Thanks. The 660 has been coming up in a lot of reviews and is definitely on my list. Have been concerned about the Clear Channel traffic updates though vs other services, but I guess they all have their good and bad days. Thanks again

 

They're pretty accurate here. There are sensors in the roads which provide data to a CalTrans system. Clear Channel has a dozen or more stations between AM and FM around here so the traffic desk is always manned for them. They also have helocopter service during the rush hours. The transmitters are located far enough apart that you can get service where the CalTrans sensors are at least.

The unit comes with free service for awhile. I don't know if I'm going to drop the $5 a month afterwards :shrug:

 

Same here, I imagine if theres any place the service works it would be LA or DC. Thanks