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Garmin nuvi 250 silver
One of the great advantages of the nüvi 250 is that it's a combination of mobile and pedestrian use. And yes there is a difference between the usual mobile gps and the pedestrian GPS. The ones specifically labeled as pedestrian are for use walking on city streets and not the great outdoors. The nüvi 250 does both pedestrian and mobile.
Both the nuvi 250 and the nuvi 360 feature a 3.5-inch, 320-by-240 QVGA antiglare screen. Garmin didn't cut corners and didn't put a cheaper, more reflective screen on the 250 model. The primary difference here is that the 250 has a built-in GPS antenna and the 360 uses a fold-out patch antenna. A mini-USB connector supplies power for both units. The mounting bracket on the 360 is better, because you can attach the power cable to it. With the 250, you have to disconnect the power from the unit each time you remove it from the mounting bracket.
The nuvi 250 doesn't use the state-of-the-art SiRFStarIII receiver module such as the one found in the 350. Garmin describes the 250's receiver, without a brand name, as simply a sensitive GPS receiver. That might be why the 250 displays fewer signal-strength bars and may lose satellite lock indoors more easily than the 350. That said, reception problems are not expected to occur.
When you power up the nüvi 250, Garmin's familiar "Where to" and "View Map" icons appear on the main menu. Missing on the main menu is "Travel Kit," the third entry found on the 300 and 600 series. A subset of the nüvi 360's Travel Kit abilities is found under the "Wrench" setup icon at the bottom of the nüvi 250's screen.
The Travel Kit tools bundled with the nüvi 360 series really make the device a valuable travel companion. The nüvi 250 has some of them, including a picture viewer, a simple four-function calculator, a currency converter, a unit-of-measure converter, and a world clock (though with only three time zones instead of the 360's four). It lacks the MP3 player, the Audible book player, and the language guide - containing bilingual dictionaries and common words and phrases. If you're planning a trip to Europe with a nüvi 250 you may miss these features. Garmin says that you can upgrade the 250 with these features, but of course for an additional cost.
When installed the unit in the car, nüvi 250 comes preloaded with maps for the 48 continental states, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Canada. Both units, as one can expect, generate virtually identical routes. Recalculation speeds from missed turns are almost identical, though there are some differences in the information presented on the screen. Touching the signal-strength bars on the 360 brings up a screen that displays satellite status and signal strength as well as your current latitude/longitude. With the 250, tapping the signal-strength bars produces no result. In fact, you won't be able to find your satellite status or latitude/longitude information anywhere on the 250. Also missing is a North arrow.
And yet the most significant difference between the devices is text-to-speech conversion, a feature Garmin has omitted in the nüvi 250. In general, text-to-speech capabilities is something a GPS must-have, though many entry-level devices still lack it. Text-to-speech–enabled units, such as the 360, announce street names as part of their spoken directions. In order to be sure that you take the proper turn, you'll need to take your eyes off the road to read the street name on the screen. From a safety standpoint, this is pretty unacceptable.
If you cruise through the menu systems of the 250 and the 360 side by side, you will discover a number of differences. On the nüvi 360, route preferences appear on the same navigation menu as vehicle profiles and avoidances. The 360 has vehicle profiles for car/motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle, truck, bus, emergency, and taxis. The "usage mode" on the 250 is found on the System menu (not on the navigation menu) and is limited to automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian modes.
Rather than having six icons per page like the 360, the 250 has four larger icons per page. The first page features symbols for Address, Points of Interest, Recently Found, and Favorites. The 360 has no separate grouping for POIs—the POI categories were at the same menu level as Address and Favorites.
The nuvi 250 is an excellent low cost GPS device. But if you do need the extra features the 360 offers, you may want to consider an upgrade.
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