Garmin nüvi 1250T 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
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nüvi® 1250 redefines portable, affordable navigation. This ultra-thin GPS has preloaded maps for North America, announces streets by name and calculates a more fuel-efficient route with ecoRoute™.
Slim Down. Take It With You
Twenty-five percent slimmer than other nüvis, the 1200 and widescreen 1300-series are ideal traveling companions. nüvi 1250 easily fits in your pocket or purse, and its rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot. Take advantage of the 1250’s new Public Transit mode by downloading optional CityXplorer™ content (coming soon) for select cities to navigate via subways, trams, buses and more.
Get Turn-by-Turn Directions
nüvi 1250’s intuitive interface greets you with two simple questions: “Where To?” and “View Map.” Touch the color screen to easily look up addresses and services and get voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that speak street names to your destination. It comes preloaded with detailed City Navigator® NT street maps, nearly 6 million points of interest (POIs), 2-D or 3-D maps and the speed limit for most major roads. Its digital elevation maps show you shaded contours at higher zoom levels, giving you a big picture of the surrounding terrain. With the 1250’s enhanced user interface, you can slide your finger to conveniently scroll between screens. You can also upload custom points of interest (POIs). And with HotFix™ satellite prediction, nüvi calculates your position faster to get you there quicker.
Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nüvi 1250 saves you gas and money with ecoRoute – a green feature that calculates the most fuel-efficient route, tracks fuel usage and more. The 1250 includes many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. With photo navigation, you can downl
Features
- With its enhanced pedestrian navigation capabilities, nüvi 1250T is the perfect travel companion for getting around town.
- Twenty-five percent slimmer than other nüvis, you can take the ultra-thin 1250T anywhere.
- Steer clear of traffic with nüvi 1250T’s integrated FM traffic receiver and free lifetime traffic updates.
- Receive alerts about traffic delays and road construction that lie ahead on your route.
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 7 x 3 x 7 inches
- Weight: 1 pounds
Garmin Nuvi 1250T
Great product. Easy to use. Great features. Car, walking or biking mode. Where am I now- at the touch of the screen–gives location, intersection, coordinates and closes gas and emergency locations. Traffic alert–gives location of higher traffic areas on closest multiple highways and approximate delay. Gives speed limit in the area you are in (mostly accurate). Eco-travel–will estimate how much fuel you use based on your driving, your vehicle and the cost of fuel. I travel alot and have used several Garmin GPS including many much more expensive, this by far is the best. Negatives- the screen size is 3.5″ wouldn’t mind it a bit larger and you have to change screens to change volume. Wish there was an external button for volume. The Pros far outweigh the Cons.
Highly Recommend!!
Unreliable Product
I have used a Garmin Nuvi 360 for many years and liked it very much. In recent years, it kept bugging me to upgrade the map. I thought for not too much more than the price of a map upgrade, I might as well upgrade to this model as it is slimmer and newer, and it gives me the latest map. I now regret that decision.
Granted, it is slimmer and easier to carry. But this unit comes with one of those tiny power button that is very hard to press, or very hard to notice whether you have pressed it or not. That would not have made much difference if it comes on every time you press that button. The problem is, many times it just does not respond to that button. So you end up keep pressing it, and wondering whether you pressed it, or pressed at the right spot. Many times when I needed to use it, it just did not power on. I just came back from a road trip where I really could have used a GPS. Many attempts to get it to power on over 5 hours were unsuccessful. I tried it with the power cord, and without the power cord.
One week after I returned home and no longer needed it, it mysteriously powered on easily. So I cannot even return it to Garmin for service.
I think I will use this as a paper weight. I will not count on it for my next trip. I will use my old Nuvi 360. It does not have the latest map and the other bells and whistles, but it works.
7/2/2010 – This is an update to my earlier review, to reflect Garmin warranty service issues. I used the machine on my next trip. It worked perfectly for the first two hours, then suddenly turned itself off. No amount of trying can get it turned on since. I tried to return it to Garmin for warranty work, that was when I found out from Garmin’s website that you cannot request a RMA number online. This is despite I already set up an online account with them and registered the unit. The Garmin website states that you need to telephone their technical support to obtain a RMA number. Sounds easy enough. Except that when I do call, there is never someone to pick up. It seems every minute during the hours they are “open”, they are always “experiencing unusual high volume of calls” and the wait is “more than 30 minutes”. I called in the morning, at night, at noon, gets the same busy excuse every time. What a creative way to avoid providing warranty service.
my unit has issues
I had the Garmin Nuvi 360 for 2-3 years and it worked great. I never ever had a problem with my Garmin Nuvi 360. Was time to upgrade the maps on it and decided to purchase the 1250T model so I get could new maps and traffic support. I do have a few issues with the 1250T though.
Cons:
1. You will be driving and the unit just powers off or reboots on random occasions. Very frustrating when you are navigating foreign areas. Note, I have the latest firmware and I still experience these problems. I have tried the unit in multiple cars and still experience this problem. Will call Garmin support for RMA info.
2. Sometimes the 1250T does not give advanced voice warning when it’s time to exit from the highway. This makes for some sudden / tricky lane changes in order to make your desired exit.
3. Virtual Keyboard is not “QWERTY” but “ABC” rather.
4. Map upgrades are expensive.
5. Included suction cup mount will lose suction and unit will fall from some windshields (Purchase the bean bag mount instead. It works much better.)
Pros:
1. Free traffic support is nice.
2. Nice looking user interface.
This is a great GPS! Just do the online software updates first
I received this product as a Christmas gift. I had read the past reviews on Amazon about software problems and the screens going out so I was a little worried about using it.
Immediately after opening the box, before I even turned the unit on, I connected it to the computer, went straight to the Garmin website and downloaded all of the firmware and software updates (there were many) right to the unit. After doing that I downloaded the maps – give yourself plenty of time to get through all of this.
I have been using the device frequently over the past 3 months (and in many different states) and it has been extremely helpful and convenient. The device is very small and easy to carry, and I have not had a single glitch with the software or screen. I even downloaded extra voices and vehicles and such. Perhaps the other reviewers who had problems with their units didn’t download the software/firmware updates right away, but I guess we can only speculate on that.
Just a few extra things about the device:
It takes a few uses to become familiar with the menus and navigating your way through all of the different options.
The directions have been accurate every time thus far.
The unit doesn’t get a strong signal indoors, but outdoors it has been fine.
The speaker volume is sufficiently audible, except if I’m playing loud music.
The traffic device functions correctly, but I haven’t run into a lot of bad traffic to see if it’s accurate.
Regarding accessories – the portable friction mount is very useful if you don’t want to deal with a windshield mount. I also suggest a screen protector.
Overall I am very satisfied with the product and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a GPS unit that works well and is compact.
Good GPS but Needs Better Speaker
Purchased mine at Best Buy during an unadvertised clearance. So far, knock on wood, mine has been fully functional and I have not experieced the problems the other reviewers have mentioned. This GPS will get you to your destination with ease and is very user friendly.
The only cons I can see with mine is that it appears to have only 1 voice setting and the speaker volume is very, very low. If you go above 60% it starts to distort. The max you want to go in volume on this unit is 70%.
Overall I would recommend this unit if you are searching for a budget GPS that offers Text to Speach and Traffic.
Additional Notes:
2 months into using this unit I experienced it randomly powering down and the screen going black when in use. Also the maps started blinking prior to this on a long trip. Highly annoying! Further research on Garmin’s support section showed that you need to d/l the “Web Updater” app and check to see if there is a new verison of software for your unit. Apparently these need a software update right out of the box as there appears to be a known bug so I would recommend that anyone who has this unit check for a software update as soon as you start using it. It should also be noted that they do not give you a USB cable for the unit but a standard mini USB cable will work.
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Do not buy
I agree with that there must be something wrong with this model. I got this model as a birthday gift in August, and the screen’s frozen more times than it works. It sometimes shuts itself off, sometimes it won’t turn off even if pressing the power button, and sometimes won’t turn on…get another model than this one. Generally speaking Garmin’s are great…no clue what happened with the 1250T
Do not buy!
Just returned this unit. There is a software problem with the new Garmins. It freezes and goes Black screen. No Good! I went back a model year and purchesed the Nuvi 255wt. So far so good.
Reduced driving stress, wish I had one years ago!
I purchased this device because I have to travel from one city/job to another during rush hour on a daily basis. If I chose the ‘right’ route, and traffic was fine, I’d be on time. Otherwise… well, needless to say it was very stressful making the drive. Online traffic was obsolete within 15 minutes of getting out on the road.
This GPS is very easy to use. It checks the traffic very frequently (maybe constantly?). I haven’t had it long but already it has sometimes directed me to get off the freeway and take an alternate route. Happily, it lets me know a change is needed before I am even aware that there is a problem up ahead. I no longer stress about traffic, straining to see what may lie ahead; I know I’m taking the best route available, so that’s that!
The downsides- it automatically switches to a dimmer setting when it is night. It is too dim for me, and I have yet to figure out how I might stop it from doing that. I can change the brightness when it happens, but it’s hard to do when I can hardly see the screen. In fairness, I have read NOTHING from the manual; just started using it out of the box, and this is the only problem I’ve had as far as working the device goes. It is very easy to use.
Occasionally, the device has lost satellite reception when there has been inclement weather. So far that has only affected reception for traffic, it has been very brief, and the map feature has still worked (the trip was already plotted). I still understand it as an indication that if I were to take a longer trip, it makes good sense to print a map from online (as a backup) before I go. For an extended trip, be aware that it gave a time of arrival, but not a day of arrival (unless I should have read the manual to learn to switch views or something).
Lastly, it does appear to consider the speed limit when calculating arrival time. However, I think that it does not consider traffic lights. Add in whatever minutes you anticipate needing for that purpose, as there seems to be a slight underestimation in travel time. It still gets me to work faster than I was getting there on my own, so overall I am THRILLED with this purchase. If anything happened to my Garmin, I’d purchase another one immediately. It has been well worth the price in stress reduction and making me look wonderful as the employee who is now always early!
UPDATE 2 months later: Well, the voice just went out on the unit.
I finally opened the manual and it is under warranty for a year, through Garmin. I’m going to follow their directions to send it back, and I will update again here about what happens. I guess because the other reviewer had more problems, I won’t be sad if I end up just getting a refund and getting a different Garmin unit, but the manual does state that it is the company’s choice whether to fix it or send a refund.