Garmin nüvi 255 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
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For peace of mind on the go, nüvi 255 leads the way with voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions that speak street names and optional MSN Direct® to get you there on time and keep you informed. It’s packed with millions of destinations and maps for North America. Like the rest of the compact nüvi 2×5-series, this portable navigator is priced right and ultra-easy to use.
Navigate With Ease
nüvi 255 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator® NT street maps, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. It even announces the name of exits and streets so you never have to take your eyes off the road. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with turn-by-turn voice directions, 2-D or 3-D maps and smooth map updates as you navigate. Its digital elevation maps show you shaded contours at higher zoom levels, giving you a big picture of the surrounding terrain. In addition, nüvi 255 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs. With HotFix™ satellite prediction, nüvi calculates your position faster to get you there quicker.
Take It With You
Like the rest of the nüvi 2×5-series, nüvi 255 sports a sleek, slim design and fits comfortably in your pocket or purse. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot. With its “Where Am I?” emergency locator, you always know your location. Simply tap the screen to get your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and fuel stations.
Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nüvi 255 includes many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currenc
Features
- 3.5-inch Touch Screen Navigation with Turn by Turn spoken Directions
- Pre-loaded Maps for all North America, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico with 6.5 million searchable points of interest
- FM Traffic or MSN Direct Traffic/Content compatible (with optional GDB 55 receiver)
- Easy to Use Interface; slim, pocket-sized form factor; 4-hour rechargeable battery; Vehicle power cable included;
- Automatically Adjusts Your Time Zone While Navigating
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 3 x 1 x 4 inches
- Weight: 2 pounds
Bleh…
I debated for several days before buying this GPS. I’ve always relied on maps and have a pretty good sense of direction, but thought it would come in handy on vacations, finding restaurants, etc.
One grip I have is it’s constantly losing contact with and/or ‘acquiring satellites”! I don’t know how this thing can lose a satellite when I’m driving around in my car with no tall buildings to block its view to the south, where the sats are.
Also, I thought this unit would have a map that ‘tracks’ as i drive. Instead, I have to ‘touch and drag’ the map because it won’t track as I drive.
I would assume that GPS units like this will eventually become obsolete as more people get smart phones with built-in GPS.
Garmin Nuvi
the product worked right out of the box updated the maps and off we went great product easy to use many langueges to choose from, product came when they said it would great product, Thank You
LOVE IT !!!
Not only is this Garmin just an awesome product, the vendor from which I purchased it through Amazon was amazing. Fast delivery. Awesome product. All smiles
A little disappointing after using a Garmin Nuvi 350
After a couple of years of very satisfactory performance, my Nuvi 350 started to flake out and needed to be replaced. Since all I really need is driving directions and no other special features, I decided on the 255 since it supposedly adequately met those minimal requirements. In theory it does, but in practice there have been disappointments:
(1) Whereas the 350 appears to predominately use recorded speech for its vocabulary, the 255 appears to be 100% synthesized. As a result, the voice is much less pleasant to listen to and somewhat more difficult to understand. Particularly annoying is that although “left” and “right” are usually pronounced clearly, “on right” as in “take ramp on right” always comes out sounding “on reft”.
(2) The internal map quality seems worse. For an intersection near my home, the 350 knew that if I am on street A, I should “turn left on B, then turn right” (on C), while the 255 seems to want to skip B and somehow expects me to turn right on C from A.
(3) The 255 sometimes repeats itself, but too late. Coming up to an intersection, it might announce you have to turn right. After sitting at the light, you make the turn, then the 255 might repeat the turn request after the turn is already complete. The 350 never did that.
(4) On a trip today, the 255 woefully underestimated the time required for an intercity route originally estimated at 20 minutes, but eventually adding another 15 minutes by the end of the trip. I don’t recall that happening with the 350.
So, beware when comparing Nuvi models. Although a comparison matrix might show two devices have the same feature, the implementation quality of the feature might differ drastically between the models!
got what I expected; great value
We confirm others’ comments: need to update maps right away. Otherwise, this straight-forward gps works as advertised. Great value for the money.
cool huh
garmins are the standard by which i judge a gps’ they are thin and lightweight, and pretty much work most if not all of the time for me.
Garmin Nuvi
Screen size is excellent.
285WT does need a subscription through MSN to enable the live traffic. Contemplating purchasing the Garmin Traffic (no service fee) when 3 month free membership on MSN expires.
Garmin
Used it for the first time for a trip to the wilds of New Jersey and was not disappointed. Quick recalculations for missed exits or wrong turns got us back on track almost immediately.
Very helpful device
Ready to use right out of the box. Touch screen is simply and fun to use.
Only negative is that it couldn’t locate some restaurants right here in town.
Would recommend for anywone. Doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of more expensive
models but performs very well for my simple needs.
Can’t beat the price.
Why does this unit not have QWERTY keyboard???
Finding the letters alphabetically hurts my brain after years of QWERTY use. Does anyone else wonder about this? other wise I love the unit and recommend it. both my husband and I use one and we live in the mountains with huge trees. Works amazingly well
Good Basic GPS
Just completed a weeklong trip in Michigan, Ontario, and northern New York. Have never been in these areas so relied heavily on the GPS. We fondly named the voice behind the GPS, “Greta Garmin.” Greta was a life-saver. At first we had to get used to allowing her to direct us. Some directions were not intuitive to us, but ended up being right on virtually all of the time. A couple of times Greta had a hard time re-calculating because I had left the route to buy gas or a meal, but she quickly recovered. She got very mixed up as we crossed the border from Canada into the US at the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor, but there were signs that said “don’t follow your GPS.” Also had some difficulty finding the rental car return at Detroit airport (using a business address), but by the time we got to the airport, we should have just been following the rental car return signs anyway. For someone who needs a GPS for occasional use and does not want/need all the bells and whistles, this is a great machine.
Small GPS
My wife wanted a small size GPS so that she could carry it in her purse. Obviously it had to have the expected functionality and ease of use. I am happy to say that it exceeded my expectations and in addition its price was very reasonable.
nice unit for the price
I wanted just the basics for occasional use – this unit fits the bill. It took me a bit to figure out how to get it to say the street names. I assumed there would be an option for it, but it turns out the option is in which voice you select. Kind of odd, but I was never one to read the manuals…
Garmin Nuvi 255
Good basic GPS. Fast satellite recognition. Some minor issues detecting parallel roads that are within 50 feet of each other. Sometimes shows driving down the wrong road until the roads diverge.
just the right size; gets me where i’m going
The product arrived on time. It was easy to operate straight out of the box. My husband also has a Garmin and neither of us have had any compplaints so far. I like that the nuvi 255 shows the speed limit that is posted, as well as the speed you’re going. This is a nice visual cue if you happen to have a led foot like my husband does at times.
gift giver
I sent to my daughter as a gift. On last call the gift was not used yet.
Excellent gps !
I got the GPS 550C Garmin four years ago. It’s still working good.But, I like a pocket-size gps to bring it with me when I leave my home. I got this model because I got one for my son’s birthday several months ago.He’s so happy to have it for a part-time job as a pizza delivery-man.I try every features. It’s working greatly !.It’s worth for my expense.
Worked well… for 6 months.
At first, I really liked this unit. Even though it was smaller, it seemed big enough to do the job and the interface was fairly intuitive. However, 5 months later, the unit either wouldn’t turn on, or it would turn on to say software was missing. I searched the web and found I could reset it by holding the Power button several seconds. After a couple rounds of resetting, then it wouldn’t turn on at all. If I fiddled with the Power button for several minutes, it might turn on again about half of the time. If it would turn on, then halfway to my destination, everything on the screen disappears except the vehicle and a message saying there are no roads near my destination and it is unable to calculate the route. And guess what, there’s no warranty. However, you can PURCHASE one for $24.99. So be sure to figure that into the cost of this unit, because basically, it’s a throw-away.
Great Garmin and so worth the price.
My Garmin arrived so quickly and was perfect right out of the box. I bought it for my son who just got his first car and does not know his way around the city very well. He has used it multiple times very successfully and we are both pleased.
excellent GPS
Gave this to a friend, and 2 kids for Christmas, every single one came back and said they LOVE it and don’t know how they ever lived without it. Easy to set up, and to use. Easy to update. You’ll NEVER get lost again!