Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
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Go wide and get peace of mind with nüvi 255W. This affordable, widescreen navigator leads the way with voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions that speak street names and optional MSN Direct® services 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 sleek nüvi 2×5-series, this portable navigator is priced right and ultra-easy to use.
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With nüvi 255W’s widescreen display, you’ll always get the big picture. View map detail, driving directions, photos and more in bright, brilliant color. Its sunlight-readable, 4.3-inch display is easy to read from any direction.
Navigate With Ease
nüvi 255W 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 255W 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 255W 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 latitu
Features
- 4.3 Inch Auto Navigator with Anti Theft Feature
- Voice Prompted Turn by Turn Directions
- With HotFix, It Calculates Your Position Faster to Get You There Quicker
- Compatible with Optional Enhanced MSN Direct Content
- JPEG Picture Viewer, World Travel Clock, Currency Converter, Calculator and More
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 3 x 1 x 5 inches
- Weight: 1 pounds
I recently purchased a Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator and I am simply impressed with the quality, performance and style of my Garmin GPS. It consistently provides me superior and accurate directions to all my destinations. The 4.3″ touch screen is very clear and bright even during daytime and the resolution is superior. I would highly recommend this GPS based on performance, quality and pricing.
It’s a pretty good gps. Easy to use, big screen, and good animation. If I had to complain about something it would be the maps are slightly off. For example it shows my address as a few houses down from where it should be. Also the wife used it in uptown Charlotte nc and she said it would speak the directions after she had already passed the intersection. Also since the roads we so close together it didn’t recognize the correct street she was on. Overall we like it. It was a great price and it works for 99% of our driving. I would buy again.
It is hard to pass judgment on this GPS as it quit working after two weeks. I was very disapointed in its reliability and this would bring in to question its quality. Maybe this is an isolated instance – I bought another model so we shall see.
If you have never had or used a GPS, you are in for a pleasant surprise — I have been using Garmin GPS’s for sometime and am still amazed with what these can do for you. There is nothing like the feeling of security you have when driving anywhere you care to go. We have the habit of taking strange roads just to see where they go, when we get tired and decide to go home — we hit “GO HOME” and do just that with complete confidence. Night driving is so easy, no looking for signs you can’t see, just listen to your personal navigator and voila.
I bought this unit for a friend of mine, I still have my older model C-340, the thing just keeps going and going so I can’t justify buying a newer updated model. I did have a chance to check this newer model when showing my friend how to get started. Actually I really didn’t have to do much showing, he picked it up right away and even called me a couple of days later raving about how much he loved it. I will definitely replace my current one with this unit if it isn’t obsolete by the time I am ready – like I said the 340 has been a trooper and still is.
This product is one of the most cheapest garmin GPSs, and I definitely recommend it1 Great voice quality, and wide screen! Go for it!
There is a slight learning curve with this product.It wouldn’t list the town I was trying to spell so I had to dig out the map.And the map doesnt talk to you if you make the the wrong turn. all in all its worth the money. refurbished version!
I only bought it 3 months ago, and have just used it for several time. I put it in my purse, as I always do with my gps. And yesterday, when I tried to turn it on, the screen was totally cracked! The whole unit is useless now.
I was told by a garmin csr that the screen crack is not covered by warranty, and it costs $79 to have it repaired.
I had used a mio gps device before I bought this one for a long time, and had even dropped it on to the floor for several times. But its screen was still fine! I’m disappointed by the quality of garmin product and the bad customer service.
I should have got it sooner. It is very easy to use, screen is good to read and it is helping me greatly to find doctors offices, etc. with ease.
My Nuvi 255w works fine in east Texas with a turn every 20 miles. In LA it is marginal. In Boston it is worthless. The satellite link keeps dropping out making it useless in many applications. The keyboard is barely useful as the keysize is too small. The directions are “ok” but not great, I suspect because the accuracy of the GPS is adequate, suitable for wide open areas and not much else. I have had other GPS units and this is definately one I would avoid. For a toy, fine. For actually functionality, sorry, it doesn’t cut it.
After owning a Garmin Nuvi 205W for over a year I thought the Nuvi 255W would be great gift for the wife. After about two weeks the unit froze on the Agree screen. I mean COMPLETELY FROZE the unit would do nothing. We let the battery run down, plugged it back in, STILL WAS FROZEN; it would not do anything. We returned it, got another unit, used it for about three weeks and it did the same thing while we were in a rental car in Chicago. We were completely screwed as we were totally lost. We had no clue where we were at. The unit failed at a critical time. I would not recommend this unit, it could be a safety issue.
I’m a long time Garmin GPS user. Prior to purchasing this unit (the Nuvi 255w), I’ve been using a Garmin StreetPilot. I purchased the Nuvi in July, 2009 and have made several trips with it now.
Compared to the StreetPilot, the Nuvi has several advantages (which is why I bought it). For example, it has a smaller size, a brighter screen, a built-in battery, etc.
Unfortunately, there are also a few disadvantages. The biggest problem that I’ve encountered is that the directions given for turns are often (but not always) backward. For example, while driving north on I-75 toward Atlanta, the nuvi correctly identifies the I-285 split. However, the directions the Nuvi gives are “keep right on I-75 north”. Unfortunately, “keeping right” will cause you to take the I-285 split instead of staying on I-75 north. The directions should be to “keep left on I-75 north”. Through Atlanta, both northbound and southbound, the Nuvi gets about 4 out of 5 of these “splits” (where one or more lanes split off of I-75) wrong. My much older StreetPilot, on the other hand, still gets them all correct. At this point, I find myself using “reverse psychology” with the Nuvi
If it says “keep right”, I instead move to the left. It correctly identifies pretty much every turn or split, it just gets the direction backwards most of the time.
Before my last trip, I upgraded to the latest software from Garmin and I purchased and installed the latest version of the maps. The Nuvi shows the new version numbers, but there was no improvement for the often-but-not-always-backwards-directions problem.
So far, trying to get assistance from Garmin technical support has been very disappointing. I haven’t been able to get through by phone (long wait times on hold). And my emails have, so far, gotten unhelpful/unthoughtful responses.
On first use in Nov 09, my new 255w would not locate anything-just “address not found” with no reason given. On a trip in rural WVA so I assumed out of mapped area. But did not work in suburban DC so I went to Garmin online, registered and downloaded quick firmware upgrade–worked instantly and no problems after 15 uses so far! (My new 255w was factory packed June 09). Great help and much safer than reading a map while driving! I think maybe Garmin does this to discourage theft before delivery. Use beanbag type base so no evidence of being in your car and use small zippered bag to carry all accessories. I did free map update which takes 1-2 hours on desktop with broadband. Cannon camera cable fit. Needed to clean desktop HD up because you need several GB free space for update. I bought another same model–much lower price at x-mas,local.
Have only used it on two occasions. One out of State and one locally and it got to my destinations on both occassions OK.
I have used the Garmin 255W for 8 weeks with road trips to Florida and back to Michigan. I rate this product very high with one issue and two wishes. First, the device is easy to use for almost anyone – I had the non-technical better half using it within two attempts. On the way down to Florida I used most of the features except “Detour”. The device always got me to where I wanted to go but the route algorithm has a few problems on choosing the best route. I tried the device out in Tampa and St Petersburg where I knew the streets and the best routes. The device does not seem to know main streets from back streets and many times chose a longer time route so I wish there were more choices on routing preferences. Still I rate it a solid 4 stars on this feature.
The verbal street names are turned on by choosing either Samantha or John voices. If you just chose American voice you will get no street names. I believe that one could navigate with almost 100% reliability just with the voice prompts. It is so good that I almost never look at the display and I should look at the display more so as to avoid the 5% errors that I make by listening only. The problem lies in the fact that if roads are too close together the announcements come a bit too late. You have to learn this part of the device idiosyncrasy.
The other wish is that Interstate rest areas were denoted either with a verbal announcement or icon. If you travel the interstate system much and are in need of a nature call this is important. That is why I rated the map as 4 star.
Nothing is perfect but this device comes close. It locks on very fast and has most of the POI’s I want. For the $$ it is very good and I recommend this device because it is the cheapest “voice street names” I could find. I paid $119 free shipping and two months later they are $15 cheaper. It was money well spent and I remain satisfied with my purchase after two months of constant use.
I like pretty much everything about this product: the ease of use, the price, the customization, etc. But one thing really bugs me…the maps are very accurate, but the addresses are all jacked up. I thought it was my device, but I emailed Garmin and they said that’s normal. It’s designed to get you close to your destination rather that exactly to it. So that frustrates me. But other than that it’s ok.
Gets me where I want to go and tells me when I will get there very accurately
I bought one of these units after my previous Nuvi developed a problem whereby the power kept shutting off. Alas, the warranty period had expired. The next time around, I bought the extended warranty offered by the store.
I’m glad I did, because the audio voice immediately began stuttering. “Doctor Martin Luther King Drive” became “da-ma-er-ing…… (long pause) Drive”. So I returned it to the store and got another unit in the same model, and then left on an extended vacation. The voice again stuttered, even when we disconnected the power cable. So, back to the store I went to return it.
It’s possible that these two units were shipped to the store at the same time and suffered some secret catastrophe together, so that I got two successive lemons. The store clerk agreed that they must have been dropped. The manual in the second box was for the “205W”, which also raised my suspicions about what it had gone through prior to my purchase!
As far as the use of the unit itself, I find the “traffic” and MPH features to be quite cool, although the unit thinks five cars in a line is “traffic ahead”. In choosing a route, it does not always perform flawlessly, so it’s still a good idea to have a map and at least *some* idea of where you are going, and upgrade your maps at least annually.
In comparison to my first model, as others have noted, the streets that are not on your immediate route are not always named, which I find annoying because I’m used to having more detail and knowing which street is next.
This model seemed to take an exceptionally long time to find satellites, compared to my inaugural unit. It’s not a bad unit for the price, but… get the extended warranty if you can!!
We’re very pleased with our new Garmin Nuvi 255. We particularly like that it displays what the posted speed limit is, and the size of the larger screen is very helpful.
Easy to use as far as the main functions go. Nice touch screen too. Clear voice and screen. And then, the price is so low at $130-150 considering how perfectly this product works. Great suction cup too.
This was my first GPS for my automobile, but had some previous experience with handheld GPS. I did not have any problem putting my new GPS to work. I mounted it on the windshield of the car, and voila! It also gives me the speed limit of the road where I am. The newest roads in my neighborhood were not included. It was the easiest thing to learn how to use. I am very happy with this model.