Garmin nüvi 775/775T 4.3-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic
| Overall rating: |
|
Get the best of both worlds and a new perspective on navigation with the transatlantic n?vi 775T, featuring lane assist. This feature guides you to the proper lane for navigation. Like the rest of the n?vi 705-series, this advanced navigator comes with premium features including 3-D building view, photo navigation, faster screen redraws, route planning, emergency and car locators and much more. NOTE: Model number on the box is 775T because the traffic receiver is included; however, the model number on the device itself is 775 as the “T” in 775T refers to the additional component
Features
- Bright, 4.3-inch diagonal color WQVGA TFT touchscreen with 480 x 272 pixels and white backlight
- Preloaded with city navigator North America NT and Europe NT
- Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free calling
- High-sensitivity GPS receiver for improved performance and reception
- NOTE: Model number on the box is 775T because the traffic receiver is included; however, the model number on the device itself is 775 as the “T” in 775T refers to the additional component
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 1 x 3 x 5 inches
- Weight: 0 pounds
An Expensive GPS that doesn’t work well in Foreign Countries
I purchased this unit after extensive review of all other GPS’s units that had European as well as USA maps. I also contacted Garmin by telephone and discussed which of the 3 units that have European maps was the best and bought their best. I bought it specifically to visit Ireland which was a bucket list vacation for me, as I am Irish by decent and was very excited to visit the country. I have to say it was totally worthless in Ireland. There are very very few points of interest that are mapable. We wanted to visit several historic and other points of interest and the unit found one for the three week period we were there. We typed in several, and I mean SEVERAL actual addresses of bed and breakfasts and the unit couldn’t find one. I contacted customer service at least 7 times and they tried to help to no avail. Finally, they stopped emailing me and gave up. The unit comes with a free download of the latest available USA and European maps which I downloaded prior to leaving yet it still did not work. This was a very expensive unit compared to other available GPS units. I think I paid over $450 for it.
All I can say is BUYER BE WARE!!!!!! This is complete junk.
Repeat – Don’t Waste Your Money
To add to the chorus this Garmin is unreliable. I replaced an older Garmin unit (which worked great) with this one when the North America & European maps needed to be updated. The update cost was about half of the price for a new unit.
I bought this in February in anticipation of a European trip & this unit was one of the few that included Europe maps. It also offered features like multi-stop and custom routing. Reviews already cited the extremely poor FM transmitter (for playing through the car radio). Also, when driving long distances the channel for receiving those signals changes making that a nuisance to use.
Custom Routes
When using the GPS I like to preview the route by using Mapquest or Google Maps. This helps to eliminate wrong or circuitous routing. My last Garmin did not allow for custom routes – I would have to set up intermediate points as separate destinations to achieve this. I was thrilled to have this new capability only to discover using it is extremely cumbersome and not always reliable. It is NOT as simple as using Google Maps to plot the course & then sending it to the GPS. It only works with Mapquest, the route only shows up under Custom Routes not Favorites, and could be the cause of unit malfunctions.
The Horror Story
Got to Europe and the unit worked okay for about an hour. Then it went into a ‘Calculating route’ and hung at 37%. I left it on for over 2 hours & it never moved. Turning it on/off did not help. I don’t think it was satellite reception as it would intermittently display the current location map. My mistake on the trip was to not have purchased paper maps.
Reset the Unit to fix problems:
I did reset the unit losing all of the data I had entered for the custom routes and POIs. It did start working somewhat better after deleting all of that – if it started to hang on the ‘Calculating Route’ I would just perform the system reset (finger in lower right of screen while holding the ‘on’ slider in the left position for 8 seconds).
It is past the date that I can return this so I am sending it Garmin for warranty repair. I am NOT expecting that to fix the problem as this unit seems to be poorly designed and manufactured and has had multiple fatal problems from the beginning (see summer 2009 problem reports).
Recommendation:
Garmin does make good units, this isn’t one of them. Check for favorable reviews. Spend the extra to buy a Europe map rather than buy the unit BECAUSE it includes the map.
Buy it if you dont need support
I bought this relying on good name from Garmin. I am completely disappointed. Here are my few points
1. It is ok when it works, although not the greatest navigation. From NYC it has a tendency to take you to LA before it brings you back to DC. Seriously not sure how it calculates the routes, but it manages to find some really weird routing to get you to your place.
2. Terrible customer service. Anytime you call “you may experience longer than normal waiting time” seems like it is like that always. And once you get someone, it is very simple support. they will ask you to go upgrade the software and nothing more they can do. it does not matter if you did it and you tried that yourself, they will ask you to do it again, even if it is the same version that you have , just reinstall it and call back if the problem persist. If it does than you can RMA it to their center, and good luck if you are abroad. No support there.
3. The device had some firmware bug. Somehow it gets updates from satellite. And one time they pushed the wrong update and messed up the unit. They wanted everyone to ship them back. I was abroad, and i took my chances, I opened the unit, removed the battery for few minutes and then started it again and got the patch that they released.
4. FM Transmitter is a joke. It is has such low power on its transmitter that you have to hold it next to the radio to receive a good signal. It is useless.
Anyway, for a garmin product this is really a bad one. I just hope that they improve their quality. Myself i will never buy another Garmin again.
stupid garmin
Stupid Garmin has become my mantra unfortunately. I would return it if I had used it more often while this was still an option. Didn’t discover until it was too late that the maps weren’t up to date so I had to spend another 150 to update the maps. It takes you on the most cumbersome route to go anywhere. I wish I were exaggerating but it took me an HOUR to go a TEN MINUTE drive to my hotel. The garmin was completely wrong. I discovered the shorter route the next day and was very upset. If I had money for a new GPS I’d take great joy in taking out this stupid garmin Office Space Style.
Garbage in, Garbage out
I received my new nuvi 775t last week. Easy to use, quick to find the signal, etc. No problems with the gadgetry, BUT the base maps for my area are atrocious. I understand Garmin subcontracts for the maps. They need to fire their map supplier.
I live near Pullman, in eastern Washington State. So, right off the bat, it becomes clear that it has major inaccuracies for the rural roads around my home. It seems to have overlaid three roads (Staley, Johnson, and Busby-Johnson), which confuses it. It thinks my own address is 1.7 mi from its true location. Okay, no problem. I totally understand that rural roads are lower priority than city roads.
I tested it by having it drive me to an address in Pullman and in Spokane. It worked great. Then, I let it give me directions to a place in Moscow, Idaho, 8 miles from Pullman. Between Moscow and Pullman, there is the old Moscow-Pullman hwy (mostly gravel) and SR 270, a 5-lane paved road. My Garmin is absolutely convinced that SR 270 is undrivable. It insists I take the old gravel road. I’ve tried playing with all the avoidances. If I tell it to take only paved roads, it reroutes me about 40 miles out of the way to avoid SR 270, which it apparently thinks is either gravel or impassable.
In Moscow itself, the exchange between Hwy 8 and Hwy 95 was redesigned 5-10 years ago. The Garmin does not know this and would completely confuse a traveler unfamiliar with the area by trying to give them directions according to the old design.
I can forgive the rural route issue, but I am astonished that the map suppliers don’t review the major highways, at an absolute minimum of once a year. I mean, how long would it take? (By the way, I did the North Amercian map update the day the unit arrived. I have their most recent maps.)
I don’t have a Magellan or a Tom-tom to compare the Garmin maps. Those two use a different map service. Maybe they are no better, but it’s hard to believe they could be worse.
Garmin seems to spend a bundle making a gazillion different units, adding features, etc. But what good are all those features if the maps are garbage? The maps are the cake. Everything else is icing.
The one feature I’d really like would be the option to avoid a route that requires a left-hand turn or a street crossing from a side road to a main artery with no signal light. Of course, that’s the “avoidance” Garmin does not have.
Good unit
I’ve had a 770 and got the 775 for my wife. She likes it and likes that the speed is displayed even while navigating (unlike the 770). She also likes the lane assist. It shows you which lane to be in, in plenty of time to merge. Other than that, there’s not much difference between the 770 and 775.
Worse than useless
Garmin maps in Europe are by far the worst. Bought Garmin for my wife and even she now refuses to use it. Too many dead ends and imaginary highways. I’ve often ignored its directions and then after “recalculating” it shaves half an hour off my projected time! I tried to update maps to see if they could help, but they want another $200 for new maps (US and Europe)! That must be a joke. I’m throwing the Garmin in the trash where it belongs. I give it one star only because zero is not an option.
CWMDREB
Product does well. I have used Delorme’s Street Atlas USA for over 15 years. I know how to use it qand what to expect. With the Garmin Nuvi 775t, I’m still learning. Best route is not always the ‘best’, in my opinion. But this does have European maps which Deloeme does not…..and that is what I wanted.
Great system but Very POOR Customer service!
Bought the system in the Netherlands (I live there), new map upgrade: no problem for European Maps (Free). Easy functioning, clear vieuw, I love it!
BUT: Upgrade for North America Maps, TERRIBLE, the first download/upgrade Failed, but I allready paid for that! Customer service unreachable after 4 PM on friday til mondaymorning! (I was leaving for Florida on monday!) OK try again, new order second pay, download OK, Impossible to load in the system, tried 3 times! Well send a reply (with info from two orders) on the Order-confirmation mail: “If you have questions, please contact Garmin Product Support by replying to this email or sending an email to websales@garmin.com.” That was on jan.8th 2010… NO ANSWER!!! On jan 19th 9:12 EST I resend all information again to “websales” next day 15:06 EST I got my answer from webpurchase: I had to do this and that… OK I’m on Vacation and on tour.. and yes the old maps were OK after failed upgrade (thank God) so we did not take the risk to upgrade again on the trip! The 2008 maps had some flaws, but I had personal information (2009) about the new roadplan where I was going! The system is great, but What a pity! the customer “service”???
so…so..
I had an older model C550 which I thought has a better interface than this one. For one thing, this device has a sluggish user interface. It does not respond as fast as I would have expected. The older model did a much better job.
The other thing I don’t like about this is the keyboard is buggy. When I type a letter, it enters a letter that is no where near the keyboard letter I typed. Very strange and very annoying when you are trying to type something in a hurry.
The map and GPS function however works just fine, but I am too annoyed with the other features as I use them frequently to like this product. Thinking about returning this buggy product.
Dim, Weak, & Goofy Design
This is/was my 6th GPS. It falls short in EVERY regard, except having big screen, sexy black housing, and including European maps. This is in comparison to my Magellan Roadmate 2000, which cost less than half as much 3 years ago:
The audio from the Nuvi 775T set at the loudest setting, is softer that the audio from my Magellan Roadmate 2000 at the softest setting. That would be great in the baby’s room, but it doesn’t work in a car, let alone a truck.
The screen brightness of the Nuvi 775T at its brightest setting, is dimmer than my Magellan Roadmate 2000 at the dimmest setting. The display works well at night, but the dim backlight and VERY limited vertical viewing angle makes it generally unreadable in common mid-day operating conditions. (even for those with young eyes)
As many others have said, the FM transmitter is so weak as to be virtually useless. There is also a firmware bug that makes the transmitter shut off permanently, after a conducting a bluetooth telephone call while playing mp3s. The FM transmission stops, and the transmitter feature disappear from the menu options. This problem requires a hard reset to recover.
Speaking of hard resets: Besides being poorly designed, the OS & user interface of the 2+ year old Nuvi 775T are still full of bugs that cause or require system resets. This occurred 7 times in my first 24 hours of use; That is more than occurred in 3 years with my next most recent GPS.
There are other design shortfalls, but they matter little. The manner of street display and lack of proper routing functionality would make the unit only marginally useful, even if the above problems did not exist. It is so sad to see such a poor product from a company that was once the leader in consumer GPS products.
Stay away from this product!
I received the nuvi 775T on 12/21/09, and was very excited. My excitement began to deplete when I first noticed that the unit took too long to recalculate, sometimes up to a minute and half. After recalculating, it stats giving wrong directions and wrong street names. What was left of my excitement was crushed, when 2 days later (01/02/10), it was giving me direction, with a wrong street name (It was instructing me to make a right turn from “Flatbush Avenue” into “Kings Plaza”, there’s nothing like “Kings Plaza” street or avenue, the street name is “Avenue U”). I was already getting upset, and when I made the right turn into Avenue U, the unit simply shut down. Not sure what to do with this unit now, and from what I’ve read, garmin customer service is just as terrible as this unit.
Must Have for Navigating US and Europe
My wife and I have used this product in Hawaii, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and Budapest. It can be a life saver, when navigating small towns and hard-to-find locations. The only draw back to the product is the inability to get to the main menu from menu options e.g. one must push back, back, back to get to the main menu…
Excellent directions and perfect for travel to Europe!
I recently purchased the Garmin 775T before I ventured off to drive in Ireland and it was a life saver. The directions were clear and the navigator gave plenty of notice before I had to turn. I found the user interface to be quite intuitive and on par with other Garmin units I have used in the past. It only comes with a car charger, but the charge lasts for at least a couple of hours of use (at full charge) when out of the car. If you need to walk around with this unit, you may need to purchase a wall charger.
Although there are many different units to choose from, this was the only one that worked (out of the box) in Europe as well as the US (with all of the features I wanted). I have GPS in my car (in the US) and have used several other units over the years, but the Garmin 775T is by far the best nav system I have ever used.
Great product and delivery
This review is for the Garmin nuvi 775t specifically. This is the third Garmin GPS that I have had over many years and each model is significantly improved over the other and the prices are much less as demand has increased. I bought this model specifically because it had Europe along with North America and we wanted one we could take on trips abroad and use in a car and walking. I believe that this is the GPS to have if you are looking at getting a combo unit with NA and Europe. If you only need North America then you can drop down a couple of levels and save $100 or so. Just make your choice a Garmin nuvi with a 4.3″ minimum screen and you will not be disappointed.
UK office
I started using Garmin products more that 14 years ago. In the 14y I have personally hade or gifted more than 11 units and I think I made lots of people and friends bay Garmin.
Last month I went on vacation that I planed 4 months ago with my wife and two kids To go to the U.K – first time- and France.
The first day I came to London I turned my unit on and for some reason I didn’t !! I had all my the palaces that I wanted to go to saved in the unit .
Oh well, what can I do … things doesn’t go as wanted. So I thought to call you for help knowing that Garmin is in the UK.
” And the suffering started “.
It’s 29 days now and I don’t have my unit and your service – as a leading company – is really bad !!!. Garmin with all its history comes up with this kind of service !!!
- An average of 13 mint for someone to answer the phone (( please try it you self and call you company 3 time and see )).
- No email service to support fallow-up.
- No priorities for emergencies .
- Poor follow-up with repairs.
- Not keeping promises.
that my phone bill came more than 180$. And I would have bout me a new small unit with that !!
what i got was (( sorry ))
it’s everything it said it would be…love it!
I researched before deciding on which GPS I would buy and this one came highly recommended. I am very pleased so far and expect it will help me get where I need to be. I was most interested in having help getting to and from work when my usual path has problems. With the live traffic I think I’ll have what I need to do that effectively.
Putting up without the bluetooth
I bought this navigation unit in Nov2009 and the price difference between the 775T and 755T was about $120. So far, I personally could not tell the difference between 775T and 755T, other than the Bluetooth connectivity. For $120 difference, I would put up with the no-bluetooth and filed a return on the 775T.
In addition, early this year I read reviews about a comparable Magellan Maestro 4350 (has bluetooth connectivity) and bought Magellan instead due to price difference. Nevertheless, the compelling reason for me to go for 775T or 755T was the headphone-jack availability on the Garmin navigation unit (adding MP3 enablement in the car via the cassette deck through earphone-jack-to-cassette device).
Great toy
The Garmin 775T GPS is very good. Used it while I was driving around in USA. Worked as expected. Have not used it in my country since the producer must have forgotten that my country is in Europe, and European map is in it but not for my country. Most USA producers don’t know that Iceland is not in Europe. So they didn’t have my country included in then maps of Europe. But I can buy Icelandic map for abut 150 US$.
it do all it suppose to do
nuvi 775T is my second experience in GPS, and all of the up-grades like 3D, name of streets, Bluetooth, screen’s night/day are helpfull. 775T have a good signal level, link whit internet for dowload upgrades and tools. I don’t tested the MSN and FM signal yet.