Garmin nuvi 360 GPS Review

I am a directionally challenged man. But true to my gender, I still hate to ask for help. But I have had a GPS in my car for the last twenty years or so. Her name is Christine and she’s my wife. The girl has always had a great sense of direction, which has allowed me to drive and daydream, and only make a turn when she breaks my reverie with a slightly annoyed “get in the left lane“ kind of reminder. Well, Chris can’t come along on every errand, so when I had an opportunity to test the new Garmin nuvi 360, I was thrilled.

Upon unpacking, the first thing I notice is how small and stylish the nuvi 360 is compared to other units I’ve seen. The brushed metallic look is attractive and the nuvi will be a handsome accessory in any car.  (It also matches my trusty old Powerbook) The edges are nicely rounded and it fits very well in one hand. As I turn it over, I find the antenna. About the size of a matchbook, it flips up and holds steady in any of four different positions. There is also an input for an external antenna. Inside the box are a variety of manuals, wall and car chargers/ adapters, and a suction mount for the windshield and a dashboard disc for dash mounting.

Features & Operation

Powering on the 360 reveals a bright and vivid 3.5” anti-glare color display and a selectable splash screen. Next, a warning not to mess around with the unit while driving (ok, sure), and finally, the menu appears, which is the gateway to an elegant interface that I have come to really enjoy. Three choices appear on the menu screen.  Where To? is where all of your saved locations and points of interest are searched and stored. The second choice, View Map, takes you to the navigation screen, and finally, the Travel Kit is the “rest of the story” sub-menu for all kinds of cool-ness.

The touch-screen is quick and responsive and the letters are just big enough so that even those of us with meatier digits won’t make too many mistakes when typing in an address or business name. The non-QUERTY layout was a bit odd and difficult to get used to. The alphabet is laid out in order from left to right.  I found myself hunting around at first, but soon got used to it.

Navigating with the 360 is a breeze. Type in an address, hit the Go button and you’re off. You can choose between Faster Time and Shorter Distance in the Tools menu to change up your routes. I do wish there was a way to remember and store customized routes (personal shortcuts) for later use. It would come in handy when handing the 360 to my wife on her way out the door to a place I frequent but she has never been.

The navigation screen is beautifully laid out and easy to see. The 3D maps respond quickly as you zoom in and out, and by tapping in various places on the screen, you are taken deeper into the interface. Tap the street name that you’re on and fully detailed, worded directions with mileage and arrow pointers  (a la Google Maps or Yahoo Maps) are displayed. Tap the turn indicator in the bottom right corner and the voice prompt repeats your next direction and brings up a 2D screen of the next turn in even deeper detail. If you tap the Arrival Time area of the screen (bottom left), you are taken to a full function Trip Computer, complete with speedometer.

The turn-by-turn voice prompts probably come down to personal preference. It’s a nifty feature for sure and I was really into it at first, but it can get a bit annoying when directions are repeated over and over again as you get close to a turn or exit. Thankfully, you can toggle this feature on or off pretty easily. There are several voices to choose from and many languages as well. I usually used "Karen from Australia." The timbre of her voice cut through the road noise in both my sedan and SUV and her accent made me feel exotic as I drove the suburban outback roads to Home Depot.

A word about battery life. The 360 uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that Garmin claims will last up to 8 hours. My guess is that they got these numbers by running the unit with the screen completely dimmed in a walk-in freezer, never touching it until the battery died, because my real world usage reflects times closer to three hours between charges. I wish that you could use alkaline batteries in a pinch, but the battery is not accessible or removable.

While on a recent road trip Christine and I put the Garmin POI database to the test. We found a great café, a decent brewpub, and easy directions from the airport to the hotel. Occasionally our Aussie tour guide took us the long way ‘round the block, but she never missed the mark completely. Back at home again, I found a few restaurants that no longer existed and more than a few that I had forgotten about! I don’t know how or how often the POI’s are updated but it’s a fairly comprehensive and impressive wealth of information at your fingertips.

The Travel Kit is the “kitchen sink” menu and it’s where the 360 leaves most comparable GPS units feeling a bit less comparable. I spent a good bit of time poking around in this menu and had a blast exploring the many available features and tools. There is a large Language Guide with translation and key phrases for travelers. A Travel Guide for Europe was installed on my test model with POI’s and more. The Travel guide is expandable with Garmin’s Navigator SD cards. Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand (much to the delight of Karen, I'm sure), and even parts of Africa and The Middle East are available. Prices  range from $139 - $320.

An MP3 player, Audible Book player (subscription required), JPEG viewer, World Clock, Currency and Measurement Converters and Calculator round out the wide array of extra-curricular activities.

One complaint I have about the MP3 player is that it only plays MP3’s. I spent a good deal of time converting some of my iTunes-based AAC files just so I could try out the player in the car and with headphones. As you might expect, the speaker sounded small (it is) and didn’t enjoy being pushed too much. Headphones sounded fine, but I can’t see taking the time to do all of that conversion work to use it as my main music player.

The 360 is nearly the identical twin brother of the popular (and less expensive)

nuvi 350. But the impressive new feature that sets the 360 apart is Bluetooth hands-free calling. The 360 had no trouble finding my Bluetooth-enabled Nokia phone, and I was making calls within minutes. If your phone’s address book is compatible with Garmin’s address protocol, the 360 will place calls directly from your phonebook. (Mine wasn’t, so I was left to use my Call History instead.) Or you can manually dial the old-fashioned way. You can also use the phone feature to call POI’s that you have searched. Pizza? Hotel reservation? Done. The only drawback to the phone was the speaker. It was a bit shrill and even seemed to distort occasionally. However, I never had any complaints from people I was talking with in regards to road noise or clarity. All in all, if you don’t mind spending the extra hundred dollars, this is a very impressive feature, especially for phone junkies. Otherwise the Nuvi 350 might be enough for you.

Conclusion

Ok, I want one. Right out of the box, the 360 is fun and useful and saved me more than a few trips to my laptop for directions or information. On the road, it proves to be a great help in finding local flavor or the quick way to the airport.

Can I live without this piece of gear? Well, yeah. But now that I’ve tried it, I realize that life in the fast lane needs a bit of help now and again and the Garmin nuvi 360 provides a lot of help in a small package!

• MSRP: $ 642.84
• Dimensions:  3.87"W x 2.91"H x .87"D
• Display:  2.8"W x 2.1"H; 3.5" diag
• Display resolution:  320 x 240 pixels
• Display type:  QVGA color antiglare TFT with white backlight
• Weight:  5.1 ounces
• Battery:  rechargeable lithium-ion

For more information

Garmin International, Inc.
1200 E. 151st Street
Olathe, KS 66062-3426
Phone: (913) 397-8200
www.garmin.com

GPS Coordinates:
N 38 deg 51.333 min
W 094 deg 47.941 min