Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
The Garmin nüvi 360 GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant is a GPS navigator, personal translator, multi-media entertainer and tour guide all wrapped into one. In addition to all the advanced features of the Garmin nüvi 350 -- including automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, an MP3 player and audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, and much more -- this pocket-sized personal travel assistant comes with hands-free Bluetooth wireless technology, making it the hands-down go-anywhere travel companion.
Which nüvi is Best for You?: Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators
The nüvi 360 comes with hands-free bluetooth wireles technology. See side view. |
Browse your stored pictures with an easy-to-use JPEG viewer. |
The device sports a handy MP3 player, letting you play songs stored on SD memory cards. |
Make Hands-Free Calls
The nüvi 360 integrates wireless technology with a microphone and speaker that lets you make hands-free mobile phone calls using your compatible Bluetooth-enabled phone. Simply dial numbers with the nüvi's touch screen keypad to place a call, and to answer calls, just tap the screen and speak directly into its built-in microphone. In addition, you can easily look-up and dial numbers from your personalized phone book or from your phone's call history log. Don't know the phone number for your destination? Simply find and dial it from nüvi's database of more than six million points of interest -- including hotels, restaurants, stores, and attractions.
Navigation and Entertainment with Ease
For starters, the nüvi 360 includes a high-sensitivity integrated GPS receiver that offers exceptional performance and reception. The unit's flip-up antenna includes an MCX-type connector for optional external GPS antenna connection. Preloaded software features maps of Europe or North America, and it includes automatic routing, 2D or 3D map perspective, turn-by-turn voice directions that speak street names, and a fingertip touch screen interface -- making navigation as easy as it gets.
But navigation is just the beginning. Like the nüvi 350, the nüvi 360 also includes many entertainment and travel tools including an MP3 player, audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, travel alarm, and currency converters.
The nüvi 360 features a bright, 2.8 x 2.1-inch TFT display with white backlight for easy readability. At 3.87 x 2.91 x 0.87-inches (WxHxD) and just 5.1 ounces, the unit is small enough to be placed on the dashboard with the included suction mount, or into your pocket for easy transportability. The unit also features Garmin Lock -- an advanced anti-theft feature that disables the unit from performing any functions until you type in a specific four-digit PIN or take the unit to a predetermined location. A built-in lithium ion battery will give you up to eight hours of power, and an included 12/24 volt adapter cable will let you run the navigator off your vehicle's power. An AC battery charger is also included.
A built-in Travel Kit that includes sample MP3s and audio books will get you started with entertainment, and with the unit's SD memory card expansion slot you can add optional software, such as language and travel guides. A USB port is also included for loading and updating data.
What's in the Box
Gamin nüvi 360, Preloaded City Navigator NT North America or Europe (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, AC charger, 12/24 volt adapter cable, dashboard disk, USB interface cable, carrying case, owner's manual, and quick reference guide.
Lives up to its promise
Previous to this, I had the Nuvi 350, which is also an excellent device. Since the function is identical in nearly every regard to the 350, there is little point in covering the basics in much depth, but it's worth re-stating some of them. I will go into great detail on the Bluetooth functionality below.
This is such a handy device, and is so well executed, that you would be hard-pressed not to love it. The first thing I noticed about the Nuvi was its incredibly small size and weight. I could not believe how light it was. I literally expected it to have at least twice the heft when I went to pick it up the first time - it was like picking up a deck of cards, but lighter.
The antenna is a flap that is raised from the back, maybe about the size of a matchbook. When raised the Nuvi immediately starts locking in on satellites, when lowered, the unit knows you are through navigating for a while. Intuitive and effective.
Navigation on the Nuvi is very good, fast, and intuitive. It's no different from many of Garmin's other offerings in that regard. Some buildings and businesses that you would expect to be shown as POIs are not there, but most are. One thing I would suggest: when a route is less than ideal, Garmin should allow you to correct it permanently so that it does not re-suggest the non-preferred route each time.
I had a problem with my old Nuvi 350 that I have not observed on the new 360. Sometimes the 350 would not lock onto the satellite signal. Once it went into this mode of searching for, but not locking in, for over a minute it just never found anything. The only way I found to correct this was to push the small reset button under the antenna. I notice that another reviewer found that his new 360 had the same problem. This must be a bug in some Nuvi units that would be worth following up with Garmin on. I can tell you that my 360 NEVER has required a reboot, and I've been using it continuously.
I did not test the MP3 functionality beyond verifying that it plays back the songs that are pre-loaded for demo purposes. I didn't care about this feature; I'm very happy with my iPod for song management and playback. I can verify that you would not want to use the Nuvi's internal speaker for song playback, though. It's good enough to use as a speakerphone and for voice prompts, but it's not a hi-fi.
Now, for the fun part: Bluetooth functionality. I have been using it with my BlackBerry 8700c with excellent results so far. I had no problems with the initial discovery and mating process. The interface is robust. What happens is that once your phone has made the connection with the 360, a phone icon appears on the Nuvi. You can now use the 360 to call ANY POI directly from the screen! This is truly amazing; you are now walking around with the yellow pages in the palm of your hand, sortable by your current location, or any other location you choose. I just find the Point of Interest, and touch the phone number of that POI, and the phone starts dialing it. The sound comes out through the speaker of the Nuvi, and conversations have been natural so far. It's working like an absolute charm, and this single feature moves the device beyond anything else available right now.
When you select the phone icon from the main screen, several phone-related icons appear. From the phone screen, you can make a call manually, access your address book, call a POI, etceteras. The manual dial function works fine from the touchscreen. The really cool news: Nuvi automatically downloads your phone's address book to its database when it makes the initial Bluetooth link. So, if your phone supports this functionality, you can use it for all dialing functions, since the display is so much nicer than most phones, and the touchscreen works really well. You can always break the BT connection once you get the number dialed if you want a private, non-speakerphoned conversation. I have done that many times already. Once your call ends, the connection to the Nuvi is reestablished automatically. One word of warning: BlackBerry does not support sending its addresses to the Nuvi, so I was unable to test the download feature, but this does not surprise me given BlackBerry's security obsession. I am confident that it would work fine with other supported phones.
Overall, the device is a joy to operate. The battery life is good, although I would not call it excellent. The menus are very intuitive. The accuracy is very high. Even the windshield mount earns my praise. I did a lot of research on the Nuvi, comparing it in excruciating detail to the latest Tom Tom 910, the Magellan Roadmate 800, etceteras. The 350 was a great unit, the 360's Bluetooth functionality makes it even better, and worth the extra money for me.
UPDATE (7/28/06): I just returned from a 4 day trip to Banff, Canada during which I logged another 20 hours of driving. The unit continues to perform perfectly, including comprehensive POIs in the Banff/Lake Louise area. I also discovered an amazing feature I had not noticed before. I was unfamiliar with the Lake Louise area and had three hungry kids in the car. I pressed Where To, then Restaurants, and the list appeared, in order of proximity to my moving vehicle. Each listing showed the distance to that restaurant, with a little arrow next to it showing the exact direction to that restaurant. I just left it on this page and drove around, following the arrows, which moved as I did, until I found a restaurant that looked good. What an amazing device. I also have nothing but praise for the window mount. Seems like a small thing, but it's so solid and well-designed I had to make special mention of it. It has a lever to easily create a large suction force, the ball joints are very solid, and the method of attachment to the Nuvi is just extremely well designed.
Update (9/2/06): I have now owned the Nuvi 360 for about two months. It continues to exceed my expectations in terms of reliability and accuracy. So many nice touches that you don't notice right away but that are executed so well. The auto brightness level, for example, is perfect. The night mode changes the color scheme and the background goes black, highlighting the roads well and keeping the light emissions at a pleasant level, where the day mode would have been too bright. Everyone I demo it for wants one. My next step: buy stock in Garmin?
Update (9/14/07): The unit continues to operate flawlessly. I have now bought this machine for several employees of my company, each of whom love it. I also followed through on my impulse to buy Garmin stock, which has more than doubled since then! I now also own a Nuvi 660; it's fantastic. However, with the wider screen it's a bit bulkier to carry around, so my wife and I trade them back and forth depending on what we are doing. I still say that the 360 is the best bang for the buck if you want the Bluetooth functionality, and the 350, which is now selling for only $370, is every ounce as good if you don't care about the Bluetooth.
One other point - I now drive a BMW 545i with integrated GPS. I bought the car used but I know that the option costs a bundle. I never use it because the Nuvi is so much more user friendly and fast. So for anyone out there who is trying to decide if they should spring for a very expensive integrated GPS system in their new car, here's one vote to save yourself the money and get the Nuvi. It's easier to use and you get to carry it around with you to boot!
Best All in One Solution Out There!
This may be one of the slickest little gadgets I've ever owned. It is not without some relatively minor deficiencies which pale in comparison to this products overall design and function.
First the good news. This is the smallest, most elegant and compact AIO (all in one) GPS navigation solution I've come across. The mapping details are excellent. The Nuvi 360 has map v8 updated from the v7 in the Nuvi 350. The voice prompts are loud, clear and timely. The ease of use is just fantastic and the visibility and quality of the display are very good. The 360 uses the low reflection screen and brighter display which were only found on the very latest 350s. POI access is excellent and can be navigated to much more simply than the TomTom unit which requires additional cumbersome steps. The attachment system for the Nuvi is superb and very secure. With the Nuvi 360 you can access your POIs directly by name rather than having to go through a cumbersome category menu and then only getting the POIs by proximity as is the case with the TomTom 910.
The new screen display in the 360 is nearly as good or equal to the TomTom 910. The automatic panning is not quite as good as the TomTom. And bright light visibility is nearly as good as the TomTom 910. Despite these minor comparative deficiencies, all the other advantages of the Nuvi much more than outweigh the disadvantages of the TomTom 910 (their top of the line). As with all GPS units, you want to place the Nuvi so as to reduce the sun's glare.
This device is intended as an extremely simple point to point navigating AIO GPS navigation solution and is not intended to enable the use of way points or easily changing the course selected by the unit. You have essentially two options: the shortest route and the fastest route. Fortunately, the mapping program selects routs that are very acceptable. Personally, I like to look at the overall route and fiddle with it. This unit is not designed for such use. Microsoft Streets and Trips is ideal for this kind of tinkering, but terrible for point to point navigation while on the go at which the Nuvi has no peer.
Make sure and get the most recent firmware updates on the Garmin website which will fix the known bugs and further improve the functionality. This unit is so easy to use that my 85 year old father purchased one for himself and he loves it to. He is, to put it kindly, technologically challenged but this unit is so intuitive and easy to use that he's had no problems whatsoever. He doesn't like to be distracted while driving so he plans his trip before leaving and simply listens to the voice prompts.
The new bluetooth feature makes using hands free use of your bluetooth enabled phone a pleasure. If you don't need or want the Bluetooth feature save yourself a couple of hundred bucks and get the most recent Nuvi 350 but make sure it's got the low reflective screen, the bright display and map v8. Remember, only the most recent Nuvi 350s have the bright low reflective screen. I believe if you get a 350 with map v8 it will automatically have the brighter display with the low reflection screen. I give this unit a 5 star on form and a 5 star on the functionality for which it was designed. You will not be disappointed.
Fantastic for Address Navigation, Bluetooth not worth it though
I've had the Nuvi 360 for a couple of weeks now and has really performed fantastically. From finding us places to eat and sleep in Hawaii (Oahu) and correctly navigating me to about 15 different addesses as I was checking out houses in the Southern California area, the unit has provided incredibly detailed and timely driving directions and even tells you which side of exit ramps to bear to, so that you can accurately go east/west or north/south as the case may be. The FIND function is good for finding things nearby your location, but don't count on it to take the place of the yellow-pages. Though there are POI's stored on it and it easily locates some of the more frequently visited establishments, this real worth of this device is not in finding you the nearest restaurant you're in the mood for, but navigating you to that destination given an address or intersection. You will do yourself a favor if you always have an address or intersection, as you can not find a single road with the Nuvi--so a little prior planning will go a long way.
I got the 2GB SD card with it, but just know that it is totally unnecessary. You don't need it for navigation or restaurant storage--in fact the country, language and Fodor's guides are all on separate and special SD cards. If you get one, it will only be to store photos or MP3's. If you're using this as your sound system however, perhaps you should be putting the money somewhere else first, before getting yourself a Navigator :O)
The included cigarrette-lighter plug works out nicely when you keep it plugged in all the time. It automatically turns the unit on when you turn the keys in the ignition and shuts down in 15 seconds when you leave the automobile. If you choose not to use the Nuvi while driving however, it simply charges the Nuvi for later battery use, for instance, if you wanted to take it biking or on a walk (yes, it has navigational settings for both!).
The visitbility is fine and the suction-mount is terrific, so there's no permanent commitment necessary. The only problem with the obvious windshield mount of the device is that once you link it with your Bluetooth phone and try to talk through it, your face is so far away from the front of your windshield that people on the other end can barely hear you and it's a tossup of how well you hear them (forget about it if you have a sunroof or convertible top down). For the difference in price between the 350 and 360, I wish I had forgotten about the Blue Tooth option and just went with the 350. Enough people seem to have other hands-free devices these days that having "another" one, that only works in your car, is really not worth your while.
Apart from the Bluetooth glitch, the Nuvi is one of the greatest devices I have ever owned and I think has payed for itself in uselessness, just this past week. And I don't think driving to a new location and asking it to show you driving distances to everything "nearby" will ever get old :O) I love it!
I normally do not bother with writing reviews . . .
but after using reviews to make this purchase--I want to share my feedback.
We used the Nuvi 360 in over 2000 miles in Europe (with optional European card). It worked great in all 7 countries we visited. It located a gas station in a very remote rural area when we were extremely low on fuel. My device recovered very well after long tunnels (It never required rebooting). Worked very well on confusing roundabouts in large cities where many roads converged. It recalculated and routed perfectly when we were detoured several times. I found many obscure locations without fail--even when I was unsure of the exact address. I used it to plot drive times and even to determine real-time currency conversation rates. My wife and I enjoyed the scenic drive without hassling and debating each other over maps and routes. I would highly recommend this product to any travelers!
An "insanely great" device
I'm one of those people who wondered why anyone would pay big bucks for a GPS Navigation system when a $3 map would do the trick. The Garmin Nuvi 360 has converted me! And I continue to be amazed at the power, usefulness and ease of use of this little device.
On a recent trip from San Francisco to Vancouver, B.C. I took the Nuvi with me to avoid having to lug a shoebox full of maps. It took less than 15 minutes from opening the box to having it working in my car. The mount attaches easily and securely to the windshield, and the device powers up and is ready to use quickly right out of the box. The interface is well-designed and intuitive. You really don't need the manual. Even technophobes will quickly learn how to use most of the features with ease.
Entering a destination address is easy and quick. You simply press letters on a touchscreen keypad to spell out the address. Usually after just a few keystrokes, the device is smart enough to predict what you are typing and fill in the rest. Then you simply press a large "GO!" box and the device takes over. It varies the scale of the map so you have the best view of what you need to do next, and it speaks direction commands to you at just the right time. In my experience, these commands were very accurate and extremely helpful in their specific detail, for example, "In 50 feet, turn right on Main Street..."
I've read others say that the routing is not always accurate or optimal. I have not found that to be the case. In fact, on occasion, the Nuvi has suggested a route that was better than the one I was already familiar with.
There is a "favorite places" menu which I have found very useful, and the device keeps track of the recent places you've gone, which makes going back to any of them--from anywhere--extremely easy. Just press the big "GO HOME!" button, and wherever you are, the device will guide you home.
For longer trips, the device can display a "dashboard" with useful and interesting information, like estimated arrival time, length of travel, average speed, etc. You can also watch your progress on a map which shows points of interest that are nearby.
All this is pretty cool. But what really sold me on the device was an experience with the restaurant guide feature...I was driving on I-5 in the middle of nowhere and getting hungry. Just for fun, I decided to see if there were any Chinese restaurants nearby. With 2-3 keystrokes, the device listed one within 3 miles. I pressed "GO", and it guided me there. The travel guide feature soon becomes addictive. It's full of useful points of interest which are simple to locate and select.
After mastering the basic features, I experimented with the audio player. I easily added music and podcast files from a Mac using the supplied USB cable, simply by dragging and dropping MP3 files. An SD card allows for expanding the memory capacity. Ok, so it is not an iPod, but if I could have just one device in my car it would be the Nuvi. My only quibble is that the sound volume seems not to go loud enough, especially if you are driving with a window down, it will be difficult to hear the audio. Perhaps there is a way to wireless transmit the audio output to an FM channel on your car radio. If so, that would be a great feature.
The unit is about the size of a deck of cards and feels solid. The screen is sharp and bright enough for most applications, except perhaps in direct sunlight. It's so useful and portable that I sometimes carry it with me when traveling in unfamiliar areas, and definitely use it in rental cars. I haven't yet used the bluetooth features, as I need to upgrade my phone first. But when I do, I expect it will add a whole other dimension to the device's usefulness.
In short, this is one of those rare devices (TiVO comes to mind as another) that I never thought I needed, and now that I have it, I can't imagine how I lived without it. Garmin has really hit a homerun with the Nuvi 360. It's easy to learn, easy to use, and full of useful features.
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A handy MP3 player lets you play songs stored on SD memory cards.
nüvi 250W accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger.
