1. Introduction
The Garmin Nuvi 650 is a widescreen navigation device at a price that won’t break your budget. This affordable personal travel assistant comes with many of the popular features found in the Nuvi 660 minus Bluetooth wireless technology, an integrated traffic receiver and FM transmitter perfect for everyday navigation
Review Contents:
- Main Menu
- Navigation & Driving
- Accuracy & Speed
- Portability / Design
- MP3, Pictures, and Mor
- Points of Interest
- Accessories
- Visitor Reviews
- Video of Usage
- Comparing the 650, 660, and 670
- Best Prices & Discounts with Amazon & Ebay
- Way too much to cover here…
2. Main Menu
The Garmin Nuvi 650 has a very user friendly system. It’s straight forward with only 3 options. “Where to?” “View map” and “Other”. Just tap your choice on the touch screen and you can navigate through the neatly organized categories. It’s a very simple interface which is important when you’re driving
3. Navigating and Driving
The Nuvi 650 can display your route of travel in either 2D or 3D with a white backlight to make it easier to see in the night mode. It’s very easy to read with different colors for different roads and images symbolizing different things like POI’s on the map. The directions are visually shown on the map, written in text, and told to you by a voice who sometimes horribly butchers the street names, but is always understandable. If you’re still missing your turns after all this, I think you need somebody else driving. Also shown is distance to the next turn and estimated time of arrival.
4. Accuracy and Route Control
Having a WAAS GPS receiver by SiRF, the Nuvi 650 is top of the line in accuracy, range, and speed of data delivery. I tested it by using some POI’s I knew how to get to as where I wanted to go and seeing which way it told me to get there. For most spots in and around my city and state it used the route I would have used to get there. Even if you miss a turn you don’t be told to make a U-turn and get back on the same path. It will be recalculated and the shortest path from your current position and direction will be given.
Route control is amazing as well with the ability to pick the shortest time or shortest distance for the route. You can also control things like only paved roads or avoid highways and tolls.
5. Portability/Design
The Garmin 650 is only 4.9″ x 2.9″ and less than an inch wide so it would easily fit in your pocket. The widescreen is 3.81″ x 2.25″ so it covers almost the entire front of the unit. The suction cup to attach it to the windshield is very easy to mount.
6. MP3, Pictures, and More
There is a great MP3 player that plays well through the built in speakers. It has an audio line out jack or an FM transmitter can be purchased for this device (although the 660 comes with it) to play it through your car speakers.
The picture viewer works well for checking out any pictures you’ve taken on your trip. It’s handy if you’ve got pictures you’d like to show to somebody.
Other handy features are the world travel clock, the currency and measurement converters if you’re traveling to another country, and the calculator to name just a few of the many incredibly handy tools and utilities the garmin nuvi 650 packs into an affordable package
7. Points of Interest
The Nuvi 650 comes ready to go with almost 6 million POI’s containing entertainment destinations, hotels, restaurants, and ATM’s from all over. It also has the ability to have custom POI’s inputted from your computer with free software like POI Leader. This means you can download POI databases from the internet and have them uploaded onto your device.
You can set your Nuvi to notify you if you are traveling a certain speed near a POI so it’s easy to download a database of all the speed traps in your area and have your Nuvi alert you if you are speeding by one.
8. Accessories
There are many accessories such as the Garmin Travel Guide for either North America or Europe, language guide, traffic receiver, and friction mount.
9. Visitor Reviews
Rating: 
This review will assist someone like me who am not familiar with GPS systems and am looking for basic functionality. I was looking for a unit that is portable so I could also use it for walking or in rental cars and has a widescreen display, so I settled on comparing a Garmin Nuvi 650 with a Plenio VXA-5000.
The Plenio doesn’t say any street names but the Nuvi will say the actual street you want to turn down…
Rating: 
Hey, I just bought the Garmin Nuvi 650 and I really like the bright display and good contrasting colors on control buttons/icons. It has a thin case that allows more versatility in mounting. When you start it up it has really quick satellite reception. The MP3 and picture viewer features although the picture viewer …
Rating:
This GPS is the best. Spend a little extra $$ to buy a good gps and you won’t be disappointed. The wide display on the 650 is bright and easy to read at a glance or in the glare of the sun. The touchscreen works beautifully. Response to input is quick and consistent. If I had one bad thing to say…
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This Nuvi 650 is a a nice upgrade from my Garmin eMap. It makes me really appreciate the features of a well-made GPS. Here’s what sets this unit apart …
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Recently I went down to a local electronics store and tested a bunch of GPS devices out. The Nuvi had the most user-friendly menu featuring three choices: Where to? Show map, and Other…
10. Video of Usage
Here’s a nice video of the Nuvi at some demonstration. It shows all of its features in use:
11. Compare the 650, 660, and 670
The Garmin Nuvi 650, 660, and 670 are all very similar. The 650 is the basic device and the other two build on top of it. From the 650 to the 660 you get added Bluetooth hands free technology and FM transmitter. Upgrading to the 670 you get added European maps. The cost of adding the FM transmitter to the Nuvi 650 is $171.51 and you cannot add the Bluetooth but the cost of buying the 660 is less than a $171.51 difference. The cost of adding the European maps to the 660 is almost $300 while buying the 670 instead of the 660 is a worthwhile buy. Of course, if these aren’t necessary features for you, they might not be worthwhile buys.
- Garmin Nuvi 650: Basic Unit and most affordable for people without need for listed bonus features below
- Garmin Nuvi 660: Add Bluetooth, Handfree Calling, FM Transmitter ($171.51 Value)
- Garmin Nuvi 670: Add Bluetooth, Handfree Calling, FM Transmitter, and European Databases ($460 Value)
12. Cheapest, Lowest and Best Prices on Nuvi 650:
Shopping around for the Garmin Nuvi 650? In our experience you will find huge savings online against your average BestBuy, Walmart or offline retail store, and if you spend some time to compare the various online retailers, you may be able to find a really great discount or sale for this unit.
Ebay offered decent prices, although with shipping and insurance added, they aren’t the absolute cheapest price I was able to track down (also note security precautions and need for experience to get good and lowest prices through this company)
The best price I was able to track down, is also the most trusted and longest running marketplace online – amazon.com – where you have 6-7 stores all represented by this reputable dealer selling the unit, some with incredibly hot discount sales running right now, with an average savings noted of over 15% from other on and offline stores to buy the garmin nuvi 650:
| Retail MSRP Price: | $749.99 |
| Today’s Sale Discount: | $285.13 {38% SAVINGS} |
| See Lowest Price: | See Best Price here |