Introducing the Garmin Nuvi 650

The Garmin Nuvi 650 GPS is the follow up product to the immensely popular Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS, and Garmin’s entry level system into the 4.3” widescreen market. It keeps all the qualities and features that has made the Nuvi 350 the most popular GPS travel assistant for the last 2 years, and gives you the larger 4.3” touch widescreen (up from 3.5” touch screen on the previous 300 series nuvis).

Increasing the viewing and input real-estate hasn’t really taken away from the ultra-portable ‘shirt-pocket’ factor that a vast majority of buyers are looking for, but it certainly makes reading, multi-tasking, input, visual quest and more…all that much easier and more functional, and it certainly feels that the 4.3” widescreen form factor provides a more appropriate balance of function vs. portability (for automobile setups anyhow)

So what’s in the box?

  • The Nuvi 650 – Preloaded full coverage City Navigator for North America or Europe
  • The Suction Cup mount
  • Vehicle power adapter
  • USB cable
  • Quick Reference Guide

Unpacking the box you find your new Nuvi 650 Portable travel assistant and quickly realize that it has quite a large viewing surface, but remains quite small and compact, you could fit it quite easily into your pocket, although the new 4.3” inch widescreen means it would be a bit more of a squeeze then the previous 3.5” screens. The mounting is pretty self explanatory, and you won’t have any trouble to quickly figure out how the suction-style works. The power adapter and USB cable is pretty self explanatory as well, for charging your nuvi and plugging the gps into your computer respectively. One thing that might come as a shock and is sure to be upsetting to some is that there is no included full user manual, and were left with just a quick reference and getting started guide… with the full documentation and user manual being online unfortunately.

Physical Design of Garmin’s Nuvi 650 portable Travel Assistant

Front: The front of the nuvi 600 series shows of its major change from previous generations, its substantial screen real-estate addition… Measuring in at 4.3 inches (diagonal measurement standard) you have quite a larger viewing area then the previous nuvi 3XX series units, and with a resolution at this screen size of 480×272 pixels, the picture is as vivid, sharp and crisp as ever.

Side: On the sides we get a feeling for the Nuvi 650’s portability factor; measuring at under an inch of thickness, it’s quite easy to unmount and put in your shirt or pants pocket and carry along with you. On the right hand side we find the SD Card slot {top} for memory addition or software reading, along with the usb port {middle} for connecting to your personal computer and the headphone jack {bottom} for listening to the unit with ear buds.

Back: From the rear of the unit we see its single internal speaker which is more then adequately loud in common driving conditions like traffic and construction (unless drowned out by some loud music of course). We also find the antenna which is folded up to be parallel with the earth when in use, or folded into the unit when off.

Mount: Connecting the mount is pretty easy, and once in place its firm and secure, with no noticeable shaking or rattling and a strong range of adjustment motion to suit your ideal positioning of the unit.

Interface of Garmin’s Nuvi 650 GPS Navigator

The user interface on the Garmin nuvi 650 is simple, organized and intuitive. Menus, options and functions are organized well and the learning curve and usage time to explore and understand all of the Nuvi 650’s tools, functions and system is quite quick.

The touch screen is responsive and crisp, the button areas are large, and the keyboard keys along with an innovative and efficient auto-completion system make typing in addresses, scrolling the point of interest databases and finding the travel assistance you are looking for a breeze without much distraction from the road and traffic in front of you.

Navigating with the Nuvi 650 Sat-Nav

Selecting an address: Selecting an address with the Nuvi 650 GPS is an easy and self-explanatory process; with the options to select from predefined addresses, saved common destinations, choosing from a list of nearby destinations that match your criteria in the extensive point of interest databases or entering an address or location manually using the touch keyboard.

Getting to an address: Once a destination has been selected, the routing engine quickly organizes and maps out the quickest and most efficient route from your current location, and a series of visual prompts appear to guide you along your journey. Audio prompts are timely and well developed as well to help you know your next move well before it happens so that you don’t have to take your eyes off the road.

Rerouting: Even if you somehow miss a turn or make a mistake along your journey, the rerouting engine kicks in and quickly but carefully recalculates the series of directions and turns to get you to your ultimate destination… it really makes for a much more stress free journey when you know that even if you take a wrong turn or wrong road that you will quickly alerted that you have and promptly have new directions at hand.

Third Party Tools & Utilities on the Garmin 650

Garmin’s Nuvi 650 personal travel assistant offers a wide variety of tools and functions other than its basic navigational assistance:

MP3 Player / Audio Books: Listen to MP3 music or audio books along your travel, with settings to make sure that the music fades out when an important audio prompt plays and fades back in to make sure you don’t miss an important turn

Photo Viewer: Take pictures along your vacation or journey with your digital camera and then check them out or show them off with the 650’s photo viewer application

Currency, Measurements, Time Conversion: Know what time it is in a different destination, understand and convert various units of measurement and check to see how much your money is worth with various conversion tools.

Language Guide: Translate words, phrases and writing from one language to another and learn how to pronounce words with the text-to-speech function

Pros – What’s great about it?

  • Display – Very readable, bright and useable
  • Portability – very thin and light making it easy to quickly take with you
  • NAVTEQ– best in the market
  • Routing engine – quick and accurately picks routes
  • Battery Life – Very long @ about 8hours
  • - is responsive and strong; satellites quickly lock on and don’t lose signal easily
  • The list seems to go for quite a while

Cons – What could be better?

  • Somewhat fragile casing could be made more sturdy
  • Route exclusion could be added
  • Multiple-Destination routing could be added
  • Physical volume control could be added
  • I’m sure we missed some not so major areas that could use improvement

Conclusion: Is it worth it?

The Garmin Nuvi 600 series continues to be the most popular option among first time shoppers and hardcore enthusiast alike and with its blend of affordability, (prices have dropped dramatically since its initial introduction), solid and dependable performance, and advanced and useful set of travel tools… it clearly shines as an obvious and smart choice for someone looking to buy a portable navigation solution.

Garmin Nuvi 650 Vs. Nuvi 660, 670 and 680

If you are thinking about buying a Nuvi GPS or the Nuvi 650 in particular, its probably a good idea to brush up on what each model offers. There is no more frustrating feeling then to purchase something and then to realize the features you were exciting about or hoping for were actually on a more expensive model, or to spend to much and buy a system that has extras that you will not use and need not spend extra money for:

Nuvi 650:

  1. Entry 4.3” widescreen navigator offering the core features and most affordable price.
  2. Cheapest Prices: Approx. $370 (current as of January 2008)

Garmin Nuvi 650 to Nuvi 660:

  1. Add Bluetooth for making and receiving phone calls while in your car without holding a cell phone to your ear
  2. Add FM Transmitter for relaying audio prompts and music through your cars audio system rather than the small internal speaker
  3. Cheapest Prices: Approx. $440 (current as of January 2008)

Garmin Nuvi 660 to Nuvi 670:

  1. Add out of the box support to travel through both North America and Europe (standalone upgrade cost of $200)
  2. Cheapest Prices: Approx. $570 (current as of January 2008)

Garmin Nuvi 660 to Nuvi 680:

  1. Add MSN Direct local and live data reception (up to the minute area weather, traffic, gas prices, Movie Theater listing, etc…
  2. Cheapest Prices: Approx. $499 (current as of January 2008)