By: Craig Ellison, PC Magazine
Last fall, Garmin created the shirt-pocket GPS market with its introduction of the nüvi 350. It set the performance bar high and earned an Editors' Choice by combining a SiRF Star III GPS receiver with a 3.5-inch screen and a host of features that appealed to seasoned travelers, such as a language guide, world clock, and a currency calculator. This summer, the nüvi 350 received a refresh—the nüvi 360 which added Bluetooth speakerphone capabilities to the nüvi 350. Now, Garmin has raised the bar once again. The nüvi 660 takes all of the qualities that earned its predecessors accolades and adds a few new features—to make this nüvi Garmin's most compelling ever.
The biggest new feature of the nüvi 660 is its larger screen. Measuring 0.9 by 4.9 by 2.9 inches and weighing 6.2 ounces, the device sports a large, 4.3-inch display that has an impressive resolution of 480 by 272 pixels (QVGA). Even with the large screen, Garmin rates the battery life of the nüvi between 3 and 7 hours, depending on how you use Bluetooth, MP3 playback, and other variables. I'm glad to report that the super-bright, white backlit screen looked great in the car and was easily viewable in sunlight.
The nüvi 660 has the same Bluetooth phone interface found on the nüvi 360. Pairing a Bluetooth phone is a simple process that takes less than a minute. Not all of the nüvi's cell-phone features, such as phone book and call log synchronization, are supported on all phones, but that's really just a limitation of particular handsets, not the nüvi. There is a listing of compatible phones and capabilities on Garmin's Web site. I paired the device with both my LG VX8100 (Verizon) and my Samsung SGH T608 (T-Mobile) even though neither phone was in Garmin's list of supported phones.
When a handset is paired with the nüvi 660, a phone icon appears on the main menu. A tap of the phone icon brings up options to dial from a dial pad, POIs, your phone's contact list, or even your calling history. If you are navigating during a phone call, voice prompts are muted until you disconnect your call. During your call, a phone pops up on the screen. A tap of that icon lets you disconnect. You can also dial POIs from the Find POI menu, a nice feature when you want to make restaurant reservations. Overall, incoming-call sound quality on the nüvi was good. As with the nüvi 360, callers on the other end thought I was on a nice speakerphone.
Garmin has also integrated real-time traffic info into the nüvi 660. In a feature first introduced with the Garmin StreetPilot C550, the nüvi 660 gets its traffic data from a receiver that's integrated into the 12-volt power adapter. A single cable delivers both power and traffic data to the suction-cup mounting bracket, which then passes it all along to the mounted nüvi 660. This is a much nicer solution than having to plug and unplug cables each time you remove the nüvi from your windshield.
Three months of traffic data (provided by Total Traffic Network) are included with the purchase of the nüvi 660. Thereafter, a 15-month subscription costs $60. When traffic data is received, an alert appears on the menu screen. If you hit the traffic icon, you'll see a list of traffic incidents, arranged in ascending distance from your current location. Similarly, if there's a traffic problem on your planned route, you can have the nüvi 660 reroute you around it.
Both of the previous nüvis have multimedia capabilities. They can play MP3 tracks and audible book files. They also let you view images in a slide show. The nüvi 660 includes all of these features, but throws in an FM transmitter as well, so you can play music and receive navigation voice prompts through your car stereo. Like the traffic receiver, an FM interface isn't really new technology. Garmin first introduced this ability on the StreetPilot 2730. I'm not a huge fan of FM modulators because in crowded metropolitan areas like New York City, it's hard to find an open frequency. The FM interface setup lets you select any frequency in the FM broadcast band and test it before saving the settings. This week I'm in Cincinnati, where the FM band is less crowded, and the FM interface worked fine. If your vehicle's stereo has an audio input jack, you'll get much better results by connecting it to the nüvi's audio output jack.
The Garmin nüvi 660 uses the same user interface found on virtually all other Garmin products. The main menu has an entry for "Where to" and "View Map." And like the other nüvis, there's a menu choice for the Travel Kit that gives you access to the Language Guide, Travel Guide, SaversGuide, MP3 Player, Audible Book Player, Picture Viewer, World Clock, currency and measurement converters, and calculator.
Using the nüvi 660 was very similar to what I experienced with both the nüvi 350 and the nüvi 360. Its menu structures are virtually identical, except for the additional new features. But Garmin took advantage of the 660's additional screen space to place eight menu icons on the Where To and Settings menus. (The older nüvis have just six.) Of course, the larger screen with its larger touch-screen keys is much easier to use.
My road tests of the nüvi 660 yielded no surprises. Like all Garmin products, the nüvi 660 is based on Navteq mapping data. The test routes generated on it were identical to those from other Garmin products and very accurate. The device's vehicle-routing profiles include Car/Motorcycle, Pedestrian, Bicycle, Truck, Bus, Emergency, and Taxi. Voice prompts were given at appropriate intervals. Garmin's text-to-speech converter announced street names accurately. One disappointment, though, is that the 660 doesn't support multisegment routing.
It's really difficult to find fault with the Garmin nüvi 660. It's the first shirt-pocket portable with a WQVGA, 4.3-inch screen. In addition, the integrated traffic receiver and Bluetooth speaker phone interface round out a set of features that is, once again, the best in the shirt-pocket GPS category.
