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Garmin nüvi 250 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (English/French Version)
 
Manufacturer: Garmin
Customer Rating:
 
List Price: $199.99
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Product Description

Simple navigation at an affordable price--that's nüvi 250. This entry-level Personal Travel Assistant comes with preloaded maps for North America, including all of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. For added flexibility, choose nüvi 270 with preloaded maps for both continents or save more with nüvi 200 which offers less map coverage at a lower price. Like all nüvi 200-series members, the 250 features an easy-to-use colorful touchscreen and ultra-slim design--perfect for everyday navigation.



The nüvi 250 comes preloaded with maps for North America, and features an easy-to-use touchscreen and ultra-slim design.


Configurable vehicle icons let you select car-shaped graphics.


nüvi 250 accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger.
Smart, Powerful Design
The nüvi 250 is built with a high-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver for extreme accuracy, as well as an SD card slot for storing your media and additional navigation tools, and a USB interface for loading data. All this is wrapped up in a package that measures 3.8 x 2.8 x .8 inches (W x H x D) and weighs just 5.2 ounces. The nüvi 250's 3.5-inch (diagonal) display is touchscreen-enabled, making it a cinch to control the device with your fingertips. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides up to five hours of battery life depending on use.

Navigate with Ease
nüvi 250 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. In addition, nüvi 250 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs.

Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nüvi 250 features many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and configurable vehicle icons that let you select car-shaped graphics to show your location on the map. Optional plug-in SD cards for our line of Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs.

Note: Like most USB Mass Storage Devices, the nüvi is not compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me.


What's in the Box
nüvi 250, preloaded City Navigator NT for North America (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disk, and set up and go guide.

Product Details

  • Personal Travel Assistant comes preloaded with maps for U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico
  • Easy-to-use colorful touchscreen and ultra-slim design
  • High-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver offers extreme accuracy
  • Built-in travel tools include the Garmin Lock anti-theft feature, JPEG viewer, world clock, currency converter, and more
  • Measures 3.8 x 2.8 x 0.8 inches (WxHxD) and weighs 5.2 ounces

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Customer Reviews

Best value for the money in my opinion
 
Review Date: August 24, 2007
Reviewer: G. Howard, San Diego, CA
I have used Garmin products before and like the reliability and performance. This unit works very well and in addition a great value price wise. The touch screen works perfectly - no more hassling with non-user friendly buttons. Very easy to navigate the GUI and always seems to find a signal quickly. Routes seem to work well for me (have had it for 2 weeks so not fully tested on routing). Voice prompts are functional and options exist for different languages - I like using the English accent voice. Another great benefit is the size - no external antenna and a small thin unit with a big screen (big enough for me)very well packaged. You could carry it around for hikes or biking as it has that mode and can easily fit into a pocket. All in all I'm very satisfied and use it every day for business because it saves me time and money.
Garmin Nuvi 250
 
Review Date: October 31, 2007
Reviewer: Al Conradt, Chicago
I now have two of these units for the family cars. Love 'em! They're very intuitive to use - even my wife was able to work it with hardly any coaching. No sooner had the units arrived in early October, then I got free upgrades to City Navigator v8 from Garmin. The touchscreen works quite well. The voice is clear and plenty loud (I have mine set at 50% volume). And the unit is small (thin) enough to slip easily into a pocket if you have to.

Garmin has mastered the window mount hardware - it works just like a rear-view mirror for adjustability - and it's solid.

Haven't used it much with the battery - it's normally plugged into the car lighter - so I have no input on battery life, but it's certainly a handy option to have. You can take it in the house and do your address entry in comfort.

If you're looking for something super-sophisticated with Bluetooth, an MP3 player, and "turn left at Main Street", you'll want to go to one of the higher level Nuvi's. The 250 tells you to "turn left", just not the street name.

If the 250 were waterproof and a little more shock-resistant, I'd get one for the motorcycle too (went to the Zumo instead).
Wonderful basic GPS system
 
Review Date: November 30, 2007
Reviewer: Veekan Eldridge, Massachusetts
Does this model have all sorts of nice features like traffic monitoring and bluetooth compatibility, no. Does it get the job done and easy to use, yes. If you're looking for a solid entry level GPS with a nice price point, this is a good model.

It has a comprehensive locations database including hotels, landmarks, gas, etc. Searching it can be a little bit of a pain, but it does get the job done. Takes a little while to get its position when you boot but I haven't lost signal on the road unless I was in a garage or tunnel or something.

The voice isn't bad and handy too.

I'd recommend this if you weren't looking for all the bells and whistles.
Love it !!!
 
Review Date: January 22, 2008
Reviewer: William R. Lile, Pensacola, Florida
I ordered the Nuvi 250 two weeks ago. Quick satellite aquisition, signal lost in tunnels, picked up at end of tunnel. Well designed windshield mount. Does all of the basics well. A little slow searching for restaurants by name. Good battery life, if you don't like to use the cigarette lighter. The smaller screen is better for city walking tours because it fits easier in a pocket. Smaller screen also blocks less view on the windshield. Love the unit, great price. Easy to read during the daytime with the top down. Dims automatically at sundown. Who really needs Blue tooth? Kids like viewing SD chip pictures on unit during a vacation. It will not read SDHC chips/ 8Gig. No external antenea. Overall.. Great unit/ Great price! Good decision!
My husband can work it!
 
Review Date: July 5, 2008
Reviewer: Rebecca Feibel, Severn, Maryland
So easy to use, my husband can do it and while a great guy is very non-tech savy. Easy to use instructions and controls, and you can move it from one vehicle to another hassell free as it is one suction cups. Good search technology if you are looking for shopping or resturants in an area and you don't have a specific address. I got it for him for Father's Day, and he a few weeks after he thanked me again and said it is very helpul for him.
Got for out of town trips
 
Review Date: June 16, 2007
Reviewer: Matt,
Bought the Garmin Nuvi 250 for my out of town trips, it was on sale and about $130 cheaper than the Nuvi 350 so I decided to give it a try. It seemed to work fine right out of the package but included very few accessories. I was eager to try it out on one of my trips and I was surprised at how well it worked! The voice navigation was spot-on at turns and informed me well ahead of time of the next turn or exit I should take. The volume and brightness was excellent and provided no problems. I was worried about the re-routing calulation times as I tend to miss a lot of turns. And miss a lot of turns I did (I was sleepy), but the re-calculation times were almost instantaneous and put me back on the right track very quickly. I usually get nervous when I have to drive long distances but with my Nuvi, I can drive anywhere without worrying about getting lost!

Pros: Good sound/brightness levels. Very efficient for the price. Extremely easy to use and mount on windshield. Small, able to fit into jean pockets easily. Can be used while walking or biking.

Cons: Not as much features as the Nuvi 3xx series. Comes with little accessories (dash and windshield mounts, and car lighter recharger).

Conclusion: I have been deciding between the 250 and the 350 for a while and researched the prices at various locations. Most stores had the 250 at around $450 (Canadian) and the 350 for $500. If this is so, then go for the 350 since it's only $50 more but you get a lot more features and accessories. However, I found it on sale at my local bestbuy for $370 (version 8). I think this is an extremely good deal considering that the 250 only has a few less functions (like mp3 player) than the 350 but at a much reduced cost. If on sale, I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good navigator, otherwise get the 350.
Good value for the money
 
Review Date: September 20, 2008
Reviewer: C. Ostrow, CT
For a simple GPS system, it works well. It doesn't have Text-To-Speech, which means that it says "turn left in 300 feet" not "Turn left on Main Street in 300 feet". For me, that works fine as the less it talks the better. Selects good routes, is simple to set up and use and is easily updated from the web (which i would recommend doing right away as there were numerous updates available, including GPS firmware updates). If you want alot of bells and whistles, you will be disappointed. If you want a simple, trustworthy GPS device for a low cost, this is for you.
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