Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The other Amazon listing of the 750 was removed, along with dozens of reviews. I will try and summarize the pros and cons and issues people had mentioned.
When turned on, the unit takes around a minute to load the maps. Solution - turn the unit on when you exit your house. It will be ready by the time you hook it up and start your car. Some had complained it took a long time to acquire the satelite, I have not experienced that.
I suspect that was a problem with the older firmware and has been corrected.
The manual is on line, not in the box. Not all the features are intuitive so its worth reading the manual. There are small things you might miss otherwise - such as converting the type pad to QUERY, or how to block toll roads, etc. The unit is rather easy to use, so its not like you will miss all that much if you don't read the manual.
The voice is clear and easily loud enough to hear. I also tried it out on the car speakers via the FM transmitter and it worked fine. (My antenna is in the rear, the GPS on the dashboard).
The calculated routes work though not always "the best" as there may be slighly shorter routes using some side streets.
- Driving to Ikea bypassing the toll roads it missed a short cut on routes 1/9 that would have saved a couple of minutes - not a big deal.
- driving locally it wanted to put me on faster main streets rather than side roads even though the route was longer and would have hit 1 or more stop lights. I know the local streets and my way would have saved a couple of minutes. Still - thats not a big deal. I dont care about a couple of minutes if I am lost - just want to get where I am going in a reasonable amount of time.What I want out of a GPS is:
1 - if I get lost I have "someone" helping me get to where I need to go, even if its a few minutes longer
2 - if I make a wrong turn - I want to know ASAP
I usually first look at the route via Mapquest or Google maps. You can transfer your destination from your PC to your GPS The point is added as a favorite. You can not download a planned route, just individual favorite stopping points.
*BUT - what you can do is create a route out of these saved intermedaite points, to optimize your route. Lets say you want to go form A to B but don't like the plotted route. Download 1 or more points from mapquest/google maps and set those as intermediate points. A -> C -> BYou have the ability to block a road. I haven't used it but I read in other reviews that it blocks the entire stretch of road, as opposed to redirecting you to the next exit. That is a negative that makes this feature less useful.The maps can be zoomed in and out for various levels of detail. Obviously you should not do that while driving, but its very useful if you pull over. The screen could be bigger to see more of the maps, but then it would cost more, so its ok as is.
I needed to go to an elementary school on town, and I only knew the approxiamte location. The POI (Points of Interest) showed a little picture of a school bus in the area - guess what that was ? :-)
But the elementary school near me wasn't shown. Not really a problem as usually one has an exact stree address.
One small gripe -
I found the magenta road route covered up the POI in one mode. It would be better to have them "on top of" the selected route. If you are driving and get hungry and pull over to look at the POI - Restaurants - its hard to see them with the magenta route on top. You can stop the route, but then you must reenter it. Probably not a big deal, (it will be in the recently selected list), but annoying since it would have been easier to have the POI on top of the route. Maybe someday this will be fixed with a firmware download. The map is functional, though you have to zoom in and out a bit if you want to study different parts of the route in detail. (its better to first study where you wnat to go with mapquest/google maps). Since you move the map by dragging different parts you need to zoom out then in. Of course if you first plot the course with mapqust you will have a good idea of the route. I don't really need the "bread crumb" option of showing how much of your route you have covered.
By pressing the turn and other boxes you get a more detailed listing of the route. This is of use if you want to review the route, but in all honesty I just look at the plotted route and compare it to mapquest.
The car moves across the map in very small jumps (like a sixteenth of an inch). This doesnt bother me, although others have said other brands (TomTom 730) are smoother.
When I first got the unit in December 2008 it lagged (it was slow in detecting wrong turns, and in announcing turns). Once I hooked it up to the PC and updated the firmware it was much improved. It no longer lags, and if you miss a turn you will hear "recalculating" in a much shorter period of tiem, based on how far you are form the correct raod. Still not as fast as the TomTom (from what I have read) but still improved.
All in all the 750 does all I need it to do. For the price (right here on Amazon) its the best value I've seen.
PS - Some of the complaints I read in the earlier reviews are unfounded.
Such as:
- you can change the type pad from ABCD to QWERTY
- you can see all the turns by pressing some of the text areas on the display
- you can go to the top level of the menu by holding down the menu keyDec 23/2009 update
I have used it for a year.
Some small complaints
1 - when I turn it on, it does take a while to acquire the satelite, which can be annoying if one forgets to turn it on inside teh house. It can delay your truip 1-2 minutes. Not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.
2 - For some reason if I dont have it plugegd into the car power jack I can't get it to acquire the satelite. This would be annoying if I wanted to take the GPS with me to find the cars location in a parking lot.
3 - You do need to clean the suction cup occasionally , else it can fall off the windshield. This has happened several times.
The main gripe is the selected route may not be optimal. The GPS always tries to put me on a road with stop lights (Route 22 in New jersey) instead of route 78. I think it must look at the posted speed limit and not take into account the stop lights. What I do sometimes is use map quest or google maps to come up with way points (intermediate locations) to force it to select a certain route. Care must be chosen becaus eif you put them off teh main route it will mess up your directions after that point (trying to reroutse you back). You will need to reenter your route. This is a minor annoyance, and can be countered by plotting your route with map quest or google maps.
If you rely on the GPS as your main guide for directions you will get to where you are going, but the route may well not be optimal. But if you are lost, it will get you to your destination, which is its main purpose. All GPSs suffer from this.
So the best way to use a GPS is first plot your route, print out your map quest directions, and bring along your GPS in case you get lost (such as returning home at night after a kids soccer game in an unfamiliar town).
I find it helpful as a backup, but am a little disappointed when using it as my primary guide (instead of Map Quest)
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