Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Features

Additional Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Information

Which nüvi is Best for You?: Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators

Fortunately, Garmin has made it easy to interface with the nüvi 350's 700 megabytes of onboard memory, thanks to "plug-and-play" USB mass storage support. Just plug the device into your computer's USB port and you've got instantaneous access to all the audio books, music, photos, supplemental maps and other data on the nüvi 350's internal and SD card memory.

Navigation
The nüvi 350 is first and foremost a personal GPS device. Wherever you go -- in your car or on foot-- the device offers extremely accurate position data, thanks to a high-sensitivity integrated GPS receiver by SiRF and WAAS-enabled, 12-satellite reception. Combined with detailed maps of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico the nüvi 350 provides automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, and touchscreen control-- making it easy to find your way anywhere. Plus, the unique "text-to-speech" feature calls out turns by street name, and you can choose from either 2D or 3D mapping perspectives when you're viewing your route on the display. Additionally, the nüvi 350 is compatible with Garmin's GTM 10 FM TMC traffic receiver*, which allows users to avoid traffic tie-ups by simply pushing a button that will calculate a new route.

As mentioned, the nüvi 350 comes packed with mapping data for North America, but you can can also load up your custom points of interest. Set up proximity alerts for school zones, safety cameras, and more using Garmin's free POI (points of interest) loader program (available from garmin.com).

Important note about map updates: Due to our high volume of sales, almost every Garmin portable GPS navigator sold by Amazon.com will come with the most recent map version. If you ever do need a map update, you can purchase one from Amazon.com at our Garmin Store.

The device automatically calculates the fastest route and provides voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions along the way. Tools for the Journey
Navigation is just part of the journey, and the nüvi 350 is one of the first devices to recognize that. The built-in "Travel Kit" offers an MP3 player, an audio book player from Audible.com, a jpeg-format picture viewer, a world travel clock with time zones, a currency converter, a measurement converter, and a calculator.

In addition to the included travel tools, additional software add-ons are available, such as the Garmin Language Guide, with data provided by Oxford University Press. This software suite contains a multilingual word bank, phrase bank, and five bilingual dictionaries. The multilingual word bank and phrase bank supports nine languages and dialects, including American English, British English, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish. Now you can look up and translate more than 17,000 words or 20,000 phrases per language -- right in the palm of your hand. Through the unit's text-to-speech interface, users can get a spoken pronunciation of each entry in the word bank, along with gender and part of speech information.

Another useful add-on software package, the Garmin Travel Guide, is loaded with information provided by Marco Polo. These guides put in-depth travel information such as reviews and recommendations for restaurants, tourist attractions, and more at your fingertips. The software allows you to navigate to an address or search points of interest-- places like hotels, restaurants, shopping, and tourist attractions. The nüvi 350 automatically calculates the fastest route and provides voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions along the way. The unit also audibly announces the name of upcoming streets-- letting you keep your eyes on the road while navigating through busy traffic and tricky roadways. And if you stray off course, the nüvi 350 automatically calculates the quickest way to get back on track.

What's in the Box
nüvi 350, Preloaded City Navigator NT for North America and Puerto Rico, Vehicle suction cup mount, AC charger, Vehicle power cable, Dashboard disc, USB cable, Carrying case, Quick reference guide

Which nüvi is Best for You?
For a slightly higher pricepoint, Garmin's nüvi 600 and 700 series devices have richer feature sets including: MP3 players, JPEG photo viewers, the ability to receive traffic and weather information, bluetooth for hands-free calling, FM transmitters that deliver audio through your cars own stereo system, and multi-destination routing that will tell you the best way to make a trip that involves several destinations.

What Customers Say About Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator:

It's amazing and it really works. Both are pretty much the same except the Navigon directs you around traffic. When my Garmin become obsolete, I will get rid of it and buy a Navigon 5100 for $120.00 and have the live traffic update and software updates for free. I bought a Garmin 350 and a friend bought a Navigon 5100 about 2 years ago. The Navigon is one half the price of the Garmin. Garmin now keeps asking me to update my software for $75.00.

are pre-stored in there. The ability to save a route and then be able to reverse it. Also used the pre-stored list to keep track of gas stations when driving long stretches in remote areas.Some miscellaneous items: the Nuvi 350 takes a little time to acquire the satellites in heavily treed areas and also has a little difficulty maintaining satellite signals in downtown areas. Not only does it help you keep your eyes on the road longer (you can see the distance to an upcoming turn and also whether you need to be on the right or left-side of the road). The selected destination is visible in text somewhere either on the footer or header.4. For the most part, it is intelligent enough not to direct you the wrong way down one-way streets prevelant in many cities downtown. When saving a new destination it would be nice that there would be an entry line for a suite number and/or phone number.3. This device will save you gas when going to an area for the first time.

Many of the pre-stored lists have phone numbers, and in this case was able to call ahead to make sure of room availability first. This is overcome by just touching anywhere on the screen, but when in an area where a lot of turns are needed, it is an annoyance. On a trip cross-country I was able to find a hotel off the interstate very late at night by using the pre-stored list. 7. When retreiving a saved location under the 'Recent Selections' tab, the locations will come up displayed with the addresses only and not the saved names. It is also good on dark and rainy nights when street signs in rural areas are obscured by tree branches.

Just a little more screen brightness would help.6. A great, great device. When on battery power only, the display will 'timeout' and go dark after 30 seconds regardless of the display timeout time period selected on the settings page. The navigation is excellent with few exceptions.

A real time saver after a long day of driving. It is also small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. (There was a firmware update not too long ago addressing the unit's ability in obtaining new signals and updating it's position quickly after exiting from a tunnel).The device is intuitive to use and enhances safety while driving to and from unfamilar places. The algorithm is smart enough and should be able to take one-way streets into account on the way back.5. It also helps when on an overpass and the signs are not clear whether to be in the right or left lane for entering on to the highway below. I would like to see some additional features or improvements:1. Even on the brightest setting, the display is a little hard to see when wearing sunglasses.

It is amazing how many locations for hotels, gas stations, etc. Currently, it is too slow and takes a very long time to complete a 10 mile trip.2. I have been using the Nuvi 350 for a few years now and think it is an outstanding device. When simulating a drive to a destination I would like to see an option to increase the speed by 5 or 10x. You must remember what address goes with what name.Overall though, this is one of the best consumer devices I have purchased in years; I bought one for my daughter after a short while of using it myself.

My friend bought a TomTom about the same time and the battery only last for 3 hours after one year. I saw some larger screen product but this screen size is perfect for me. It is a great product and the signal is strong and quick even in the raining day. The battery last about 6 hours and I need to re-charge it every two weeks. I bought this GPS in 2007 and it still works great after 2 years. That is the reason I came out to write this review. Don't waste your money on the larger screen.

It has been a huge help in finding my way to places and you can even have it list of food and hotels in the area. This is the best thing I have ever purchased. I have really enjoyed having this and I would recommend this brand to anyone who is looking for an GPS system.

At this point, you are in the way wrong lane and you put your life at risk trying to get into the correct lane. If your next turn is a right at the next exit, it won't tell you until immediately before - sometimes this can be terrifying. Tom Tom seems to work better in this respect - your next turn is always on the screen even if it's in 60 miles, so you can be sure to stay in the correct lange. The main issue I have with Garmin 350 GPS is that it doesn't tell you what your next turn is. This can be extremely dangerous. Maybe Garmin has fixed this issue with its newer GPS machines; I've read a lot of other complaints on here about the exact same thing with this model.