We purchased this unit, our second Garmin Nuvi for moving to Texas on about 4/1/07. We have a 350 and now this 650. I'm not sure of the maps version we got and it has the matte screen. Overall, we're very satisfied but it's not perfect. We had to send the first sample we purchased back due to a dead pixel and a faulty touch screen. Ironically we had to send our first Nuvi back also. The second model arrived flawless. Since then we've made the following observations.

Pros
- Talks to you with the street names, saving having to look at the screen as often. How much is your safety worth?
- Attractive form factor, small enough but yet large enough
- Good battery life
- Saves gas and time, and reduces getting lost, even around your own town.
- Display, nice wide form factor. we are pleased with the daylight and nightime performance.
- Startup time seems MUCH faster than the 350.

Cons:
- Seems pricy for what you get
- Dozens of roads in the internal map software were not accurate causing much confusion when driving. This is a software map issue, not a hardware issue. Maps were not accurate.

First of all I'd like to start this review by saying that I got this as a replacement for my TomTom One XL. I was very happy with my TomTom, the reason I needed the Nuvi was for the Mount with integrated cables and the mount design itself. This is the only system that worked in my car in the space I wanted it in. Yes, Garmin has by far the best and the most convenient mount. You don't have to dislodge the suction cup, but rather just snap the unit off and the suction cup stays in place. This was extremely important in my application. Also it has a very long battery life compared to TomTom XL. Now to the review of the device itself. How silly is it that you can not input a zip code? Garmin can't do that. It is hard to believe but every time you input an address where you want to go you have to go through the whole find city/state routine instead of just putting in a zip code. The second disadvantage is the Keyboard layout. It is alphabetic. And you have no option to change that. An alphabetic keyboard is extremely slow. TomTom has a choice between three different keyboard layouts including QWERTY like on the computer. in the NUVI When you search for address you have to go through the whole city state routine every time instead of just having an option of searching for an address in the city you are in currently. It is extremely slow to input address as well. What would take a few seconds in TomTom takes a minute or two in Garmin. The interface is very narrow minded, no customization and very few options. There is no way to plan a trip beforehand and have multiple stops. There is no way to avoid certain roads. There is no way to use certain roads. The nuvi is just point A to Point B or point A to Point B with Point C in the Middle. That's It!? TomTom has an itinerary planning option that allows you to plan the whole trip with multiple stops. Or even numerous trips. Where TomTom comes with software to update your device and to load different, map colors, voices..., Garmin gives you just one map color. TomTom gives you so much more. it is just a much more fully featured device. The Nuvi is just so basic and slow. Now on to the worst part. Accuracy is very poor sometimes. It constantly confuses service roads and highways, direction of travel and current location. In NYC it is a disaster. The routes it chooses are also idiotic. TomTom does not nearly make so many mistakes. Another really annoying thing is the road input. You have to know exactly how it is spelled in the NUVI. I had to go once to 125 Route 59 East. Half hour after getting behind the wheel and I was still in the garage. The only way I found it is through the POI search. It turns out that you had to spell it Hwy 59 West. And that's the only way Garmin knew the road. I tried RT 59, Route 59, Just 59, Highway 59, RT 59 E, Route 59 East and many many more combinations and it still didn't see it. Combined with inability to input the Zip Code, I couldn't even find it by browsing the map. In TomTom it took less then two seconds. I just inputted 59 and immediately there were options on the screen while I was still typing. The options were Rt 59 East, Rt 59 West. So easy! This is how it should be. Garmin didn't even have east, only had west. One thing I will fault TomTom on is POIs. Let's say you are looking for Costco in your vicinity. TomTom shows the name and that's it No address. If there are numerous locations, the only way to know which location you are gong to is actually go there. Now there is an update that fixes that but TomTom still does not give you phone numbers for POIs. Garmin is much better in the way POI's are organized also. ie. Restaurants are organized by cuisine; Italian, French, German etc. In the end the Negatives greatly outweigh the positives in the Nuvi. So it is back to TomTom for me. I will have to fabricate something to get it mounted in the spot I want but I can not live with the NUVI!

Before the Nuvi, the only GPS I'd ever used was a Garmin hiking GPS, which I purchased in 2004. It wasn't extremely easy to use, and installing maps on it was awkward. So for the longest time, I didn't bother looking at automotive GPS units, especially Garmins.

My parents recently got a Nuvi 650. They're in their 60s and not extremely technologically savvy. Yet they were able to use it right out of the box, spending minimal time reading the (very short, well-written) "getting started" guide that comes in the package. They are retired and spend every winter RVing around the country, so the Nuvi is an extremely useful device for them.

My wife and I got to see their Nuvi 650. We were impressed with how well designed the interface is. It's very intuitive. The screen is big and bright and easy to read in any light. We and my parents experimented with the auto-nav features and found it did a great job navigating us through complicated routes.

I got the bug to buy an automotive GPS and did my research. A recent Consumer Reports issue (Dec 2007, I think, also available online) has a great review of automotive GPS units. Four of their top 5 are Nuvis (the other is a TomTom).

I ruled out the TomTom because the suction mount it comes with isn't as good as the Nuvi's mount.

I considered the Nuvi 660 (which adds bluetooth and a traffic receiver, but is a lot more expensive). The traffic info requires an extra cost subscription (after a free trial period). The bluetooth wasn't attractive to me for these reasons: 1) I will only use my GPS for road trips and occasional visits to an unfamiliar part of the city I live in, yet I use my cell phone all the time. 2) My car stereo already has built-in bluetooth features and, after trying them out, I ended up not using them.

I ruled out the cheaper Nuvis for two reasons. Some of them have smaller screens: 3.5", whereas the 6xx series has a 4.3" screen. Second, on some cheaper units, the voice directions do not include street names ("turn left in 500 feet"), whereas on the Nuvi 6xx series, the voice directions tell you what street to turn on, as well as how many feet or miles or whatever.

So I settled on the Nuvi 650.

Before making the purchase, though, I was concerned that this particular model was introduced 3 years ago - a long time for a technological gadget. More importantly, I worried that the maps on it would be from 2004. I emailed Garmin customer support, they replied in 24 hours and said that Nuvi 650s are now shipping with the latest maps - the 2008 City Navigator North America NT mappping software. If, by chance, I happen to get a unit that doesn't have the latest maps, when I register my unit online I will be able to order a free update to the latest maps.

Based on this, I ordered a Nuvi 650. Sure enough, it came with the 2008 maps.

Despite that this model was introduced 3 years ago, my wife and I find it very well-designed and it meets our needs very well. As others here have noted, the auto nav is not always 100% accurate - but that's true with any automotive GPS. You always must travel with a good atlas, and of course, your cell phone.

The Nuvi series is great: there are lots of different ones with different features, something for just about everybody. Some reviews of the 650 complain about this or that feature missing -- fine, then look at the Nuvi line -- there's probably a Nuvi with the feature you want.

Nuvis are easy enough to use right out of the box, for people who don't like reading manuals. But for those that do, it's worthwhile to spend 20-30 minutes reading the manual and tinkering with it.

If you plug it into your computer using the included USB cable, it shows up as a drive in Windows explorer. You can drag and drop your favorite photos onto the photo folder of this "drive", and then view them on the Nuvi as a slide show. You can pick one of them to be your splash screen, which you see when you first power up the unit or plug it into your computer. You can drag and drop your favorite MP3 files to the Nuvi, and play them on the Nuvi's internal MP3 player. The Nuvi has an audio output jack (which takes a standard earphone sized plug), so you can play the Nuvi's sound through your car stereo if it has an auxiliary input jack.

You can change the auto icon that represents your vehicle on the map; there are quite a few to choose from on the garmin website. You can change the voice that gives you directions; the English speaking voices include an American female (the default) or male, a British female or male, and an Australian female or male. My wife likes the British male voice the best. If you're multilingual or traveling abroad, you can switch to one of many foreign language voices.

Since the Nuvi 650 is not the latest and greatest, shop around and you should be able to get a great deal. We got a fantastic deal from c o s t c o d o t c o m. (Trying to avoid the censor.)

One last tip: The Consumer Reports article I mentioned said that thieves love to break windows and grab GPS units (and iPods, etc). The article said that you should not only take the unit with you when you park somewhere, but also remove the windshield mount - some thieves will see it and assume you left your GPS in the glove compartment, and break your window to find out.

I've been using this for about three months and it has never disappointed. The larger screen is worth the price (about $75-$100 more than the Nuvi 350). In addition, there aren't many major differences between the 650 and the 660 (see other reviews for a detailed list of differences between the two) and you save $100+ off the price of what the Nuvi 660 is currently going for.

I have had a GARMIN Street Pilot III, A TomTom910, and now a Nuvi 650. Garmin makes a great product and it works great. Better than the TomTom. More could be shown as to the levels of magnifaction and when rest areas show etc. It is very easy to add data and waypoins and Points of Interest.
I know i will stick to Garmin.

After reading many user reviews and Consumer Reports I purchased a Nuvi 650 for what I considered a reasonable price. I familiarized myself with the GPS and then took a trip through 4 states. I found the screen to be very readable in daylight and in the night. The spoken name voice commands are a real benefit when coupled with the visual display. I wouldn't buy one without that feature. The Nuvi told me when to turn with adequate time to make a smooth turn in all cases. It was accurate to within 60 to 100 feet. The touch screen is easy to use when changing or inputting data. However there are some problems which stem from the mapping software. In 2 cases I was directed to turn left into a destination driveway instead of to the right. That is a minor problem but still needs addressing by the data vendor. Also I was unable to go to one destination by a direct route no matter what I selected. This was probably due to a new portion of highhway just recently opened and probably was not yet input in the maps. One last thing was inability to find a street address in a neighborhood approximately 3 years old. I have to state however that the same problems were true on Mapquest so it is just a matter of required updates. These problems are minimal when one considers the overall function and usefulness of this GPS. Fortunately Garmin has a web address to contact for complaints and suggestions. As Consumer Reports stated in their GPS Review-Oct 2007,"We found minor errors on most maps. There is no substitute for local knowledge." Point well taken. I would recommend this Nuvi 650 based on my experience with it. If one wants Bluetooth capability then look at the Nuvi 660. If a smaller screen is desired then consider the Nuvi 550. The basics are the same and only the extras are changed. Yes I know I had to print the manual. That's okay. There is one in the box that is a basic manual and I keep that one in the car.

The pros and cons of this Garmin 650 model have been well spelled out in other reviews. The following has been our experience with the unit so far:

Neither the "Quick Reference Guide" nor the online manual explain details about charging the unit. We took along the vehicle power cable on our first long trip, but discovered that this cable's USB connector did not attach to the GPS unit. Therefore, once the battery gave out we could not use the unit. On return home, I looked at some reviews and one of them pointed out that the vehicle power cable attaches only to the dashboard mount. WHY COULDN'T GARMIN TELL YOU THAT IN THEIR INSTRUCTIONS?

The unit's screen does not tell you when charging is complete. It merely shows that the unit is attached to a charging source. The instructions do not tell you how long you have to charge the unit and how long the charge lasts.

We find this unit most useful when looking for a specific address. It directs you to exactly that address. It is especially useful at night when street signs and house numbers are even less visible.

For major highways, this unit seems to insist on its own way. If you deviate, it will persist in taking you off your own choice route and take you back to the GPS route. For example, from our New Jersey home to the Delaware Memorial Bridge we have three options, all major highways: route 295 (our preferred route), the NJ Turnpike, or a bridge to Philadelphia to pick up route 95. The GPS directs us to the latter. However, if we head to 295, the GPS tries to take us off that and back to the Philadelphia/95 option. Once on 295, the GPS tries to take us off that and direct us to the NJ Turnpike. It isn't until a good bit later on 295 that the unit recalculates that 295 will take us to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The unit sometimes does not accurately announce an approaching turn.

Our recent long-distance trip proved that different map services provide different directions. For example, Google maps, Mapquest and the GPS differed from each other. We recommend not relying completely on one set of directions but examining at least two and then using one's own best judgement.

I own a Magellan Maestro 4040 for my own personal vehicle as i do a lot of traveling and can't stand to read map quest as i am driving. The one feature on the Magellan that i like is how you want to get their. The Garmin Nuvi 650 doesn't have that feature. It picks the best route for you. I bought the Garmin for my wife and she loves it. The maps are up to date, its fast to find stores, shops, banks, restraints. it will look up any place you want to go by spelling it. A GREAT PRICE.

Product works well, particularly with the moveable base. It is accurate and gives timely instructions. My prior GPS was a Magellan and I find trying to locate someplace by category is harder here. I also do not like the american female voice, she sounds like a nagging teacher ('recalculating'). I use the Aussie voice, but sometimes it is hard to make out the street with her accent. Other then the voice, it's a good product.

Great product but as with most tech it is not perfect. I found one instance where the Garmin direction was to turn right but the intersection only went left. Left was the correct way to go. Once I made the left turn it recalculated and the rest of the trip was fine. Options are also expensive.

this is a good product for the price. as with all gps guided systems, it can sometimes lead you on a route that is slightly less than optimal, but still gets you where you want to go. it's not 100% foolproof, but pretty darn close. the text-to-speach feature is nice. it also has several language options. the choice between 2-D and 3-D views, and tracking up vs. north always up is another nice feature. mounting device could be better. overall, i would recommend this product.

I absolutely love this unit. I guess when it is first starting up it take a few moments to acquire the satellites. But everytime afterwards it aquires the signal very quickly.

The thing I like the most about this unit is the ease of the interface. It only takes about a half hour of playing around with to fully grasp everything this unit has to offer. It is very easy to input favorite addresses such as friends addresses and such.

I tested out the unit the day by driving to a friends place. It took me the route that I would take normally to jump on the freeway and with the helpful voice guidance got me to my location without a problem. I even took a wrong turn at certain times during the route just to test the GPS unit and low and behold, it worked flawlessly. It took about 3-5 seconds for the gps system to determine that I had gone the wrong route and recalculate another route for me.

There has been an incidence where it took a little bit longer to realize that I had missed my turn, but it had no problem rerouting me to get me to my destination.

In regards to someone else's comment about how the map doesnt realize that you have not taken a turn, its true the that map is still assuming that you have taken the turn and rotates as if you are on the new street, but the car icon still shows you on the street in which you really are. It just takes a moment for it to reconfigure the map.

One horrible thing that I hate about the 650, well not really the 650 but the packaging is the lack of the manual, you have to go print it out yourself. It isn't a big deal whereas it effects the performance of the gps system, but it is quite annoying to have to print it out yourself.

In regards to POI's, I am still confused as to how I am amble to enter them onto my computer and then load them into the GPS system, I did download the loader but I dont know what program to use to create the POI's, Garmin's website doesn't exactly have anything in regards to a program that creates POI's.

Unlike other GPS units, this one doesnt show POI's on the map while your driving, you have to actually choose one in order to get there, so while you are driving you cant see what the nearest gast station is in relation to your position on the map, rather you have to go into the system to find it. But in regards to this, everything you need in a GPS system is in this one. I saw no need to spend an extra $100 on an FM transmitter, bluetooth or traffic receiver.

For the price i paid, $300, this is my first GPS unit and I am more than satisfied with it. I would recommend this to anyone.

Product is easy to program and simple to use. Screen is easy to read and automatic light level is nice. The unit has more features than needed.

Dislikes: Routes are often very circutious even if using "shortest" route. Tried both "fastest" route and "shortest" route and not any significant difference. This unit is for my college age daughter. I have a factory unit the came with my Honda Pilot and this unit has much better directions, althought not as easy to program.

POI is almost useless on the Garmin.

Would like to see a unit that you can teach a prefered route, like entering short cuts and back roads.

Have been using the Nuvi for about a month now. As noted elsewhere it does react slowly at times to the location, especially at higher speeds. The added book music etc is probably great but I doubt this will be important to me as I have all the radios, cd players etc in the vehicle already.. I like the portability and many of the menu options and like most Garmin products it is easy to use. Battery life seems to be reasonable and it has the advantage of being able to charge via the computer.
The suction mount is crap and the company should refund the cost of buying a workable mount. Suction cup would not hold despite various different methods of providing a good surface for it to mount to. I prefer the bean bag mount.
Clear screen, usually easy to manuver on it though the corners seem to take addition pressure than the rest of it to function.
All in all it is a good unit that functions well and would recommend it to anyone along with the few points that they should be aware of before buying it.
Amazon did its normal good job of getting the item to me.

Bought this unit after comparing to the 660. I have driven lots of vehicles with built in GPS. The 650 user interface is terrific, and a joy to use.

You don't need documentation, it is straight forward if you read what is on the screen before you press 'buttons' on the touch screen. The touch screen interface is very very easy to use and the large size of the icons really helps in not fat-fingering.

The unit feels like it is feather light, at least, to me.

You don't need an AC charger since it can pick up power from the included USB cable that you will use to connect it to the computer for upgrades etc.

The case that comes with the 660 is useless because it is a slide in case. If you take it out of the car to use on foot, this case design is useless, you need a case with a flip up cover (read online that Blackberry flip up cases fit, but I need to research this).

I believe that I cannot use the 660's FM transmitter since the family minivan is mostly running DVD Player sound over the radio, so cannot tune to an FM channel anyway.

I already have a Plantronics bluetooth ear piece for my cell phone (which I can use when walking around on foot without carrying a 'loudspeaker' nav unit in my hand !!!) so don't really need the 660's bluetooth either. Also if you are driving your colleagues or family around, and you really need to take a call, do you need to broadcast it over the Nuvi - buy a bluetooth ear set.

For the delta price savings 650 is fine compared to the 660 unless you really need feature rich system in which case you should probably buy a 680 with traffic alerts.

I did not need the friction mount unit as I mounted the included adhesive disc on top of the center stack on my 2008 Chrysler Town and Country (you suction cup mount the unit on top of this disc for easy removal), but I believe that it would be a good buy.

I bought my first GPS-Garmin 650 this thanksgiving. I am using it for almost a week now. Here are my first impressions.

Good
1. Text to speech. GPS speaks street names in a natural voice. No need to keep looking at the screen.
2. Bright screen. Even in bright sunny day, the screen is bright enough and easy to read.
3. Ease of use. Anyone with little bit interest/knowledge of gadgets can use this. No need to go through manuals for most of the stuff. You just get it.
4. Auto Complete feature. While typing city name, after typing first couple of characters, it just gives you all matching city names. No need to type in complete names. Very nicely designed.

There are couples of other features like MP3 playback, audio book etc. I don't use them much as the audio quality is below average.

It has JPEG viewer as well, but I think its most useless feature a GPS can have. If you are driving, you are supposed to keep your eyes on road and not a slideshow. Garmin could have put efforts in some other direction like adding voice recognition support.

Bad:
1. Bugs: This product is not gone through QA for sure. Here are the bugs I could find in first 5 days of use.
i) Once you enter wrong pin, there is no way to re-try without switching it off completely. As soon as wrong PIN is entered, screen freezes.
ii) If it is finding satellite signals, and you enter destination and ask GPS to give you direction, that's it. GPS would never catch satellite signals. If user is not allowed to search for destination while it is searching for signals, User should not be given a screen to enter destination.
iii) Search results are totally random. I searched for 'Best Buy' couple of times (each time while my car parked at same place), listings are not same order. And in any case, it never returned the nearest Best buy store.
iv) When it "recalculates", it doesn't come up with optimal route. for e.g. I asked it to give me route for point A to point B , now I stopped at C which wasnt on route to B from A. so at point C, it 'reculated' route to point B. but that wasnt the same route if I ask it to give me a 'fresh' route to B from C.

2. There is no touch control to switch it off. At times, I feel it is required to switch off device. The only way to do that is to keep the physical power button pressed for couple of seconds.
Overall, a good device. Works as expected for most cases. IMO Its little expensive.

I've had the 650 for over a month, it works right out of the box, navigation seems to be accurate. Here're some features that needed improvement:

1. slow in picking up sat signal
2. interface is on the weak side, the menu items are not very intuitive, e.g. there is no address book, you have to save your address in favourite; the "state" is mistakenly labeled as "county",
3. use propietary plugs to charge. I know we can charge it at home without spending another $40 for a home charger. Any charger with a mini-USB plug can charge the unit, however, the unit will enter the computer-interface mode and you cannot use it at all while charging it using the USB port. The Magellan's I had own, I can charge it and still able to access the unit to do anything I want. Shame on Garmin to lock down this feature and force customers to buy addition charger for home use. Just this inconvenience alone, I would have given it a one star.
4. the antenna has to be flipped out in order to activate navigation, another bummer from Garmin, shame shame shame.
5. car charger doesnot plug into the unit directly, and it plugs at the bottom of the unit, kind of a nuance. Garmin would have saved money on production by using only USB as charging and communicating.

Things I like:
1. clear TTS
2. sensitive touch screen
3. fast response once sat signal is locked

A tip to the nuvi owners or potential owners: you don't need to spend your hard earned money to buy a POS made in china Garmin home charger, you can charge it via the mini USB port in 2 ways: i) connect to your computer's usb port when your computer is on; ii) use any home charger that has the usb mini plug (most cell phones, pdas are using this kind of charger to charge) to charge your garmin. It works just fine.

Garmin Nuvi 650 Personal Travel Assistant for North America

Excelent unit for the car. Wide screen, bright colors. I haven't used the travel assistant much, or the mp3 player at all, but this unit can stand on its own as a rock solid GPS unit. I used two other units in the last year and this puts both of them to shame. The routing logic and the current maps have made this the best unit by far. If you don't need Bluetooth or real time traffic this is the unit for you. There is a reason Garmin is the bigest name in GPS.

This is an excellent product. Used on a trip to Savannah and Charleston. Entered addresses of places we were staying places we hoped to get to see on the trip. I do not think thst it gave me any incorrect instructions.I would definitely reccomend this item.

The Nuvi 650 is a life-changing device for someone who gets so easily lost as me. Before I had it, I tended to always use the same old simplest routes and go only to the stores and restaurants I know I could get to without getting terribly lost. I also tended not to go out at nights because landmarks were harder to see. Now with the GPS I have new confidence and it's like a whole new world opened up to me! No sooner do I pass the street that I was supposed turn onto and "Karen's" voice tells me it's re-calculated the route and clearly pronounces something like "In .2 miles turn left onto Susquehanna St". Some other GPS route's can not say road names like that. I'm going to new parks and lunch spots, and trying out new scenic routes to the office.

It has many points of interest loaded meaning that you don't always need to know the exact address to go to. I can just spell out "Panera" and lets me choose from all the surrounding Panera bread stores. Also it lets you save your favorite places so you can quickly click and go. There's even a "go home button". Garmin really thought out all the things a user would want to do and designed an incredibly friendly user interface.

An additional plus of the unit is the high sensitivity GPS receiver. Even when it is cloudy and storming outside I have had no trouble getting GPS satellite reception. This makes me feel safer coming home when the when the windshield is awash with rain and street signs hard to make. The GPS unit lets me know things like "Make left on Broad Street in .2 miles", and then just before the turn tells me "Turn left on "Broad Street".

The screen is very clear and the maps are good, and even just by listening I can find my way because the unit gives such clear instructions.

I was unsure about how much I'd use the mp3 functionality of the unit. It does come in handy though because sometimes I get absorbed in a really good song and forget to make a turn. When I use the GPS unit as my mp3 player, it pauses the music momentarily to give me the next direction so I pay attention to it. I was able to take the SD card from my camera and drag and drop my mp3 files onto it for the nav system.

I did think it odd and slightly inconvenient that it didn't arrive with a standard charger for an outlet. On the other hand it did however come with a cigarette lighter charger for the car which is where I use the Nav system, and other companies could have considered that an optional accessory. I usually charge up the unit via the usb hub on my computer and that's been working out just fine.

All in all, Way to go Garmin!

After reading SO many good reviews about this product, I decided to buy it and see if it lived up to the hype and planned on returning my Magellan 4040 if it did, in fact, meet my expectations. Let me say that it fell drastically short.

One of the main reasons I purchased this unit was because the maps looked incredibly easy to read. I usually wear sunglasses while I'm driving so I needed a bright, clear GPS to read. I will say that Garmin does a good job in this department. However, it lacks in almost every other area. If you are on the fence between a Magellan and a Garmin, please go with the Magellan!!!! Here is why.

-The magellan has a much nicer interface and is WAY more user friendly. The touch screen is extremely responsive. With the Garmin, I had to pretty much pound my fingers into the screen to get a response. The Magellan only needs a light tap.

-Garmin does not automatically blur out letters as you are typing to make data entry faster. Magellan does this, and also guesses the city and street you are typing. Garmin will guess the city but will not blur out any letters. Also, *very important* Garmin does not have a zip code look up. I find this very useful with the Magellan since it saves me from entering in a long city name.

-Garmin's map screen tells you the absolute bare bones minimum. It does not even have a compass on the screen to tell you which direction you are traveling!!! Magellan has a nice little orange box in the top left corner of the map screen that tells you which direction you are traveling. If you are someone who has no sense of direction, I would think this would be an important and necessary component. Garmin will tell you which direction you are traveling, but only if you push a button on the screen (lame!).

-Magellan shows in the bottom left corner which way your next turn will be. Garmin does not...yet again, you have to push a button to see which direction your next turn will be. As you approach the turn, the top of the screen will tell you "right on such and such" but while traveling, all it says is "Main street to Flores Ave". Is this a right onto flores ave or a left? You won't know until you get about 500 feet away from the turn, which means you could be in the wrong lane before the the GPS tells you which way to turn. With the Magellan, the next turn is ALWAYS displayed on the map screen, which gives you much more time to prepare.

-Map detail: Maps on the Magellan are MUCH more detailed than Garmin's. The maps may look all nice and pretty and colorful on Garmin, but it only shows an average of maybe 2 or 3 other major street names near you. Magellan will show many more street names near you without looking cluttered at all. I really like this feature. The maps on the Garmin can also look a little "cartoony" at times, if you will. The maps look great on the Garmin in the sunlight, which I applaud them for. The magellan daytime map can get a little washed out during the day, but with the voice prompts and the names of streets listed on the top and bottom of the screen, there should be no problem.

-TTS: The TTS on the Garmin is definitely a lot clearer than Magellan's, but that is definitely not to say that the Magellan is not understandable (it is very clear). Garmin also lets you choose what kind of voice you would like to hear (accents, male/female). Magellan has a woman's voice and still gets the job done just as well. On another note, the Garmin is incredibly verbose. I was actually starting to get annoyed at how often it told me a turn was coming up, how far away it was, and the street name. It would tell me about 3 times before the actual turn came up. SO annoying. Magellan does not constantly tell you (it tells you enough to get you where you need to go).

POI database: this is the one thing that annoyed me the most about the Garmin and is the MAIN reason I am returning this over-hyped product. When you type in a POI by name, it is RIDICULOUSLY slow at finding what is around you. I did a side by side comparison and typed the same POI name in both of the units and Magellan had finished MINUTES before the Garmin did. All you can see is the little rotating dots on the Garmin while it slowly and painfully grabs the POIs you looked for. I actually called Garmin support thinking my unit had a bug and that maybe that was the reason it lagged...nope. The man told me it takes that long because it needs time to search through its POI database. I dont know about you, but I don't want to sit and wait for literally 3-5 minutes for my GPS to find a common POI when I can have another unit find it in a matter of seconds. The POIs that are already listed, however, do come up a lot faster. This "lag" only happens when you search by name.

-route calculation: Both units are fast at recalculating a route should you miss a turn. However, Garmin tries to make you go BACK to your original route by making you do a square. Tsk tsk Garmin. Magellan will actually put you on a new route (WHICH IS WHAT A GPS IS SUPPOSED TO DO!) instead of trying to make you turn around and go back to the original one! Another little thing I like about the Magellan is that on your highlighted route, it has several blue arrows indicating the direction you need to be traveling. Garmin has one huge white arrow, which you sometimes can't even see (in 3D mode) if the turn is further ahead. So all you see is a pink line, and you have no clue which way it's pointing. A neat thing about the Garmin is that you can go on their website and download different vehicles to make it a little more fun - the Magellan simply has an arrow, which I'm fine with.

-Detour/routing: Magellan asks you each time you go somewhere whether you want the fastest, shortest, most use of highways or least use of highways. Garmin does not ask this, you have to dig through menus to find this option and it uses it for all routes. If you want to change it for each route, again, you have to dig through menus to find it. Also, if you want to take a detour, the Garmin will choose one for you. With the Magellan, when you ask for a detour, you have the choice of avoiding the next 3, 5, or 20 miles. Garmin does not bother to ask you, it just does it.

-When you are approaching a turn, all Garmin does is babble on and on. Magellan's screen will automatically split, showing you the map on the right side and a picture of what your upcoming turn looks like on the left side. I absolutely love this feature. If you want to see this in Garmin, you have to press the screen while you are driving before your turn comes up. Magellan saves you this hassle. Also, on the top of the Magellan map screen, it says the name of the street you are currently on. At the bottom of the screen, it says the name of the street you need to turn on next. Garmin does not do this, it just has one bar at the top that jumbles every single turn/street name/etc into that one single bar.

Trip planner - again, something Garmin lacks. You can only insert one stop on a route, whereas you can plan an entire trip with multiple stops with the Magellan.

Overall, if you want cool map colors, voices, and cars, get the Garmin. If you want a GPS to do what it's supposed to do and be the most helpful while doing so, get a Magellan.

Easy to use. Screen is easy to read even in the daylight with the sun glare. Didn't have some newer roads and sometimes the names of roads did not match, but as good or better than other nav units I've used.

Firstly, this is a wonderful unit to have. I'm not going to say the same things as the other positive reviews, because they are all true. What I will tell you about is some things that I found out after I got the unit.

Specifically, I have two comparisions between the Nuvi and Street Pilot. On the specs they look very similar. But in the end the Nuvi is the portable one, and the Street Pilot is made for use in cars all the time.

1) There is only one speaker in the back of the unit. The Street Pilots have 2 speakers making it a little louder.

2) To adjust the volume while driving is a bit of a hassle. You have to press the power button once to bring up the volume, then adjust the volume, and then confirm. In total, it takes 3 steps. On the Street Pilots, there is a jog dial on the side that lets you adjust volume very quickly and easily.

Overall, I don't miss the Street Pilot's features b/c the Nuvi is very portable and small. The funny thing is that after using this for about a month, I'm totally depending on it's directions. I hardly think for myself when I drive to a new location.

This was an excellent price for the product!!! It is great for anyone who is not interested in all the bells in whistles...it is the large screen and has the street names with the voice commands plus written directions. The suction for the window keeps falling off...

Having been a GPS user for many years, I have found there is no such thing as a perfect GPS. No unit will produce perfect routes every time and with any model, users will find something that could be improved. However the Garmin nuvi 650 is as close to perfection as you will find in today's marketplace.

The unit's interface is extremely simple to use, its business database is very comprehensive and it produces accurate and reliable results at least 95% of the time. The receiver is very sensitive without an external antenna and satellites are usually recognized within a few seconds. The audible voice directions are clear and plenty loud enough. The MP3 player works well, but you can't expect a unit like this to provide the same results as a regular MP3 player.

If I had to be critical, features that would be desireable include automatic resizing of images in the picture viewer, breadcrumbs showing traveled routes and identification of the community that you are currently driving through. The plastic case might seem somewhat cheap upon first examinination, but it keeps the unit light and would not be as likely to be a dangerous projectile in an accident as a metal case would.

Buyers should give thought a lot of thought as to whether they need Bluetooth connectivity, FM transmission capability, etc. in their GPS. Most users will probably not use their GPS in this manner. With the Garmin nuvi 650, you get all essential GPS features without paying for features you probably will not use.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this unit.

I'm agree with one of the reviewer that people tend to complain about everything. Even with a GPS worths thousands of dollar, they still find thing to complain. anyway, this Nuvi 650 is an excellent unit, i live in So Cal area and it pick up signal in less than 10 seconds, mine come the 2008 map version, so i know it has 6 millions POIs preloaded. Even if you get a older map version, Garmin will give you a update map DVD for free. Built in MP3 player is a great function because when i hook it to my external FM transmiter, i can listen to MP3 while navigating, and hear the turning instruction through my car speaker, very COOL. I strongly recommend this GPS to everyone

I got this from my parents this past Christmas and used it recently to go look at some possible wedding locations with my fiance. We had printed out some directions from Google, but we would have gotten lost if we hadn't had this thing with us. It was great! I set it so that it has a guy speaking with an Australian accent and it warns you about 3 times before you need to turn or keep left/right. The screen is plenty big and I didn't have any problems putting things in. You also don't always have to finish inputting the street name or city because it usually knows which one you are talking about before you're done and it gives you 3 or 4 to choose from based on what you put in. This is my first GPS and this one was definitely perfect for my needs.

P.S. The navigation systems aren't perfect by any means and any GPS is going to have a few "mistakes" about where it wants you to go. These may cost you a few minutes, but I think that the majority of the time these things are pretty accurate.

I just received the Garmin 650 from Amazon yesterday and I'm very disappointed with it after reading all the good reviews in here. I think the map is not updated! I've used the Garmin 350 before and it was better. I like this one because of the 4.3 inch screen. I've been using it a few times already and it always give me incorrect directions! Maybe Amazon sent me an outdated one since I got it for a very good deal? I don't know, but I'm really disappointed with this one. I like the Garmin 350 much better. The color and everything else was good though. Only the directions sucks.

Garmin continues to be the leader in Personal Travel GPS equipment as demonstrated with their Nuvi line of GPS products. The touch screen interface and menus are easy to use. Great graphics but contrast adjustment would be useful. Unlike my original Garmin Street Pilot III, there is a slight lagtime between your actual position and the car icons position on the map, however the voice commands give the driver plenty of notice time for upcoming turns, etc. The speaker is OK. I haven't tried listening to MP3's but wouldn't bother.
All in all, great design, graphics and mounting hardware. The rechargeable battery negates needing the power cord all the time. I would buy this product again.

I've found this device fairly easy to mount and use. It gives good directions, recalculates paths very rapidly, and does it in an unobtrusive manner. The screen is bright in daylight, therefore making it easy to read both during the day and at night. The screen is uncluttered and puts the information where it's easy to find and in large fonts. The only problem I'm having is with the suction cup mount, which tends to release after several miles in city traffic with the bumpy roads. I'd still buy this product again if I lost the first one.

My wife picked this up for me for Christmas from Costco. Good deal. The maps work great. I've been using it for a month in 3 different cities and it's picked up where I was and got me where I wanted to go very accurately.

The one big drawback is that this unit is gimped on the amount of memory built into it (1.5 GB instead of the 2 GB installed in the other 600 series models). I had to remove the extra voice sound files, etc in order to have enough room to install the updates from the Garmin web site.

Minor gripes: It would be nice to have an easier way to create an address book and import it into the device. Multiple stop directions are possible, but a little cumbersome as you have to pick your end destination first, then 'add' the mid points afterwards. There's also no easy way to re-arrange way points once they're set up.

We are still getting to know how to use the Garmin nuvi 650, but were rather dismayed that we could not find our own address...not even our street. Our neighborhood has existed for 7 years and our home for 6 years. Seems out of touch to me and makes me wonder how many other address I won't be able to find. Otherwise, we like the look, sound, size, etc.

I bought the Nuvi 660 two years ago. It is so useful that I bought two of the Nuvi 650's as 2007 Christmas presents. I never used the Bluetooth and didn't feel the traffic alert was that accurate. I updated the maps on my old one a few months ago with the DVD which is also available at [...] (Garmin Map Update 2008 City Navigator for North America NT (010-10989-00 and 010-10989-50)).

I have owned various GPSs and the Nuvi 650 is tops - Bright and clear screen, fast calculations, great sound, many up to date POIs. Only knock is that once deep into a menu, you have to back out 4 or 5 times to get back to the map - Garmin really needs to tweak the menu to get back in one shot - the backing out is a pain when driving - although most systems warn you against driving and operating a GPS.......and sometimes like other brands, it will take you on a route you don't want, this is usually attributed to the faster/shorter choices which you will have to learn as you go. Also a little trick to saving the suction cup life is to wet it first before sticking it on he windshield and always take it off when done. I made the mistake with my old GPS of leaving it on a hot windshield for a few days and when taking it off I left a lot of the rubber on the windshield which made future suction weak. Garmin is the leader and their tech support and website tops. Worked great right out of the box, although you should go ont the website and update the voices and vehicles, just for fun.

The Garmin Nuvi 650 is a very impressive, well designed, compact unit that features a bright, large 4.3" display screen, excellent 3D map viewing, and accurate voice directions. Touchscreen response and rerouting are fast. It is so user-friendly and easy to use from the start that it's not even necessary to download the owner's manual from the website. The only minor problem I encountered was the suction cup mount for the windshield which occasionally failed. I highly recommend the unit...I wouldn't travel without it.

I opted for the nuvi 650 rather than the nuvi 660. I didn't need the blue tooth or the FM receiver so why spend the extra money?? I've had only good experiences with this unit. It works well for me! I also purchased the friction mount (you got to have this when switching vehicles), and the leather carrying case. These two accessories are a "must have" and made my nuvi 650 complete. All in all, you can't go wrong with this GPS. Highly recommended!

We purchased the Garmin Nuvi650 in February 2008. We had previously had the Garmin IQ3600. The Nuvi is so much easier to operate and we like the 4.3 inch screen. The only negative that I can think of is the fact that you cannot delete single addresses because you have to clear ALL of them. Not a big deal, we just put the ones we use often in Favorites. We will never be without a Garmin!

This is a real revolution. I took it away on a trip and used it with the rental car. Never got lost and was able to find restaurants, airport, etc. Everyone who saw it in use says they will now buy one.

We have purchased 4 of these units as gifts. Three of them were for our adult children in the Southwest US. Each has found them to be helpful and fun. One found a shortcut on a commonly used route from a home he has lived in for 15 years. Another has used it to find new ethnic resturants and the third is using it to find golf courses and experimenting with the languages. The fourth Nuvi is for a couple in their 70's to find new addresses in their home town.
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br /The units should come with the carrying case and have a more memory. In order to install the newest map, I had to offload part of the MP3 file. The map download was cumbersome and time consuming but well worth it. I would recommend updating at least every other year. All in all a great product!

This is my first GPS set which I owned for several months now, so I'm not sure how other units are relatively. However, several important issues if you are considering it.

First, the routing algorithm's configuration options are deficient. For example, you can avoid highways and toll roads. However, you can't tell it to prefer major roads. This is very important in winter because minor roads are less-well treated, and especially if one does not like mountain driving and would rather take the more major mountain roads. I live in Western PA where this is a major issue. So what would happen is that to save maybe half a mile on a 40 mile trip, it would have me take tiny little alley roads that one then has to negotiate at 10MPH, when there's a great road nearby.

Second, the GPS takes incredibly long to find its initial signal, especially if placed on the car windshield or even through the sunroof. I often have to go out of the car, or wait a long time before starting to drive.

Third, the mapping data is not always accurate, and the GPS consistently loses signal in certain locations (e.g., downtown Pittsburgh which is a horrible maze of one way streets). This might be an issue with other units.

On the positive side, it has super fast recalculation. Miss your turn, and it's right away ready for you.

Also, it's too big to carry around in a pocket (though the size is great for viewing in the car), but be aware if you plan to be on foot.

Also, make sure to get the garmin beanbag stand. Super stable and easy to remove, unlike the crappy windshield mount.

We purchased this Garmin nuvi 650 to replace a nuvi 200 that someone took from our car. The price was good, and we had liked our 200, and the 650 seemed to have added features. However, it gives some VERY strange directions--I'd think it just needed updating, but it has some newer restaurants, etc. on it, so I'm not sure what the problem is. It gives wrong road numbers and turns and doesn't even know where our house is. If we can get it updated, hopefully it will be fine. The picture and voice are good.

This is an excellent product, easy to use and accurate too boot. The screen is clear and readable in all but the most direct sunlight. The voice volume could be a little louder, but my truck is 20+ years old and not the quietest ride around.

Garmin nuvi 650 - worked right away
PROS
- usually picks up satellite signal in 30 seconds or less
- screen is large, bright and easy to read
- able to operate without reading instructions
- huge list of restaurants and points of interest
- pointing to locations works well
CONS (things to know)
- does not come with carrying case (sold extra)
- only comes with auto charger (home charger sold extra)
- movable dashboard mount would be great (sold extra)
- struggles with overpasses

I have only used my Nuvi a few times but am very pleased. It is easy to use and the screen is easy to see- a big plus for my 50+ eyes! Navigating the menu is fairly intuitive. I found that it took a while to figure out how to put the bracket on since there were no directions included. Overall though, I love my nuvi.

I recently bought this .. but this does not stick to (stay on) the dashboard, even using the extra base they provided for the mount. Always comes off. Any one else having this issue..did u try something

Thanks

We are very pleased with the unit. Very simple to use. Lots of extras we didn't realize this unit had. Great value for the money.

Its an upgrade from my 530. I like the Nuvi but don't like to have to raise the antenna when using it for a walk. I travel full time and it works great. I am lost without it.

This thing rocks! I bought it for a gift for my Dad this Christmas. Being the good son that I am, I had to try it out to make sure it worked (I've since bought one for myself). I love it. I must say that it takes me to some of the regular places I go a bit differently, but it has yet to NOT get me to where I want to go. I would give it 5 stars, but it did not come with a case. That is my only complaint.

Garmin nuvi 650 4.3 inch widescreen GPS car navigation system, Overall excellent. Upon receipt, used on a 1400 mile trip. Accurate. Widescreen, a must. Sharp with day/night tones. Especially helpful is voice direction when turns are required. Voice gives multiple reminders at various distances within 400 feet or so of turn. Voice names street. More importantly tells you what lane you need to be in (posted signs rarely give you this important information). There are some small issues: (a) had a time affixing the succion system to my windshield, (b) system can't deal with one-way streets that change directions at various times of the day (you must still be an alert driver), (c) the estimated arrival time did not adjust for crossing a time zine (central to eastern time), (d) when loaded "home" into system it got my address off my several house numbers and (e) I was never able to reset to correct house number (reset instructions are only one line in booklet and apparently not sufficient). Nonetheless, overall its a great system especially if you can purchase under $200.

This product has alot of glitches in it like not putting a business in the right place. It tells you that you have arrived at your designation but really you haven't yet.But the time of arrival is right on. The speed in it is like miles an hour slower then what you are doing.

Bought the Nuvi 650 for all of the features it included at a price just under $200.00 including super saver free shipping. Had read other reviews and comparisons to the 260W and the only complaint I had seen was that the volume on the 650 needs to be almost all the way up to hear the turn directions. That is pretty much true, but the volume is loud enough to hear as long as you don't have the radio turned way up or the windows open. The wide screen display is very bright with good resolution. Easier to view than the standard screen size. The satellite reception is fantastic. I believe the flip up antenna is better than the built in antennas on other units. It has fairly quick satellite acquisition time and I get satellite reception before I even leave the garage. Overall for the approx. $200.00 price, I am very satisfied with the Nuvi 650.

I must say that when I was looking for GPS Units, the Garmins were at the top of my list and at the top of Consumer Reports' list as well. The question was, did I need the features of the 660? It made the decision a little easier when I got the 650 for Christmas! My rationale, before I got the 650 for Christmas was that maybe I didn't need all the features the 660 offered over the 650. Here is what I deduced;

* For my own purposes, Bluetooth connectivity was not a big deal - I was not going to be using hands-free calling for my phone thru this device. This, however, may be useful for some, just not me. I have a Jawbone for my Blackberry and absolutely love it. There is no way I'm talking through a GPS. :)

* The FM Transmitter seemed like a good feature, until I read some reviews that the crowded FM band is a bit of an issue and that the weak power of the transmitter from this device would not give you enough power to overcome whatever signal is coming over the station you're tuned to in the FM spectrum. This will yield static sounds.

* The 650 does not come with an AC Charger, Leather Carrying Case, or Full Manual on CD. The 660 does come with these items. I ended up buying two of the items from a local retailer for about $50, total.

With this being said, I think the 650 was the way for me to go. If you want all of these extra features, then the 660 will be the way for you to go.

I'm new to GPS devices so I asked around and was recommended to the Garmin line. I bought my son and myself the Garmin Nuvi 650 and we are both very happy with it (found them online at a box warehouse for $299 each, delivered with tax and shipping for around $325 each). Took the unit out of the box, battery had plenty of juice in it to play around with it for a while. You just turn it on, and in less than 1 minute we were ready to go. It reads in the satellites and you set your home location and that was it. Very impressive, as it knows to the foot exactly where you are, announces streets just before you get to them, and if you take a different route than recommended, it just recalculates in seconds. It even shows train tracks coming up on the screen, and next thing you know you went right over those tracks. As your driving around it shows parks on the screen, golf courses, etc. so that was kind of nice. NO CD or other software to load. In fact there was no CD in the box. Found a nice leather case for it at Best Buy for $19. Now all we need is an inexpensive carrying bag from Target. I did notice that the database has a few outdated restaurants and such, but that's understandable considering how much developments change, restaurants move or close, etc. Some newer shopping centers I couldn't find though they have been under construction for over a year and we have the 2008 maps. The 4.3" screen on this thing is gorgeous and the voice announcing the streets is pleasant. We're both extremely happy with this Nuvi 650. However for the price it should have included a case and at least an AC charger. You have to charge from the USB of your PC or plug it into the cigarette lighter adapter in your car. A permanent screen protector would have been nice too, since they put one on there that has to be removed and tossed. Adding these omitted items will add at least $50 to have the complete setup. I also bought the larger friction mount to use the UPS on the dash or floor, since they are illegal to mount on the windshield in California. This works out really nice.

Great product. Helped keep peace in the car during a trip from SF to Grand Caynon. Easy to use and great features. Already recommended to several friends. Only con is need to check the route as we ended up on back roads for 15 miles when we could going down another couple of freeway exits and caught a multi-lane highway.

The nuvi 650 follows the popular 600 series GPS with its excellent widescreen touch face screen. The latest maps included on the software make for easy navigation all over the country. Nuvi has a great GPS that quickly finds satelites to help navigate your route. The voice prompt of the street names is a real plus especially navigating along the east coast. I have played around with a couple of different models and for the price this one cannot be touched. I spend 3-4 days a week on the road and the nuvi goes everywhere with me and I never get lost.

Bluetooth is not an option on this on this model so if that is a absosulte need, the nuvi 660 for @ $200 more would be a better fit.

I love this thing, it is truly awesome. I upgraded to this model from a GPS V, wow what a difference, more than I expected. Easy to use and learn, very bright screen, fast, nice color, compact, window mount is nice, the touch screen is great, moves quickly through the different screens. Sorry I didn't get the FM transmitter.

I never believed these gadgets worked until after I purchased the Nuvi 650. I'm now going to places I was afraid of getting lost before. Worth the $$ I spent.

I've only had the unit for about 1 week, but I love it so far. I was very happy to find the 2008 maps loaded on the unit. I read so many reviews about having the old map, but I got lucky. The only advice I have is to fork out the other $30 and buy the 660 which has so much more included.

Pretty happy with the unit overall. Routing has been pretty good so far. Only con I've seen so far is when it thinks streets are accessable to turn on when they are not, but it recalculates very quickly so not a big deal.

I would definately recommend this unit.

After researching many makes and models and deciding on the features we wanted, this Garmin had it all. Wide screen for easy viewing, text to voice for directions even in the most remote locations, locking suction cup to secure to window, and flat for easy portability. It is a great value for all that you get and we highly recommend it.

pros:
* Controls are very intuitive
* maneuverable: easy to jump to stored addresses
* battery life is about 6 hours

I have a 2008 Cadillac CTS with a factory Nav (you know the pop up version that is promoted on tv). There are many streets and state routes that the GM system does not recognize, even some that it does recognize are not pronounced correctly. This Garmin is much better, it recognizes and speaks streets correctly, even in our fairly remote neighborhood. The GM system just announces that I am traveling in an area it doesn't recognize. So, if you are buying a new car, purchase it w/o the $2000 factory-installed Nav and buy this Garmin for less than $200.

Prompt delivery, like the product, and it is a Christmas gift, hope to have a lot of service out of it. Thank You.

My husband is very happy with this Garmin 650. I bought it for him for Christmas, but decided to give it to him early since we were making a trip for the holidays. It was very easy to set up and the large screen is very helpful. His old GPS was about five years old and a lot of new features have been added. I was a little worried about buying this model since I understood that it had been discontinued by Garmin, but the price was so good for the features it contained, I couldn't resist taking a chance. It was a good decision. He really wanted one with the larger screen.

This is most amazing GPS. I just love it. I bought it to drive from CT to Florida and it did not fail me at all. It provided clear, concise directions and I arrived at my destination at the exact time the GPS caculated. I highly recommend this product.

After using the Garmin for awhile, I found that the maps are not what they should be after updating from the website. Overall, I'm very happy with product. Has done a great job when asked. A louder audio would help. I would recommend this product, even though I found out that it has been discontinued.

I have bought numerous Garmin products and I love them! My mother has a GPS device in her Lexus, and my sister has a GPS device in her Acura, and neither can navigate well. My Nuvi has gotten me around in some of the most remote areas. I definitely am a fan!

This is just what I wanted. I love audio books and this device lets me download the books and listen to them. Great Garmin. Michele

I purchased this unit for a recent trip to AZ to visit my daughter. I flew into Phoenix and then drove to Flagstaff. Now getting to Flagstaff is a no-brainer straight shot up I-17. However, once in Flagstaff with no one with me to help find my way around was the kind of stress I wanted to avoid. The unit worked flawlessly and guided me to my destination. The verbal prompts were clear and given soon enough to make lane adjustments if needed, the display is clear and easy to read and the ETA was accurate within 5 minutes. I suggest getting used to the unit with a local trip that you are familiar with. I used it to guide me to work when I first got it. Programming the unit is not complicated at all. As I expected it would, it plotted the most obvious route which includes 8 traffic lights. But when I left home and turned left instead of right it quickly recalculated my preferred route (2 traffic lights). I can't comment on battery life as I used the car adapter nor did I have an opportunity to use any of the other trip options. The web site is easy to use and updated my unit after I got it. I suggest a dash mount as I found it more convenient, easier to see and didn't block my view. If you think you need more bells whistles feel free to spend $200-$400 more but if you want a good basic navigation unit that delivers, you won't be disappointed with this one.

I was surprised at the ease and accuracy of the Garmin 650. The screen display is bright and can be easyly seen under all conditions. The voice commands make this unit one of the best companions to travel with.

I was very happy with the service, with the shipping, and with the time elements involved; however, when I opened the box, there was no manual, and after attempting to download it from the Web, it didn't work, I had to call the company. However, they were very helpful, and mailed me a manual. This caused a little concern because of the need to test the item before the thirty days were up.
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br /The big thing is that when I went on the Web, to download the manual, the words "discontinued" came up; this certainly told me that I had gotten a good price for a good reason. I think this is unfair. It should have been advertised as such. Again, the Garmin rep assured me that my
br /GPS was, indeed, workable, and adequate. Time will tell if it is.
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br /All in all, I am pleased, so far, with the unit; not so happy with Amazon.com.

Finally made a decision to buy a GPS Garmin 650 from Costco instead of Amazon this time, the price on Amazon changes so fast even you put it in your wishing list.

The bad thing is when I received the box from, I found the vehicle AD recharger is wrong type, which does not match the GPS, also from USB cable, you can not find mark showing the UP or DOWN side, called Costco several times, all transferred to Garmin service, and there was no please work during the holiday days. My GPS sleeps in my pocket for these days... :-[

got to call them again.

... ...

I am using this Product from past one month and its really pretty good product. Though I am new to US with this porduct I am able to find what ever I want. I am planning to visit more placesses in these holidays. I am very pleased with this product.

great product the large screen helps when typing in address and viewing commands on the screen

The road map is perfect! The video and audio are incredible. I drove to Southern California for a long trip. It did not disappoint me at all. The only problem I found is facilities info update. I located an ATM machine on it, but it is not available anymore. I located a restaurant, but it has been closed long time ago. But overall, I am very satisfied.

I bought the 650 because my son recommended it and has one. I wish now that I had bought the 660 for the FM radio feature. That's my only regret.

I owned a Garmin NUVI 350 and liked it a lot, this one does not take the same routes as the other one did to the same places and I preferred the other ones routes. The wide screen is easier to read but I think I like the regular size. Other than that it is the same and I like it. Would be lost a lot without it.

While this device is over a year old (ancient in GPS years) it is still a great unit and works as expected. This is my second purchase of this unit. I purchased one a year ago and it has performed almost flawlessly. The only problem I have had is where the maps are flawed. There is a place in Acworth, GA where I had to resort to the gamers plan of "follow the right wall" to get back out of the subdivision it lead me into. The second unit was for a friend that is technology adverse, She thanked me again tonight for the unit and said it worked well for her. If there were one feature I could add it would be to increase the number of way points it would remember. It only accepts one and that is not really enough. The customer service and the Garmin web site are great. I have updated the maps to the new version with no problems on my old Macintosh computer. I even got an at-a-boy from Garmin support for breaking their beta Points-Of-Interest loader in a new an novel way. (No software is fool proof, because fools are so ingenious!)

The image on-screen is wonderful, the size and ease of use are great. It works extremely well for US highways. My only complaints are that in big cities, it can take several minutes to acquire satelite maps leaving you lost in the city. On 4-5 lane interstate highways with multiple on and off ramps/connecting highways, in city traffic, it at times did not give information or information in a timely manner to direct you as to whether the exit was to the right or left making it almost impossible to follow the directions. There have been businesses that it could not find and times that the directions are extremely convoluted in getting to a destination; which must have been to save perhaps an 8th of mile in distance or a minute or two of trip time when much simplier ways of getting to that destination are available (I've found that to be true with mapquest too). For the most part, it is a great device; it isn't perfect though.

Most of the time it works very good, once in a while it will tell me to go the wrong way. but I like it very much.

Great product. The touch and drag option is weaker compared to other nuvi models i've seen. Otherwise, it's really cool.

I really enjoy my new Garmin GPS! It is very accurate and takes all the stress away from potentially getting lost.
br /Positives: Large Screen (MUCH easier to use than a smaller screen); Spoken Street Names; Accurate distance tracking; Quick "Recalculating"; many applications.
br /Negatives: Wish it had better volume control; Wish it told you where you were going sooner or on the screen.
br /All in all=a great buy!

The Garmin Nuvi 650 has been discontinued, but it could not have been the result of either function or features. At the current price, the unit is a bargain; the only downside being that the maps will be out of date and the cost of the update is somewhat pricey when you consider that the unit is actually NIB. Maybe small potatoes in comparison with the unit's features and current selling price, but aggravating enough to warrant trimming a star from the rating. A new unit should be upgraded to the latest set of maps for free in my opinion.
br /
br /The ability to speak street names is a major plus, even though the text-to-voice system mangles some colloquial pronunciations (you can still understand what the unit is struggling to speak). Good audio volume, too. Simple menu system that is easy and intuitive to operate and a swift ability to recalculate the route when you deviate from that assigned, whether by intent or by happenstance, are major advantages. The Nuvi 650 just deals with the change rapidly, whereas another unit I own argues with me and repeatedly insists that I "turn around when you get chance" before finally coming to the conclusion that something must change.
br /
br /The mount is a good one, and the unit is easy to install or remove; I have installed mine using the dash-top disk rather than on the windshield (though Maryland permits mounting on the glass).
br /
br /In short: Buy it before they are gone.

I like the big screen. I like the graphics. It works well. I would have liked a little more information in the box. I also have a part that I don't know anything about - where it goes, what it is for, etc. Overall it is good, just can't give it five stars.

We purchased the Garmin as a gift and for ourselves. We have used ours twice for trips. Connects quickly to the satellite and easy to use. Once it did not give us a good instruction...told us to get in left lane and there was a right exit so we missed it. Otherwise it has been accurate.

I love this GPS but when i got it I tried to load songs on it and the memory was full. It would only hold about 12 songs. I had a nuvi 350 before this one and it held about 75 songs and still had room for more.
br /So,to solve the problem i went and bought a 2gig memory card about $15.00.
br /and now i can hold about 500 songs. All in All it was a good purchase. i plan on getting the nuvi 750 next.

I have always been against getting a GPS but this one is a good buy. Price-wise and product-wise. I use it whenever we travel out of state. There are confusions in some states like New Jersey and Maryland where routes are constantly changing. Otherwise it works fine. Thanks again Amazon for the great price, prompt delivery.

We are very happy with the Garmin 650 and wish we would have gotten it earlier. We have not figured out if we can download updated road information on it, though, and are hoping to get that information from the Garmin website.

Of course, these things are just expensive toys . . .fun to play with.
br /And none of them have completely accurate maps. But they are very good.
br /It is helpful when you are travelling on a 10 or 12 lane highway in an
br /unknown city to be told to "keep left" or "keep right" and knowing how
br /far you are from your next turn. With the SD card reader I was able to
br /listen to Harry Potter books while driving across country which really
br /made the journey more pleasant and go by faster.

I travel around the country and Canada and easily save all of my destinations as favorites. It might not always take me the fastest route but it will get me there in good time. The optional MP3 player is great for books on tape for the long trips.

Battery life isn't great so make sure you have your adapters with you for the car.

I am amazed at the ease of navagating through a city with this product. It's like someone is sitting beside you that has been there ten thousand times.

I recently purchased a Garmin 650 with the large screen.
The screen is bright and high quality and that helps in fast moving
situations where I have no trouble seeing where it is telling
me to go.
When I took a wrong turn, it recalced and got me on track quickly.
It only had a few seconds to recalc and tell me to take the next
left, which it did, and then I understood how fast it was after
the fact.
I live in New Hampshire and the maps are good.
Recently I went through a part of Massachusetts that I did not know.
I got around with this GPS in traffic and in snowing conditions
well. If I went through a long tunnel, the GPS told me that it
it lost the satelite and it reacquired the signal quickly, afterwards.

The charge length seems to be okay at this time although I haven't
had long enough to completely check this out.
It is a high quality GPS all around.
If I decide to take a different route, it will keep telling me how
to get back to the original route for a while until the new route
becomes shorter the the original.
It always calcs the shortest route.
All in all, I like it.

Bought this istead of the 750. Wanted voice to speak street names. It's extremely compact. I have a built in state of the art navi in my AcuraTl, but this one is almost as good. I bought it for the portability. It's extremely accurate, and would highly recommend it for anyone that wants a real quality system.

This is my first GPS, although I've used some that belonged to friends and family. This is a great unit - easily 5 stars. The 4.3" screen is very clear and instructions are given in a very timely manner. It always picks up a signal very quickly after start-up. So far it has been accurate on trips throughout Virginia and North Carolina. However, my two suggested areas of improvement are: (1) No capability to enter zip codes to find a location and (2) a carrying case should be included. Otherwise, I like this unit very much. It is a winner and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a high quality portable GPS. Prices do vary widely, so shop around. I decided to go with Amazon.com - and experienced no problems whatsoever.

My second Garmin product in the gps category. Would not change until a superior product hits the market. To date there is no such thing.

This is my first gps but what a home run I hit. Gets me to where I want to go with no fuss. Not totally infallible and has had a few minor hiccups but gets me there quite good. Did a lot of research prior to buying this particular unit and feel as if I got a lot of bang for the buck. My wife loves "Rita" the roadwarrior so much she asked me for her and told me to get a multi-point unit, which I have just ordered (Garmin Nuvi 750). To all the negative reviews I have read regarding this product, well, I figure they either don't know how to use it properly, or, are just inclined to want to diss something no matter how good it may be. Me - I love it, and thanks again Amazon for another great buy!!

I bought this as a gift for my husband not really thinking it would be a big deal but he has used it almost everyday since I gave it to him. It has helped him find banks/restaurants and his way around detours/road blocks; it also lets you download pictures and songs onto the system. I highly recommend this product.

The Garmin is working wonderfully. I had to replace the Magellan I had purchased almost 5 years ago. The 650 is awesome and the price was excellant compared to the price I paid so long ago and the features of this product. It takes some getting used to because of the different system but I am enjoying it.

I got the Garmin 650 for my birthday and used the very first day in North Carolina hill country. Even though it was not yet updated for 2009[from 2007], I had no problems. It was easy to learn how to use it. The display and voice directions were very good. When you miss a trun, it tells you and then recalculates the next best alternate route. When I got back home, I downloaded the 2009 info from the Garmin Website. My DSL connection took quite some time to download, but it worked fine. Please note that the 650 model is no longer available from Garmin. It has been discontinued.

This is a great product that functions very well and just as described. Do yourself a favor though right after you buy, download the map updates. I haven't done this yet and I'v run into some roads that don't exist anymore but a simple update should solve that problem. Best feature this thing has is it's tts voice navigation. Having your gps pronounce the road/street names is a great help.
br /It's very simple to use but I would still suggest playing with it before you take it on the road so you're not trying to figure out how to use it while you're driving. Yes this is my first real gps unit.

Garmin nüvi 650 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator. The Family has four, all different and this is as good as a nuvi 660. I have been buying from Amazon for some time and have never been disappointed.

This product is very easy to use, has a nice big screen to see while driving and has a food, lodging and entertainment section to use while traveling....Highly recommened

I just bought a Garmin nuvi 650. I tested it in the Boston/Cambridge area, and it is working great. Needless to say that Boston has one of the most complicated road network in the nation with a number of roads without properly placed street names. This device really makes life easier to get around here.
br /The LCD display is flawless, the sound quality is much better than the newer Garmin models (eg 255w) in the neighborhood of nuvi 650's price range. Garmin has made these newer model more compact but has compromised the quality of the speaker. The primary reason behind my pick is 650's sound quality which I considered the most important attribute of any text to speech GPS device.
br /Satellite acquisition and recalculation are both pretty impressive.
br /The quality of map graphics is much better than the TomTom models.
br /You can do a lot more things in excess of what is being advertised.
br /The only concern I have is the number of TTS voice options in American English as other reviewers mentioned before. It's just too few (one male and one female voice) compared to the number of options that TomTom provides.
br /I don't know about other makes in the market, but this one is WAAS system capable which is supposed to give you 3 meters of position accuracy. I didn't know about this option before I received this device. See http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html
br /My purchase was eligible for 2009 map update. The process is simple but time consuming. You need to register your product first on Garmin's website. You may have to remove all the audio and jpeg files in order to accommodate entire North America 2009 map version, otherwise you can only select a region of your choice. Don't worry; the installation process will guide you step by step.
br /In summary, excellent product, and highly satisfied and recommended.

We have had a NUVI 650 for a couple years. Its great. She got us thru several tricky place (LA freeways!) Tells you in advance of your turns so you have time to get it the correct lane. Used it on a major road trip and it only got lost once in Flagstaff where there was a lot of road construction. Be careful though. We had it programmed for the shortest route when we were traveling thru Utah, and it said to turn onto Bumble bee Lane. It was a shortcut that turned into a dirt road, that went thru farming! Did get us to the freeway however, we reprogrammed it for quickest route after that!

This Garvin NUVI 650 is new to me but I have previously owned a different make. The 650 is far more easily used. I have only used it twice locally within 60 miles once and in town once. Next week I will use it to travel to Albuquerque, a distance of about 250 miles. I will use it there to find restrants etc. And the following week to travel to Longmont, CO., a distance of about 350 miles. It will be tested more thoroughly then. I love the ease of use and the fact that it quickly recomputes. Choices are simple and to the point. After initial setup satellite acquition is quick. Colors are bright and voice is easily understood. I live in a rural area of Co. and all new roads are not available. That is the same for Longmont as it did not recognize the road where the motel was. It was easy to just enter the town. A great product! I love the wide screen too.

Excellent GPS unit. User friendly and outstanding display. Directions right on the money, except for one area in GA that is, apparently, not on the map. I'm a happy owner of this equipment.

Works great.Money well spent.No more paper maps and looking up adress's.Also very easy to use.

This is the first talking GPS product I have used. It works great!
br /Have only used it around town, but Girdy usually takes me by the most direct route right to the door of the location. Easy to operate.
br /
br /The only problem we have had is that Girdy interupts my wife and she doesn't like that.
br /
br /Looking forward to trying it out on a long cross-country trip.

excellent product--better than ever expected --only concern is that i hear it is discontinued now

Only used it a few times, so I am still just getting a feel for it. It does seem to have a lot of neat features, but it does have a major problem with routing directions in heavily populated areas which could be very misleading if one did not already know the area well. First time I tried it, it could not locate the address on a main road 30 miles away that I was trying to find. It gave me a road with a similar but not identical name that was miles from where my MS Street mapping software showed me I needed to be. Seems that the GPS software has a real problem with roads that have both street names and route numbers. Nor does it recognize when route numbers and or street names change when one enters an intersection when there is no turn made. It continues to refer to the old route number/name even though that route went in a different direction at the intersection. The second time I used it, on a 60 mile trip to eastern Long Island, it tried to route me on a local route rather than a nearby parallel expressway route. Even though the default was set to fastest route, the GPS was insistent that the local route was the way to go. Even after I got on the expressway, it tried for at least another five miles to get me off the expressway and back onto the local route. When it failed to accomplish its mission after repeated tries, it simply froze up. I had to reboot the GPS and after that it was fine. It got me to and from my destination without further major difficulty. It even picked the expressway route on the way home albeit told me to exit the expressway several exits before where I normally exit which would have put me onto that local route for 5 miles. Needless to say, I ignored the suggestion and when forced to recalculate, the GPS then arrived at the right solution.

As the expression goes, "the devil is in the details", and based on my initial experiences, one might have a hard time finding him with this GPS unless one already knew the route.

Might want to consider the Nuvi 200W instead to save $$$. But this model works very well out of the box, and is easy to use. Maps could be a bit more updated. A bit large for carrying comfortably in pocket. Navigation works very well. Overall a good design, and a reliable product. Display is excellent. Display and other options pretty good. Would like to see an external mute button on these units.

I think they need to send an owners manuel with the unit and it should be better written explaining how to enter a place useing an address.
I think it is a very good unit.

I love this gadget!!! I am so happy it's available to us,the consumers. No more Mapquest directions to print and read while driving. The Garmin talks to me and takes me to my destinations without any problems!!!

Very pleased with the product. It was delivered quickly. My only complaint is that I sent an inquiry to the vendor and never received a reply.

The Nuvi 650 purchased @ $306 was/is a great buy. I'd suggest this to anyone looking for a modular widescreen GPS with plenty of options.

We purchased this for our son as a Christmas gift. It became his best gift. He uses it when driving or when vacationing in unfamiluar locations. This is a great item created by Garmin and best of all...the best price on Amazon.com!!!!

I purchased the Nuvi 650 for my husband for Christams. This unit was exactly what we wanted and far more than we expected. It is just great for what we wanted and probably a lot more. Can't wait to take it on a long trip. Great product!!

We bought this unit because a Canadian friend had just used it to drive from Toronto to central Mexico where we live. He raved about how well it worked. Like him, we also bought the Mexico 2008 map. When our new unit arrived, it came with pre-installed US and Canada maps but the Mexican map had to be added to the unit.
br /We called Garmin Tech. support for help with the Mexico map as it did not seem to be functioning as promised. A technician worked for about 45 minutes and eventually had us re-format the sandisc chip while she had our GPS unit still connected via USB cable to our computer. Yep! You guessed it...It also re-formatted our unit and we lost the pre-loaded maps of the US and Canada and most of the other features of the unit. Conveniently, the phone line went dead about 3 minutes after she realized what she had done.
br /We called back and got another technician who worked for almost 2 hours along with a supervisor but they, too, failed to re-install our maps and features. Their solution was to send the unit back. Well, from Mexico, that's not an easy proposition.
br /Now, we have to send it via a friend travelling to the US and wait for it to be replaced or repaired and then sent back by some other person returning to the US.
br /Just ridiculous when my brand new unit failed from the get-go. Perhaps it is a great unit but I wouldn't know, yet.
br /And, on another note. The Mexico 2008 map does NOT show autopistas (major interstates) built over 4 years ago. That's a joke!

I like the Garmin 650 with one proviso, It doesn't always indicate the shortest way to my destination. It seems to favor the hiway rather than the byway.

Mostly excellent. Maps, including other services such as restaurants are not as up to date as they could be.

I love this Garmin nuvi, I previously had a Garmen 320 and it was bulky. I like the slim version of the nuvi.

we used our new GPS on our last trip and it got us there and back with no problems whatsoever. the screen size is great, the voice is great, and most importantly, very easy to use.

You don't really appreciate these until you get lost in a big city.Enter any address & these will take you right to the door.Don't know how we got along before. My wife doesn't have to have an open Atlas on her lap.Doesn't always pick the shortest route,but probably the better. On along trip it's nice to see how many miles tick off before you have to worry about the next turn. The estimated time of arrival was right on. It sure let us find some obscure places in the SE this winter,that we could of had a tough time finding on our own.

It doesn't get any easier to use. No need for a manual. I play a little game with it from time to time trying to confuse it by turning the opposite direction of what it tells me. It is quick to recalculate a new route, and that route has always been dead on. No idea how I traveled without it. I certainly won't get in the car without my NUVI 650 from now on. Thanks Garmin for a TOP QUALITY easy to use and reliable product.

This item is incredible. I did much research and talked to a few acquaintances who had this and other GPS. I am fully satisfied.

Bert

I'll make this short and sweet. It gets the job done. clear directions, voice is clear and timely and big screen. Not much else needed to be add, it's a gps not a rocket science. :)

The garmin 650 is a great size. It is easy to use. We added the case for it which makes it nice for travel. It also has a mp3 player built in. It will save money because you will not have to rent a GPS when renting a car on vacations or business trips.

Captures satellites fast. Excellent LCD screen, very bright and crisp. Voice commands are loud and clear. Accurate routing directions. Highly recommended!

I purchased this navigator as a gift for my husband. We have gotten very attached to the navigation system in our Honda Odyssey already equipped with factory-installed version. We purchased a used Ford F-150 truck without one, so we wanted to have one there. We wanted the most basic system without BlueTooth or traffic alerts since we live in a small town but with a larger screen. The traffic alerts appear to be only really useful for folks who live in a major city, since I read that only about 24 cities support them. We are very happy with this product, and it is very easy to use.

Bought as Christmass present so haven't opened yet,but Amazon service has been excellent on all my purchases.

After reading some of the 1 star reviews, i was getting worried that i would not be able to save my favorite locations.....but i had nothing to worry about. You can save any location you like, not sure why those people couldn't figure it out it was very easy.
I just received this unit today and i already love it.

This was the best price anywhere for this item. The Garmin GPS does everything we need it to do. The user interface is effortless. Overall, supremely happy with the product.

Easy to operate, great advantage having the street names called out and not just how many feet til the next turn, voice is easy to understand.

So I bought this a couple weeks ago when it was on sale for $309 and I have been pretty happy with it. I have used it for a couple of days and tried most of the features. I should add that I was looking at the Tom Tom XLS & the Magellon 4040 so people have a reference to what other ones I looked at. First I have never used a GPS so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but from what I've seen and heard, they just sounded like fun gadgets to have. Well after extensivly researching the 3 units above, I settled on the 650 for a couple of reasons.

1. Garmin had the longest battery life (7 hours compared to 2 & 3-4 for the other two)
2. According to one site, a reviewer took these 3 units out for a test drive and found the Garmin picked the fastest and quickest routes when he inputted varying distances every time
3. Garmin had the most up to date mapping technology (Navteq vs. Teleatlas)
4. Garmin was able to recalcuate new routes much quicker than the other 2.

These are just some of the advantages I found while doing my research. A couple of quirks I found while using this.

1. It didn't accept me arriving at my destination a couple of times even though I had b/c I didn't turn at the exact street it wanted me to.
2. The speed on the GPS didn't match my speedometer on my car.
3. I wish the zoom in and out feature was more "concrete" b/c you have to play around with it to find the setting you like. (If you zoom in too close or too far, the streets won't always show b/c you are too close or too far away to display)

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase and I don't think you would be disappointed either. Whether you get it for yourself or a gift, it's very user friendly and takes minutes to set up. A main features I was looking for was the widescreen and text to speech. It'd be nice to have the bluetooth feature but I don't miss it and the live traffic for me is unneccesary.

The Garmin Nuvi 650 is a capable, easy-to-use device that does the job. The screen is exceptionally readable and easy-to-see. It mounts and dismounts with one hand and is very functional and simple to use.

I purchased the traffic reporting Mt-20 adapter to get traffic and accident alerts. It was a hefty add-on at a price of $120.

Garmin could do a smoother job with the computer voices and adding traffic and weather as standard features. Also, this unit is not blue tooth compatible (get the 660 model for that feature). All in all, though, a handy tool for the price.

This device is everything I imagined. Very intuitive and easy to use. GPS functionality seems excellent.

It didn't look like brand new, I was disappointed when I got it. Definitely I would not buy Amazon again, if that's how they gonna send it. sticker was not new and box was blank...

Technology is amazing. Very intuitive to operate-if you can do simple windows stuff, you can do this!

Outstanding product. Takes you where you want to go. Sometimes the wrong way down a one way street :) Amazon delivered timely and product arrived well packaged and in great shape. No negatives whatsoever

The 4.3" screen is awesome!! The brightness and clearity of the picture is great. Very portable and easy to use. I love the easy-to-read style of the map and text.

I cannot tell when the battery is low, or how long to charge it. There is no way to delete just one recently-found address.

the only issue is if you miss a turn, it'll try to recalculate a different route, instead of directing you to make a U-turn.

Is my firt GPS and I don't have experience with it,but in the sorth time I used is excellent,it has a good size of screen,voices in different languages etc.

I bought my son the Garmn nuvi 350 for Christmas by mistake. He preferred the 650. I make lots of purchases from Amazon and have returned very few items. The 350 was packed up & sent back the day after Christmas, involving a quick drop off at the UPS store. Return postage was free & my account was promptly credited when Amazon received the item a few days later. I received emails every step of the way. The 650 was ordered on Christmas day, but it was on backorder at a fantastic price. Amazon indicated that it would be delivered on or before Feb 7, but it arrived yesterday in record time and my son is now enjoying his new "toy". These experiences may me a loyal Amazon customer!

It does not pick your preffered rout and insists on its pre programmed routs. It does not have what is known as bread crumbs. And for the most part you cannot just type the name of a business or an institution to find the directions. You have to know full address of your destination. eg I could not get directions to a well known hospital in the city by merely putting its name in. Ditto for a University in my city.
I hear Tom Tom takes care of these problems. At times it tries to take you through a circuitous rout for apperent reason.

I rated the Nuvi 650 as 3 stars because it should display more information on screen.
Direction isn't displayed when in the "goto" mode. I would also like to see an altitude function. It comes on automatically when the car is started. I don't always want it on so it should require a manual startup. There should be a way to alter the route other than just "fastest" or "shortest". We don't always want the route it chooses. Photos display very slow. Would like to see optional zip code entry in addition to state, city when searching for addresses.
Otherwise a very good product. I like the Streetpilot 7200 if you have the room. It's big.

this gps is great, easy to use I would give it a 5 but I don't like the map program it uses.

The nuvi 650 was my first foray into the world of portable GPS navigation. We've previously (and currently) owned 4 different vehicles, of 4 different makes (Nissan, Dodge, Toyota, and Lexus -- okay, Toyota/Lexus is essentially the same) with built-in nav systems. We recently bought a Toyota Sienna and it just wasn't feasible/affordable to pop for the fully loaded version with a built-in nav. So my expectation in navigation systems is skewed by the built-ins we've had, which have some clear advantages over the portables -- and you think I'm going to gripe about screen size, but that's the least of my gripes!

First, the navigation system made mistakes during my first trip that I found unacceptable. For example, after following its directions to exit the freeway onto Street A, the 650 instructed me to turn left onto Street B -- even though I knew the destination was actually located on Street A. No sooner did I follow the instructions to turn off of A onto B, than the 650 instructed me to turn right onto Street A (no longer physically possible).

Second, the system only displays nearby points of interest, such as gas stations, food, and banks/ATMs when the map is zoomed in to the 2 nearest levels -- when it shows a maximum viewable area of about 1/4 mile or less. If I can only see POIs within 1/4 miles, I don't need the GPS to tell me where they are -- I can open my eyes and look out the car windows!!! 1/4 mile is totally within my field of view. Once I zoom out beyond the 1/4 mile range, the POIs disappear. I guess I have an unreasonable expectation of being able to drive down the freeway, with a field of view of 1/2 to 1 mile, and be able to see at least a cluster of businesses on the next exit, so I can decide whether to take the exit. Furthermore, I want to be able to filter out the types of POIs I don't care about -- such as banks/ATMs -- and only see the POIs I do care about, such as food and gas. Since owning the 650, I've checked the user manuals for several other (more expensive) Garmin models on Garmin's web site, and none of them seem to have this option. Ironically, none of them mention the fact that POIs only display if you're zoomed into 1/4 mile, either.

Finally, the most annoying feature of the unit is how frequently it recalculates -- accompanied by a "Recalculating!" alert. When I started from a shopping mall parking lot, the unit mapped the route from the nearest street and instructed me to proceed to the highlighted route. Okay, fair enough -- all navigation systems I've used do that. The difference is, they're smart enough to shut the heck up until I get to the highlighted route. Not the Garmin -- every twist and turn thru the parking lot is accompanied by a "Recalculating!" alert. Sometimes I'll be driving down a straight road or freeway, no junctions in sight, staying on the highlighted route, and the unit will declare "Recalculating!" out of the blue.

Granted, built-in systems are probably linked to the car's steering and other systems, giving them a clear advantage. Many of them have greater memory/processor capability. My expectations may be skewed, but my initial research indicates that I can probably do better with a TomTom or possibly a Magellan. I'm within the return period on the nuvi, and there is a 90% chance I'll return it. The only thing that will delay me from doing so is if I can't find a better replacement within my price range.

I am dissappointed in this gps as I wanted it in miles and it is set on kilometers. Please let me know how to change this. Thank You.

I love my Garmin. It will take you any and everywhere you need to go. It takes a little getting used to, but has been so nice to have. No more stopping to ask for directions!

I Luvvvv this GPS. Bought it to navigate our trip touring the state of Fla. It got us from point to point without the hassle of map reading and generally having that "lost" feeling. It even detoured our route around a major traffic jam. Would highly recommend this to anyone who travels or generally gets lost in a paper bag as my wife does.

I had already been using a Garmin Streetpilot 340, which i love and use all the time. i purchased this because the screen was larger and had a few other little things on it. It is as good if not better than the 340, and seems to show more detail on the map.. love it...

Performance for this unit is fine. But the physical design virtually requires that you use the included windshield mount because the power cable routes out the bottom of the unit. I don't like using windshield mount because it announces to the world that you have a GPS. And to remove and re-attach it with every stop is unreasonable. Garmin even warns against leaving the windshield mount in place when you're not in the car. Yet because of the thin design and because the power cord routes out the bottom of the unit you can't just prop it up on your dashboard. It just keeps falling over and sliding around. You can get a beanbag type of base for it at Bestbuy, to avoid using the windshield mount, but then where do you store this big beanbag thing when you're not using the GPS? My older unit had a large solid base so I could just set it on my dashboard to use, and put it in my glove compartment when I was done. The Nuvi series doesn't allow that. There are some other minor things I don't care about it, but this mounting thing is the biggie. I was really getting frustrated by it on my last trip and it even had me looking at other units. This shouldn't stop you from buying it, but you'd better consider the mounting options if you're not going to use the included windshield mount. I think my wife is going to make a custom mount for it for Christmas. I'll know tomorrow......

it works really well for me.

lots of database inside.

one of disadvantages is sometimes it takes time for signaling when I get out of the underground garage

I bought this item to replace my Pioneer AVIC-N2 that was stolen because I didn't want to get another in-dash unit that could be taken again. The 650 will usually get you there, or at least in the general vicinity. It just doesn't compare to the Pioneer I had, but it didn't cost nearly as much either.

I just purchased this unit after been fed up with the Magellan 2200. In many respects, the Nuvi 650 is a great unit. Fast satellite pick-up, bright display, and nice, big graphics.

Even with all these positives, there is one fatal flaw of this device. When you try to add an address, there is no way for the unit to remember the last city you entered (even though it remembers the last state). I do 95+% of my driving within San Francisco, so every time I enter an address, it asks me "What city" and I need to enter S-A-N--F and then select San Francisco. Try doing that EVERY SINGLE TIME you use the machine. It becomes very, very tedious.

Compare that to the Magellan 2200 which, for all its flaws (slow satellite pick-up, outdated display, horrendous customer service), remembers the last city I entered.

So I will be returning my Nuvi 650. The Magellan makes my life easier most of the time while causing frustration some of the time (when it can't pick up the satellite signal). The Nuvi causes tedium every time.

Being a single traveler, I was more than excited to recieve this product before the vacation season. It arrived in my hometown only to be returned by the shipping server as "undeliverable due to a bad address." I have lived at this address since 1975 and never before had this happen. A phone call would have resolved this situation. I will purchase one thru a local retailer now.

this product very nice looking,but not up to date yet,example:city of florida{land o lake}not show on the map or sattelite!!!!!well get better
technology,i bought tomm tomm produce not satifastion then i bought garmin
produce still screw me up!!!!!!!!!

I think it's high time Garmin really started to re-visit their pricing strategy. I went through numerous versions of Garmin products this week in so many shops and understood I clear notion - They are OVER-PRICED, period and basically "milking" the consumers.

An year back, Garmin was the way to go, too few alternatives, etc. Today, we're inundated with options and much, much cheaper flavors are available offering SAME and MUCH enhanced set of features and options.

The 2 reasons why it's still selling ? People are USED TO Garmin, they had trusted it, it's good and realiable. I agree ABSOLUTELY to that. So, they want to buy the 2nd. Garmin, 3rd., 4th. As it is most widely used, we tend to receive from our well-wishers the known statement - "You want a GPS, go for Garmin, I have it, it's damn good"... Agreed. But, the core question - at what cost!!???

The 2nd. reason is the user interface, definitely very welcomed and nice. But these days there are numerous who are actively coming up the curve and there (in terms of usability) and with MORE features. Thus, again, it's just vanilla HISTORICAL and HYPE. What's Garmin doing ???? Keeping the price same, basically milking customers. Why?

It uses Navteq. It's software (mapping) is an ALREADY developed product, now only enhancements are done. If an alternative company gives Navteq maps at a much lesser price, Garmin definitely can too. What they are doing instead, is adding a PREMIUM PROFIT on top of it.

It's I think important for all to start seriously look at alternatives prior to purchasing this product.

I am PURPOSELY not stating ANY alternatives, since it would mean I am marketing them... just look around. You'll find many. At this price, one can get a 4.3" + traffic + bluetooth + case + charger + maps (DVD)!!

I bought this over the thanksgiving holiday. Now that I'm using it, I'm surprise that Garmin sell this unit in CA with a windshield mount - when windshield mount is not legal in CA. I also notice that the device lack an audio jack, and want people to listen through the NUVI back speaker. The worse thing is that sometimes while the unit is playing MP3 files and you navigate the menu, the system lock-up and require a reset of some sort.
The next bad thing - no battery replacement so after 3 years, the internal LiIon battery is going to be dead !!!!

For GPS/Navigation - I wish the road routing would offer non-left turn shortest path routing.

I ordered 2 of these garmin Nuvi 650's nad their was not an ownerws manuel in either box, can you please send me two

Would recommend product,Garmin GPS 650. enjoying using this. Just wish the instructions came along with Garmin rather than having to go on line.

Have used my Garmin Nuvi 650 on 2 trips with good success. The only thing I noticed is that sometimes it sends you to a route that is longer than the actual destination.

It's fabulous, fantastic, and all that jazz. Relying on it totally in unfamiliar cities is a little unnerving but it works, so we get used to it!