No that’s not Photoshop, that’s the customizable splash screen you see. This year, my birthday came early. I had been pretty involved with finding a GPS for the car, so I knew what I was going to get. Add in the thousands of conferences my coworkers and I go to in the fall semester, it didn’t make much sense to wait for this one.
I was pretty picky in what I wanted, ranked in priority: SirfstarIII chipset, text-to-speech and/or large screen, and SD card expansion were top of the list. With that info in hand Amanda spent a lot of time trying to find something that fit the budget. One morning at home she discovered the Nuvi 650 had recently been discontinued. This meant that a perfectly good GPS was getting retired just because people will always want the latest and greatest. This also meant a price cut of 50%, score! In addition, if you get it now, and register, you are eligible for a free upgrade to the 2009 Garmin maps for free!
The GPS is great. It met and exceeded my requirements in a GPS. Along with a SirfStarIII chipset, AND 4.3″ screen, the SD card is actually an SDHC slot, which means I already have a 16GB Patriot SDHC Memory Card (w/ lifetime warranty)
You’ll also note that the unit comes with a headphone jack which means you can use something like the iriver AFT 100 Mobile FM Transmitter
When you play mp3s or audio books with the Nuvi you won’t miss your turn. It conveniently pauses what ever audio is being played, announces your next directions, and then continues to play what ever you were listening to. This thing was just built around convenience. In addition to thinking through audio, when you place the Nuvi 650 into the powered cradle, it automatically turns on. When you remove it, it prompts you with what you want it to do.
When you do reach your destination, like any device with an LCD screen, you don’t ant to risk damage from extreme temperatures. I’d suggest some sort of case to protect it’s screen when you throw it in a laptop bag. I found the Body Glove GPS case for 4.3″ GPSs to be a good fit. It has a reasonably hard exterior, and fuzzy interior that shouldn’t scratch the screen.
This GPS has so many features I can’t even begin to cover them in one post. It has hundreds of points of interest, and you can add more from sites like POI Factory for free. You can also add FM traffic receivers, customizable car marker, and a slew of other stuff.
The Garmin Nuvi 650 gets 4.5 stars on Amazon from 296 reviews. I think this is a fair statement of this little do it all. If your like me, I like to read the manual if I can find t before buying anything, this GPS won’t let you down. Lets take a final look at the features:
- # Model Number: Nuvi 650
- # Receiver: High-sensitivity SiRFstarIII, WAAS-enabled
- # Display size: 3.81 x 2.25 inches / 9.7 x 5.7 centimeters (W x H)
- # Display: 4.3-inch WQVGA color TFT with white backlight
- # Display resolution: 480 x 272 pixels
- # Power supply: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, vehicle power adapter (included), AC power adapter (not included)
- # Battery life: Up to 7 hours
- # PC interface: USB (mini-USB)
- # Audio interface: 3.5-millimeter headphone jack
- # Data storage: Internal memory, SD card slot
- # Map coverage: U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe (preloaded)
- # Acquisition time: Warm: less than 1 second; cold: less than 38 seconds; factory reset: less than 45 seconds
- # Update rate: 1 per second, continuous
- # GPS accuracy (position): Less than 10 meters, typical
- # GPS accuracy (velocity): 0.05 meters per second RMS
- # WAAS accuracy (position): Less than 5 meters, typical
- # WAAS accuracy (velocity): 0.05 meters per second RMS
- # Dimensions: 4.9 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches / 12.4 x 7.4 x 2.3 centimeters (W x H x D)
- # Weight: 6.2 ounces / 190 grams
- # Warranty: 1-year limited warranty
