11th of March 2010
Garmin nuvi 780 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with MSN Direct Service specifications:
Garmin nvi 780 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with MSN Direct Service Description:
January 8, 2008
The nü,vi 780 adds improved MSN direct content to the multi destination routing and “Where Am I?” features and gorgeous widescreen display of other nü,vi , 700s to create a superior navigation device for business also as informal drivers. As with all nü,vis, you get Garmin dependability, the fast satellite lock of an integrated high sensitivity receiver, a thin, pocket sized design with a gorgeous display, an easy, intuitive interface, and in depth NAVTEQ maps for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico with more than six million name searchable points of interest. All of the 700 series navigators also feature a rich array of features as well as spoken directions in real street names, integrated traffic receivers, MP3 player and photo viewer, and an FM transmitter that will play voice prompts, MP3s, audio books, and more, directly through your vehicle’s stereo system.
Garmin’s nü,vis pack top of the line features into a thin form factor.
Garmin nvi 780 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with MSN Direct Service Reviews:
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557 of 560 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars
Great Device and Easy to Use,
June 3, 2008
By ,Robert Mattes “Linux Rules!” N. Virginia, USA See all my reviews
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This is my 1st car GPS, and I did many of research before settling on the Garmin 780. I live in the Washington DC Metro area, so all of the extra features work here. Upon its arrival, I downloaded and installed the new Garmin WebUpdater v.2.41 , then updated my 780 from software variant 2.50 to 2.90. I also updated the Bluetooth and other firmware, with the languages that I use. This all worked flawlessly in a Windows XP virtual machine on a Linux host. FWIW, the 780 will charge off of the supplied USB cable.
The 780 assumed the needed satellites in just some minutes when 1st activated, and does so in less than a minute for successive activations. I found the screen light to be good for both day and night. I am using the 780 with the Garmin movable Friction Mount. Smashing windows and stealing GPS devices is the sport of choice in the DC Metro area, so I wanted no evidence of a GPS extant when I left the car. The friction mount works perfectly on my Honda Accord dashboard and stores easily in the center console, leaving no trace of a GPS behind. Cool. The 780 easily fits in a shirt pocket, so it is not needed to leave it in the car.
I tested the 780 now by driving throughout rush hour to a residence across the river in a tangle of park roads off of the beaten track, then returning at night. The Garmin had no trouble creating a fast path to the destination that bypassed most of the heavy traffic throughout rush hour. On my return, I bypassed a turn on its favored routing. It recalculated a new path in less than a second which was the exact right answer. The new path was not a recapture of the original path, which was not possible from that place, but an completely new path. The routes it picked were proper for the times of day traveled, which may be a daunting task here if you do not know which roads go which direction throughout the proper rush hour. DC is a infamously hard area to navigate, but so far the Garmin looks up to the challenge.
I found the volume of the interior speaker to be more than adequate with the radio, air conditioning, and windshield wipers going. Voice notifications led forthcoming turns by an adequate total, and the voice prompts generally helped me get into the correct lanes in lots of time for forthcoming turns. Throughout a especially difficult section where some number of big roads converge on a bridge, then diverge on the other side, the Garmin gave nearly constant proper guidance to ensure that I took the correct forks and turns. I was quite impressed.
The Bluetooth paired quickly with my Motorola Razr V3. It provided its PIN code at the proper time. The phone functions work great and it is easy to hear over the 780 speaker. The party on the other side of the phone said that I sounded like I was in a tunnel, which is common for remote devices for autos. I have another BT hands free device and it garnered the same comments. The Garmin’s on screen phone cues make hands free easy.
Activation of the MSN Direct service was simple over the Net. On initial activation of your free three month trial, they offer a 6 month extension for $9.95 which gets you to nine months of service total for less than $10 a good deal. MSN Direct info took a while to load the initial info, but then it said that in the fast Start pamphlet. Once loaded, the traffic, weather, and news worked great. Gas prices were behind by some number of days, which is an eternity these days. My favorite and cheapest station was not listed.
Overall, I am happy with the 780. I will be working it out heavily in the coming weeks, as well as on a road trip to another city with MSN Direct service. I can not believe that I waited this long to take the plunge to a GPS device for my car. Though I am a master with maps, the Garmin suggested a smart routing that I didn’t earlier discover on my own. From what I have seen so far, the 780 will be a greatly valued addition to my road warrior kit bag. I can recommend the 780 without reservation.
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713 of 741 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of five stars
Great Routing, Lousy Price, restricted Features,
August 29, 2008
By ,D. Furlong “Dan” Charleston, SC USA See all my reviews
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I bought a Sony NAVU 83T, a Garmin 680, and a Garmin 780 to compare their features and routing capability. I kept the 780 and returned the others, but it was a hard choice.
The Sony unit . At Costco, and has a 4.8″ screen 1/2″ larger!. It has one of the best user interfaces on the market, mainly caused by some things: 1 you may be able to generally get back to the map by pressing one button, despite of where you’re, 2 you may be able to generally get to the major menu by pressing one button, despite of where you’re in the menus, 3 it has a split screen function that gives you lane guidance visually so that you know which lane to get into, well before the turn, 4 it has shortcuts, for example to GO HOME you make a V form on the screen and it takes you home.No menu navigation required!
On the down side, the Sony took FOREVER to compute or re calculate routes, and in many cases I missed the newly recalculated turn because it took too long to figure it out. It also took longer routes than the Garmin, could avoid usually used roads for no obvious reason, and could not take me down roads that were shown on the map and obviously the shortest path. Last of all, the Sony took forever to get a satellite fix once turned on. And the Sony mount was soooo cool and useful! For $249 you got the cool mount and a nice carrying case. I didn’t get a chance to use the TMC traffic service.
The Garmin 680 $349 at Costco was a good device, with fast and correct routing. It found points of interest quickly and precisely the Sony frequently couldn’t find them. But, I really liked the thin size of the 780 and the fact that the antennae was fitted, so I kept the 780 in spite of the extra cost.
What do I like about the 780 and the 680:
1. The MSN Direct is useful and I use it every day for weather, news, fuel costs, and movie listings.
2. Fast path calculations.
3. I have never looked for a POI that wasn’t present.
4. The tour routes that you may download for about $12 each are cool. You may be able to take car tours of some hours that are laid out for you, telling you where to visit along the path.
5. The capability to sort points along a path is useful. If you have ten places to go in one day, enter them all in and it puts them in the most economical order.
6. It can find rest regions on interstates. The Sony couldn’t do this, which is annoying when you’re trying to figure out if you may want to stop at a gas station or wait for a rest area when you have three kids in the car on long trip.
What could I change on the 780? Many things, and most of them could cost Garmin no money to implement. They are simple fixes that they should consider!
Bad Points of the Garmin 780:
1. If I go into the menu system, I can go seven or eight layers deep to get to what I want to do. To get back to the map, I have to keep pushing the “BACK” button, up to eight times in a row, to get back to the map. Stupid!
2. If I go into a menu item and choose I am done, but do not want to push “BACK” over and over, the unit stays on the menu or submenu screen forever.
3. It could seem that on a unit this costly it may give you lane guidance. The Sony does. The Tom Tom does. Why can not this unit, at nearly double the cost?
4. When you turn off the car the unit asks if it should stay on or turn off. If you do not answer, it turns off in 30 seconds. For people who are making deliveries, or running errands, this is a real ache. It could be nice to let you to configure this once to set how long it should wait before turning the unit off options like one minute, five minutes, ten minutes, 20 minutes, for instance. This could let you to run into Kinkos and back out again without having to wait for the unit to turn back on, get a satellite bearing, , then get to its map to tell you where to go next. Simple software change!
5. It could be nice to have the unit start up on the same screen where you left off. If you were on the map screen, then it should return to the map screen. If on the weather screen, then return to the weather. I like to keep it on the weather, but I have to hit about six different buttons every time I turn the unit on to get to the weather! Simple software change!
6. Most GPS units at half this cost let you to SEE your speed, direction, and target’s relative direction while on the major map screen. This unit requires you to go to a dashboard screen to show you this info..so you must decide the map or the dashboard to view. Since many people may not like this feature, it may be configurable. Simple software change!
7. I can not seem to figure out how to show the satellite signals/connectivity. ALL units have the, though it’s just for fun.
8. For $500 the Garmin will include a carry case for the unit. They sell it small size, light weight, and its “ability to know where you were when you take it out of the cradle, to assist you find your car later”, and still do not give you way to carry it around carefully. Just about every unit on the market, starting at the $149 units, include a case!
9. The 780 doesn’t include an holders manual. You must go online to view the manual, at garmin.Com. Garmin can be surprised to know that not everyone has the internet 50 of homes don’t. Though not perfect, the Sony included a pretty complete start up guide and a CD established holders manual.
10. The display seems a cartoon movie, and that causes a lack of detail. The Sony displayed a concise map where you could really recognize road splits, acceleration lanes, etc.
11. There’s no capability to show POIs on the map. You may be able to path to one, but you can not just show them. The Sony allowed you to pick which POIs to show, and it really showed you little BP, Shell, Cracker Barrel, etc. Logos on the map so that you could know well ahead of time which POIs were near you.
12. Many units tell you how far to your next turn AND the direction you’ll be turning in. The Garmin tells you how far to the next turn, but it doesn’t tell you which way to turn till you get inside about 2/10 of a mile. So on most multi lane roads I find myself staying in the center lane as I get close so that I can go either way. It should warn you which way you’ll be turning at least some miles in advance! once you get onto any road the Sony tells you that your next turn is “LEFT 123 MILES”, and it’s generally displayed on the major map. Useful. Simple software change!
I like the unit, but I only give it three stars because of its price, its lack of common sense features, and lack of “in the box” support. It is strong points are fast, correct routing and MSN direct.
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103 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars
Garmin 780 Excellent but not perfect,
April 4, 2008
By ,F. Rivera New York, NY United States See all my reviews
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I did many of research before I changed from my old Garmin c340. I think I made an excellent choice, this GPS has everything and more. I was new to traffic so I 1st tried the TomTom 920T which I did not like because of how innacurate the maps were so then I turned to Garmin and I was happy again, with the addition of news, stocks and events for the MSN direct two variant is great. I read the news once in a while is just a plain summary of what is happening not much with no pictures or anything but hey at least it gives you something else on the GPS to do. I find the mp3 functionality great the sound is deafening enough just do not put it all the way to 100 volume because you will hear static. The FM transmitter is one of the best I found on a GPS and the picture feature is great I put it in my room as an LCD screen for pictures hehehe. This GPS gives you all the directions you need pretty correct, MSN traffic needs to enhance on this, its typically delayed most of the time it tells me traffic is there but then I find no traffic why? I do not know but I can say that’s most likely 80 right on other traffic updates. I really like this product and I’m more than happy with this item, it’s now many cheaper than what I bought it for which was $700, so do yourself a favor if you want an correct, nice looking, fast GPS signal, great feature GPS get this one, I recommend it.
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Other names for Garmin nuvi 780:
nvi, gramin, nvui, garmn, 78, garimn, garmni, unvi, gamrin, garimn, agrmin, garmni, nvui, grmin, 870, nuv, gramin, thul, 870, nui, 70, gramin, garmi,
May 1, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Usually price of garmin nuvi is cheap for car electronics
May 2, 2009 at 7:58 pm
How long is the warranty?
May 3, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Compare online prices, dont bother with store price
May 4, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Not sure, but it’s pretty expensive in San Diego area, maybe try Frye Electronics
May 5, 2009 at 6:58 pm
it’s in limited availability, and hard to find a rebate, so dont bother too much, just buy it
May 6, 2009 at 8:45 pm
None of the stores in Las Vegas had it in stock so i had to buy it from ebay
May 7, 2009 at 4:49 pm
i buy it at Costco store that had a lowest price, but usually online deals are better
May 8, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Usually has a limited availability, and when i found it, wasnt exactly the cheapest
May 9, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Read reviews, all positive
May 10, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Cant beat online deals for garmin nuvi, plus free shipping at most stores over a certain amount
May 11, 2009 at 11:22 pm
price of garmin nuvi is a great deal for car electronics
May 12, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Is price of garmin nuvi 780 lower online than in Ebay
May 13, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I saw Walmart has it for sale
May 14, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Well wholesale may have it cheaper than Target or Target
May 15, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I checked Amazon and they dont have any wholesale deals are there any wholesale deals online?
May 16, 2009 at 0:48 pm
Where can i find a coupon for garmin nuvi 780 valid in Memphis
May 17, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Clearance prices aren’t much more discounted than this so may as well buy it now.