Garmin Nuvi 1490T user reviews

Pros Previous GPS Garmin 650t. Larger, clear screen readable in all light conditions. Very quick to locate satellites. Route planning intuitive. With old unit I would often pass a street physically before the GPS would indicate the passage.

Cons Took reviewers advice and updated firmware and maps first. Tricky to find where to update firmware on Garmin site. Took six tries before map update worked. Bluetooth coordination with cell, thanks to virtually no documention, not easy.

Summary Setup, as explained, not that easy. I hoped for much better documentation; the manual with hand held hiking units were a 1,000 times better. Garmin assistance only available weekdays and not after 5. I can see why some reviewers found the setup overwhelming. At one point in the map update if you did the wrong thing you could have pooched your unit - according to the on screen warning. Easy to miss if one is in a hurry. Once the somewhat unpleasant setup was over I took the 1490T for an extensive drive. It worked great. The faster processor meant that changes in direction, such as sharp turns, was instantaneous. I haven't had to use the traffic alert but it must have been working because I did get unobtrusive advertising at the very top of the large screen. The POI feature was far superior to the 650T. Using bluetooth was a piece of cake and the clarity and volume of calls was great. All in all, an excellent unit. If it hadn't been for setup hassle I would have given it 5 stars.

Updated on Mar 31, 2010

My use of the unit for a week has changed my opinion drastically. It's route planning is ludicrous. In "going home" it has me driving past the road leading to my side street and go about a mile and a half to come in a back entrance and then tells me to turn right, when I should be turning left. On another route, it had me going south when I should have been directed to go north. My old GPS routing was clearly superior. It is off in it's placement of my actual location by 200 feet most of the time. Bluetooth volume to me is good but the other party thinks I am fading out all the time - this when I'm sitting in the car with the engine turned off. For those still wishing to buy, turn off ZoneAlarm (if used) before doing the map download. I was very disappointed to learn that Garmin is Taiwanese owned and the auto units are now built there. Tech help was American and good. My new rating is 1.5 stars. My unit will go back.

Pros Larger speaker with clear voice output.
Larger, brighter 5.0 inch touch screen.
Easy to use interface.
Uncluttered 3-D perpective maps -easy to use and follow.
Lane assist and junction views - very nice!
Blue tooth works.
Hotfix to satellites.

Cons 3-D map does not show name of street upon which you are traveling.
Points of interest not visible on 3-D maps. In 2-D must zoom to 200 ft or less to see POI.
Takes a minimum of 2.5 hours to update maps. ONLY first update is free.

Summary This is my first gps purchase. I, too, bought it on black Friday for $249 at Costco. At that price it is a good value. It works as it should. I love the big screen and clear voice directions. The blue tooth works great, too!

Some people have complained that they have had problems with connecting to satellites. I did not experience this except with the first cold startup of the unit. According to Garmin, during the first cold startup, the unit gathers data of the satellite positions that it then stores in an almanac for future use, enabling almost immediate connections when you turn on the gps the next time. The gathering and writing of that new almanac of satellite postions sometimes needs an open clear unobstructed view of the sky with the gps in a stationary position. This can take 5 minutes the first time you use the gps. This almanac should not need to be rebuilt often, unless you haven't used the gps for a long time, or you had flew to a distant location and then tried to use the gps again.

Pros 5" Screen, Free Lifetime FM Traffic, Geocoding

Cons No POIs on Map while driving, Intermittent Blank Screens when driving, Intermittent System Crashes, Usability issues when Panning Map with Touch Screen, Inaccurate Satellite Triangulation (sometimes off by 1 city block)

Summary The Garmin nuvi 1490T offers a great screen and free lifetime FM traffic but delivers poor value in usability, reliability and customization. I tested this new unit over the course of three weeks in Northern California and New York City. The system performance degraded over time where the Map display goes blank intermittently and calculation of routes takes several minutes. So if you're driving and make a wrong turn, expect to be lost because the unit becomes unresponsive while it recalculates the route which takes several minutes; and when it's done, it's not where it was previously and has to recalculate again and again. Also, Garmin removed all POI display on the Map when driving with no manual override to display POIs. As a consumer who's driving, you will not be able to see different POI categories like gas stations, coffee shops, parking, etc... Bottom-line, stay away from the Garmin nuvi 1490T.

Pros Good maps. Fairly good directions. Not so good at redirects.

Cons Garmin claims this unit is Bluetooh compatible. They do not note that it seems to be comaptible with phones other than those that my wife and I, or our 3 kids own. It is NOT compatible and does not work with MANY current models of Smartphones. I have the

Summary Garmin may be a fine GPS, but it a very poor Bluetooth unit. I feel that Garmin is falsely advertising their Bluetooth compatibility. They should state that it is only compatible with some cell phones.