- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 47 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Garmin deserves to sell a lot of I5's"
Pros: Price, ease of use, accuracy
Cons: Very, very few
Summary: I learned in my college economics course that quality is a function of price and the performance you expect for that price. This gadget far exceeded my expectations for quality.
I have not owned a GPS before and spent a great deal of time reading consumer opinions on them. I'm sure that there are other great units out there but I was scared away from a a number of otherwise highly rated (and more expensive) units by multiple reports of outdated maps and frequent losses of signal. Then, I saw that (uniquely) the average ratings of the reader reviews for this one exceeded the Cnet review and was hooked.
I bought mine about a month ago and used it to make my Holiday rounds (I'm in sales) in Northern New Jersey. Anyone who has tried to navigate NJ will know what a torture test that is. This thing performed flawlessly, showing me routes I didn't know existed and saving me a lot of time and stress.
I then took it to the Pacific northwest and used it to navigate Seattle and a ski trip up to BC. Again, flawless operation. No need to download additional maps. Just stick it to the windshield and go. My brother, who is not the most technologically-minded person around, learned how to use it with a one-minute tutorial from me. Need to find a nearby store/atm/golf course/etc? No problem, it's in there.
Yeah, the screen is small, but it shows the road you are on, the road you are going to next, and all the information you need to avoid getting lost. In fact, you can't get lost and isn't that the point?
I might wish that it would put my "favorites" in alphabetical order and I might wish that it would allow you to "record" a location for future return to it but those are minor quibbles.
Three relatives saw it in action over the Christmas holidays and decided to buy one.
If you spend lots of time trying to figure out how to get from here to there, have many near-traffic accidents while trying to read the map in your lap/drive/look at street markers, hate driving to strange places in the dark, waste lots of time by taking "safe" routes over direct routes, or just want a very cool and useful gadget, this is one of the best bargains out there.
Where to buy
Garmin StreetPilot i5:
$449.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$449.99 | See Site |
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