Garmin Nuvi 3790T

Pros: + Display brightness, color, resolution and ability to rotate the display is great
+ Great user interface, nice graphice
+ Excellent features and functionality, fast location of satellites, voice control
+ Voice command is great

Cons: - Phone connection is not great, The speaker quality is tinny and hard to understand the caller

Summary: This is my 7th Nuvi (I upgrade and pass along the old ones to family members) and definately the best. Well worth the money if you use a GPS a lot.

On opening I was quite impressed with the thin form factor and appearance. Unimpressed with the lack of any type of protective cover for it. You need to purchase a separate cover to keep it from getting scratched during storage, travel (in suitcase/bag) or handling.

The display brightness, color, resolution and ability to rotate the display is great. I now use it in portrait mode about 99% of the time so I get more area ahead of me rather than to either side. You do need to put it to landscape on occasion to read long POI descriptions. The 3D terrain isn't valuable per se' most of the time but is nice to look at especially when traveling through mountains. Traffic color coding is now displayed on the primary navigation screen, which I really like, as well as on a separate screen. Navigation is easier through the menus than previous units.

Voice command is great. I rarely touch the screen now. It sometimes requires me to repeat the command up to 3 times (I'm from the midwest US so shouldn't be too difficult for it to understand). However, the value you get from not playing with the unit while driving is worth the minor frustration of repeating the commands while driving. It even picks up the commands with windows and sun roof fully open and radio playing. Very impressive. Since I can access anything in the GPS via voice, it's easy to use and MUCH better than my GPS system built into my car (other than smaller screen). Man, if I could upgrade my car GPS with the features from this Nuvi I'd be a real happy camper!

Phone connection is not great. The speaker quality is tinny and hard to understand the caller. It works, but I'd consider it a backup system at best. It does do voice dialing pretty well so it's easy to use. Better in that respect than my Grand Cherokee bluetooth system.

The main routes to / from my office are very heavy traffic so I take back roads that do not have traffic sensors. GPS systems never reccomend these back routes because theoretically the main routes are all better choices. This GPS learns your preferred routes and starts to apply them rather than continually telling you to turn around and take the main route. This means it is actually useful to me at times my old systems weren't. Of course, not that I need the GPS to find my way home at night - usually.

I use the Garmin portable friction mount for the dashboard and travel with this. Never any problems with it with any Nuvi.

The only problem I've had with this Nuvi is that on occassion, when inserting the GPS into the mount, the speaker (which is in the mount) doesn't connect so there is no sound. By pressing down on what would be the upper left of the GPS (if it were in landscape mode) this pushes the contact pins on the left side into better contact and sound engages. Push down on the upper right and sound goes out. No visually apparent pin damage. Contacted Garmin and they are going to send me a new mount first and see if that fixes the problem. If not, then they say they'll send a new GPS.

I highly recommend this Nuvi. The voice command is great to keep your eyes on the road and is easy to use if you don't mind repeating yourself. Since I'm married, that's not a problem.

Updated on Aug 25, 2011

*** P.S. If you will buy this Garmin I suggest you have compare prices before you decide at: www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003EYVHH4?ie=UTF8&ref_=dp_olp_new&condition=new#?ie=UTF8&tag=***************&********=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

Updated on Oct 9, 2011

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