» Garmin Nuvi 660 Car Navigation GPS Review

The Garmin Nuvi 660 comes in numerous versions for different regions for which GPS maps are provided. There is also a Garmin 660FM, available only in Europe, which made its debut at CeBIT, Europe’s premier electronics trade show in Hannover, Germany in March, 2007. Garmin has been designing GPS equipment since 1990 - which is a considerable timeframe for the relatively new GPS consumer market. Still seeking to expand their product line, Garmin is planning to move into marine GPS systems with their recent purchase of Nautamatic Marine Systems Inc.

As mentioned, the Garmin Nuvi 660 comes in numerous versions for different regions. There are version for North America, North America (with Travel Guide), Australia, Brazil, Europe, France, Mexico and New Zealand. All map data is provided by NAVTEQ a world leader in premium-quality mapping. Travel Guides are on SD cards and provide helpful information such as restaurant and hotel reviews and recommendations

Other models in the Garmin Nuvi 600 series include the 600, 610, 650, 670 and 680. Common features across the Nuvi 600 series include:

• large 4.3 inch TFT widescreen,
• mp3 payer,
• audio book player,
• picture viewer,
• world travel clock, currency & measurement converter, calculator,
• Garmin Lock (anti-theft),
• preloaded maps for immediate use

TFT Touchscreen

The Garmin Nuvi 670 has a quality display with a 4.3 inch, 64K color TFT touchscreen with WQVGA resolution (480 x 272 pixels). Owner satisfaction with a GPS device has been shown to be strongly influenced by ease of use and display quality. Both 2D and 3D perspective views are available for viewing GPS maps.

GPS operation is exclusively via the touchscreen in conjunction with with an on/off switch and rotary volume control.

Rather than just announcing to turn left or turn right the Garmin Nuvi 670 has text-to-speech capability for pronouncing street names so there is no need to check the display for confirmation.

If you want to plan your route while out of the car, the Nuvi 670 has an internal lithium-ion battery with a respectable 7 hour life. Both an AC charger and a 12-volt power adapter for in-car recharging are included.

SiRF Star III

GPS capability is provided for all Garmin Nuvi 600 series receivers by a SiRF Star III chipset. The SiRF Star III family was considered a breakthrough innovation GPS chip architecture for its impressive performance improvements to the GPS receivers.

Its recently been announced that the SiRFstarIIITM architecture will provide the GPS-based location awareness for products based on the new Intel Ultra Mobile Platform 2007. The Ultra Mobile Device reference design will offer manufacturers of mobile devices in consumer electronics, wireless, automotive and computer industry a comprehensive, turnkey, location-enabled solution they can employ to drive down the cost and speed the development of next generation location-aware ultra mobile devices.

The SiRF Star III has been adopted by numerous GPS manufacturers including TomTom and Magellan although TomTom look to be moving to sourcing some GPS chips from Global Locate which SiRF has sued for patent infringement. The SiRF Star III offers faster fix times, higher signal locking, higher tracking sensitivity and lower power requirements.

For the best position accuracy, the SiRF Star III chipset is a WAAS enabled (which improves accuracy). Accuracy for the SiRF Star III is 2.0m for position and with 0.01m/s for velocity accuracy. Hot and warm autonomous times to first fix (TTFF) are less than 1s and less than 35s respectively.

Audible Book Player

The Nuvi 660 includes an Audible book player and with a subscription to Audible.com you can download from their library of some 35,000 books.

Nuvi 660’s MP3 Player

Garmin have included music player functionality into the Nuvi 660 with a built-in MP3 player. It has some useful menus with users able to see album art and able to browse music by the artist, album, song or genre. Music is loaded on the SD card and can be dragged-and-dropped. For better sound it’s possible to wire your Garmin Nuvi into your car sound system using an audio output jack.

Bluetooth Wireless Technology

Bluetooth wireless technology enabled cellular phones can be combined with the Garmin Nuvi 660 for safer hands-free mobile phone operation allowing your eyes to stay on the road. Incoming phone calls are displayed on the 660 and a tap of the display accepts the call. As with other systems, any other audio is automatically muted during phone calls. Calls can be made using the nuvi’s touchscreen keypad. A handy convenience is being able to access phone numbers associated with the POI making it simple to call ahead.

Video - Nuvi 660 Bluetooth Demo

Operation and GPS Maps

Getting started with the Nuvi 660 is easy as it comes preloaded with highly detailed City Navigator NT street data of the particular region of the version purchased. The European version includes a preloaded safety camera database containing the location of safety cameras for some parts of Europe. Map detail includes information on highways, interstates, business and residential roads as well as features such as turn restrictions, speed categories and other navigation features. There is an SD expansion slot for adding other maps. The map database features some six million points of interest including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, attractions, entertainment, shopping, emergency services, post offices, camp grounds, movie theatres and ATMs.

One navigation option is to select a Point of Interest (POI) by touching its icon on the display screen. Having selected a destination from the touch screen interface, one is directed by Garmin’s text-to-speech functionality which tells users the name of the street, when to turn, and in what direction. If a turn is missed the Nuvi 660 will automatically calculate a new route.

The Garmin Lock included with the Garmin Nuvi 660 comes with which is an anti -theft feature that disables the unit from performing any functions until enter a specific 4-digit PIN or take the unit to a predetermined location.

Built-in Traffic Receiver

Real time traffic information is one of the services which will drive the uptake of automotive GPS navigation devices in the years to come. Access these services is provided by an FM TMC traffic receiver. Congested areas color coded on the map display. Avoiding a traffic delay is as simple as pushing a button to calculate a new route around problem spots.

The FM-band traffic receiver is connected to the car radio/antenna system to provide real-time Traffic Message Channel (TMC) data. TMC data provides quick, accurate notification of situations impacting traffic such as accidents, road construction, police and emergency services. Digital traffic data is available from specific FM broadcast stations in a fast growing number of major metro areas throughout the United States and Europe. Traffic alert service subscription costs vary with location.

Three months of traffic service subscription is included for the USA and European models. You do not need to activate the subscription that comes with your traffic receiver. It starts receiving traffic information automatically.

Comparison of Garmin Nuvi 660 v

Other models in the Garmin Nuvi 600 series include the 600, 610, 650, 670 and 680.

The 660 shares all the features of the Garmin Nuvi 670 except for the maps preloaded. The 670 is a transatlantic version with both North America and European maps. The 660 is available in numerous versions differentiated by which regions maps are provided. Like the Nuvi 670, the 660 shares all the Nuvi, 680’s features except for MSN Direct.

The Nuvi 600 and 610 have regional maps only and the 670 is the only model with Europen maps as well as US + Canada.

The Nuvi 610 does not have text-to-speech capability for reading street names.

Both the 600 and 650 miss out on Bluetooth for hands-free calling.

An FM transmitter is built into the 660 and 670. The 680 gets traffic condition updates through its MSN Direct subscription.

Garmin Nuvi 660 Package Includes

• Garmin Nuvi 660
• Preloaded City Navigator NT North America or Europe (full coverage) or other country
• FM TMC traffic receiver with vehicle power cable
• AC charger
• SD memory card slot
• Dual internal speaker system
• Suction cup mount
• Dashboard disk
• USB cable
• Leather carrying case
• Owner Manual on disk
• Quick-reference guide

Further Reading

A similarly specified automotive GPS navigation device is the TomTom GO 300

It’s worth considering the Lowrance iWay 350c.

User Reviews and Prices

The Garmin Nuvi has been at the top of Amazon’s GPS bestseller list for a long time and has an excellent customer rating and lots of user reviews to consider. See Amazon’s Garmin nüvi 660 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator web page.

Compare prices with Nerds.net GPS, NUVI 660, NORTH AMERICA WITH

Resources

If you want to get an idea of the interface for the nuvi 660 have a look at Garmin’s Flash demonstration of it’s features.

Garmin provide an extensive FAQ database for their GPS products.

Garmin’s owners manual for the Garmin nuvi 660

You can compare the Garmin nuvi 660 with other models using Garmin’s comparison database which gives you side by side comparisons with differences highlighted.

Specification Garmin Nuvi 660