Damn, this thing takes a long time to acquire satellites when you start it up from a new destination – and that’s the only complaint I have about this unit!

The Garmin Nuvi 200 - Ready to use straight out of the box with a plug-in map chip, there’s not much more you could ask for in an entry-level unit. In fact, I would be quite happy with this unit all the way past intermediate level! Unless you really wanted some fancy extras, this is all you’re ever gonna need.

Garmin Nuvi 200The power button slides across the top of the unit. You need to slide and release for it to turn on or off. Of course, it took a couple of goes, with me switching it on, then off, then on again while I worked out that it doesn’t slide and stay! No, I’m not blonde, don’t be rude! As mentioned, it can take a while to find its position, but the signal is very strong and even indoors it seems to have no trouble finding satellites.

Simplicity seems to be the manufacturing goal here and this receiver is small, lightweight, and very basic. There’s a power/USB jack, the card slot for the map SD – and nothing else. No movable parts to break, no odd “holes” that need to be identified, no extras to confuse you. I really liked the straightforwardness of it all.

The 3.5” touch screen is clear and very bright, the colours showing well even in full daylight. The navigation is clear and simple with the next turn text at the top of the screen, a choice of either 2D or 3D maps, and ETA and distance to next turn clearly displayed. The voice prompts are clear, volume is loud and the quality of the voice is excellent. Of course, you can adjust the volume to your own levels, but the hard-of-hearing will have no problem with the sound. The prompts were also in good time, I was very impressed with the accuracy of the “Turn” instructions.

An easy-to-use suction cup mount allows you to position it in your vehicle at the perfect point for viewing, with a simple ball and socket joint that the unit clips into. The power cable plugs into the unit, not into the mount, so when you take the unit out of your car, you can tuck the cable away neatly into your cubby hole, or take it with you for use in another car. I liked this feature, as I can then jump into my partner’s car and still use my GPSr!

The Nuvi 200 menu is dummy-proof, guiding you one step at a time through all your requirements. You can search for an address, a point of interest (POI), or coordinates (geocachers rule!). The address is simple, enter town, street number and street name. For POI’s you have a selection of over a dozen categories to choose from, like food, fuel, shopping centres and the like. Many of the categories have sub-menus giving you a further range of choices. For example, under food you can search by food type with almost two dozen options to suit your taste for the evening. Yummy! Even better, if you enjoyed your meal, you can select “Save” under POI and it will save it to Your Favourites. Yeah!

There are a few non-navigation specials on the menu, like a calculator, a world clock and a currency converter. So, if you plan to travel to another country, buy the plug-and-play map card for that country and you can take this unit with you. There is a Garmin Lock feature to protect against theft (like that’s going to work in SA) and I even found a special cover called a “Tough Skin” to protect it.

Overall I found the Nuvi 200 to be extremely portable, very accurate, easy to read, clear sound and user-friendly. You’ll be hard-pressed to improve on this, unless you want extra extras like an MP3 player.

Oh, just for fun, I read somewhere that this is called a Personal Travel Assistant. Isn’t that cute?

SUMMARY: (Short and snappy version)

Rating: * = Terrible / Difficult - * * * * * = Excellent / Easy

  • User-Friendliness:
    • Software/Downloads N/A
    • Packaging * * *
    • Unit - Ease of use * * * *
    • Peripherals (Mounts, cables, carry cases etc) N/A
    • Bonus features (if any) N/A
  • Sensitivity/Reception: * * * *
  • Accuracy: * * * *
  • Battery-Life: * * * * *
  • Portability: * * * *

Type of User: Businessman, sales rep, courier service.

Pro’s:

  • User-friendly, lightweight unit that will take you anywhere accurately and without fuss.
  • Good colour touchscreen.
  • Extremely reliable.
  • Excellent sensitivity/reception & accuracy.

Con’s:

  • The Garmin Nuvi 200 is not waterproof.

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Product Review By:Toni Quaradeghini
(Please contact Gismap GPS Shop for reprint rights).
Toni Quaradeghini is a travel writer and business entrepreneur who has written for the BITE paperzine, the OWL newspaper and as a guest writer for Go-Multi magazine. She is putting the finishing touches to her first novel for publication in 2007 and has written several eBooks. She is also a keen geocacher, hiker, scuba diver, dancer and general lunatic.

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