Garmin nüvi 265W/265WT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Traffic Review.
"Best GPS I have ever Owned" 2008-12-11
By Michael Simpson (Leesburg VA)
I have owned quite a few GPS units all including Phone, Laptop and Dedicated. Flat out before I even get started the Garmin Nuvi 265WT is the best I have ever owned. Let me just make a couple of comments on the most important features.
Touch Screen Interface
Very intuitive and easy to use. Touch screen is responsive but not instantaneous. What I particularly like is the ability to switch to a top down view by touching the screen. Once done you can use your finger to drag the map around at any zoom point. Once done you can hit the back button and resume your 3D view.
Turn by Turn
You have two options here. You can use one of the Text to Speech voices or one of natural voices. The text to speech voices will give you more information such as street names. This is what I use and even though you can tell it's a computer generated voice its quality is superb. The 265WT does a good job at keeping you updated. Also at any time you can hit the turn Icon and it will speak the distance to the next turn, giving you street name as well as direction. The audio is quite loud and in my noisy little Scion I have no problem hearing the messages.
Maps
I have found the map accuracy quite good. I live in Northern virginal and it seems to be very well updated as many of the very new streets included.
Automatic Routing
Very effective. You can choose between the quickest or the shortest with options to avoid U-Turns, Highways, Toll Roads, Traffic, Ferries. The automatic rerouting is faster than my TeleNav phone and my Laptop computers.
Points of Interest
On my TeleNav phone GPS system I can enter any business in the national database and I can get directions, address and phone number. This is where the 265WT falls short. The TeleNav system has the advantage of searching online. Since the 265WT is limited to onboard memory there is a limit to the number of points of interest. A good example is I was looking for "Off Broadway Shoes" and the unit could not find them. However a search for "Payless Shoes" worked very well.
Traffic Alerts
The lifetime free traffic comes at a price. You will get popup adds. These are very small popups that supposedly only come when you are in the menu. This is not true. I have gotten them while in the navigation screen. For now they it seems to be once per trip but there is nothing to say they wont start getting more frequent. The other thing I don't like about the messages is that you have to hit them to continue and doing so takes you out of the nav screen to a kind of favorites screen. You have to hit the back button to get back to your navigations screen.
How well does the traffic system work. I live in Northern VA and have coverage throughout my area. The included radio fails to pick up a single signal without using an external antenna. Sadly you can just go down and purchase an FM antenna.. The Power cable has a 3/32" jack. What I did was to pick up a 3/32" plug from Radio Shack and soldered a 4' wire to the tip pin on the connector. Once draped out one of the windows I get very frequent traffic updates.
Once you start getting traffic reports I found them to be accurate and they do help. You can automatically avoid high traffic arias or do it manually as they accrue.
I am still debating if the popup adds are worth the effort.
Bluetooth Integration
This is my favorite feature. I can keep my keyboard locked Motorola Q in my pants pocket and use my 265WT to make and receive all my calls at a touch of a button. All my phone features are available on the 265WT. Phonebook, Call history, Voice Recognition. The voice quality is quite acceptable on both ends. As a matter of fact the echo I get on my Motorola is not there when using the 265WT as a hands free set.
Picture Viewer
I found this to be a very useless feature. If the photos are very big it takes forever for the 265WT to load them. This may be due to the slow access to the SD card slot.
There are other features like the ability to connect the 265WT to your PC and automatically add favorite locations using GoogleMaps. All in all I am very happy with my purchase and would purchase it again.
FYI the Nuvi 265WT is the same unit as the Nuvi 255W without the Bluetooth ability and the FM reliever cable (GTM 25). You can even purchase the GTM 25 from Garmin. If you don't want the Bluetooth feature and don't currently need the traffic feature you can pick up the Nuvi 255W cheaper.
"Impressed!" 2008-12-05
By Russell Madaus (Streamwood, IL)
After doing extensive research I decided on this unit. Mainly because the 265wt is one of their newer NUVI products and it had the features I was looking for. If you look at the sites that have reviews on the 265wt, most are from nov/2008. I think this unit was released about 6 months ago. Anyway, here's my opinion on some of the key features of the 255WT.
1. Windsheild mount - works great. The suction cup is very high quality and I have no concerns that it will accidentally detach from the windsheild. I love the swivel capabilites and it allows you a perfect view no matter where you put it.
2. Satellite aquisition time - incredible! once you perform the initial aquistion, you are set. Now when I turn the on it's ready to go in usually under 3 seconds. Awesome!
3. Map directions and screen - wonderful. The GPS unit so far has given me perfect directions and the re-route capability works flawlessly. The screen is clear, bright and easy to navigate.
4. Free traffic alerts - works as described. I love this feature and I hardly saw any ads.
5. Bluetooth - giddy up! I had my Motorola KZR1 synched up in about 15 seconds. Easy to use and sure makes talking on the phone alot more enjoyable when driving. I've had conversations with multiple people and they could hear me fine. One cool thing is if your phone has voice dialing; because it allows you do it through the GPS unit. Also, all my contacts show up (even with multiple phone #'s).
6. And finally...the internal speaker. If you researched the 265WT like I've done you'll see ALOT of people complaining that the speaker is too quiet to hear anything. That was a big concern of mine but I felt I would give the unit a try and if it was that bad then I would return it. My thoughts on the speaker are this. The speaker size/quality could and probably should be improved. It's a cheapy speaker...BUT...I CAN hear the directions perfectly fine and can here the other person talking to me when using the bluetooth phone capability. Side notes: You HAVE to turn down your radio if you want to be able to hear it. Also, I was driving with the windows closed (it's friggin winter), so I cannot say how well you'd be able to hear the directions/phone with your windows rolled all the way down.
Bottom line - it has met or exceeded all of my expectations! I bought it on the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) and I got an incredible deal! $199.99 with free shipping, no tax, and got %50 off a $25 case logic travel case. I would have spent an extra $150 if I would have bought the same unit from a local retailer.
Finally if your in the market to buy any GPS my suggestion is wait until it gets closer to X-mas and see if the price drops. I'm guessing they'll do it again. I was fortunate to get it when I did and hence saved a nice chunk of change.
Hope this helped!
"Works perfectly" 2009-06-19
By K. W. Ford (Monrovia, CA United States)
I was a bit confused at first by the 265w label on the device and on the screen during boot up; however, this unit does have the FM receiver built into the power adapter cable and works exactly as advertised. The routing software is much more intelligent than a previous model I've owned, the interface is notably improved and the text to speech for street names is a very nice addition. Hands-free phone features also work flawlessly.
"Quite pleased. Also great Customer Service and Technical Assistance" 2009-07-07
By Jim D. (Washington, DC USA)
My refurbished 265wt looks and works like new and the features were as I expected. The only thing that I wish it had is the ability to save routes. But you can plan and follow a route by designating a final destination and then again using the "Where To" Feature to add additional locations and then for each selecting the option "Add as Via Point," but you cannot save the route for future use.
I ran into two glitches when attempting to update the map (free within 60 days of first use). Since it was a refurbished unit, the first use date was more than 60 days before I received the GPS and thus I was unable to download the free update. A call to Garmin easily resolved that - the customer service contact person added it to my account for free download. The second problem was that when I tried to install the updated map I got a message indicating there was not enough space and it refused to install. Another call to Garmin and a software expert used "remote assist" (after my giving him permission to take control of my computer from his location) and made live changes to my GPS. After that the map update was successful. In both cases the Garmin personnel were most courteous, very competent, and easy to understand.
I also found the Garmin MapSource program very helpful. It can be downloaded at no charge if you already have another Garmin program, and if you don't, you can first download and install the free Garmin Training Center program and then download and install MapSource at no cost. Working in MapSource to create, to view and to edit waypoints and tracks and other features and then using MapSource to transfer the data to the GPS is far easier than trying to do this directly on the GPS.
Apart from mapping, the "Points of Interest" feature can lead you to unexpected places. After using the GPS "Where To", then "Points of Interest" in the Germantown, Maryland area I selected "Food" to look for lunch. The first two addresses ended up being residential addresses in townhouse developments. Out of curiosity I learned that one house was unoccupied according to a neighbor and at the other house no one answered the door. On my 3rd try I selected the chain "Subway" and that address was right on. Clearly the Points of Interest contains some unreliable information. However, this would likely be true for all Garmin GPS models.
"Better than a Nuvi 760" 2009-02-03
By Youth Pastor (Dallas, TX)
Before I decided to buy this Nuvi 265wt model, I had bought the Nuvi 760 model on Black Friday. The 760 model was okay at best. I had it for about three weeks until I realized that the upper right hand corner would not respond until after pressing that corner at least five times. So I decided to return the Garmin and I was thinking about getting a tomtom or magellan. But then I saw the 265wt on sale for $200 and I decided, since I bought the 760 for $250, maybe I could save money and just give Garmin one last try...As soon as I opened the 265wt, I fell in love with it!
The 265wt FAR OUTWEIGHS the Nuvi 760 by a mile! The screen refresh rate on the 265wt is much better, the satellite locks on faster, the colors are brighter in my opinion (and yes, they were at the same brightness level!), and the free traffic is so much better on the 265wt. With the 760, I had free MSN Traffic for three months and comparing that with the 265wt traffic, they are exactly the same. Except with the 760, you have to pay a yearly subscription. Furthermore, with the 265wt, you can custom load POI's (Points of Interest) and so I have loaded mine with all the locations of In-N-Out Burger and Rudy's BBQ in America, which is awesome. They also have Custom POI's which show you where speed camera's and red light camera's are, if that's your kind of thing. But I'm a law abiding Texan, so I never mess with Texas and that kind of illegal stuff...
The only thing that the 760 had that the 265wt doesn't have is mp3/audiobook and the FM Transmitter with audio jack.
About the FM Transmitter - it was a cool feature but it wasn't practical because in Dallas, where I live, there are thousands of radio stations. There are hardly any open radio stations. You think there's an open one, but then all of a sudden, you hear the voice of a person speaking a different language (must have been Chinese Talk Radio) or you hear a Mariachi Band playing. Then you go one decimal point higher, and there's the Hip-Hop Station. With so much static in Dallas, the MP3/Audiobook Player really becomes useless...
The only time I was able to use the transmitter without static was when I took a trip up to Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, there isn't much radio stations as there are only cows and fields in Oklahoma. I finally was able to put the 760 to the true test of using the MP3 player. However, what I found really dissappointing was that as I was listening to Richard P. Feynman's Audiobook, "The Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures", I fell asleep on I35 and almost got into a car crash near Oklahoma City. It was then I realized that the Nuvi 760's MP3/Audiobook player was more of a driving hazzard than a helpful tool to get me safely to Norman, OK where I needed to go.
Therefore, HANDS DOWN the 265wt is not only a better GPS than the Nuvi 760, but it's also a FAR SAFER GPS!!! If you want MP3's or Music without static, get an Ipod and connect it to your car. It's far better...
By Michael Simpson (Leesburg VA)
I have owned quite a few GPS units all including Phone, Laptop and Dedicated. Flat out before I even get started the Garmin Nuvi 265WT is the best I have ever owned. Let me just make a couple of comments on the most important features.
Touch Screen Interface
Very intuitive and easy to use. Touch screen is responsive but not instantaneous. What I particularly like is the ability to switch to a top down view by touching the screen. Once done you can use your finger to drag the map around at any zoom point. Once done you can hit the back button and resume your 3D view.
Turn by Turn
You have two options here. You can use one of the Text to Speech voices or one of natural voices. The text to speech voices will give you more information such as street names. This is what I use and even though you can tell it's a computer generated voice its quality is superb. The 265WT does a good job at keeping you updated. Also at any time you can hit the turn Icon and it will speak the distance to the next turn, giving you street name as well as direction. The audio is quite loud and in my noisy little Scion I have no problem hearing the messages.
Maps
I have found the map accuracy quite good. I live in Northern virginal and it seems to be very well updated as many of the very new streets included.
Automatic Routing
Very effective. You can choose between the quickest or the shortest with options to avoid U-Turns, Highways, Toll Roads, Traffic, Ferries. The automatic rerouting is faster than my TeleNav phone and my Laptop computers.
Points of Interest
On my TeleNav phone GPS system I can enter any business in the national database and I can get directions, address and phone number. This is where the 265WT falls short. The TeleNav system has the advantage of searching online. Since the 265WT is limited to onboard memory there is a limit to the number of points of interest. A good example is I was looking for "Off Broadway Shoes" and the unit could not find them. However a search for "Payless Shoes" worked very well.
Traffic Alerts
The lifetime free traffic comes at a price. You will get popup adds. These are very small popups that supposedly only come when you are in the menu. This is not true. I have gotten them while in the navigation screen. For now they it seems to be once per trip but there is nothing to say they wont start getting more frequent. The other thing I don't like about the messages is that you have to hit them to continue and doing so takes you out of the nav screen to a kind of favorites screen. You have to hit the back button to get back to your navigations screen.
How well does the traffic system work. I live in Northern VA and have coverage throughout my area. The included radio fails to pick up a single signal without using an external antenna. Sadly you can just go down and purchase an FM antenna.. The Power cable has a 3/32" jack. What I did was to pick up a 3/32" plug from Radio Shack and soldered a 4' wire to the tip pin on the connector. Once draped out one of the windows I get very frequent traffic updates.
Once you start getting traffic reports I found them to be accurate and they do help. You can automatically avoid high traffic arias or do it manually as they accrue.
I am still debating if the popup adds are worth the effort.
Bluetooth Integration
This is my favorite feature. I can keep my keyboard locked Motorola Q in my pants pocket and use my 265WT to make and receive all my calls at a touch of a button. All my phone features are available on the 265WT. Phonebook, Call history, Voice Recognition. The voice quality is quite acceptable on both ends. As a matter of fact the echo I get on my Motorola is not there when using the 265WT as a hands free set.
Picture Viewer
I found this to be a very useless feature. If the photos are very big it takes forever for the 265WT to load them. This may be due to the slow access to the SD card slot.
There are other features like the ability to connect the 265WT to your PC and automatically add favorite locations using GoogleMaps. All in all I am very happy with my purchase and would purchase it again.
FYI the Nuvi 265WT is the same unit as the Nuvi 255W without the Bluetooth ability and the FM reliever cable (GTM 25). You can even purchase the GTM 25 from Garmin. If you don't want the Bluetooth feature and don't currently need the traffic feature you can pick up the Nuvi 255W cheaper.
By Russell Madaus (Streamwood, IL)
After doing extensive research I decided on this unit. Mainly because the 265wt is one of their newer NUVI products and it had the features I was looking for. If you look at the sites that have reviews on the 265wt, most are from nov/2008. I think this unit was released about 6 months ago. Anyway, here's my opinion on some of the key features of the 255WT.
1. Windsheild mount - works great. The suction cup is very high quality and I have no concerns that it will accidentally detach from the windsheild. I love the swivel capabilites and it allows you a perfect view no matter where you put it.
2. Satellite aquisition time - incredible! once you perform the initial aquistion, you are set. Now when I turn the on it's ready to go in usually under 3 seconds. Awesome!
3. Map directions and screen - wonderful. The GPS unit so far has given me perfect directions and the re-route capability works flawlessly. The screen is clear, bright and easy to navigate.
4. Free traffic alerts - works as described. I love this feature and I hardly saw any ads.
5. Bluetooth - giddy up! I had my Motorola KZR1 synched up in about 15 seconds. Easy to use and sure makes talking on the phone alot more enjoyable when driving. I've had conversations with multiple people and they could hear me fine. One cool thing is if your phone has voice dialing; because it allows you do it through the GPS unit. Also, all my contacts show up (even with multiple phone #'s).
6. And finally...the internal speaker. If you researched the 265WT like I've done you'll see ALOT of people complaining that the speaker is too quiet to hear anything. That was a big concern of mine but I felt I would give the unit a try and if it was that bad then I would return it. My thoughts on the speaker are this. The speaker size/quality could and probably should be improved. It's a cheapy speaker...BUT...I CAN hear the directions perfectly fine and can here the other person talking to me when using the bluetooth phone capability. Side notes: You HAVE to turn down your radio if you want to be able to hear it. Also, I was driving with the windows closed (it's friggin winter), so I cannot say how well you'd be able to hear the directions/phone with your windows rolled all the way down.
Bottom line - it has met or exceeded all of my expectations! I bought it on the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) and I got an incredible deal! $199.99 with free shipping, no tax, and got %50 off a $25 case logic travel case. I would have spent an extra $150 if I would have bought the same unit from a local retailer.
Finally if your in the market to buy any GPS my suggestion is wait until it gets closer to X-mas and see if the price drops. I'm guessing they'll do it again. I was fortunate to get it when I did and hence saved a nice chunk of change.
Hope this helped!
By K. W. Ford (Monrovia, CA United States)
I was a bit confused at first by the 265w label on the device and on the screen during boot up; however, this unit does have the FM receiver built into the power adapter cable and works exactly as advertised. The routing software is much more intelligent than a previous model I've owned, the interface is notably improved and the text to speech for street names is a very nice addition. Hands-free phone features also work flawlessly.
By Jim D. (Washington, DC USA)
My refurbished 265wt looks and works like new and the features were as I expected. The only thing that I wish it had is the ability to save routes. But you can plan and follow a route by designating a final destination and then again using the "Where To" Feature to add additional locations and then for each selecting the option "Add as Via Point," but you cannot save the route for future use.
I ran into two glitches when attempting to update the map (free within 60 days of first use). Since it was a refurbished unit, the first use date was more than 60 days before I received the GPS and thus I was unable to download the free update. A call to Garmin easily resolved that - the customer service contact person added it to my account for free download. The second problem was that when I tried to install the updated map I got a message indicating there was not enough space and it refused to install. Another call to Garmin and a software expert used "remote assist" (after my giving him permission to take control of my computer from his location) and made live changes to my GPS. After that the map update was successful. In both cases the Garmin personnel were most courteous, very competent, and easy to understand.
I also found the Garmin MapSource program very helpful. It can be downloaded at no charge if you already have another Garmin program, and if you don't, you can first download and install the free Garmin Training Center program and then download and install MapSource at no cost. Working in MapSource to create, to view and to edit waypoints and tracks and other features and then using MapSource to transfer the data to the GPS is far easier than trying to do this directly on the GPS.
Apart from mapping, the "Points of Interest" feature can lead you to unexpected places. After using the GPS "Where To", then "Points of Interest" in the Germantown, Maryland area I selected "Food" to look for lunch. The first two addresses ended up being residential addresses in townhouse developments. Out of curiosity I learned that one house was unoccupied according to a neighbor and at the other house no one answered the door. On my 3rd try I selected the chain "Subway" and that address was right on. Clearly the Points of Interest contains some unreliable information. However, this would likely be true for all Garmin GPS models.
By Youth Pastor (Dallas, TX)
Before I decided to buy this Nuvi 265wt model, I had bought the Nuvi 760 model on Black Friday. The 760 model was okay at best. I had it for about three weeks until I realized that the upper right hand corner would not respond until after pressing that corner at least five times. So I decided to return the Garmin and I was thinking about getting a tomtom or magellan. But then I saw the 265wt on sale for $200 and I decided, since I bought the 760 for $250, maybe I could save money and just give Garmin one last try...As soon as I opened the 265wt, I fell in love with it!
The 265wt FAR OUTWEIGHS the Nuvi 760 by a mile! The screen refresh rate on the 265wt is much better, the satellite locks on faster, the colors are brighter in my opinion (and yes, they were at the same brightness level!), and the free traffic is so much better on the 265wt. With the 760, I had free MSN Traffic for three months and comparing that with the 265wt traffic, they are exactly the same. Except with the 760, you have to pay a yearly subscription. Furthermore, with the 265wt, you can custom load POI's (Points of Interest) and so I have loaded mine with all the locations of In-N-Out Burger and Rudy's BBQ in America, which is awesome. They also have Custom POI's which show you where speed camera's and red light camera's are, if that's your kind of thing. But I'm a law abiding Texan, so I never mess with Texas and that kind of illegal stuff...
The only thing that the 760 had that the 265wt doesn't have is mp3/audiobook and the FM Transmitter with audio jack.
About the FM Transmitter - it was a cool feature but it wasn't practical because in Dallas, where I live, there are thousands of radio stations. There are hardly any open radio stations. You think there's an open one, but then all of a sudden, you hear the voice of a person speaking a different language (must have been Chinese Talk Radio) or you hear a Mariachi Band playing. Then you go one decimal point higher, and there's the Hip-Hop Station. With so much static in Dallas, the MP3/Audiobook Player really becomes useless...
The only time I was able to use the transmitter without static was when I took a trip up to Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, there isn't much radio stations as there are only cows and fields in Oklahoma. I finally was able to put the 760 to the true test of using the MP3 player. However, what I found really dissappointing was that as I was listening to Richard P. Feynman's Audiobook, "The Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures", I fell asleep on I35 and almost got into a car crash near Oklahoma City. It was then I realized that the Nuvi 760's MP3/Audiobook player was more of a driving hazzard than a helpful tool to get me safely to Norman, OK where I needed to go.
Therefore, HANDS DOWN the 265wt is not only a better GPS than the Nuvi 760, but it's also a FAR SAFER GPS!!! If you want MP3's or Music without static, get an Ipod and connect it to your car. It's far better...
