Garmin nuvi 205 GPS

Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

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Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

Price: $199.99

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Description: Over the past few years, I’ve tested or owned GPS devices from all the major manufacturers. Some are great devices that I want with me at all times on the road, and some have managed to get me lost when I already know where I’m going. Fortunately, the Garmin nuvi 205 falls into the first category.

The nuvi 205 comes in a choice of five colors (black, pink, red, white or blue), and comes with the standard vehicle suction kit (with disc). The suction cup is nice because it's small, unobtrusive, and lets you rotate the GPS unit in any direction. Too often with these devices, you're forced to loosen and tighten the bolts holding the device in place – the nuvi 205 doesn't suffer from unnecessary bolts, and is easy to adjust while driving.

The unit has a backlit, 3.5-inch TFT color screen (QVGA resolution at 320 by 240). The screen is very bright during the day, and can automatically adjust into night mode when it gets dark – saving you from a really bright glow that most other GPS units display when driving at night. The 3.5-inch display is pretty standard, but if you are using this in an SUV, or you place the GPS farther away from you, it might be worth going up to a larger size screen. There are ports for mini-USB and microSD card slots, which are used to update maps and for adding JPG images to the device. Connecting the device to a PC was a snap.

I also liked how thin the 4.8-oz. device was – this lets you use it as a portable GPS as well. I've taken the nuvi 205 on bike trips, and found it useful when cycling to parts unknown. Battery life is good, and although I've never pushed it to depletion, Garmin says it lasts up to four hours.

The interface for navigation is very easy to use, and is similar to other Garmin devices I've tried. When you boot up and go into the View Map mode, the map will appear, with your location, almost immediately. This is a huge departure from most other models I've tried, especially in this price range. With other devices, I've had to wait 15 to 60 seconds for the device to find its location. This isn't a function of leaving the device on at all times and the device remembering where it was last. I will frequently leave the device off when driving from one state to another, and when I start the device again it instantly knows where it is.

Another nice feature – when you decline to take a pre-selected route, the nuvi 205 makes its quick adjustments but doesn't go overboard in pestering you about the new (or old) route. There is a detour function that appears when you have a route pre-selected, letting you make quick adjustments on the fly when you invariably hit construction on every major highway in Connecticut.

The device claims 5 million points of interest – I've found some pretty random restaurants and gas stations with the device. Garmin says you can store up to 1,000 personal locations, which is way more than the three locations I've stored.

The nuvi 205 is an excellent GPS device and his highly recommended for all your travels, both personal and professional.