Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Richard Nonya photo
1 Level
785 Review
38 Karma

Review on 📵 Garmin nüvi 255: Discontinued 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator - Find out more! by Richard Nonya

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Great for the price

I bought this GPS unit for $94 and I think it was a great deal. I wanted this GPS specifically for my motorcycle and mountain bike and bought it with the ChargerCity handlebar mount. You can also see my review of this mount (it's great). I've carried this GPS on both my motorcycle (from Detroit to northern Michigan on back roads) and my mountain bike (through southern Ohio on bike trails and some roads). In most cases the Nuvi 255 performed well, but in others it was a bit strange. During a motorcycle trip to northern Michigan, the route was inefficient. However, I was able to set a waypoint so it would direct me the way I wanted based on my own guess from google maps. It actually cut the trip by over 40 minutes. I wonder why he didn't calculate this route in advance. The display was bright enough to see in bright sunlight and I really like that I can see the speed limit, my speed and distance to the next corner. It was really helpful and guided me to my goal flawlessly. On a trip to southern Ohio, the route given was the most efficient, and we found our little-known campground with no problems. I used the off-road feature to track our progress on the bike path (wish these maps could be downloaded but they're not available) and the points of interest were generally easy to find, although sometimes you can find the town names need to know. the point is when you're not in close proximity. This can be annoying if you don't know the city's name or can't remember how it's spelled. I found the battery life to be around five hours, which is excellent. The charging time is acceptable both via USB and a car charger. You will receive a low battery warning when approximately 30 minutes of battery charge remains. In general, you should understand that GPS devices are only as good as their programs and algorithms. If you're going on a long journey and don't know your route, it's a good idea to check Google Maps ahead of time to make sure your GPS route is efficient enough. If not, you can enter waypoints to force a specific route. But the best thing about this device is that you don't have to sit with a printed map on your lap trying to navigate and drive at the same time.

Pros
  • GPS for sports and handhelds
Cons
  • So far so good