Many people are also shopping for the Garmin 350 and similar systems from the U.K, Canada, and Europe as well, so I tried to find the most popular and top customer recommend retailers for those regions as well

• USA Shoppers
• Canadian Shoppers
• UK & European Shoppers

Online of Offline shopping?

A ride down to your local Best-Buy or Walmart type of Consumer Electronics retailer may not be the best route here. A quick comparison of nuvi 350 prices (and most gadgets / hi end electronics in general) shows that these type of places never really have the lowest pricing, with perhaps the rare exception of clearance sales on particular items when the stores have been overstocked, which definitely is not the case with high end GPS systems right now. Accounting in shipping costs, online stores that are reputable and large, prove time and time again, to be the best way to find the cheapest and lowest pricing on these types of items.

Best online stores?

This basically boils down to reputation and security in my opinion, with many stores varying in prices at a very small percent, I think its most important for the customer to make sure they are choosing a trustworthy and reputable source. The two places online shopping savvy people would recommend for getting items similar to the garmin nuvi 350 are Amazon.com and eBay, with amazon being the worlds largest and most recognized online shopping portal, and eBay having a reputation for finding you great sales and bargains.

Amazon.com

This is my personal choice, with their incredibly pristine reputation, and ability to deliver shocking low prices compared to most every other shopping destination just based on their sheer volume, reputation, and domination of online shopping. While you may find a cheap discount price on the garmin nuvi 350 GPS at eBay if your timing is right, the security of your item and purchase isn’t the same, and in many cases you will find that with hidden charges, conditions and shipping costs, you didn’t get the best deal any how.

If you are a bargain hunter like myself, do yourself a favor and shop around first, and make sure that you check out Amazon and compare the various prices on new, used, refurbished and open packaged items they have their, if you do decide on ebay, make sure that you do your homework on the auctioneer or vendor in question!

Compare Lowest Prices on Garmin Nuvi 350 (USA) HERE…

Buy Nuvi 350 In Europe?

Certain Garmin Nuvi models aren’t available or designed for Europe, check out Garmin’s section of Amazon.co.uk if you are looking to buy the garmin nuvi 350 or a similar European capable GPS system:

Compare Best Prices on Nuvi 350 (Europe) HERE…

Buy Nuvi 350 In Canada?

Unfortunately amazon and ebay for the most part will not offer shipping to Canadian customers, and the counterparts amazon.ca and ebay.ca are seriously behind in their product catalogs and pricing. Recommended for shoppers in Canada:

Compare Lowest Pricing on Garmin 350 (Canada) HERE…

Truly a life changing experience, if you choose the garmin nuvi 350 gps as your first such device, you will more then likely have a hard time imagining life without it, much like a cell phone or your first vehicle. The Nuvi 350 has consistently sat atop the best selling lists of electronics stores, retailers, and best rated top 10 lists of most of the credible large websites as well.

It has been an award winner and acquired huge buzz and popularity for all of 2005 and 2006, and in 2007 it remains a top notch travel assistant. Perhaps the market has a bit more competition now, but the price has dropped so dramatically on the garmin 350 since it was first introduced, that it still has insane appeal for the shoppers, and it seems like it will stay one of the best choices for at least another two years until the technology has aged some more.

If you are looking to buy the garmin nuvi 350 gps system, you are looking at a very solid, tried and true product, and as you read through my garmin nuvi 350 review, note that even though there are some newer models on the market, that none yet come close to Price-to-performance ration the Nuvi350 offers as of Early 2007!

1. Basic Setup and Mounting
2. Getting Started
3. Accuracy of Maps & Satellite Signals
4. Main & Secondary Navigational Assistance
5. Third Party Tools, Utilities and Entertainment
6. Pro’s
7. Con’s
8. Conclusion

Basic Setup – Mounting

Figure 1: The Garmin Nuvi 350 has a sleek and minimalist style design that makes it small, lightweight, portable and incredibly attractive no matter where you have it!	Figure 2: The included mount holds the Garmin 350 securely in place, while the clutter free outer shell, SD expansion slot and folding antenna keep it slim and stylish

Right out the box there isn’t much to your new gadget, the unit, the mount, the adapter’s and a few pieces of paper is all (note that no comprehensive user manual is included inbox – the good news? you WON’T need a manual )

You will first fully charge the unit’s battery and once that is done (couple of hours) you will proceed to powering it on and then doing the basic setup of your menu’s and functions to match your area, time, and personal preferences. A 4-5 second boot up from the power depression and your ultra bright 3.5′ touch screen is on for the first of many times; flip up the integral antenna neatly self folding away, and the satellites in orbit will lock into your powerful new gizmo. Depending on a few factors such as weather and surrounding shelter, the initial satellite lock on sequence may take a few moments, but once it has found them all, subsequent power on are acquired very quickly.

The software preinstalled on the unit should be fairly up to date at the time of purchase depending on the store you bought, but you can upgrade and download the software firmware version from garmin’s website for all the latest advancements.

The mount is easy to use, and the unit is well designed to clip into and out of the mounting very quickly (commonly overlooked feature if you are going to be doing a lot of short stops and remove the unit frequently) – one point to note is that many people will opt for an after market garmin nuvi 350 mount accessory – as the windshield mount isn’t preferable and illegal in some places such as California, check for the Garmin Portable Friction mount on amazon.com for a great mount accessory and at a good price if you don’t want windshield obstruction.

Getting Started:

Figure 5: The menus and functions of the Nuvi 350 are really intuitive and well laid out – from the basic menu screens you will be able to easily learn where all the functions exist and be using them all properly fairly quickly	Figure 6: The unit goes far beyond just simple navigational assistance, and as you become more familiar with your Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS, you will fall in love with all the advanced travel assistance it packs in a relatively cheap punch

Once you’re all mounted and ready to go, the initial learning curve is very user friendly – many very technically challenged people state in their own garmin nuvi 350 reviews that it was surprisingly simple for them.

The nuvi 350 is renowned for its intuitive setup and usage for the end user, and I quickly saw why as I fired it up my first time as well. You will be offered a menu of various ways to find your destination, and I was surprised at the enormity of ways and the database of locations pre-installed on the unit, and how simple it was to type in any address not already included in the unit. I’d say that if you are very technically challenged, that you will have figured out the entire process inside an hour, so reserve at least 60 minutes of time to play with your new favorite gizmo before heading out into untracked territory.

As you go about the initial navigation and route menu’s you will notice such things as custom vehicle icons, choices of day/night colors, 2d or 3d maps and more – the garmin nuvi 350 is again very user friendly, and there are boat loads of options that you will eventually custom choose for you absolute preferred experience – far to many for me to briefly cover in this nuvi 350 review.

Accuracy of Maps / Satellite:

At the heart of the unit, its main process is navigation, and as such it’s almost entirely essential that the unit has very strong satellite chipsets and appropriate, accurate and well updated mapping. The nuvi350 uses maps by NAVTEQ – which is the same used by Google Maps and most credible map resources in the world – due to their overwhelming supremacy over other mapping entities.

The Nuvi contains one of the most powerful and ultra sensitive satellite chipsets available today and presumably for the near future in the SiRFIII chip. This may be above the average reader’s or consumers head and I won’t go into great detail – but it’s a very important aspect and a major contribution to the vast popularity and success of the newer GPS systems.

Reception and accuracy to the GPS satellites is very strong and I haven’t had it fail or loose signal yet, which says allot about this little piece of technology where I have returned or trashed many a gadgets in the past for failing to accurately, timely and strongly hold satellite reception through various environments and shelters.

Figure 3: Satellites lock on quickly and you would have a hard time loosing signal once they are even if you tried – says allot about the quality of the Nuvi 350 chipset when you compare to driving under a bridge causing inferior units to mess up	Figure 4: Allow a little while for the initial lock on of satellites – note the nuvi 350 uses NAVTEQ mapping data and a SiRFIII chipset – both industry leading qualities that make the Nuvi 350 one of the best units available today.

General Navigational Assistance:

There are various voice and animated instructions to help you navigate your path with the garmin nuvi 350, and most people will mix and match there favorite views that are best suited for how they want to handle the assistance from the unit.

Figure 7: From this simple menu you will select from various ways to find a destination and allow the quick routing engine to calculate your new turn-by-turn instructions for the trip ahead	Figure 8: This main navigational screen is clean and simple yet very informative, zoom in and out with the icons, get next maneuver instructions with the top bar, detailed trip information by touching the bottom left, or incredibly detailed next move instructions by tapping the bottom right.

The main screen shown during normal navigation contains a wealth of info – at the top of the screen in a green background you see your current next turn (i.e.: Milk Rd to Cow Ave. Right), slightly underneath you find the plus and minus icons which will zoom in and out the depth of the map to better match your preferred viewing range. In the middle is animated sequence of your vehicle along the road with the surrounding territory details, which can be set to 2D, 3D, Night, and day viewing modes to match your preference as well.

Bottom left you find your estimate Arrival time assuming the current route is taken, and the bottom right will display your next and how long it will be until you turn, which will help take any guess work or anxiety out of when you need to change direction or roads.

Figure 9: Tap the bottom left arrival information box to bring up a detailed view of your entire trips information – compare this with your paper map navigational statistics and see how the nuvi 350 saves you time, money and frustration!	Figure 10: Tap the bottom right next turn information box to bring up a comprehensive next turn analysis – approaching a very complex intersection? use this screen to get through it without any anxiety of which exit or entry you must turn to

Tapping the Bottom left arrival icon information box will bring up a detailed view of your entire trips statistics, while touching the bottom right next turn info box will bring up an even more detailed next turn screen – which will help you follow your next maneuver easily, even in the most confusing or congested of twisted road designs.

Also note the Garmin Nuvi 350 Text-to-speech capability, which will guide you seamlessly with voice instructions “Turn left on Cow Avenue” whereas older and less advanced system would give you more generic “left in 500 feet” type of instructions and gave many people problems and confusion. The voice on the Nuvi 350 GPS is really great, and much more natural and precise then other text to speech programs I have used, and although it sometimes will garble a really hard to pronounce street name, it’s of a very superior quality then most other GPS systems on the market today

Also the entire display is color coded and makes it really easy and simple to understand – purple will show your entire chosen route, while other colors along the way represent different things.

Again there is really too much to cover in regards to the various ways and options the Garmin 350 gives you to navigate your course, the above is just the basic main navigational features…

Figure 11: The Nuvi 350 utilitizes color coding to make understanding the wealth of data shown easy to understand – where customizable 2d, 3d and various views help you custom tailor your preferred viewing experience	Figure 12: The Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS will automatically adjust to day and night colors to help you through your long journeys and further take away the stress of navigating in the dark.

Third Party Tools / Menus:

Picture Viewer – I used this surprisingly large amount so far. I’d take lots of pictures the places I was traveling to, and it was nice to take the sd card out my digital camera and slide it into the garmin nuvi 350 to do a little demonstration, slideshow and show off pictures to my friends and family in the vehicle or on the device.

MP3 Player – Loaded hundreds upon hundreds of songs from my laptop onto a 4gb sd memory card and played them in my car on my trips – very nice to have 4000mb of space of any song you choose rather then a specific 700mb CD with only a few tracks you like; I guess it’s like having an iPod where you can choose all the specific songs you like rather then have to load in 1 cd that has those 2 songs you like 5-10x over, nice and clutter free with great sound quality!

Language Guide – Another feature I didn’t initially think I would use much, the kids love this as well for ‘cheating’ on Spanish and French homework, and the ability to find almost every common word and phrase and actually hear its pronunciation in many languages is amazing depending on where you intend to travel to.

Much More – There’s tons of little useful tools and utilities, from calculators to measurement converters, essentially any type of sticky situation you may come across on your travels may be solved with a glance through the various tool menus on your personal travel companion

Figure 13: Loaded with tons of extra tools and utilities that will come in handy eventually or further enhance your trips enjoyability	Figure 14: Entertainment features such as mp3 player (love the fact you can load 100’s of specific songs onto a cheap SD card) and picture viewer are bonus additions for those long and boring drives

Pro’s:

• Incredibly easy to use – even for people unfamiliar with such gadgets
• Incredibly cheap prices compared to similar brands and units
• Great Company to deal with and fantastic and swift customer service if the need should arise
• Very Solid product – Software and firmware well updated and bug / error free
• Massive databases – locations / points of interest
• Ultra Sensitive Chipset and GPS receiver
• Very Bright and easy to read screen – great angles and better glare reduction then similar gps’s
• Sleek and Minimalist design keeps your car looking clean and cool
• Very quick and responsive – menus all load laser quick and changes are always real time without lag
• Strong Text-To-Speech compared to others – voice sounds very clear and natural rather then robotic and error filled like most others
• Routing engine very quick and responsive – near perfect routes chosen all the time, and more quickly then other brand will calculate them
• The List Goes on, and on, and on….

Con’s:

• Takes a while to fully power up
• No route exclusion feature or easy way to remove certain undesired roads
• Rare occasions may take moments to long to reroute when missing a turn
• Saved Addresses sorted by closeness to current position with inability to sort by alphabetical
• Route simulation slow with no fast forward functionality

Conclusion:

Well folks, hopefully this Garmin 250 Review was pretty detailed as compared to some of the other content published on the web, and I’d love to answer any question and concerns via email.

Although I did list an amount of Negative Con’s I did so out of the interest of being unbiased and very thorough – the truth of the matter is I’d rate this a perfect 5 out of 5 after vigorous use, with the cons listed being so neglible and tiny compared to the function and utility this unit brings to the table, that it almost pained me to talk bad about it knowing that it might scare someone off of this incredible little gadget.

Nothing is perfect, especially when it comes to pricey electronics, but this is certainly as close to it as I have seen yet and has truly revolutionized by day to day living much like the introduction of the telephone or cell-phone. I’ll give it a 4.99/5 and truly hope that future visitors and customers alike will be as overwhelming satisfied as I have been with the decision to buy Garmin’s Nuvi 350 GPS personal travel assistant

Hesitant at first and wondering if I would have much use for a GPS device, I spent much time reading nuvi 350 reviews and getting a feel for what made it so special before I finally cracked and shelled over the money to try one out for myself.

Let me tell you folks, its like mobile phones, tivo, etc… you may not need them, but once you have had them, imagining life without there luxury, convenience and utility is unimaginable and you seem to rather be hit by a motorcycle then not be allowed to ever used them again LOL!

Simply fantastic, I highly recommend you pick up a Garmin Nuvi system – The Garmin 350 is by far the most popular and the cost to performance ratio probably the best in the marketplace – but even if you don’t think you will put it to much use I dar you to try one of the cheaper priced 200 series models and understand what I mean when I say you soon won’t be able to imagine life without them

Happy Shopping,
Derek G, Canada EH

Even though the garmin nuvi 350 has dropped in price many wouldn’t exactly consider it cheap – but after having used it extensively now for many months and on various road and foot trips, I would like to leave my garmin nuvi 350 review to say that you absolutely get what you pay for and then some!

I decided to buy the garmin 350 quite a long while ago, and it has seriously dropped in price since I bought it, as well there have been many new GPS models introduced to the market, but still the Nuvi 350 holds on strong as the best selling device – why? Because it simply is and probably will be for quite some time to come one of the most affordable, effective and extremely functional travel assistants on the market, even with the new competition it seems to shine above the rest when you read garmin nuvi 350 reviews and feedback online.

There are too many positives to list about this piece of technology, that I couldn’t really scratch the surface of my happy experience and joy even with the patience to write a full blow review which may take me many hours to describe all of my trips with mine.

I hope people looking to buy a GPS system for their own vehicles and vacations will seriously still consider the 350 unit, it hasn’t aged at all in my opinion, and still offers more value at the new lowest prices then the recently introduced competition.

Nuvi350 Fanboy 4 Life,
Eric Harris

I was anxious after reading so many amazing and positive garmin nuvi 350 reviews that perhaps I was setting myself up to be disappointed with over expectations from a cheap little piece of gadgetry, but after I ordered and received it, I was happy to realize that the nuvi 350 would live up to the hype that it has garnered on the internet review comments and the expectations I had built from reading so much positive information on it.

One thing I was concerned about was that maybe the screen would be too small and that perhaps one of the 600 series widescreens would be preferable, but after using it for a while, I actually barely need to glance at the screen as the voice directions are incredibly clear and precise and give you more then enough time to prepare for upcoming turns and changes of direction and speed.

It is also incredibly easy to use and very intuitive in control, with everything being well laid out and easy to scroll and find through the touchscreen menu system. Finding anything from grocery stores to particular types of restaurants in your vacinity is not only convieniant but very simple. One thing that I will note but I was prepared for after reading a few negative aspect in various garmin nuvi 350 review sites was that sometimes street names would be mispronounced, and I found this to be true in some places I have travelled to as well, and find the best voice to help correct this is actually the male British voice where it sounds less computerized and pronounces street names more accurately in many instances.

All in all it DOES live up to the hype, which you will find much of and positive praise as well, I will highly recommend and praise it as well and hope that more people get the satisfaction out of ordering their own Nuvi 350 gps system!

This thing is so simple straight out of the box that the only negative thing I found about my garmin nuvi 350 was the fact that your told to make a copy of a 75 page manual. Screens are easy to go through and they are well positioned and smartly organized to help you find and take advantage of the host of features the garmin 350 contains within. I guess one thing I would note in my personal garmin nuvi 350 review is that if you have rather large and stubby fingers, you may find the touch screen and keypad to be a little bit small as my uncle ‘big Tom’ complained about when he came to visit us and I told him to take my vehicle and use the GPS for a tour of the cities attractions and scenery. Also don’t allow yourself to be 100% comfortable with your system in vary tight or poorly laid out cities, as I have found it to give you a turn with slightly short notice in some places, and also in areas with heavy construction, the SiRFIII chipset and the satellite systems may become confused making you have to use your head a tiny bit again to navigate through the construction zone.

At the end of the day the Nuvi 350 is the clear cut champion o price and performance in the market still, and it seems like as new units come out it still will be an awesome and cost effective solution to let people take advantage of such devices.

Being a man, and other men or wives of men will understand this, the last thing I will do is stop anywhere and ask for directions, nor will I acknowledge the fact that I am incredibly lost and am burning money like it did grow on trees in gasoline while trying to sort out my own mess.

The Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS was given to me by my brother when he moved to Europe and decided to by one of the Euro-ready wide screen garmin’s in place, and I have since found out that I was indeed loosing hours of time, patience and with Gas prices being so high, MONEY by not owning this earlier.

There is something that is less embarrassing about letting a machine (SMARTY PANTS MACHINE THAT IS) tell you all the directions instead of having to stop and ask someone or resort to a silly map to find your way, and I would highly recommend the garmin nuvi 350 to all those manly men out there, or to the wives that put up with us as a way to not only save a bunch of time and headaches, but to save tons of cash in the long run despite the nuvi350’s price through saved travel time and gasoline usage HAHA!