As someone who relies on MapQuest a great deal to find my way, my gift this Christmas was a GPS unit. The one I received was the Garmin Nuvi 1350T. Out of the box it comes with the car charger, some mounting devices, and the unit itself. This is my first GPS unit, so the all of the search features were interesting to me. I thought the thing would just give me directions from point A to point B, but you can use it to search for restaurants, stores, libraries, and pretty much any point of interest you may want to find.
After setting a route, you can view the list of directions the unit has produced. Which I like, since as I mentioned I am used to using MapQuest and writing down step by step directions. And again like MapQuest, you can set the route directions for fastest time or shortest distance. This model also has FM traffic broadcasting, if you are in the right areas. But I have yet to utilize this feature, so I can’t rate it yet.
Overall I am pleased with this GPS unit and hope I will be able to use it for years to come. On the more fun side, there is some free downloadable extras from the Garmin website. There is a collection of vehicles and a few extra voices that you can download and install onto your GPS. The vehicles range from basic cars to beach balls and even a pirate ship. Right now my GPS is using the “Dr. Nightmare” voice, which is assumed to be Halloween themed. It is also amusing, because it randomly makes comments in addition to the directions. The default voices just give you the directions, but nothing in those long stretches of highway where you have no directions to change.