Garmin Nuvi 855 Review.. The two outstanding features of the Nuvi 855 are voice recognition and lane assist .

By far the most interesting feature of this device is the voice recognition capability.

It’s only available on some of the 800 series devices but it works flawlessly giving you complete control without needing to touch the unit.

Voice Recognition

Using only your voice you can control all operations of your Nuvi 855. This is an extremely easy feature to use and all you do is learn the pre defined voice commands such as “Find Address” and the 855 will understand what to do.

It means that you will always keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road; it makes for a far safer driving experience.

Lane Assist

When you approach a junction the nuvi 855 will show you which lane you should be getting into by showing you 3D maps and arrows.  When you get nearer the junction realistic signs and lanes will be shown so you never need to miss a junction again.

Features of the garmin Nuvi 855

• Sleek, ultra-slim design fits in a pocket; High-sensitivity GPS receiver for fast satellite lock.
• Speech recognition–speak menu options and keep your eyes on the road.
• Pre-loaded with City Navigtor NT maps for North America, including more than 6-million name-searchable points of interest.
• Ability to store up to ten different routes.
• Full feature set–text to speech for spoken directions with real street names; MP3 player, and Photo viewer.
• Save up to 10 routes in memory.

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I like this Garmin 1490LMT a lot but not because it has lots of features (which it does) but because it has those three letters on the end of the name LMT.

LMT stands for Life-Time Maps and Traffic updates.

If you have ever bought a Garmin before then you’ll know that updating the maps can cost quite a significant amount of money and this unit lets you update them 4 times a year forever so you’ll never have to purchase a map update again.

The T stands for Traffic so the unit will always receive traffic information and route you around any delays and again this is a lifetime feature.

This unit has a slightly larger screen than most other units (5 inches) that is readable in direct sunlight (5 inches or 12.7cm) which is an OK feature – personally I have never had any problem reading a screen in the car since it is fairly dark inside anyway but the larger screen size does allow more information to be displayed at the same time.  In common with its earlier cousins the unit includes voice prompted turn by turn instructions so there’s really no need to look at the screen most of the time anyway!

Lane Assist and Junction View

When you came to a complex junction that you have never seen before it can be challenging to get through it and into the correct lane. In the older Garmin models you would just get a yellow line straight through what might be an extremely complex junction e.g one with express lanes, bypass interchanges and local lanes.

At these junctions it’s extremely easy to take the wrong turn but with the Garmin 1490LMT it will immediately flip into lane assist mode and guide you through the junction (with junction view displayed – see picture above right).  This is different to the more basic versions that usually just show you which lane to get into in a graphic at the corner of the screen and while useful, this lane assist feature is really clear and makes going through those very complex junctions extremely simple.

What do LT,LM and LMT mean in Garmin Navigation Systems?

When you see a Garmin Nuvi with LT,LM and LMT you have got a very special Garmin device with special features that are ready to go out of the box but you do not have to pay a subscription, you don’t have to pay any update fees and there is no expiration date on these feature.  So what here’s what the abbreviations mean:

• LT – Free Lifetime Traffic
• LM – Free Lifetime Maps
• MLT – Free Lifetime Maps and Traffic

Traffic information will be constantly updated and maps can be downloaded up to four times per year.  You will always have the most up to data maps and this includes POI (Points Of Interest) and navigation information so you will not get lost ever.

Traffic Information

The Garmin Nuvi 1490lmt can receive traffic information via radio when you plug in the Garmin traffic receiver (basically an aerial).  The nuvi 1490lmt will then re route you around traffic congestion i.e. accidents and other hold ups.  Imagine having screaming kids in the car and being stuck in a 4 hour traffic jam – yuk.  Push a button and this nuvi will figure out a new route getting you home safely and quickly.

Of course for this Garmin 1490lmt, the traffic feature is included as a lifetime update and there are no usage or subscription or fees!

Note: The Garmin Traffic Receiver comes bundled with the Nuvi 1490 lmt.

TIP: Traffic avoidance is automatically turned on and it won’t tell you what’s going on when you suddenly find yourself going “off route”.  To get round this, disable traffic in the avoidances setting tab.  The unit will now warn you of a traffic problem and show you a new route which you can either use or ignore.

Garmin 1490lmt Bluetooth

It also comes with a bluetooth receiver and built in microphone – obviously its got speakers for speaking out route information. So you can connect your bluetooth phone (wirelessly) and use the Nuvi to make phone conversations. You just talk into the Nuvi’s microphone and listen to the speakers.

This makes for far safer driving as you won’t be distracted by the headset and you just answer the phone by tapping the Nuvi’s screen.  It also has one touch calling for contacts and POI (Points Of Interest) so for instance you can make a reservation at a restaurant, or cinema just by touching the screen.  You don’t even need to know the number as it is already on screen so there’s no racking your memory and no need to look any number up on the phone.

Note: Noise cancelling is pretty good on this Nuvi so the caller can hear you and not the road noise!

TIP: Turn on your Bluetooth phone and the 1490LMT will automatically attach to it.

Note: The Nuvi 1490 lmt will pick up a second bluetooth phone when you switch on another phone.  Some systems only pick up the first one.  Fairly convenient if you have a problem with the first phone.

Differences between Garmin 1490LMT and Garmin 1450lmt

There are surprisingly few differences between these models so virtually everythin on this page applies to the 1450LMT as well.  The differences are:HERE1

Note: ecoRoute diagnostic is only avaialble for Bluetooth capable systems such as the 1490lmt (see the section on ecoRoute).

Route Planning

Route planing is quite easy with this unit – you can have up to ten different routes stored in memory and each of the routes can have via points added – so you can modify the routes to go through a specific location.

A good feature for deliveries is its destination sort algorithm which will figure out the best possible route given a set of destinations.  So this saves you time and effort when you are involved in doing multiple deliveries and of course this also applies when you want to make sales calls or see specific locations etc.

Note: A breadcrumb feature of up to 10,000 points is included so you can see where you have been and if you have been going round in circles (highly unlikely).

Fuel Saving ecoRoute(tm)

You can save fuel with this feature since the unit will calculate the most fuel efficient route for you.  You can either use the 1490 in manual mode where you enter data at fuel stops such as how many gallons you have used etc or you can connect it (via) bluetooth to an ecoRoute HD(tm) unit (optional extra) which will give you real time fuel economy data and even work out your carbon footprint.

The ecoRoute HD connects to your OBD II port via a connector to a Bluetooth module.  The Bluetooth module then communicates wirelessly with your garmin Nuvi.  In this instance though it can measure and display engine performance and fuel usage and at the same time and provide real time information on the engine such as temperatures, emissions, battery charge, and drive train. And you can display this information on the 1490LMT as an instrument cluster.

Note: Depending on the make of your car you will have between  4 to 12 different parameters available to display on the Garmin Nuvi 1490lmt.

It can also monitor your driving! Things such as acceleration, breaking and fuel sweet spot.  It even shows you how you are doing over the last five minutes giving you a score for each item so you can improve the fuel efficiency of your car and save money.

Note: Garages may charge as much as $100 just to tell you why the engine light is on and what diagnostic messages are being output by the engine computer but the 1490LMT will tell you them directly on screen.

On Foot Navigation

Otherwise known as pedestrian navigation; when you are going round town this unit will be invaluable for exploring unfamiliar cities.  You can download optional cityXplorer(tm) content to help you to get round a city.  It will let you know where to walk, where to catch the bus, tram etc. and it will show you how long it will take to get to your destination.

These optional cityXplorer(tm) maps are as low cost as $9.99 and are available for most major cities in Europe and America.

Detailed Video Reviews for 1490lmt, 1450LMT

Part 1

Part 2

Other Benefits of the Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT

Terrain Maps

The 1490LMT includes selection of 2D or 3D maps as you would expect but also has digital elevation maps showing shaded contours at higher zoom levels.  So this gives you a good idea of the surrounding terrain.

Hot Fix ™

As with most other modern Garmin nuvi’s it includes Hot Fix(tm) satellite prediction so the unit picks up satellites remembering where they were so the unit starts up fast.  Different makes can take ages to get satellite lock.

Where Am I?

If you get lost at the touch of one button the unit will tell you exactly where you are (latitude and longitude) and will also tell you the nearest address and or intersection.  It also tells you the locations of nearest police, hospital and fuel stations.

Garmin Garage(tm)

The unit is compatible with the free Garmin Garage(tm) where you can download custom voices and vehicles. If you look in the Garmin website you’ll also see an application you can use to customize voice directions using your own or friends voices – called Garmin Voice Studio.  These are the available custom voices:

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Dora the Explorer
• Squirrely
• Yeti
• Elfred
• Dr. Nightmare

Garmin Connect(tm) Photos

You can download photos from Garmin Connect(tm) Photos for photo navigation where you can navigate to the place shown in picture .

Garmin Lock(tm)

To put off potential theives the 1490LMT has an anti theft feature that prevents use of the unit unless it is at a pre-defined GPS location (you set this up at the start e.g. your home) or you can enter your own pinnumber.  This makes the unit effectively useless for anyone other than the owner.

TIP: You can change your pin when you are present at your security location.

Ant theft tips:

• Remove the GPS device mount – thieves will assume the unit is somewhere else in the vehicle.
• Note down the serial number and model number of the unit.
• Carrry your GPS with you when out of the car.
• Clean off  windscreen suction pad marks  – thieves will look for these.
• Never put your GPS in the glove box – it is the first place thieves will look.

Other Tools

Other fairly standard features are JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator plus more.

SD Cards

You can also use your own SD cards for increased storage of pictures, routes and POIs etc.

Summary of Features:

• Sunlight-readable, 5-inch backlit TFT color touchscreen display with 480 x 272 WQVGA pixel resolution
• Preloaded with City Navigator NT data for the lower 48 states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, with nearly six million points of interest
• Free lifetime map and traffic updates for the most up-to-date maps, POIs, and navigation info, along with constantly updated traffic information
• Advanced navigation features including voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, lane assist with junction view, fuel-saving ecoRoute
• Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology with a built-in microphone and speaker for hands-free calling. Comes with One-year warranty.
• 5 inch easy-to-use enhanced touchscreen interface
• Bluetooth wireless technology? enabling hands-free connectivity
• Comes with lifetime traffic and mapping updates
• Multiple Point Routing; Lane Assist; Junction View; EcoRoute fuel efficient routing
• Preloaded with City Navigator NT for North America

List Price: $ 349.99

Price:

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