Garmin nuvi 1300LM 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

Product Description

nüvi 1300LM features FREE lifetime map updates. The large screen nüvi 1490LMT comes with FREE Lifetime Maps and Traffic and offers multiple-point routing and Lane Assist with junction view to help you manage busy highway interchanges. It announces streets by name, has hands-free calling compatibility and pedestrian navigation options. The ecoRoute feature calculates a more fuel-efficient route.

Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #782 in Consumer Electronics
Brand: Garmin
Model: 010-00782-4R
Number of items: 1
Dimensions: 2.60" h x 5.30" w x 5.30" l, 1.00 pounds
Display size: 4.3

Features

Sunlight-readable, 4.3-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 updates for the most up-to-date maps, points of interest, and navigation information available at your fingertips
Advanced navigation features including voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, lane assist, fuel-saving ecoRoute
Includes travel tools such as JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock, currency/measurement converters, calculator and more

Customer Reviews

A groovy Nuvi!
So far, I like the Garmin nüvi 1300LM 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator.

I'm a newbie to the GPS world. As a local professional truck driver, I finally decided instead of purchasing maps for areas I'm unfamilar with, I'd spring for a GPS unit.

Why a Garmin? Well, I narrowed it down to between a Garmin and a TomTom. I actually was leaning towards the TomTom XXL 540TM 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator (Lifetime Traffic & Maps Edition) until I learned that the Garmin units do a much better job at finding addresses the likes of N1234 W9876 Booneyville Rd. There are GPS units available for truckers, however, the price tag is a bit north of my budget. Since I'm generally familiar with the roads I travel on, I decided to stick with a lower-priced model and download POI's (Points-of-Interest) associated with the trucking community such as low bridges, truck stops, etc. The lifetime maps bundled into this unit was the deal-maker for me. I plan on keeping this unit for a long time (got a 2-year accident replacement plan on it).

I purchased the unit yesterday and my family and I have used it for shopping purposes yesterday and today. We sure had a chuckle when we switched the unit's voice to German and tried to follow the directions. Anyway, here's the skinny on the 1300 LM.

20-seconds after switching the unit on, you're ready to choose either "Where to?" (getting/typing directions) or "View Map" (to see where you are). The touch screen is nice--it responds well to your touches. Of course, if you're not use to a touch screen (or have fat fingers), it may take a while for you to get comfortable with it. The screen is bright enough--even in direct sunlight (keep in mind that most screens wash out a bit in direct sunlight). You can manually control screen brightness or have the nuvi 1300LM adjust it automatically for you. Volume control in an automobile is more than adequate. We had the radio on mid-way and could still hear the text-to-speech instructions clearly at 80% of the volume.

Actual navigation was impressive. Then again, I'm new to the GPS world. The GPS navigation tried to steer us on a different route a few times (we knew the shorter route) but quickly recalculated the route after giving up on the route it wanted to take us (even though we had the "faster time" option selected). The 4.3-inch screen is fine for viewing. While a 5-inch screen would probably be beneficial for driving an 18-wheeler or RV, I'm sure I won't have any problems with the 4.3-inch screen.

After giving it a spin straight-out-of-the-box, I later downloaded both software updates and map updates at [...] using "myDashboard". I had 4-6 successive software updates (why can't they bundle them as one?) followed by a map update. The entire process took somewhere between 4-5 hours on a DSL line. Not a big deal since I knew it would take some time to get the latest updates. By the way, Garmin has included a mini-USB cord to connect the 1300LM to your computer. The sales technician sold me a cord (which I returned) because he wasn't aware that Garmin has decided to start including the cord with certain (or all) GPS units.

My family doesn't plan on using the cityXplorer feature (fee-based) to navigate various cities by foot. However, eventually, we like to tour Washington, DC by walking and the Nuvi 1300LM presumably would be handy to have for that trip.

In summary, if you don't need bluetooth in your GPS unit (I've heard volume levels are very iffy in GPS bluetooth units) and you don't rely on traffic updates a lot (traffic is a hit/miss type of thing with a GPS unit from what I can determine), the Garmin Nuvi 1300LM just may be the unit you're looking for.

If warranted, I'll update this post after I've used the 1300LM in my big-rig.

P.S. The Garmin Portable Friction Mount (bean-bag) works great. Keep in mind that the cord from your cigarette lighter plugs into the garmin unit itself rather than the mount. Over time, I can see how that connection could become compromised with repeated plug-in/plug-out action. However, the mount itself seems very stable in warm weather. I would guess it will also do fine in colder weather.