Garmin 2820 Review

The Garmin StreetPilot 2820 GPS gives you a hands-free calling interface and streamlined traffic capabilities. Whether you’re an automobile or motorcycle driver, you’ll easily make hands-free calls while receiving navigation audio prompts, through a Bluetooth headset or helmet. Retrieve and dial numbers from a personalized phone book or call history log. The huge points of interest (POI) database includes hotels, restaurants, stores and much more. Traffic management capabilities notify users of accidents, road construction and weather-related traffic delays. For entertainment, the Garmin 2820 offers an MP3 player and XM Satellite Radio compatibility. The Garmin 2820 comes pre-loaded with City Navigator NT maps - providing detailed road maps of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Design
The Garmin 2820’s front panel is dominated by a large, 3.8-inch automotive-grade, color, sunlight readable TFT display that features 454 x 240 pixel resolution. The display is touchscreen-enabled, and there’s also an included wireless remote control. A built-in photo sensor adjusts the screen’s brightness for light conditions automatically, so you always have the best view possible. A USB 2.0 interface makes uploading your MP3s to the Garmin 2820 a snap, and you can also send audio to the car stereo through the 3.5 mm stereo headphone/line-out plug.

With dimensions of 5.6 x 3.2 x 2.0 inches (W x H X D) and weight of just .91 pounds, the Garmin 2820 is small enough to take anywhere. It’s also a great choice for motorcycle users. Meanwhile, an integrated dash mounting system provides easy adjustment and quick release. The Garmin 2820 contains a built-in GPS patch antenna, but an MCX-type connector offers an optional external GPS antenna connection.

Hands-free Calling
The Garmin 2820 integrates wireless technology with a microphone and speaker that lets you make hands-free calls on a compatible Bluetooth phone. Motorcyclists can connect a Bluetooth-enabled headset or helmet simultaneously with a Bluetooth phone to the Garmin StreetPilot 2820 to talk hands-free on the road or receive wireless navigation audio prompts to their destination.

In addition, you can easily look-up and dial numbers from your personalized phone book or from your phone’s call history log. Don’t know the phone number for your destination? Simply find and dial it from the Garmin 2820’s extensive points of interest database — including hotels, restaurants, stores, and attractions.

Navigation
The Garmin 2820 comes ready to use out of the box with preloaded maps of the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico (optional maps of Europe are available, too). Simply enter a destination, and you’re automatically routed with turn-by-turn voice directions that speak street names. A fingertip touch screen interface, remote control, and 2D or 3D map perspective combined with the ability to arrange destinations to minimize trip distance make navigation easy. It also accepts customized points of interest (POIs) such as school zones, safety cameras, and LPG filling stations and includes proximity alerts to warn of upcoming POIs.

Master your Commute
Monitor traffic tie-ups with the addition of an optional traffic receiver. In select metro areas, with the addition of the GTM 10 or GTM 12 FM TMC traffic sensors* or the GXM 30 XM smart antenna**, the Garmin StreetPilot 2820 notifies you of accidents, road construction, and weather-related traffic delays on the road ahead, and then offers an alternate route. Simply touch the screen icon to calculate a new route. In addition to valuable traffic information, the GXM 30 and a subscription to XM NavTraffic also provide basic weather information such as current conditions, forecasts, and Severe Weather Alerts.

XM radio, MP3s, and Audio Books
The Garmin 2820’s MP3 player, audio book player and optional XM Radio keep you entertained on the road. The MP3 player allows you to browse music by artist, album, and/or song. Meanwhile, optional audio books may be purchased from audible.com, which features over 70,000 hours of audio programs. Lastly, a subscription to XM Radio along with the GXM 30 smart antenna provide over 150 plus channels of commercial-free music, sports, news, talk and entertainment programming.

Garmin 2820 User Said

I’ve had the Garmin 2820 for a month now and have taken several trips, some where I’ve known the route and a few where we were charting new ground. For the most part the street pilot performed well and we got to the destination. However, when I used it to guide me to locations I’d been to previously it didn’t always take me the way I thought it should. Eventually the Street Pilot recaluated the route and would catch up to the way I was going which during past travels I had determined was the fastest way. Regardless it performed very well.

In one case we tried to program the Garmin to a location it didn’t recognize, even though when we got there it had all the streets etc. and provided acurate directions to other locations from that spot. I e-mailed the cartography department and advised them of what I saw and they were prompt in responding with a solution that when I programmed it, it got me to the location I was looking for.

I noticed that if your programming an alternate route and use cities as data points along the route the Garmin wants to take you to the center of the city you use as the data point. I’m sure there is a way to program the Garmin so it doesn’t do that, but I haven’t had the time to figure out exactly how to do that level of trip programming. If in fact there isn’t a way you’ll just get used to hearing the speaker continually say “Recalculating Route”. Thats just a minor annoyance for the benefit of having the Street Pilot.

Sometime you may need to search cities near where you want to go to get directions. I was looking for Tierre Verde Florida, but needed to type in St. Petersburg. Regardless it worked and the cartography department was quick to respond.

Overall I’m impressed with the Garmin and my next purchase will be the XM receiver that will manuver me around traffic tie ups. Garmin 2820 gets my recommendation.

—– By David Solomon

Garmin 2820 Features

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