Garmin Nuvi 1350 : Quick Review

Those who are close to me KNOWS  very well that I’m hopeless with directions. Tell me a location and there is a high possibility that I may miss it even if it’s right in front of me. After being reprimanded for the billionth time, I decided to throw my male ego into the trashcan and admit I needed help. And when the Folsom fish asked me if I wanted to get a GPS unit from Amazon coz he’s able to mule it back for me… I jumped at the opportunity.

I decided to go for the Garmin Nuvi 1350; main thing which attracted me was the reasonable price and the very nais lookin 4.3-inch wide-touchscreen WQVGA TFT display with white backlight. Useful for ppl with pathetic vision like myself. I also decided to get a Garmin friction mount for the GPS unit as I’m not a fan of the stick-on-the-windscreen type accessories. After getting the unit from the Fish, I handed it over to Sunshine to load it up with the MFM map downloads for M’sia which he recommended highly.

Once I got it back, I gave it several tries on turtle island, and was impressed by the user friendliness of the unit. But it didn’t mean much since turtle island is my hometown, so evaluating how useful the GPS is nullified. I decided to dunk it in an acid test and head down south on a 2 day trip,  which included both Perak and KL, to various locations which I absolutely have no idea how to get to. I spent like 15 mins during Friday night to load all my destinations into the Nuvi, and that’s about all the planning I made. It was fire up and go early the next day.

At the end of the trip, I have one thing to say about the Garmin Nuvi 1350. This GPS REALLY WORKS. I had absolutely no trouble getting around anytime during the two day trip. It brought me to all my destinations, correctly, quickly and back safely. Credit should go mostly to the accuracy of the MFM maps, but the Nuvi had quite a few features which made navigation a breeze as well. All in all, here’re my opinions on the Garmin Nuvi 1350 (bear in mind that this is the first GPS device I’m using, so my opinions may be slightly over optimistic).

Pros :

1. Very nice widescreen. Angled correctly, I had no problems with screen visibility even in the blinding afternoon sun.
2. Very loud; directions are clear and concise, giving ample upfront warning before a turn.
3. Good satellite reception. Amazingly quick in latching onto satellites. Even when signal is lost when entering a long tunnel, signal is regained almost immediately once exiting.
4. Smart directions. When set on quickest route setting, the GPS was smart enough to even give ‘lorong belakang’ type directions; even my KL host was suprised and said… “Wah-lau… this small road oso the GPS know ah?”
5. Optional Garmin friction mount works fantastic. Very weighty, and stable enough even with spirited driving.

Cons :

1. Battery life could be better. Rated at 4 hours, real life usage yields less than that. The wired charger is a must on long trips.
2. Directions given are only as good as the loaded maps. When approaching multiple lanes, directions are a little fuzzy. Luckily these are few and rare.
3. Found 1 stuck pixel a few days into usage (bear in mind this is a new unit). Irritating as hell. But went away by the time the 2 day trip was over.
4. Certain locations takes forever to search… don’t know if this is a search engine or database problem. It eventually finds the entry several minutes after hitting enter.
5. Included female English voice isn’t sexy/lusty enough; but that’s just me nitpicking.