Garmin nüvi 855 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Speech Recognition
Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at
6:14 am
- Sleek, ultra-slim design fits in a pocket; High-sensitivity GPS receiver for fast satellite lock
- Pre-loaded with City Navigtor NT maps for North America, including more than 6-million name-searchable points of interest
- Speech recognition–speak menu options and keep your eyes on the road
- Multi-destination routing–enter several destinations and get the best route to all of them; “Where am I?” and “Where’s my car?” features
- Full feature set–text to speech for spoken directions with real street names; MP3 player, and Photo viewer
Garmin nüvi 855 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Speech Recognition
Tagged with: 4.3inch • garmin • navigator • nüvi • portable • Recognition • Speech • widescreen
Filed under: GPS Navigator
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Currently I have the 780 model…reasons why I would not get this model:
>>no bluetooth, no mp3 player auto start, no 3-d buildings, no smooth scrolling<<< A small and not obvious feature in the 780 model BUT NOT in the 855 model is the mp3 player auto start. Think of it like a cd player in your car that would not turn off. For some people like me, my music is always on in my car. SO I need the music to be always on even if the gps powered OFF and ON. This way I don’t have to always fiddle with the gps mp3 player every time I’m in the car. Garmin is the only gps that has this neat feature. It’s too bad they took this feature out in the 855 model which means you have to turn the mp3 player on everytime the gps power on instead of the music turning on automatically for you. As far as the voice commands, it is pretty much useless. It is sluggish, there’s a lag when you talk to the gps like you have to wait for the response, certain commands required 4-5 steps in order to accomplish a task. “name place” command didn’t work well for me and I don’t even have an accent. You can get a task done faster using your finger than your voice on the unit. I had their top of the line model with this voice command feature and it was trash ….so i returned the unit. Better luck next time Garmin. You are on top of the gps war.
Rating: 2 / 5
My husband bought the Garmin, and paid a lot more money that Amazon has it for. I, however, just downloaded Navigator to my Verizon cell phone…I love it. It works just like Garmin, only better. I feel it is easier to use, and has more features that I like and find helpful. It runs 9.99 a month, and it is free with certain calling plans. I was going to buy a Garmin for myself…but not now.
Just thought I would throw that out there.
Rating: 4 / 5
This unit works just fine, I haven’t looked into all its features, but so far its done well, in FL, NJ, NY and NC.
Rating: 1 / 5
The Garmin nüvi 855 is one of Garmin’s excellent voice command navigators. Updating the nuvi 850, the 855 adds junction view, lane assist and a speed limit indicator. It is also compatible with the third generation of MSN Direct services (an optional add-on), including doppler radar and flight status.
Comparing the nuvi 855 and 7×5 series
Despite these improvements, the 855 does not include all the features found in the 7×5 series. It is missing the following:
3-D buildings
A2DP Bluetooth
ecoRoute
Recent cities and streets folders that speed searches (though these aren’t really necessary if you’re using voice commands)
Customizable data fields
On the other hand, the 855 has the following features which are not present on the 7×5 series:
Removable battery
Dual speakers
Voice command
Custom avoidances (avoid specified streets or areas)
Backup camera input
This is unfortunate – there really isn’t one top of the line Garmin nuvi. If you want the best, you’ll need to choose between a 7×5 series and an 8×5 series unit.
Compare prices on the Garmin nuvi 855
One other note; the nuvi 885T adds Bluetooth and an MSN Direct receiver to the 855’s feature set. Since the models are so similar, much of the information below is taken directly from my hands-on review of the 885T.
Rating: 5 / 5
Updated the software and map version right out of the box at Garmin’s website. Works perfect. List of voice commands is limited but is generally adequate. Recommend this unit.
Rating: 5 / 5