Garmin Nuvi 270 Review

Introduction:

Sitting atop of the newer 200 series from Garmin, the garmin nuvi 270 gps system sports the 3.5′ touch screen (which is quite vivid and bright even topping some of the more expensive wide screen brightness and view ability) The x70 models main attraction is the comprehensive amount of pre-installed maps and data, that make them more suited to people that want to not just use their GPS systems at home but also take them across multiple borders in North America and Europe. Installing European maps on other units that don’t have them approaches $300-400 in many cases, so at this price it truly is a value unit for someone that needs that functionality.

Note that the 200 series is the entry level, and as such a few of the more advanced features are missing (bluetooth and wireless calling, mp3 player and FM traffic receiver to name the most common ones). At the core all the main functions, navigation, routing, accuracy and utilities are still present and for someone that is looking for a low cost GPS navigation system without the need for all the fancy and often very underused extra’s, it remains a powerful and affordable option.

Jump To - Table of Contents

Design & portability:

With a slim form factor and the 3.5′ screen, it’s identical in size to the Nuvi 350/360/370 series and near the same weight with only a tiny difference in width. It’s sleek and clean in physical appearance on the outer shell, with the power button found on top where sliding to the left turns it on and sliding to the right will lock the device so accidentally touches of the screen won’t interfere.

Notable changes for loyal garmin fans and previous owners, is that the antenna has become internal rather then flip up, which I find to help keep the unit small and easily portable. The SD expansion bay has also moved to the left where you can insert memory cards to add certain features and space to your garmin nuvi 270.

Viewing - Screen:

Although introduced in the ‘cheaper’ 200 series, the 3.5′ inch touch screen on the Nuvi 270 has been drastically improved in my opinion! It is much brighter then the more expensive nuvi 350 360 and 370 counterparts and I find it to be more easily viewable at angles and with glare then my nuvi 350 unit.

The menus on the home navigation screens have been rearranged slightly to be more user friendly and I enjoy the change and they are quite sensible changes that long term garmin nuvi users will appreciate after getting used to them.

Navigation:


Figure 1: Simple and easy to follow turn by turn directions make missing something difficult	Figure 2: Customizeable vehicle icons for your preferred navigation display	Figure 3: Break down your route into very detailed and informative directions with various different views of your trip

This new entry level series doesn’t skimp on the core navigation abilities that have been a major reason why the other garmin gps series have been so popular. Directions are clear and clever, routes are accurate and quick to calculate or recalculate if you somehow miss a turn or direction. For people wondering the speed and signal quality of their new garmin nuvi 270 gps, if you turn on your nuvi270 and enter a location or point of interest – it will have completely locked on, calculated your route and be ready for every direction by about the time you get down your driveway (unless your parked on the street, in which case its still that darn fast hehe!)

Powered by an ultra high sensitivity chipset, it holds onto the satellite signals incredibly strong like past Garmin Nuvis and you’d be hard pressed to loose the signal if you tried as I found out in a torture test. I was able to go to the bottom level of the parking garage and keep the satellite locked on – although turning it off and then on again resulted in a much longer time taken +30% to find it again.

Turning it on, you are welcomed to the basic navigation home screen where you select from the Where To? Or view map submenus that take you through a series of possible ways to choose where you want to go (coordinates, names, search databases, favorites, etc…)


Figure 4: Easily find specific addresses or locations using the touch screen number and keyboards to type in the names and addresses of locations	Figure 5: Scout out local points of interest through the huge and diverse database of theme orientated destination	Figure 6: Get a detailed overview of the entire region through various overviews and map selections

Compare Garmin Nuvi 270

compare garmin nuvi 370 vs The models in the 2XX series have minor differences, mostly in the data that has been preloaded into them. The Nuvi 200 has the 48 continental US states, the 250 ads coverage for all of North America, and the 270 has N.A. and Europe covered for you.

The differences between units may seem hard to understand at first, so let me briefly describe the differences:

Nuvi 200: 48 continental states

Nuvi 250: All of North America

Nuvi 270: All of North America and Europe

Garmin’s 2XX series: Cheapest Price value level - Basic Navigation features, slightly less powerful chipset, no text-to-speech (street name pronunciation), Bluetooth, traffic conditions, etc…

Garmin’s 3XX series: Most popular Series - adds text to speech capabilities optional, FMC traffic data, SiRFIII chipset, etc…

Garmin’s 6XX series: Larger Widescreen models. Text-to-speech, FMC Traffic Data, MSN direct integration, Bluetooth hands free calling, etc… included

In the near future I will try to do a more specific per-model comparison for those that really want to narrow down the best specific model, the above is just a brief guideline and shopping guide for the time being

Visitor Garmin 270 Reviews:

kims review Kim Gives her Garmin Nuvi 270 Review talking about its superiority to a Magellan GPS system that she has previously owned.

Jason sends in his personal Nuvi 270 Review discussing how he enjoys the nuvi270 more then a streetpilot by garmin and how it has great value if you intend to travel to Europe but would need to upgrade the map data if not owning a X70 series garmin gps.

Tim emailed his Garmin 270 Review and discusses how he was hesitant and decided on this because of its cheap price, and how he fell in love with it and regards it now as money well spent

David says in his Review of Garmins Nuvi 270 that he was glad he picked up this one as he didn’t need all the extra features of the fancy and expensive models but did need European data without a big price crunch

Stephen gives some experience in his Garmin Nuvi 270 Review where he describes it as the best GPS system out of the four that he has owned so far for the price.

Video of Garmin Nuvi 200 series:

The following is a video that shows off the basic in the box package of the Garmin Nuvi 270 as well as a quick run down and overview of how the menus and tools are laid out. This is actually a nuvi250 system, but the core functions shown in the video are all similar to that of the garmin 270 model.

Garmin Nuvi 270 Accesories:

After market mounts are the most common Garmin Nuvi 270 Accessory by far, but others such as SD memory card upgrades, antenna’s, carrying cases and more are quite popular as well.

I recommend shopping for Nuvi 270 accessories, mounts and more at Amazon.com to make sure you can compare all the offerings as well as get help to compare and locate the cheapest and lowest price on the certain garmin 270 accessory you are looking for.

They have a pretty extensive list, and as you might find if you look at some of the prices of the upgrading to the European maps, the nuvi270 has some great incentive as the price of an upgrade of a different unit alone would cost you nearly the same!

Verdict:

thumbs up review for nuvi270 The Garmin 270 Nuvi unit is a great all around GPS system that does offer incredible value for the casual user. The cheapest and best prices on the 200 series still seem to be a bit high at the moment and upgrading to something like the nuvi 350 does seem to be the better purchase at the moment if you have the extra cash for a more powerful and flexible unit, but I expect Garmin to drop the price soon or perhaps they already have at the time you are reading this, as they wouldn’t want to make the entire line obsolete. Expect the nuvi 270 / 250 / 200 to have some good discount sales as summer closes and help bring in more users – yourself included possibly into the world of GPS convenience… they will never go back to normal navigation and paper maps again, and I think they will be thankful that this great company decided to offer a value level unit for hesitant shoppers this year!

Cheapest / Best Price on Garmin’s Nuvi 270:

If you want to buy garmin’s nuvi 270 gps system, one of the hardest things to find is the cheap sales and best discount offers if you aren’t used to shopping online and off. At a glance in my area and online, it seems the big offline consumer stores will never sport you the best deals, with places like wal-mart and bestbuy being rather expensive compared to some of the cheap prices on garmin nuvi 270 available online.

Price Range:	$XXX.XX to $642.32
Discount:	$221.48 (32%)
Best Price:	Click to see price

Another famous shopping arena, eBay.com isn’t exactly user friendly and comes with some security issues for novice shoppers, and in my experience from searching for GPS systems, don’t really have that great of a deal on these items once you factor in all the additional and hidden costs of getting your purchase (IF you get your purchase in said condition that is )

The Garmin Nuvi 270 Best Price found?

I recommend after comparing many only merchant and trustworthy stores - Amazon - as it isn’t only the most trusted and largest online retailer out there, but they do indeed offer the lowest and best prices to buy Garmin Nuvi 270 GPS system from my research. They actually represent many little individual stores all under the same roof, and it seems that they like to compete for the sale thus driving prices way way cheap for us compared to elsewhere, while maintaining high levels of customer service, integrity, trust and delivering on their promises through the stellar reputation of their brand.