Buy Garmin StreetPilot III 3.4-Inch Portable GPS NavigatorGarmin StreetPilot III 3.4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator Product Description:
- GPS receiver with turn-by-turn navigation
- Includes MapSource City Navigator CD-ROM with street-level maps and points of interest; full unlock capability for US and Canada
- Automated voice prompts tell you when to turn
- 16-color display with backlight for dim lighting
- Compatible with optional Garmin MapSource software for downloading maps and waypoint data
Product Description
The portable Garmin StreetPilot III Automotive GPS brings you in-car satellite navigation, and is the perfect companion for business or vacation travel. The colorful electronic map displays your location along with cities, streets, coastlines and more. Download maps from MapSource City Navigator CD-ROMs for more details, address lookup and "Find" features. Or, select a destination, and the StreetPilot III will calculate a route and display street names and turns while voice prompts tell you when to turn. Imported.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
92 of 93 people found the following review helpful.
Getting Better All The Time
By Rick Sline
After using the earlier Color Street Pilot for a couple years I was delighted to have the routing and talking features in this unit. I have a fair amount of experience with Lexus' built-in GPS system as well as the Hertz Neverlost system, both of which I consider "permanently mounted". None of these are perfect and the Talking Street Pilot certainly is a great value.
Pros: Adequately accurate, adequately fast (most of the time), turn by turn instructions, audible instructions so you don't have to take your eyes off the road, generally good routing, availability of large memory cartridges so you can keep a number of geographic areas "on line" - you can pick & choose which ones.
Con: This unit seems to have trouble discerning whether it's on the freeway or the service road, especially when first entering the freeway or driving in one of the rightmost lanes after passing a major interchange - I don't recall experiencing this with either of the two permanently mounted units.
General caveats: As with all units, the most direct route is not always reported; interestingly I've had the most trouble on this point with the Lexus GPS. There is a lag time if (or the GPS thinks) you are off course; the Street Pilot seems to take a bit longer on average than the others to recalculate and you could be further off course by the time it finally catches up. The Street Pilot must have a line of sight to at least 3 signals (4+needed for 3 dimensional and more accurate positioning) and may take a while to acquire them. If you're not keeping the unit on the dash, you'll need the separate antenna (it works fine from the inside of the windshield). Performance degrades around tall buildings and disappears in covered parking areas (somehow the Lexus system kept working, I suspect through some inertial sensing devices). All GPS' I've used have occasionally gotten confused on the exact location (sometimes off several blocks, but typically corrected within a minute or two) and occasionally give really bizarre turns - a right turn, u-turn then another right turn when continuing straight would work. Not all streets are present or accurately depicted. I've noticed a couple incidents of the Street Pilot showing a street as cut through when it wasn't. As always, use common sense and good judgment when evaluating information presented by the GPS. The information is loaded from a CD and over time some information becomes obsolete; you might want to update your maps every couple years (or just get a new unit with the then current bells and whistles). And until technology improves another notch or two, your GPS will not know about construction or accidents on your route - a feature that could be available in future units.
As mentioned by others, take time to become familiar with a GPS prior to needing it in an unfamiliar area. Remember safe driving takes precedence over everything else. If you've not used a GPS before, plan on spending at least an hour becoming acquainted with it's features and functionality before trying to use it for actual navigation.
There are several additional benefits of using a GPS in familiar territory: Frequently you have to go between 2 points where you're not sure about the theoretically fastest/shortest way - the GPS can suggest routes and show you on the map. Sometimes there's unexpected traffic or construction, you can quickly determine if side streets look like they'll work - I've avoided driving down "no-outlet" areas many times by a quick look on the GPS. You can look up nearby stores, restaurants, etc.; I've found this especially useful for location Post Offices when I'm in an unfamiliar area.
Anyone who uses these gets hooked; I take mine with me when I need to drive out of town too.
56 of 56 people found the following review helpful.Great product!
By Helpful Reviewer
For several years, I have envied the owners of high end cars equipped with navigation systems. I considered getting an aftermarket in-dash system, but the price was too steep. The StreetPilot III Deluxe is just what I have been looking for. It is a reliable, well-designed, and just plain fun gadget that will please the electronics junkie and the casual user alike.
The high resolution screen is gorgeous and remains clearly visible even in bright sunlight. At sundown (automatically calculated by the StreetPilot), the display switches to black and white and can still be read easily without distracting the driver. Operation is very easy once you get the hang of it. The 128 MB data card included with the deluxe version can store maps covering a radius of 500+ miles. It should be adequate for almost all trips. Programming the card is fairly easy, although the software is probably the system's weakest link. The interface is poorly designed but functional.
The system's autorouting function works very well, but because it cannot account for traffic volume or terrain, it sometimes underestimates drive time and thus doesn't choose the quickest route. 95% of the time, however, the system chooses the best route, and it has identified new and better directions for several of my most common trips. The vocal prompts are excellent. A sophisticated trip computer is an included feature and is a welcome addition if your car does not have one.
I cannot praise the StreetPilot highly enough. In many ways, I think it is superior to an in-dash system, in terms of price and portability (since you can transfer the device between cars). It is the rare gadget that is both useful and fun. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
43 of 43 people found the following review helpful.Directionally Challenged Rejoice
By Nathaniel C. Moffat
If you have been looking at $2,000 (and up) factory-installed GPS systems, this device will look like a bargain. If, however, you are looking for a hiking-and-biking GPS device, it will seem weirdly expensive. Think of this as an in-vehicle unit that can can be used as a portable if necessary.
Factory-installed units typically feature bigger screens, don't intrude on your personal space, and don't leave a power cable hanging off your dash. However, this device has one huge advantage over them: It can be swapped between cars and taken on trips for use in rental cars. At the low end, there are many cheaper GPS units more suitable for the outdoorsman. This unit is best used an in-vehicle GPS -- its battery drain and weight might be an issue for hikers.
Test-driving this device for the first time on a commute or a trip to the grocery store, the suggested route may seem odd, crossing and then rejoining a street for no apparent reason. But it can also find shortcuts even in familiar areas.
The real value, however, is in driving in unfamiliar territory, where getting lost could cost time, gas, patience, and may even be dangerous. It can find the nearest gas station, restaurant (Italian, fast food, etc.), shopping, airport, hotel, public library, and many other categories of locations.
When I broke down on the side of a highway recently, I used it on battery power to find several service stations (it gives phone numbers) within a few miles. When I called one, I was able to tell them my exact distance from which exit, and direct the tow truck to my disabled car.
It is also valuable on trips when you rent a car. Just remember to download the maps for your destination and surrounding area -- this should take about 5-10 minutes if you're using a USB cable.
A WORD ABOUT SPEEDThis GPS calculate routes less quickly than expensive in-dash systems, which should be no great surprise, given that it can run on batteries and costs less. Unlike a calculator that gives you the right answer in the blink of an eye, this unit is more like a chess computer. It seeks the best route (e.g. fastest time, shortest distance) among perhaps thousands of possible solutions for getting from Point A to point B. Deep Blue took some time to beat the best chess player in the world, but nobody calls it slow.
What does processing time mean for the average driver? Well, if you take a wrong turn or miss a suggested exit, it announces: "Off route; re-calculating." If you do something unexpected a second time or third time while it is number-crunching, it may re-calculate again. At such times, you may become frustrated that it can't "keep up" with the split-second decisions traffic sometimes requires. This can be annoying, but nine times out of ten you'll probably prefer the tradeoff its designers opted for.
The voice prompts are clear and sound more human than robotic. You can adjust the volume, which is helpful especially if you have chatty passengers. These prompts also let you keep your eyes on the road, which is a major safety and convenience advantage over units that don't speak.
The color screen is large and easy to read in all but the brightest direct sunlight. It calculates what time the sun sets and can automatically go into night mode (more black background) so your eyes can adjust to the lower light outside -- a nice touch.
You can zoom in or out on a map to see as much detail as you need, or you can let it pick the zoom level for you. This lets you strike a balance between over-frequent screen refreshing (if you are driving 65 and zoomed way in, for example), and seeing where you are relative to certain highways or exits, which you might want to zoom out a bit to see.
On multi-lane highways, as your exit approaches or lanes divide, it will tell you to keep left or right, which can keep you from getting needlessly into exit-only lanes or from having to cross several lanes.
Lest you think this is a complete rave review, there are a few shortcomings.
Battery life is fair-to-poor, depending mostly on how bright you want the screen. However, if you use the power adapter and use the battery power as backup, this should not be a problem.
You will notice from pictures that there are not many keys cluttering up the front of the device. This was a sound choice from a safety and design standpoint, but it means that you have to flip between screens and scroll to enter addresses, zipping through numbers and letters and entering each -- much the way you might enter your name or initials on an arcade game. It assumes a certain degree of patience and willingness to learn. If your directionally challenged spouse has not yet entered the computer age, this may be more technology than she (or he) is ready for.
BOTTOM LINEBecause of some minor quibbles, I give it 4 1/2 stars, but will round that up to 5 because it offers such good value compared to factory-installed in-dash units. Unless the extra money is a huge issue, or unless you rarely travel far from home, spring for the deluxe version and save the headache of buying additional maps, upgrading memory, etc.
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