Garmin nuvi 250W review

Garmin nuvi 250W Review

Reviewed by: Mark Harris

Reviewed on: 3 August 2007

The Garmin nuvi 250W is an entry-level model offering UK and European mapping plus safety cameras, but little in the way of extras. It's available now for around £170, with more information at Garmin's Web site.

Strengths
The slim nuvi 250W works straight from the box, with full UK and western Europe street-level maps accessed through an impressively simple graphical touchscreen interface.

The welcome screen gives just two options: Where to? and View Map, both of which work very well. The search options let you browse nearby points of interest, including local restaurants, smaller museums and public transport stations as well as the usual chain pubs, theme parks and petrol stations.

If you'd rather search by city or street, the postcode finder is one of the best we've seen, tracking down even our trickiest test destinations with ease. It's even easy to search addresses abroad. Route calculation and re-calculation is fast -- around ten seconds for an inter-city journey.

The 109mm (4.3-inch) widescreen display is bright and colourful, with colour-coded 3D maps that should minimise the chance of driving down an alleyway instead of a real road. Its icons for points of interest are good, scaling well as you zoom in or out. Direction arrows are very clear and the female voice guidance is loud and very distinct.

There's no MP3 player, but you do get currency and measurement converters and a simple JPEG picture viewer that allows you to choose a wallpaper image. Battery life (when not connected to the cigarette lighter) is at least three hours.

Weaknesses
While the nuvi is running the latest SiRFstar III GPS chipset, it has real trouble in marginal signal areas: through windows at home, under trees, or in urban canyons. Having said that, once it has locked on (typically after about three minutes), it holds the signal well.

Checking your speed, looking at a fly-through and setting up or cancelling detours (there's no real multi-stop capability) involves navigating away from the main driving screen. And although it's fun to alter your on-screen vehicle icon, the best one -- a monster truck -- does tend to obscure icons and even the route on some map views.

Voice guidance is clear and timely, but lacks the sophistication of more advanced units. For instance, it won't speak road names out loud -- potentially confusing at complex roundabouts and junctions.

There's no Bluetooth phone connection or traffic data, and there's no USB port, so you can't update the software.

Speed camera data is pre-loaded, giving a nicely pitched warning ping when you're approaching a controlled zone, but as you can't update the database, it's not to be relied on.

Conclusion
Garmin has set out to make an ultra-simple rival to TomTom and largely succeeds. The interface is extremely simple and friendly, both display and voice guidance are clear and navigation is generally good. Only weak GPS reception and a limited scope for expansion might deter serious drivers.