Navigates well, but was an ordeal to get going

The Garmin i3 is a small, compact unit, that does a very good job of navigating while on roads. This unit has been an adventure since I got it, and the setup process has been the biggest obstacle toward what is otherwise an excellent unit for its price.

When I first got the unit, I found it to be more compact and portable than I had expected. It's easy to carry in a coat pocket, can run for hours on batteries, but gets its own power when hooked up to a computer (USB cable) or automobile (cigarette lighter.) If you disconnect it from a power source, it starts a countdown, after which it turns off, unless you press a button. So it's easy to take with you without much effort, and it will not waste batteries if you switch off your car or computer. The screen is quite readable, and the maps that get shown give a good indication of the immediate area. Pulling back to see more of the neighborhood on the map does not work as well. It's an effective screen for navigation, but not for seeing a big picture of the area.

SETTING UP:

The instructions say to load the DVD onto your computer before hooking up the unit to the computer, so that's what I did. It told me to say no at the first prompt, and then told me what to look for at the next prompt. If this seems vague, it was vague. I never got anything like the first prompt they told me to expect, so I was a bit unsure how to answer, since their choice was not there. Then I realized that the first prompt I did get was the second one they mentioned. All in all, it was a minor inconvenience, but confusing nonetheless.

After I got the second prompt, the software had no problems installing itself. It told me when to plug the unit into my USB port, and it communicated just fine.

After everything was installed, it took me through the registration process, which was a required step in order to continue. Then it started the process to download maps.

I started off by selecting a single region, Northern California, and it immediately showed a red bar graph saying that I was out of memory. I pressed continue, and it again told me that I did not have enough memory. Since this made no sense, I went to their support website. I could not find an answer, and found no matches in their support database when I searched on the entire error message I had gotten. Searching as individual key words came up with nothing relevant either.

I found an area of their website that had software updates, so I figured that having the latest software and firmware would be a logical next step. They offered an application that I could download which would update software and firmware for me. I tried that, and it worked very well once it was downloaded. It took a while to download, even with a high speed connection, since I had a very low transfer rate from their system. Although I cannot say with certainty that that was their fault, it was atypical of my experiences with other sites.

Once I got the firmware updated, I went back to the application that loads maps. I had not closed it from the last time, and it was still showing me the previous error message. Nevertheless, when I closed the message window, and clicked on next, it started loading the maps. That was more than I expected it to do, and it did not even make me start over. I chose to abort anyway, so I could choose more regions, and I chose all of California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. It did not use up all of the memory.

California is a big state, and I loaded far more places than I had ever driven to. I tried removing all but California and Nevada to see if I could fit the most recent states I had gone to on vacation. I added New York and New Jersey, and they fit. I tried to add Pennsylvania, and I ran out of room. It would have fit easily had I removed California. All in all, it seems to have enough capacity to handle a reasonable number of states that I'm likely to drive through on a given trip. If you are planning to use this to drive across Europe or across all of the USA without being able to get back to a computer, you would have to buy an extra memory card. They are tiny cards, and they are not very expensive.

Loading maps was not instant. It took perhaps ten minutes. But if you leave it running while you check your email, you might not even notice the wait. If I had to remove my current regions, load new ones, and then undo it after a trip, I would not consider it an obstacle.

The next problem came when I tried to use it, and I got no reception of a satellite signal. It shows overall signal strength with bars much in the same manner as many cell phones. The first bar turned red on occasion, but it was mostly blank, as were all the rest. When this happened in my house, I figured I'd move near a window, but it did not help. I then took it outside, and it did not change. I live in an area with no buildings taller than two stories, and there was nothing obstructing me in any way. I was not even in a vehicle, but was standing in the middle of a street on a sunny day. I then took it for a drive, and there was no change no matter where I went. When I got out of the vehicle with it, there was still no change.

At this point, I didn't know if the unit was defective, or if there was some setting I was missing. I went through all the settings and found nothing suspicious. A general web search and a search of their website gave no indication that this is a common problem. Powering it off and removing the batteries did not help.

The next step was to call their support line. After a few phone prompts, I got routed to their technical support group. They did not make me press an inordinate number of buttons to get there, but the next message I heard said that I would be on hold for 35 minutes and I should continue to hold. Since that did not seem reasonable to me, I decided to use their on-line support form. After I submitted a help request, I got a message saying that I should wait seven business days, which would have been ten calendar days, and the delay is due to the high demand after the holiday season. While it's possible that a lot of people got these for Christmas or Chanukkah and waited 17 days to call (or called earlier and have still not resolved things) I would have expected holiday season issues to have tapered off by January 11th.

I eventually got a response from their customer support group. Although it did take several days longer than I would have liked, it came a lot sooner than they had indicated. I got a terse statement telling me how to do a hard reset by pressing all 3 buttons while the device is powered off, making sure the power button is pressed last. Although the procedure worked, in the sense that it performed a reset, it did not fix the problem.

After that, the prospect of getting one-statement suggestions over an extended period of time did not seem viable. I was ready to return the unit, but before I did that, I spoke to a person who is very experienced with these units, and also owns three by Garmin. This person is a technical support person, but not for Garmin. He told me that I needed to place the unit outside, or in vehicle's windshield (outside of course) and don't move the unit or vehicle at all until I get a signal. He suggested that I leave it there for half an hour to an hour. I was told that if the unit had not initially established communication with a satellite, it might take time. Once it's been established, the process need not be repeated unless I move more than a few hundred miles with the unit off.

Although he was knowledgeable, I could not help but question why none of this was in the manual, if it was indeed true. His response was that the documentation was inadequate, although he was less diplomatic about it.

I took the unit outside and mounted it on my windshield, but this time did not move the vehicle. Since it was raining, I was told to anticipate that it might take longer, and it would be best to just leave the unit there overnight before I gave up. But within minutes, it got a signal, and it quickly moved up to four out of five bars. I then tried moving the unit near the dashboard to see how well it works for those who cannot mount it on the windshield. Although the signal was slightly weaker, it still worked flawlessly.

USING THE UNIT

At that point, I was able to drive around my neighborhood to test things out. I live in an area where streets curve quite a bit. There are no streets that are completely straight, there are streets that loop in circles, streets that are only a few car lengths long, and streets that end in cul de sacs. Despite this, the unit was able to show me where I was with extreme precision. It was not even off by a single house, and told me where to turn exactly when it should have. If I needed to make a series of consecutive turns, it explained it clearly and indicated it clearly on the screen. If I took a wrong turn, it recalculated the route quickly and got me back on course before I could have gone far enough to make a difference.

Once the system had established itself, I took it back into my home since some of its use requires a computer. I found to my surprise that the signal it gets in my office near the window is just as strong as what I got from within a vehicle with the unit mounted on a windshield. I then brought it to my computer, which is farther from the window, and it continued to have a reasonably strong signal. Despite having been told not to expect it to work indoors, once established, it worked reasonably well in my home. As I checked out various landmarks that the navigation system let me look up, I did get an occasional message about losing the satellite signal, only to find it reestablished within seconds. Since I have a big home, I decided to walk around the house to see what happened. I did not get a signal from all parts of the house, but got a usable signal in a surprisingly large number of places, including upstairs and downstairs, and in the middle of the house far from windows. So apparently a tile roof is not necessarily an obstacle.

OTHER FEATURES

In addition to roads, this unit will allow users to find shopping, gas stations, restaurants, banks, ATMs, and other landmarks. In this area, I had mixed results. I have several dozen restaurants within a mile of my home, and it listed many but left out most. It didn't seem to matter how old they were, whether they were big or small, or whether they were part of a big chain or not. Most of them are in a shopping center and were built around the same time as each other. They have been there for years, yet most of them did not come up on the list. Most that were left out were part of major chains, yet other restaurants from those chains appeared elsewhere. One independent restaurant did not show up, but its sister location that's less than a mile further did show up. Others in the same shopping center did show up. My bank did not show up, but the local branch was opened recently so I was not surprised. Then again, considering that this unit relies on a computer download to get its data, the vendor could have easily sold a license to download data for a period of time rather than one limited to a DVD, bit if such a feature is available, it's not listed in the documentation.

It also showed me many items that I did not need to see. For example, it showed many stores that did not really exist, and never did. I suspect that these were warehouses that are owned or operated by the companies whose store names are listed, since that's what is in those areas.

Of course, if you know the address of any particular store, home, or anything else, the unit will find it just fine. If you are looking for a particular type of cuisine, you will probably find it too. There's no guarantee that you will find the closest one or get a comprehensive list, but if you are trying to find a McDonald's within a few miles, I suspect you won't have a problem.

FINDING LOCATIONS

In order to find a particular address, you can pick a city from a list, or "type" its name in using a wheel to scroll through the alphabet. As you pick each letter, the list of city names shrinks accordingly. At any point, you can stop entering letters and go back to the list of cities to scroll through and pick from it. Generally three to four letters was sufficient to narrow things down. The next step is to give the numeric part of the address in a similar manner, except with no scrollable list. Picking a street name works in the same manner as picking a city.

Any locations you find can be saved in your list of favorites. It's also very easy to save your current location in the list, and your home can be added to a location called home, so when you tell it to go home, it's trivial.

OTHER ISSUES

The warranty for this product explicitly states that if there's a problem with the unit, you will need to send it back to them at your expense. Considering that this was a concern for me when the product was new out of the box, I would have preferred something along the lines of what many other vendors do; offer a feasible alternative to returning the unit to the store that does not hurt the consumer. Had I not gotten it working I would have been better off starting with a new unit and a fresh warranty than paying money out of my pocket as my reward for putting up with these problems.

The biggest overall problems were with inadequate documentation and support. If things go well, you might not ever need support, and the documentation is fine if you never have a problem. But I also got the impression that this level of support is typical. That might not be an issue if you encounter software issues and don't mind researching them yourself, but If you have a hardware issue you may consider the level of service that they offer inadequate.

I have also used other navigation systems in rental cars, and overall, this is an easier and more accurate unit than what I had used even a year or two ago. Although it lacks a big screen, it's at least current technology and very affordable. I paid $285 at the start of 2006, but prices will change.

When getting a navigation unit, there are a few things to consider. Prices will continue to drop, and technology will continue to change. Another consideration is whether to get a stand alone unit, or a more integrated unit that comes with new cars. Although it's nicer aesthetically to have a built in unit, the question I have to ask myself is whether I would pay $1000 for a five year old PC. The reason for that question is that a built in unit will have been designed years before the car is put in production, and will stay with the vehicle for its life. After a short period of time, the built in unit will not be competitive with the cheapest of aftermarket units, and this Garmin is already among the cheapest of aftermarket units that are geared towards automotive use. So if you wouldn't pay $1000 for an old PC, you might not want to get a built in unit, especially if you plan to still use it over the life of your car.

I can't say whether a more expensive unit would get around the issues related to landmarks, but it would provide a better screen, although this one is adequate for navigation. I suspect that if you take the money you would have spent on a more expensive unit, buy this one, and save the rest, you will be able to use the rest of the money in a year or two to buy something that competes with the better units of today. Then you can move this to your other vehicle. In other words, this is an entry level unit that works quite well for what you pay for it. It probably won't be the last one you ever buy, but it's a great way to get started, if you can put up with the level of support that's available, and it's a lot for the money in today's terms.

UPDATE:

After having had the unit for about six months, I still feel that it does an excellent job of navigating. My initial assessments of landmark and mapping data accuracy still seem on target.

I use the unit with the power cord, so the batteries only get used when the ignition is off. I don't generally use the unit on batteries alone, but occasionally set up routes with the ignition off when I'm waiting in the car. I generally switch it off when I remove it from the car since I'm holding it anyway, but I'm not compulsive about it. I'm still on my original set of batteries, and they have half their life left according to the display. If you typically leave the unit plugged it when you use it, standard alkaline batteries could last a year or more, depending on your usage. If you plan to use the unit primarily on batteries, keep in mind that this unit does not recharge them for you. Depending on your usage, that could be a cost factor.

One thing I have found is that there's an occasional, although very rare, problem with glare. It's worse if the unit is mounted on the dashboard with the included mounting disk than it is if the unit is placed on the windshield. In the latter case, I never had a glare problem. However, I've never been in a situation where it affected my ability to navigate, and since the unit gives voice prompts, I don't expect it will become an issue.

In some states, including mine, mounting the unit on the windshield is illegal. Garmin provides a free mounting disk that glues to the dashboard, or any other convenient location, by peeling the paper backing off the adhesive side. The adhesive stuck to my dashboard extremely well. Unfortunately, after several months, the adhesive separated from the mounting disk itself. Garmin agreed to send me replacement disks without any hassle. The separation seemed to have happened bit by bit on very hot days when I left the unit mounted when the car was parked. I would recommend removing the unit when the car is parked, primarily because it's an easy thing to do and the unit is a potential target for theft, but it might also prevent this problem.

In 48 other US states, there are no laws mentioned in any Garmin literature that preclude windshield mounting. Personally, I can see advantages to either position. Windshield mounting is easier, and requires no special disk. It may allow you to place the unit in a more practical position, but I had no problems finding an acceptable position on the dashboard. The unit's reception is good enough that other positions such as near the cup holders or radio will not be a problem if that's your preference. Windshield mounting might result in a dangling cord, unless you don't mind using the batteries. My elderly father prefers a dashboard mount. If you are older and need bifocals or trifocals, a dashboard position might be better given the screen size.

The suction cup holds the unit surprisingly well or surprisingly poorly depending on the circumstances. If it gets done properly, it could easily stay there for months with no problem. But it could come off within minutes or less if not mounted properly. I would suggest breathing on the suction cup until you see the water vapor sticking slightly, and then making sure that the cup is pressed firmly against a smooth surface before the lever is pulled to lock the unit. I find it easier to leave the suction cup attached and to remove the unit from its mount when I want to take it off. It comes off easily with a simple twist, is easier to carry or store that way, and is simple to put back on without needing your undivided attention.

Another thing that happened in the interim is that I bought an Acura RL for my wife. It has a high end built in navigation unit, so I can compare this unit to a high end built in navigation system on a 2006 vehicle. The advantage of a built in system is integration. It may tie in with other systems, or allow you to phone the restaurant that you looked up on the map, for example. And a large screen shows more data. I can also find locations with voice commands in the Acura.

But despite the big difference in price, the Garmin does as good a job at getting me places. It's easier to use, more intuitive, and has a shorter learning curve. The Acura's gives me more powerful features, but it took a while, and a number of misguided trips, before I got the hang of it. There have been a number of times when the preferred method of finding things in the Acura came up short, and I knew the Garmin would not have had a problem. The Acura also has mistakes in the map data identical to ones I had seen on rental car units years earlier. I can't say whether the Garmin has more accurate data overall, but it has been more accurate in my case. It also shows that you can't necessarily get an annual upgrade and expect it to fix whatever was wrong with the data. Map data gets fixed only when errors are reported, or new landmarks are reported from various sources, and there's no telling when and how that happens.

The only time the Garmin could not find a street that the Acura would have found was when I was going to an address on a street that bordered between two cities. Although the address was in one city, it's entirely possible that the road itself was completely within the border of the other city, and the Garmin did not show the address. I eventually figured out that if I gave it the wrong city name but the correct street address, it found the location.

Overall, more upscale units offer more features. They have better displays, and more ways of finding places. But the Garmin held its own when it came to finding routes accurately. Although I appreciate the features of the more advanced units, I don't regret having the Garmin in my own car.