0ur opinion:

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The Garmin nüvi 360 GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant is a GPS navigator, personal translator, multi-media entertainer and tour guide all wrapped into one. ln addition to all the advanced features of the Garmin nüvi 350 -- including automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, an MP3 player and audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, and much more -- this pocket-sized personal travel assistant comes with hands-free Bluetooth wireless technology, making it the hands-down go-anywhere travel companion.

Which nüvi is Best for You?: Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators

The nüvi 360 comes with hands-free bluetooth wireles technology. See side view.

Browse your stored pictures with an easy-to-use JPEG viewer.

The device sports a handy MP3 player, letting you play songs stored on SD memory cards.

Make Hands-Free Calls
The nüvi 360 integrates wireless technology with a microphone and speaker that lets you make hands-free mobile phone calls using your compatible Bluetooth-enabled phone. Simply dial numbers with the nüvi's touch screen keypad to place a call, and to answer calls, just tap the screen and speak directly into its built-in microphone.



ln addition, you can easily look-up and dial numbers from your personalized phone book or from your phone's call history log. Don't know the phone number for your destination? Simply find and dial it from nüvi's database of more than six million points of interest -- including hotels, restaurants, stores, and attractions.



Navigation and Entertainment with Ease
For starters, the nüvi 360 includes a high-sensitivity integrated GPS receiver that offers exceptional performance and reception. The unit's flip-up antenna includes an MCX-type connector for optional external GPS antenna connection. Preloaded software features maps of Europe or North America, and it includes automatic routing, 2D or 3D map perspective, turn-by-turn voice directions that speak street names, and a fingertip touch screen interface -- making navigation as easy as it gets.



But navigation is just the beginning. Like the nüvi 350, the nüvi 360 also includes many entertainment and travel tools including an MP3 player, audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, travel alarm, and currency converters.



The nüvi 360 features a bright, 2.8 x 2.1-inch TFT display with white backlight for easy readability. At 3.87 x 2.91 x 0.87-inches (WxHxD) and just 5.1 ounces, the unit is small enough to be placed on the dashboard with the included suction mount, or into your pocket for easy transportability. The unit also features Garmin Lock -- an advanced anti-theft feature that disables the unit from performing any functions until you type in a specific four-digit PlN or take the unit to a predetermined location. A built-in lithium ion battery will give you up to eight hours of power, and an included 12/24 volt adapter cable will let you run the navigator off your vehicle's power. An AC battery charger is also included.



A built-in Travel Kit that includes sample MP3s and audio books will get you started with entertainment, and with the unit's SD memory card expansion slot you can add optional software, such as language and travel guides. A USB port is also included for loading and updating data.



What's in the Box
Gamin nüvi 360, Preloaded City Navigator NT North America or Europe (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, AC charger, 12/24 volt adapter cable, dashboard disk, USB interface cable, carrying case, owner's manual, and quick reference guide.

Which nüvi is Best for You?

Screen Size inches (w x h)

lncluded Maps

P0ls

Directions in Real Street Names

Traffic

Bluetooth

Media

FM Transmitter (audio through car stereo system)

Multi- Point Routing

Cont. U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico

AK and Canada

Europe

capable

included

nüvi 200

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos

nüvi 200w

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos

nüvi 250

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos

nüvi 250w

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos

nüvi 260

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos

nüvi 270

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos

nüvi 350

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 360

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 370

2.8 x 2.1

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 650

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 660

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 670

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 680

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 750

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 760

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

nüvi 770

3.81 x 2.25

6 million +

Photos, MP3s

Piece Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Testimonials

Average Buyer Rating:

Buyer's feedback: - * Not bad, not great ...
I bought this as a higher end replacement for a 2xx series Garmin GPS that I had. I was it had BlueTooth for use as a speakerphone, TTS, etc. and jumped on it. It will sometimes add 30 minutes to my trip thinking one route is better than another when it's significantly worse. The BT speakerphone, well, it sucks. It doesn't work very well, the speaker is too quiet and and callers could barely hear me.

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Buyer's feedback: - Great GPS but the product age shows
Over the years I've had the opportunity to use GPS products from multiple manufacturers like Garmin, Magellan, Tom-Tom & Navigon....even though the Gamin NuVI 360 is a great GPS product, it was developed a couple of years back and in today's world the age shows.

Here what I like:

1) Great routing! - The NuVI definitely does the best job with routing from point A to B.

2) Bluetooth Phone integration - This is something that really comes handy, especially when you are traveling alone....this is better than bluetooth headsets since you get to see the name/number of the person calling you before you accept/reject the call. Making calls is also a piece of cake with Phonebook integration. Bluetooth was the primary reason why I selected this model.

3) Text to Speech - One of the most necessary things when you are out on the road!

4) Awesome POI database - You'll get just about any place of interest on this product....the database is waaaaay better than the other GPS products in the market. And with Bluetooth integration, you can directly call up a POI on-the-go.

5) Great Garmin Support - Garmin probably has the best support system, with the support site giving regular product updates & softwares.

What I DO NOT like:

1) Zip based address search not supported. This is available in almost all other modern products. At times you do not know the name of the city, you just have the address zip code....that wouldn't work here.

2) Context based text entry not supported. Once you have selected the city, other products like the Magellan will highlight just those characters on screen that would make up the next character of a valid street name in the selected city. Comes in really handy when you are trying to quickly enter an address. Not supported in the NuVI 360

3) Next turn direction indicator not shown on screen. Even though you'll get the direction after a click, while driving, it makes a big difference to get to see this all the time

4) Speed Limit not shown - The Navigon always shows the speed limit on the current road on screen. The NuVI knows internally what the speed limit is (try using the "simulation" mode, the simulated car will always travel at, or near, the valid speed limit for that road). However, this DOES NOT come up on screen and there's no way you'll get that information.

5) Navigon's "Reality View" is an awesome help on highway bifurcations. Not available on any of the other products.

Overall the NuVI 360 is a great "old" product. Good to see that Garmin has withdrawn it from the market.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Great GPS ...
Awesome GPS!!! Garmin has the easiest to use and most accurate GPS systems, and this model is a great price for having the text to speech feature (announcing road names). My only complaint is the lack of a paper manual, because when you first get it you are so excited to use it and just go to your car with it to set up. However, setup and use are relatively easy and the accuracy and search features are right on.

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Buyer's feedback: - The 360 has been a good first GPS Navigator
This was the first GPS navigator that I've owned, I've had it for about 18 months now and I'll probably use it for another 4-5 years before I upgrade. I researched this a lot before I bought, comparing it to TomTom and Magellen's offerings. At the time they just didn't seem to have the feature set or map capabilities that Nuvi 360 had. That may have changed.

I keep discovering more nice operational features every time I take it on a long trip. Mostly by accident, although I've surfed some GPS forums and found a few nice bits of info.

Pros:
1. Very good display, but my next will be bigger. Still I'd want the replacement to fit in my shirt pocket nearly as nicely as Nuvi does.
2. Works very well with BlueTooth on my Blackberry Curve AFTER Garmin released the bug fix for it. No distortion. I use this a lot more than I thought I would.
3. MP3 player is nice, but I've only used it on one trip where I was trying to reduce the amount of individual devices I was taking.
4. Locking suction cup window mount works the best of any I've ever used. Only fallen off the windshield twice in over 12,000 highway miles.
5. Touch screen works well, even with my "fat fingers".
6. I like that it's smart enough to know what time the sun rises and sets and changes the display colors from day to night, although it's not smart enough to know when it's crossed timezones and reset the clock or arrival time.
7. I like being able to download free "points of interest" from POI-factory.com and install them using Garmin's free downloadable software.
8. The ability to plug in an SD card to expand the memory has come in handy more than once. My SD card currently has a half dozen family photos and some MP3's.
9. Relatively inexpensive map updates. [...]for the very expensive Alpine OEM Navi that came in my 2005 Honda Pilot. I'll never update the Pilot!

Cons:
1. All text-to-speech navigators have this problem, it has no etiquette when it comes to announcing directions! :) She just blurts them out no matter what else is going on at the time and tries to talk over the human beings in the car. This is typically met with the rowdier passengers asking "What's the b***** saying now???" And I haven't found any quick way to get her to repeat what she just said.
2. Some maps are badly out of date. In 1983 a huge mudslide wiped out part of Highway 6 near Thistle, Utah. Twenty-five years later (!) Nuvi still thinks it's there and recalculates over and over as you drive the "new" two mile stretch. Also, there was supposed to be an Arby's in a very empty field near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
3. No way to teach it a shortcut.
4. I think some speed limits have been changed on I-90 in New York since Nuvi got updated. This summer I was traveling 5-10 mph faster than the posted 65 Mph speed limit and Nuvi kept adding time to my final arrival time. This didn't happen anywhere else. Usually my arrival time decreased.
5. It would be nice to be able to select what 6 things are displayed on the page that shows Overall Avg, Moving Avg, Max Speed, etc. I flip back and forth between it and the map page to see how much distance I have left vs projected arrival time.
6. I wish there was an option to show you just gas/food/lodging, etc. that are close to your projected forward path only, and not include the places you passed 2 miles back. Someday I might want to turn around and drive back 19 miles to a McDonalds, :) but mostly I want to know where the next one is coming up.
7. I wish the keyboard screen was QWERTY instead of ABCDE.

All in all it's been a good little helper and better than 98% of the time it gets us where we want to go in the most efficient manner.

[...].

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Buyer's feedback: - * A Winner for the Directionally Challenged ...
I have had this Garmin nuvi 360 since February of '08 and have used the device on several trips since. I live in Illinois and have used the unit on local trips and long trips to Missouri, Kentucky, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee. First, let me say that I researched GPS units prior to purchasing this one. I went to the local stores and read on line reviews to help with the decision. I decided what features and price range worked best for me and chose this model.

The 360 has the features I wanted in a GPS and the Amazon price saved me around $100 over Best Buy. The 3 1/2 inch screen is easily viewed in day and night modes and maneuvering from one menu to another is easy. I really like the way the unit announces directions and street names (Text-to-Speech) and appreciate being able to concentrate on driving, especially in city traffic, instead of on the map. The attention tone feature is also nice. This function sounds a chime immediately before an announcement so if you're visiting or listening to radio/stereo you can be ready to listen. The menu is packed full of locations organized in different categories. I like being able to look for gas stations, restaurants and stores while on the road. The built in Bluetooth was a main reason I got the 360. I particularly appreciate being able to make phone calls from the device. My wife and I used the Bluetooth several times on vacation to call hotels/stores while on the road. While I like the Bluetooth, I had complaints from several people on the receiving end of the conversation who said I sounded like I was in a tin can. They also complained of feed back. Perhaps the tin can affect is from cabin noise and distance from the unit. The feed back was probably a volume issue. I needed the volume set higher to hear directions but then the phone calls were really loud. I turned down the Garmin's volume a couple of notches during calls. I have found the Garmin's maps to be detailed and accurate for the most part. Although the screen of the Garmin cannot show a map like you see in a road atlas, you can scroll the map in order to look ahead on your route.

As I mentioned above I have used the Garmin on several trips over a period of several months. I won't detail all of those trips but will say that the nuvi generally did an outstanding job on the highway and in the city. There have been instances where the unit took me to a place or street that had changed or the GPS got confused and kept telling me to turn when common sense, experience and maps dictated differently. The latter happened once when driving through Atlanta on the way to FL and again when we were within a few miles of an Army base. The vast majority of the time, however, the unit has performed quite well and rare errors in navigating were my fault and not the 360's.

I do advise to keep map software updated. I updated the 360's map software prior to summer vacation driving and noticed a difference. I also want to include a warning: husbands beware. The first long trip on which I used the Garmin was to my mother-in-law's house in KY. Please note, I am directionally challenged, my wife is not. If you are traveling to your wife's childhood home and follow the GPS instead of your wife's directions you may encounter marital strife. Even though I keep the 360 set on "Fastest Route" most of the time and we went straight to her mother's house, my wife said there was a better, quicker way. I explained that I was following the Garmin for the sake of science but that didn't quite wash. Interestingly, on a return trip to the same place a few months later after I had updated the maps, the 360 used the route my wife suggested the first time.

I do like this product but there is a learning period and I like directions. Garmin doesn't include the full manual with this unit. Instead, they include a quick guide. The full manual can be read on the computer but if you want a hard copy you'll have to print the 67 page manual yourself.

Finally, a comment which is not specific to this Garmin product. I purchased Fodor's North America from Garmin for this nuvi's Travel Kit and have been disappointed. While I have used the extra, I haven't found the guide to be quite as helpful as I expected in locating and describing sites.