Garmin 2720 first thoughts (not all roses)

I've found remarkable little information posted about the Garmin 2720. The
best price I found was $799 at getfeetwet.com with coupon code of PREORDER
and about $10 shipping. I found their staff to be good to deal with when I
had order questions.

I received my 2720 2 days ago and am still on the fence whether I should
have stayed with the 2610 (already sold). I'm going to list some of my
likes/dislikes below. Keep in mind I have not played with every menu item
yet so I may be able to correct some deficiencies and maybe with some help
from the team I'll get back on track.

I liked the idea of the 3D view, but in practice, I'm not really loving it
as much as I think I should. It is just eye candy in my opinion. I am going
to stick it out a little longer, but feel like I may switch back to 2D mode.

As everyone has said, the instructions are so minimal "I" was confused and
I've been a Garmin user of SPIII, 2610 and now 2720, and Vista. You can
just leave the manual in the box, it does not give any useful usage
information, even for a beginner. If you are using the new interface and
wonder what a particular menu button does, don't bother looking in the
manual, there won't be any additional info there. Enough said about the
manual, it won't help you.

When in nav mode, the street names surrounding you don't show up so I feel
as though I have lost a bit of extra info that helped when searching for a
location along the way. When in driving mode, the street names display
inconsistently, some are visible, some are not. Basically, you can see a
bunch of grey street lines some with and some without names on them. Doesn't
seem to matter what zoom factor is chosen either. BTW, zoom factor is no
longer displayed in feet/miles on the screen, there is some sort of graph
there that I assume has something to do with zoom, but the manual doesn't
mention it. There are some settings for text that I have not played with,
but for now they are set at the factory default of Auto.

I'm not sure who really needs to have their speed displayed, that is what my
speedometer is for, but it is now a permanent fixture on all of your nav or
driving screens. I liked the customizable tabs from the 2610, I could put
"time until next turn" on a tab which was helpful to me. Distance until next
turn is now permanent in Nav mode. I like that. I also like that you have a
permanent header which shows what the next street name to turn on will be:
ie, Telegraph to Dixie Highway will be listed across the top if Dixie
Highway is the next turn. There was a tab version of this on the 2610, but I
never felt it was very consistent.

I had the pleasure of driving at night with the screen brightness set to
Auto. I don't think I ever took my 2610 off Auto. With the 2720 set to auto,
the longer I drove in the darkness, the dimmer and dimmer the 2720 set my
screen, eventually, I ended up turning off Auto brightness. WOW, now I'm
blind. Seriously, I have recovered from the brighness, but it seems a bit
bright at night. Auto is useless if you can't see the screen while driving.

The screen seems clearer than the 2610, but a lot of the customization seems
to be lost (tabs!) I wonder if this is just the Cxx series software
installed on a 27xx piece of hardware. For more than $800, for the unit, I
wish they had a classic interface mode to choose!

I'm not liking that they have not given us ANY way to manage Waypoints
between the computer and 2720. They include a USB driver CD and cable to
establish a link between the two, but you need software to do so. I'll have
to see if I kept a copy of MapSource from my 2610, but I don't think I did.
The 2720 comes with unlock codes for some unknown reason. I found an old
copy of mapsource from years ago and upgraded it to current version 6.8. It
displays the waypoints fine when I download them to the computer, but
because there is no way to download the maps from the 2720 to the computer,
I have mismatched road information that I cannot correct on the computer
side. What I am saying is that you have newer maps in the 2720 and old maps
in the computer. That's no fun. Thanks alot Garmin.

I do like the new text to speech engine. It does a fairly good job of
pronouncing street names. There are a few that I always wondered how to
pronounce, I'll just go with Ms. Streetpilot on her pronounciation. I did
find a strange bug in the speech pattern of an interstate I was on
yesterday. I went into downtown Detroit to watch the A's clobber the Tigers
11 to 1, but that's not important now. On my way in from the suburbs, Ms.
Streetpilot's pronounciation for I-94 was eye Nine T Four (I'll call this
the suburban pronounciation). When I got into the city, she started calling
it eye Nine D Four (city pronounciation). After the big loss, she used the
city slang on my way out of the ballpark area and switched to the suburb
slang as I crossed the Detroit city line. Weird.

I ordered the GTM 10 which unfortunately did not ship with the 2720. I have
no idea what to expect from it since Garmin has not given us any information
from which to base a purchasing decision. They haven't provided us with a
website that tells the terms of service, what's free, what's not. I have no
idea what it will take to hook it up, but I bet I'll have to have it
installed. If that is the case, bye bye GTM 10. The GTM 10 comes with
18months of free service with a pay to play option after that. I think I saw
something that said $60/year. WOW $5 month seems steep, but I don't live in
traffic so it doesn't SEEM worth it, I can imagine if you are a gridlock
surfer $5 would be worth it. Come on guys at Garmin, give us some insight.
At least put a web page on your site so the link in the stupid user manual
points to something other than a page not found error
(http://www.garmin.com/fmtraffic).

All in all, I don't think the 2720 gives us anything that we couldn't
already do well with the 2610 except more speech and 3D. I know we can't
continue to live in the past with the old hardware forever, but this new
2720 feels dumbed down to me. I'll give it a week and re-evaluat my
decision. I do mostly local driving, so this is just a gadget for me, but I
have derived a great deal of enjoyment from the 2610 and hope to do so with
the 2720. I hope I don't remain dissapointed with the 2720. In retrospect,
I'm going to cancel my order the the GTM 10. I'm sure it will be something
that has to wire into the radio or something. Not sounding fun or portable
to me.

Tom

I agree with your assessment of the 2720. I am really impressed with the
display although it could use a bit of tweaking. My ideal unit would be a
2610 with the 2720 enhancements. Why would that be so hard???

Bob

| I've found remarkable little information posted about the Garmin 2720. The
| best price I found was $799 at getfeetwet.com with coupon code of PREORDER
| and about $10 shipping. I found their staff to be good to deal with when I
| had order questions.
|
| I received my 2720 2 days ago and am still on the fence whether I should
| have stayed with the 2610 (already sold). I'm going to list some of my
| likes/dislikes below. Keep in mind I have not played with every menu item
| yet so I may be able to correct some deficiencies and maybe with some help
| from the team I'll get back on track.
|
| I liked the idea of the 3D view, but in practice, I'm not really loving it
| as much as I think I should. It is just eye candy in my opinion. I am
going
| to stick it out a little longer, but feel like I may switch back to 2D
mode.
|
| As everyone has said, the instructions are so minimal "I" was confused and
| I've been a Garmin user of SPIII, 2610 and now 2720, and Vista. You can
| just leave the manual in the box, it does not give any useful usage
| information, even for a beginner. If you are using the new interface and
| wonder what a particular menu button does, don't bother looking in the
| manual, there won't be any additional info there. Enough said about the
| manual, it won't help you.
|
| When in nav mode, the street names surrounding you don't show up so I feel
| as though I have lost a bit of extra info that helped when searching for a
| location along the way. When in driving mode, the street names display
| inconsistently, some are visible, some are not. Basically, you can see a
| bunch of grey street lines some with and some without names on them.
Doesn't
| seem to matter what zoom factor is chosen either. BTW, zoom factor is no
| longer displayed in feet/miles on the screen, there is some sort of graph
| there that I assume has something to do with zoom, but the manual doesn't
| mention it. There are some settings for text that I have not played with,
| but for now they are set at the factory default of Auto.
|
| I'm not sure who really needs to have their speed displayed, that is what
my
| speedometer is for, but it is now a permanent fixture on all of your nav
or
| driving screens. I liked the customizable tabs from the 2610, I could put
| "time until next turn" on a tab which was helpful to me. Distance until
next
| turn is now permanent in Nav mode. I like that. I also like that you have
a
| permanent header which shows what the next street name to turn on will be:
| ie, Telegraph to Dixie Highway will be listed across the top if Dixie
| Highway is the next turn. There was a tab version of this on the 2610, but
I
| never felt it was very consistent.
|
| I had the pleasure of driving at night with the screen brightness set to
| Auto. I don't think I ever took my 2610 off Auto. With the 2720 set to
auto,
| the longer I drove in the darkness, the dimmer and dimmer the 2720 set my
| screen, eventually, I ended up turning off Auto brightness. WOW, now I'm
| blind. Seriously, I have recovered from the brighness, but it seems a bit
| bright at night. Auto is useless if you can't see the screen while
driving.
|
| The screen seems clearer than the 2610, but a lot of the customization
seems
| to be lost (tabs!) I wonder if this is just the Cxx series software
| installed on a 27xx piece of hardware. For more than $800, for the unit, I
| wish they had a classic interface mode to choose!
|
| I'm not liking that they have not given us ANY way to manage Waypoints
| between the computer and 2720. They include a USB driver CD and cable to
| establish a link between the two, but you need software to do so. I'll
have
| to see if I kept a copy of MapSource from my 2610, but I don't think I
did.
| The 2720 comes with unlock codes for some unknown reason. I found an old
| copy of mapsource from years ago and upgraded it to current version 6.8.
It
| displays the waypoints fine when I download them to the computer, but
| because there is no way to download the maps from the 2720 to the
computer,
| I have mismatched road information that I cannot correct on the computer
| side. What I am saying is that you have newer maps in the 2720 and old
maps
| in the computer. That's no fun. Thanks alot Garmin.
|
| I do like the new text to speech engine. It does a fairly good job of
| pronouncing street names. There are a few that I always wondered how to
| pronounce, I'll just go with Ms. Streetpilot on her pronounciation. I did
| find a strange bug in the speech pattern of an interstate I was on
| yesterday. I went into downtown Detroit to watch the A's clobber the
Tigers
| 11 to 1, but that's not important now. On my way in from the suburbs, Ms.
| Streetpilot's pronounciation for I-94 was eye Nine T Four (I'll call this
| the suburban pronounciation). When I got into the city, she started
calling
| it eye Nine D Four (city pronounciation). After the big loss, she used the
| city slang on my way out of the ballpark area and switched to the suburb
| slang as I crossed the Detroit city line. Weird.
|
| I ordered the GTM 10 which unfortunately did not ship with the 2720. I
have
| no idea what to expect from it since Garmin has not given us any
information
| from which to base a purchasing decision. They haven't provided us with a
| website that tells the terms of service, what's free, what's not. I have
no
| idea what it will take to hook it up, but I bet I'll have to have it
| installed. If that is the case, bye bye GTM 10. The GTM 10 comes with
| 18months of free service with a pay to play option after that. I think I
saw
| something that said $60/year. WOW $5 month seems steep, but I don't live
in
| traffic so it doesn't SEEM worth it, I can imagine if you are a gridlock
| surfer $5 would be worth it. Come on guys at Garmin, give us some insight.
| At least put a web page on your site so the link in the stupid user manual
| points to something other than a page not found error
| (http://www.garmin.com/fmtraffic).
|
| All in all, I don't think the 2720 gives us anything that we couldn't
| already do well with the 2610 except more speech and 3D. I know we can't
| continue to live in the past with the old hardware forever, but this new
| 2720 feels dumbed down to me. I'll give it a week and re-evaluat my
| decision. I do mostly local driving, so this is just a gadget for me, but
I
| have derived a great deal of enjoyment from the 2610 and hope to do so
with
| the 2720. I hope I don't remain dissapointed with the 2720. In retrospect,
| I'm going to cancel my order the the GTM 10. I'm sure it will be something
| that has to wire into the radio or something. Not sounding fun or portable
| to me.
|
| Tom
|
|

Personally, I think it would be a nice feature if they could display the
speed limit of the road you`re on. Yes, the limits could change over
time, but it would still be bloody useful as a guide in an unfamiliar
area.

Speed cameras ("scameras") have been used in the UK for a number of
years as a source of revenue where no police intervention is required to
catch an "offending" motorist, who dares to go above 30mph on a dual
carriageway in the dead of night.

What you mean is that speed cameras are catching people who think they can
"break the law"!.
If you break the speed limit you deserve what you get (i.e. a fine + points
on your licence).

There is an easy way to not get caught. OBEY THE SPEED LIMIT.

[snip]


But don't you think that limits should be realistic and not set purely as
revenue generators..? There is a dual carriageway near me which is 40mph
when it could easily and *safely* be 70, there are no houses or side roads
where kids could run out from. Needless to say it is festooned with
cameras.

Half a mile away is a country lane single carriageway road carrying the
national speed limit of 60mph. No cameras there to catch the idiots
hurtling up and down it in their boy racer Escorts.

Speed limits are fine where they are *realistic* but not where they are
combined with cameras purely as cash generators.

Ivor