Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Simple navigation at an affordable price--that's nüvi 250. This entry-level Personal Travel Assistant comes with preloaded maps for North America, including all of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. For added flexibility, choose nüvi 270 with preloaded maps for both continents or save more with nüvi 200 which offers less map coverage at a lower price. Like all nüvi 200-series members, the 250 features an easy-to-use colorful touchscreen and ultra-slim design--perfect for everyday navigation. 
The nüvi 250 comes preloaded with maps for North America, and features an easy-to-use touchscreen and ultra-slim design. | 
Configurable vehicle icons let you select car-shaped graphics. | 
nüvi 250 accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger. | Smart, Powerful Design
The nüvi 250 is built with a high-sensitivity WAAS-enabled GPS receiver for extreme accuracy, as well as an SD card slot for storing your media and additional navigation tools, and a USB interface for loading data. All this is wrapped up in a package that measures 3.8 x 2.8 x .8 inches (W x H x D) and weighs just 5.2 ounces. The nüvi 250's 3.5-inch (diagonal) display is touchscreen-enabled, making it a cinch to control the device with your fingertips. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides up to five hours of battery life depending on use. Navigate with Ease
nüvi 250 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. In addition, nüvi 250 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs. Go Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nüvi 250 features many travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and configurable vehicle icons that let you select car-shaped graphics to show your location on the map. Optional plug-in SD cards for our line of Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs. Note: Like most USB Mass Storage Devices, the nüvi is not compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me.
What's in the Box
nüvi 250, preloaded City Navigator NT for North America (full coverage), vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disk, and set up and go guide. Which nüvi is Best for You? Note: All nüvis come with detailed NAVTEQ maps containing more than 6 million pre-loaded point of interest locations.
Device | Screen Size inches (W x H) | Included Maps | Text-to-Speech (Directions in Real Street Names) | Traffic | Bluetooth | Media | FM Transmitter (audio through car stereo system) | Multi-Point Routing | Battery life (hours) | Cont. U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico | AK and Canada | Europe | | nüvi 250 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | | | Photos | | | up to 5 | | nüvi 205 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 205w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 255 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 255w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 260w | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | | | Photos | | | up to 5 | | nüvi 265T | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 265WT | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 275T | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 285WT | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 465T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 755T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 760 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | | nüvi 765T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 775T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 780 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 5 | | nüvi 785T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 850 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 855 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 885T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos, MP3s | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1200 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1250 | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1260T | 2.8 x 2.1 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1300 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1350 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1350T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1370T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1390T | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1490T | 4.4 x 2.5 | | | | | MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic) | | Photos | | | up to 4 | | nüvi 1690 | 3.81 x 2.25 | | | | | NAVTEQ Traffic, 2 years free (Garmin nüLink! service) | | Photos | | | up to 4 |
| Customer Reviews:
 Best value for the money in my opinion August 24, 2007
G. Howard (San Diego, CA)
117 out of 118 found this review helpful
I have used Garmin products before and like the reliability and performance. This unit works very well and in addition a great value price wise. The touch screen works perfectly - no more hassling with non-user friendly buttons. Very easy to navigate the GUI and always seems to find a signal quickly. Routes seem to work well for me (have had it for 2 weeks so not fully tested on routing). Voice prompts are functional and options exist for different languages - I like using the English accent voice. Another great benefit is the size - no external antenna and a small thin unit with a big screen (big enough for me)very well packaged. You could carry it around for hikes or biking as it has that mode and can easily fit into a pocket. All in all I'm very satisfied and use it every day for business because it saves me time and money.
Garmin Nuvi 250 October 31, 2007
Al Conradt (Chicago)
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
I now have two of these units for the family cars. Love 'em! They're very intuitive to use - even my wife was able to work it with hardly any coaching. No sooner had the units arrived in early October, then I got free upgrades to City Navigator v8 from Garmin. The touchscreen works quite well. The voice is clear and plenty loud (I have mine set at 50% volume). And the unit is small (thin) enough to slip easily into a pocket if you have to.
Garmin has mastered the window mount hardware - it works just like a rear-view mirror for adjustability - and it's solid.
Haven't used it much with the battery - it's normally plugged into the car lighter - so I have no input on battery life, but it's certainly a handy option to have. You can take it in the house and do your address entry in comfort.
If you're looking for something super-sophisticated with Bluetooth, an MP3 player, and "turn left at Main Street", you'll want to go to one of the higher level Nuvi's. The 250 tells you to "turn left", just not the street name.
If the 250 were waterproof and a little more shock-resistant, I'd get one for the motorcycle too (went to the Zumo instead).
Wonderful basic GPS system November 30, 2007
Veekan Eldridge (Massachusetts)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
Does this model have all sorts of nice features like traffic monitoring and bluetooth compatibility, no. Does it get the job done and easy to use, yes. If you're looking for a solid entry level GPS with a nice price point, this is a good model.
It has a comprehensive locations database including hotels, landmarks, gas, etc. Searching it can be a little bit of a pain, but it does get the job done. Takes a little while to get its position when you boot but I haven't lost signal on the road unless I was in a garage or tunnel or something.
The voice isn't bad and handy too.
I'd recommend this if you weren't looking for all the bells and whistles.
Love it !!! January 22, 2008
William R. Lile (Pensacola, Florida)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I ordered the Nuvi 250 two weeks ago. Quick satellite aquisition, signal lost in tunnels, picked up at end of tunnel. Well designed windshield mount. Does all of the basics well. A little slow searching for restaurants by name. Good battery life, if you don't like to use the cigarette lighter. The smaller screen is better for city walking tours because it fits easier in a pocket. Smaller screen also blocks less view on the windshield. Love the unit, great price. Easy to read during the daytime with the top down. Dims automatically at sundown. Who really needs Blue tooth? Kids like viewing SD chip pictures on unit during a vacation. It will not read SDHC chips/ 8Gig. No external antenea. Overall.. Great unit/ Great price! Good decision!
My husband can work it! July 5, 2008
Rebecca Feibel (Severn, Maryland)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
So easy to use, my husband can do it and while a great guy is very non-tech savy. Easy to use instructions and controls, and you can move it from one vehicle to another hassell free as it is one suction cups. Good search technology if you are looking for shopping or resturants in an area and you don't have a specific address. I got it for him for Father's Day, and he a few weeks after he thanked me again and said it is very helpul for him.
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