Nuvi 670 - stuffed to the max

The nuvi 670 is loaded with a enormous amount of features compared to the Magellan 700 that I had been using before. The Magellan worked fine to get from A to B except the touch screen was getting unreliable and detected touches where there were none. Anyway, a new navigation device had to be purchased. After a lengthy review process I decided to go for the max and got myself the 670. The 670 is essentially the same as the 660 except it has European maps preloaded also. To make a long story short, the 670 does the job of getting me from A to B with turn by turn directions. There are some things that I liked about the Magellan 700 better, like the fact that all trip relevant data was displayed right on the screen on the Magellan (like distance, est arrival time, distance to next turn, type of next turn and so on). This information is also available on the 670, but it requires the user to touch the screen to see some of it, which is a nuisance while driving. Then there are a boatload of features which I thought were going to be cool when I bought the device, but which I now think are not worth it. Here is a list of advanced features and what I think about them:

Hands-free calling with Bluetooth® wireless technology
--> this works but the sound quality on the receiving end is not so great. Also, one has to fumble with the nuvi instead of the phone, which really renders this feature useless while driving, because I can just put my cell phone on speaker and get the same result

MP3 player / Audio book player:
---> The nuvi 670 plays music either from the device of from a memory SD card. Since the external speaker is not exactly suitable for HIFI aficionados this really only works, if you hook up the unit to the vehicle's sound system (see FM transmitter below)

FM transmitter
---> the FM transmitter allows the user to set the device on a certain FM frequency and listen to the device's output (music, driving directions) through the car's stereo system. I got this to work pretty easily but on longer trips (i.e. more than 10-20 miles) I kept having to change the frequency due to interference. The quality through the sound system of the vehicle is so so. Not great but it would do. The problem is really the interference which makes this feature cumbersome. I never use it.

Picture viewer
---> this in my opinion is totally superfluous. I never use this feature. If I want to view pictures, I do it on my computer or camera, if need be.

FM traffic compatible
---> This feature downloads traffic data onto the unit and theoretically enables the user to avoid traffic jams or other problems. I am very skeptical about this feature. First, the subscription that came with the device ran out July 31st. I assume that I now have to renew it and I am not sure how much that costs. The good thing about it is how they integrated the antenna into the power cord. I saw other devices that come with a seperate antenna for this purpose, which would clutter up my dash board even more. The traffic data itself always seemed suspect to me. I live around New York City and I know for a fact that most roads around here are jam packed during rush hours, which would not show up on the device. Also, since the roads are so packed usually, having this data available doesn't really benefit me because there is no way around the traffic. Or, the device sends you around a traffic jam on the Henry Hudson Hwy by going through the city, which is - of course - even more packed and will actually only delay the trip. This may work in some areas, but for NYC, it was useless and I never benefitted at all from it.

Configurable vehicle icons (select car-shaped icons for map navigation)
---> This feature allows the user to change the icon that indicates the location of the vehicle. This is cute but I ended up picking the arrow because most icons are just too big for the screen and I didn't want to pay extra for additional icons (do they milk you everywhere they can, or what?)

World travel clock, currency & measurement converter, calculator
---> This is all gratuitous stuff as far as i am concerned. I don't need this at all. Maybe, if I was driving around Europe as a traveling salesman, but I am not.

Headphone jack/audio line-out
---> I suppose this would be useful to some drivers

Garmin Lock™ (anti-theft feature)
---> I found this too cumbersome to bother with. If someone breaks into my car to grab the 670, I have bigger problems than worry about screwing up their day by locking the device and potentially exposing myself to the wrath of the thieves.

Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest)
---> This is a really great feature. The device has tons of points of interest and whatever I look for I usually find. I even found a seedy strip club in Atlantic City but that is another story.....

A few more points:
- the unit has a rechargeable battery which lasts about 2-3 hours it seems. Just fine for my usual road trips.
- the touch screen works fine. It hasn't given in yet the way the Magellan did.
- It comes with a nice leather case which is useful because I usualy only mount the device when I need it
- Mounting is pretty efficient and easy. Suction to the windshield is provided by a suction device which was extra when I bought the Magellan and works better than the Magellan. There is also a dash mount but I am reluctant to glue something to the dash board and have potential residue when I sell the car
- the unit finds its location pretty quickly, but it wouldn't hurt to buid a faster processor into the 670. When the map gets busy there appears to be some map drawing lag which is annoying.
- one additional thing that I don't like is this: sometimes I want to see what is around the route that is displayed. So the user can touch the screen and move it around manually. But when one does this, the map resets to north view. In other words, if I am driving south on some street and I want to see, if there is a parallel street nearby due to traffic or whatever, the map view resets to north so that I have to figure out where I am going in that view as opposed to the view that I was in (which was the indicator always points up). A minor nuisance, but anyway....

Overall, I would buy the device again, but I would opt out of all the bells and whistles. Basic navigation with POI and spoken directions is all I need.

PS: One thing that I do not like about the map display is the fact that it is not showing one-way streets. If I remember correctly the Magellan showed the direction of the streets which is quite helpful in downtown Manhattan (and probably other places)