Customer Reviews: Read 113 more reviews...
 Will this work in Mexico? December 2, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hi, I'm planning on buying this product since I often travel to the U.S., but I would like to know if it works in Mexico.
Can anyone tell me if this is possible?
I would appreciate any help.
I love it! December 2, 2008
I bought this about a year ago. I had bought a magellan prior to this but it wasnt able to load european maps on it. This was a major problem as I was moving to Italy in August. So i returned the magellan and looked at this garmin and a tomtom both were able to get european maps. Best buy was out of the tomtom so i went with the garmin. Drove around FL with it with no problems what so ever. But how would it do in Italy?
I got to Italy in August and drove from Aviano to Venice using only this for directions. Worked well. I've been all over the place and the nuvi 270 has been great! I never have a problem with finding satellites and if a road is being worked on, the gps quickly finds me a detour.
I also love that it has a safety camera warning. Italy has lots of speed cameras all over, the nuvi 270 lets you know when you are around one so you can adjust your speed. Very nice thing to have!
Detailed yet very easy to use! December 2, 2008
You can upgrade the maps. You can upload European Maps. Easy to browse and quick to find!
nuvi 270 December 1, 2008
hired one of these for a recent holiday in maine,on arrival in boston switched it on and after a few minutes waiting for it to aquire sattellites we were on our way.
simple directions and a map to follow found us out of boston without a cross word or a wrong turning which in its self is a miracle
easy to use with all the points of interest
i was so impressed that i bought one the next day
it may not have all the latest bells and whistles but it gets you to your destination and tells you when you will arrive
with maps of n america and europe it should cover all popular vacation destinations
 Useful and cheap with European and US maps December 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Garmin Nuvi 270 is useful, cheap, compact, and has a
simple interface. But, some simple additions to the firmware
would make it more useful to the majority of its users. I
have not compared it to similar units or other consumer
electronics with similar displays and batteries etc., but it
is a great improvement in these respects on some devices I
know from three to seven years ago.
It seems like this is the best or only choice for a cheap,
small, useful, unit with north American and European maps,
provided the unit can lock satellites where you are (so far
it works great for me, but others have problems)
The unit I write about here has Software Version 4.20, Audio
Version 2.20, and GPS SW Version 2.60m. It came with 2008
Europe maps and 2009 N.A. maps. I have heard that Garmin
has put different GPS hardware chips in the Nuvi 270 and this
may affect the reception, but I don't know if this is true.
1) It is small; easy to carry or put in a pocket. But the
screen is easy to read given the size. However, trying with
my big fingers to get the pointer over a POI so that its
label is displayed takes patience. Having the touchscreen
instead of physical buttons keeps the unit small. However,
it would be nice to be able to choose which buttons and
information are displayed so that more display could be
dedicated to the map.
2) Reception is fine in Tucson, but I am only comparing to a
Magellan Meridian. The 270 takes about 40 s to boot. It can
lock satellites immediately or take a minute. (These devices
typically remember where they last saw the satellites on
shutdown)
3) The basic navigation and display are fine. I have not
compared too much with the Meridian (with
DirectRoute). After a little research, I could not find
another unit with street maps of both Europe and the US that
I was willing to pay for. The maps are much more detailed and
complete than the maps for the Meridian of a few years ago.
4) It is very easy to get the unit in and out of the small
windshield mounting bracket and very easy to get the single, very
firm, suction cup on and off the windshield. (there is a
lever to apply and release suction.) The bracket hold the
unit firmly and it is easy to orient. Much better than my old
Magellan.
5) The screen is very bright, with brightness easily
adjustable. The battery lasts a long time, especially given
the brightness of the screen. The spoken turn directions are
very loud on the highest speaker setting.
6) The unit is charged by the cigarette-lighter adaptor that
is supplied. It can also be charged via a usb port on a
computer. Garmin's AC adaptor is good but is sold
separately, which is good because it reduces the cost. It
has only one port for both data and power-- a standard
mini-usb port. There is no cable supplied, which again is
good because it makes the unit cheaper. The required cable
is the same that comes with most digital cameras, usb card
readers etc. Most potential buyers probably already have
the cable. I have read that the battery is not
'user-serviceable', but that actually you can replace it
with work. Garmin will replace it for far more than what you
payed for the unit. Unfortunately, the industry sees these
kinds of products as disposable.
7) Contrary to what many people write, the manual does
exist. There is a single manual for the entire 200
series. The pdf can be found via google or at Garmin's
website.
8) Just to answer some of the other reviews: It does not
know which way you are facing or where you are going even if
you take a step forward: This is inherent to the GPS
system. GPS technology only tells you where you are, not
your speed or the orientation of the device. The devices use
a clock and memory to know where you have been at different
times, and use this to *compute* speed and direction-- not
possible if you are standing still. GPS is not accurate
enough to tell that you have taken a step. It is possible to
add an electronic compass or other instruments to these
devices, but that adds a expense, bulk, etc.
9) POIs. You can't choose which are displayed (eg only
display gas stations). You can't choose when they are
displayed-- The POIs appear at zoom level of 300 feet or
closer. You can upload your own POIs which is really nice.
I loaded the POIs for channel markers in a bay, but you have
to zoom in till the screen is pure blue (300 foot zoom) to
see them. You can add POIs to your favorites list and then
they appear and are labeled at *all* zoom levels. But this
is an awkward and inflexible solution. Contemporary
consumer electronics like this unit are powerful computers
with fast processors and a bunch of memory, and are
programmable with high-level tools. This (and other similar
problems) could be fixed easily and cheaply by their
software engineers.
10) Browsing and locating features on the map is cumbersome
or difficult (again this is an easy programming task) One
example is, as several people noted, that only a limited
selection of items closest to your location are displayed on
a list. You can only search more or less easily for things
close to where the unit is. You can search for things near
another 'city'. For example, if you search for restaurants
in Barcelona, it will show you a small list of restaurants
within a half a block of the point that it thinks is the
middle of Barcelona. But that is more frustrating than
useful. Paris is at least broken into districts. I guess
that being able to browse the map easily and mark items,
etc., is the software feature that most users would miss.
11) It does not have a tracking function or other navigation
functions (bearing vs. heading) that would make the unit
much more useful. Apparently firmware version 3.40 had a
hidden menu that could save a track, but this was removed in
later firmware. Why? I don't know. It could be part of a
misguided marketing strategy. Maybe they imagine that, by
omitting the tracking function, we are more likely to buy
the Oregon model plus European maps for $500+.
12) The menu navigation and display are cumbersome and
inflexible in many ways as noted in other reviews. The menu
system is cumbersome, requires lots of clicks ( but it is
also pretty easy.) To change the screen brightness from the
main navigation screen requires six clicks (plus the clicks
to adjust the brightness) and five to get back to the map.
The Magellan Meridian had eight different information
screens with highly configurable information. It is good to
have less important information invisible by default for the
majority of users who want to spend as little time as
possible with the GPS. But, an 'advanced' mode to turn
these on on the 270 would be a good addition.
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