Garmin Nuvi 260W

Overall Rating:
 
Retail Price: $199.99
Amazon Price: $109.99

Product Reviews
Refurbished GPS Score 74 out of 100
ZDnet 8.3 out of 10
Amazon.com 4.3 out of 5
CNet 4 out of 5
alaTest 92 out of 100

The refurbished Garmin Nuvi 260W is the widescreen version of the popular and budget friendly Garmin Nuvi 260. Fitting in the palm of your hand, this Nuvi 200 series GPS is easy to use and compact. The directions offered to travelers are accurate and well routed, which is what you would expect from a company like Garmin. The Nuvi 260 boasts a text-to-speech feature that will read out street names and POI to users. This feature is pretty popular among consumers because it allows them to spend more of their focus on the road while traveling on busy streets or unfamiliar intersections.

Because this is a budget friendly navigation GPS, this model has a pretty basic feature set. The preloaded maps included the 48 contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Left out on the list of detailed maps include Alaska (who drives to Alaska anyway) and Canada. There are several ways to begin planning a trip available on the nuvi 260W. The include:

  • Entering the address you want to travel to
  • Picking one of the 6 million POI (Points of Interest) preloaded onto the refurbished nuvi 260W
  • Selecting one of your recently entered locations (great for heading back home after going out to a new place)
  • Or choosing a destination from among the ones that you entered on your Favorite Locations lists

If you don’t want to have turn-by-turn directions then you can just switch the Nuvi over to Map mode and get a bird’s eye view of your location. This is for those who are already roughly familiar with the area or who like to fly by the seat of their pants. It is also a helpful way to get oriented in a new city without relying on your cheap refurbished GPS too much.

The routing system in this Garmin is excellent. It provides fast and accurate directions along a variety of different parameters. If allows you to optimize routes by such filters as which one will get you there the fastest (fastest time), which one will make you travel the fewest miles (shortest distance), which one will take you off road, and which one will help you avoid such road types as toll roads and highways. This feature allows this GPS to be used in a lot of different uses. Walkers, cyclists, trucks and buses can all use the Nuvi 260W for their navigation needs.

The refurbished Garmin Nuvi 260W has a pretty robust POI database that has all the major categories one would expect in a Garmin GPS. You categories like gas stations, ATMs, lodging options, restaurants, and more. There are even some really specific ways to search the POI database – like searching by a certain type of cuisine or chain name (like McDonald’s). You are even able to add custom POIs to your Nuvi if that will tickle your fancy.

Another cool goodie on the Nuvi 260 is the Garmin Lock security feature. This feature prevents the unit from working unless a 4-digit PIN that you set up is entered into the unit. Another way to break the lock is to take it to a predetermined location (like your house) so that it will unlock once it gets to those coordinates.

Overall Rating:
 
Retail Price: $229.99
Amazon Price: $140.68

Right now, the price of the refurbished model is slightly higher than that of the new model. When this is the case we always recommend that you purchase the new model. This is especially true with Garmin refurbished GPS since Garmin charges users to upgrade their maps on a refurbished unit while giving purchases of new models 30 days to update their maps for free. A Garmin map update can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 depending on whether or not you purchase a one-time update or a lifetime update.

Overall, the refurbished Garmin Nuvi 260W is a solid navigation GPS that goes lighter on the features than other models in the Nuvi line but also goes lighter on the price.

Buy the Refurbished Garmin Nuvi 260W

Product Features

  • GPS System Preloaded with City Navigator North America NT
  • 4.3 in Diagonal Touchscreen Display with 2D/3D Mapping Perspective
  • Turn by Turn Directions with Voice Guidance/Text to Speech Feature
  • Trip Computer Records Mileage/Max SpeedTotal Time and More
  • Features Picture Viewer/World Clock/Currency Measurement Converters/Calculator

Technical Details

  • Brand Name: Garmin
  • Model: NUVI 260W
  • Connectivity Technology: USB
  • Battery Average Life: 5 Hours
  • Map Type: North America

Buy the Refurbished Garmin Nuvi 260W

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