Garmin Street Pilot 2720...

[+jollybgood]

Anyone here have one of these?

 

The price has dropped dramatically in recent months. I've been looking them over on Froogle and I'm very tempted to buy one.

 

I just bought a conversion van and would like a larger screen/navigator on my dash than my 60CS.

Something I can just leave set up and that's easy for the wife to use.

 

I've considered the TomTom to Go 700 but I hear the map detail isn't as nice as City Select.

 

Any opinions? I can get either one for just about $740.00

 

One thing I don't like about hte 2720 is the external speaker on the power line. Is this as annoying as it sounds? I'd prefer a built in speaker but then again I've read a lot of reviews and the speaker hasn't come up that much.

 

I was also at Best Buy today drooling over Pioneer's in-dash GPS (the D1). I have a four inch din and could throw one in the van. 6.5 inch screen is awesome.

 

But from the demo that was running the street detail didn't look all that hot. I want complete nation wide coverage -- both rural and metro. The salesman I spoke to didn't seem to know to much about the unit. NOt that it mattered. With options it would cost almost two grand.

Edited December 7, 2005 by jollybgood

[robertlipe]

This is the best source of info I've found on handhelds. Not so much on the dashtops. The forums at gpspassion.com get that honour.

 

I purchased that units predecessor, the 2610, for GPSBabel development. I've never really found the speaker in the cig lighter jack to be a problem. The reason they do this is to keep the unit itself waterproof. I've always found the audio "good enough". During a long drive, the voice is a nice thing but I'll admit that on a day of serious power caching, "jill" wears out her welcome.

 

I've briefly fondled the pioneers and perhaps it was my familiarity with Garmin's handhelds and policies, but I really didn't see them being worth 3x much.

 

IIRC, you're a Garmin user, right? The coverage in the 2720 is from Mapsource. You can use the Garmin map previewers and see the coverage in CN7 (you may already have CS7) and see how the coverage is in the areas you care about.

[+Shifty]

Ok.

 

I have a 2720, and I'll be honest with you, while it is a great unit and can allow the upload of 2000 waypoints! It does have it's problems when it comes to Geocaching.

 

For instance, unlike its predecesor, (2620 which I also own) this unit will not show you all the waypoints that are uploaded. Sometimes it won't even show a waypoint that is right next to you. I have been in contact with garmin over the past few weeks and "apparently" they are working on a patch to look into this, but I am not holding my breath. Also a problem is that there is no "Route off road" option either, if you choose to route off road, it just draws a line from the point you are at, howver that line doesn't change no matter where you drive. Also it is a little bit "too" user friendly. This probably won't matter much to you since you hadn't owned a 2620 but there were features that alot of users liked, that garmin decided to do away with when this newer model came out.

 

I could keep pointing out the negatives, however I really do like this unit. Let me point put some of the good features.

 

1. Catagories - Love this idea, if you are anal enough (like me) you can put the waypoints into their own group sizes, or even type. So if you feel like only doing Micros for a day, just go to the micros catagory. Wanna do large containers? Click it, how about puzzles? Right on.

 

2. Descriptions - When I select a waypoint, aside from giving it it's own waypoint icon so I can tell what it is at a glance, (IE Campground = Tradational, Stadium = Multi) I can also upload the information of it so when I click it it tells me the Name, GC code, Difficulty/Terrain rating, the Type/Size, Last for logs (Found, not found), If it has a TB, and Who placed it.

 

3. I've said it before, but 2000 waypoints! Whoo HoO!

 

4. Nice big and colorful screen

 

5. Remote control

 

6. Text to speech for directions

 

Hmm..... I'll think of some more later, but that should at least help you out for now, if you have any other specifics lemme know and I'll try and help y a out.

 

Shifty

[+jollybgood]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I got my 2720 from Tiger GPS a few days ago and I LOVE it. Everything I imagined it would be and more. Touch screen is one sweet feature.

 

Eventually I'll get a handheld again. I figure I won't be doing much caching til spring. By the I'm hoping the 60CSx is out or maybe even something newer and better. Who knows.

 

But the Streetpilot 2720 is the "cherry on top" for my new conversion van.

 

I'm so glad I didn't go the in-dash route.

[+Team Tired Boy]

My wife is getting me a 2720 for Christmas. How do you get waypoints onto it? Can you enter coordinates into the unit manually?

[klenger]

I have a 2620 and just receintly just got a 60cs. The 2620 is light years ahead of the 60cs for travel on the roads. Vice versa for off road travel.