Smart, Powerful Design
The nüvi 200 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 200'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 200 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 200 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 200 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 200, preloaded City Navigator NT (not for the cheapest version), vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disk, and set up and go guide.
Product Summary
The good: The Garmin Nuvi 200 boasts a compact design and is easy to use. It offers accurate directions and some nice tools for the traveler.
The bad: Though the Nuvi 200 is more affordable than other models in the series, wish the price was slightly lower based on the included feature set.
The bottom line: The Garmin Nuvi 200 series offers drivers and travelers a more budget-friendly version of the popular portable navigation devices, but we think the price is still slightly high for what you get.
Purchasing Advice
The Nuvi 200 series is a great simple device. It has an absolutely amazing screen, the voice prompts are easy to interpret, and the map is very easy to follow. If your navigation needs are simple and you just want to get a device that will remind you of turns and take you to new destinations, the Nuvi 200 would be a great choice.
It does have some limitations though. There is no advanced planning function, no multiple destination routing, and a detour function that is too simple to be utilized. But hey, you do get a calculator, currency converter, picture viewer, unit converter, and a world clock. It would be worth comparing the Nuvi 200 with the slightly older Nuvi 350.
They both have the same screen size, similar physical size, similar weight, nearly the same interface, similar battery life, and most of the same navigation functions. But the Nuvi 350 offers maps of all of North America (the 200 only has the US 48, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico), the ability to connect to a traffic receiver, an MP3 player, text-to-speech, and small case included. You get all of those extra features and based on current prices you will actually pay less for the Nuvi 350 than the Nuvi 200. It expected that within a few months the Nuvi 200 prices will drop below that of the 350, but for now why pay $40 more for a device that has less features?
If the ability to have more advanced routing features is important, compare the Nuvi 200 vs the TomTom ONE. The Garmin Nuvi 200 isn’t a bad GPS by any means, it is an extremely solid performer, but the pricing is what will make or break this GPS for many people.
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