Garmin nuevi 250W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator | 
| Brand: Garmin
List Price: $589.27
Buy New: $186.98
You Save: $402.29 (68%)
New (44) Used (2) Refurbished (2) from $179.99
Rating:  132 reviews
Sales Rank: 72
Platform: Not Machine Specific
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Display Size: 4.3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 4.8 x 0.8 x 2.9
MPN: Nuvi 250W
Model: Nuvi 250W
UPC: 753759072162
EAN: 0053759072163
ASIN: B000REECKS
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | 4.3 in GPS System w/480 x 272 Pixels | | • | Turn by Turn Directions with Voice Guidance | | • | Detailed Maps of U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico | | • | Trip Computer Records Mileage, Max Speed, Total Time and More | | • | 1.1 Lbs (WxLxH) 0.8" x 4.8" x 7.25" |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Wider screen lets you see more of what's around. View larger. | 
nuevi 250W accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger. | 
The nuevi 250W comes preloaded with maps for U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, and features an ultra-slim design. | The widescreen version of Garmin's nuevi 250 offers a large, easy-to-read screen (4.3 inches diagonally to the nuevi 250s 3.5 inches) at an attractive price point. Like its smaller sibling, the 250W comes with preloaded maps for the continental U.S., Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Canada and Alaska. If all you don't need Canada and Alaska, you can get the nuevi 200W at a lower pirce. If you want maps for Europe, you'll need to go with the smaller nuevi 270, or you can purchase a set of European maps on SD Card or CD-Rom. While it doesn't have some of the more sophisticated features of higher-end nuevis, it does, like all nuevi 200-series members, offer a rock-solid navigation experience with an easy-to-use colorful touchscreen, 6 million points of interest (POI)s, and an ultra-slim design. See More of What's Around
The widescreen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are more widely spaced and somewhat easier to push.
Smart, Powerful Design
The nuevi 250W 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 4.8 x 2.9 x 0.8 inches (W x H x D) and weighs just 6.6 ounces. The nuevi 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
nuevi 250W comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty POI database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nuevi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. In addition, nuevi 250W 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.
Garmin's interface is a key to their success and one of the things that makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip.
Beyond Navigation
Navigation is just the beginning. nuevi 250W features 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 nuevi for your travel needs. Note: Like most USB Mass Storage Devices, the nuevi is not compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me.
What's in the Box
nuevi 250W, preloaded City Navigator NT for the continental U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Canada, vehicle suction cup mount, vehicle power cable, dashboard disk, and set up and go guide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 127 more reviews...
 A Superb Basic Personal Navigation (GPS) Device December 15, 2007
Lawrence H. Bulk (New Jersey USA)
184 out of 186 found this review helpful
This Garmin nuevi 250W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator is my first GPS unit. Having now owned it for several days, and with my wife and me putting it through its paces, I can definitely and honestly say that it is an excellent unit, one of which Garmin should be proud.
It is considered to be a "basic" GPS device.
This unit does the job, does it very well, and does it very simply.
It gets you there and it gets you back! You won't ever be lost when you use this device.
That is the reason for which you purchase an item such as this. This particular unit functions much like its competition except that, from what I have read, it really works much better than most of them. And from my own experience with it I can say that I could not be more satisfied.
The nuevi 250W (as well as the nuevi 250) come pre-loaded with maps of all of North America, including Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The nuevi 200W (and the nuevi 200) have maps only for the "lower 48" states including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. While that may be sufficient for many (probably most) people, I think the 250W offers much more for a relatively small difference in price.
To add Canada and Alaska maps to the 200/200W costs more than the price difference between the 250/250W and the 200/200W. The choice of which device to buy, of course, depends on where you plan or may plan to travel. Otherwise, the 250/250W and the 200/200W function identically.
The wide screen of the "W" units is, in my opinion, not a frill but rather an extremely useful upgrade in terms of visibility and usefulness. You can see much more of the surrounding area and this can be of great help when you're in an unfamiliar place.
Its wide screen is very bright in daylight, does not wash out, and can be set to automatically dim at night. This auto-adjust feature works very well indeed and is really welcome. Once set, you need not adjust the brightness any further. The sound volume control is fully and easily adjustable; I personally have found that the best setting for me is 70%. This level can be heard clearly over my radio/CD that I may have playing without "blasting," so I have left it at that level.
Obviously, in only a few days of ownership, I have not been able to explore all its capabilities, but I have found the Garmin web site to be of great help. (If you don't already know the URL of Garmin's site, just do a search. For some reason Amazon does not allow the URL to be posted here.) There is a wealth of information there. I was even able to update my firmware from version 2.60 (supplied) to the latest version 2.90. This was quite easy to do. (Of course, to do this you need a 6ft USBa/mini B Device USBa To Mini B 2.0 Compatible (#27005) or similar which, incredibly and disappointingly, Garmin does not include in the package. This particular cable, at Amazon's very low price, is well-worth buying, even if only as a spare. However, you may have one or more of these cables from other applications lying about your house, as I do.)
Garmin's site supports Apple Macintosh computers as well as Windows computers.
Entering addresses, saving them to if desired, and actually driving to a selected location is straightforward. I found the directions selected to be quite accurate. So far, I have tested the unit only locally and on locations known to me. But in every case it took me the same way that I would have gone myself. Distances tested have been up to about 20 miles. This unit also features a bicycle mode and a pedestrian mode, but I have tried neither as yet. (I understand that if you are parked in a crowded parking lot, you can switch to the pedestrian mode, mark the location of your automobile, and, after you are finished shopping or whatever, the unit will walk you right back to your car!)
I tried the function a couple of times, just for testing, and it worked flawlessly. The function also worked flawlessly.
If you miss an indicated turn, which I did deliberately, the device recalculates extremely rapidly. I am amazed as to how well it works in this regard.
Of course, NO GPS device is a substitute for local knowledge. None of them can know of, for example, closed roads, seasonally affected roads, or roads under construction. None can know that a "back road route" to a place which, even though slightly longer in mileage, avoids heavy local traffic, during local rush hour, for example, and so is actually much shorter in time.
Sometimes you may still have to ask!
But, in general, these devices, and this one in particular with its superb detouring ability, function very well indeed. Note that there is no limit on the number of times you can press . If you feel that the unit is taking you a way on which you do not want to travel, merely press the button again.
The number and extent of the pre-loaded "Points of Interest" is just staggering! There are 6,000,000(!) of them! I just can't imagine anyone not being able to find just what he is looking for! AND, additional customized points of interest can be added quickly and easily and mostly for free (see Garmin's site for information). This is amazing!
If you are moving to a new town, or are visiting an unfamiliar place, this "Points of Interest" function will show you just about every store, business, or place of entertainment you could desire. The unit can even indicate when you are near a "Point of Interest" which is contained within or programmed into its memory.
This unit also points out "speed zones" - both visually and audibly. The usefulness of this particular feature in unfamiliar locations goes without saying!
Unfortunately, the low price currently being charged precludes Garmin from supplying as standard certain items, in addition to the USB cable mentioned above, which, in my opinion, are necessary. While this may seem as though it's annoying "nickel-and-diming" (and it is!) the additional necessary items are, fortunately, not very expensive.
These are the several optional accessories that I should recommend (I purchased them all): the first two are the Garmin Portable Friction Mount for Nuvi, StreetPilot I Series & C530, C550 (010-10908-00) (it is much, much better than the included window-mount suction cup - believe me, this "bean-bag" is a superb item - and it is mandatory in certain states), and the Garmin Carrying Case for Nuvi 660 (010-10823-01) (which I really wish were supplied as standard).
Amazon carries both of these items as well as the unit itself and this season I have found their prices to be better than that of any other retailer. Their shipping service is top-notch as well.
There are two other accessories I recommend: 1) do NOT buy an AC Adapter for this unit; it is very expensive. Instead, buy an "AC Travel Charger with 12V Accessory Outlet" (formerly available from Amazon but now only available from PartsExpresscom); this alone will be all you need to allow the DC Power Adapter that comes with the unit to be used from any AC source. Merely navigate to PartsExpress' web site and enter the above description (in quotes) into the search box (without the quotation marks, of course). It is far less expensive (only $6.78) than an AC Adapter, and, of course, can be used with other DC-powered items as well. And 2) buy a soft side (padded) lunch box or fishing tackle box (I bought a cheap one at Wal-Mart) of suitable size to store the various accessories. This can be left in the trunk of your car out of sight when the GPS is not in use.
Obviously, you should NEVER - NEVER! -leave the unit itself anywhere in your car, at ANY time when the car is parked and you're not there, even if it's hidden away.
And you should NEVER - NEVER! - leave ANY of the attachments or accessories visible in your car when it is is parked.
In fact, you should NEVER leave any clue whatsoever that you have one of these devices. Thieves can be very clever! ALWAYS take the unit with you when you leave your car - every time!
It is probably safe to leave just the accessories as long as they are all carefully hidden away in the trunk or otherwise camouflaged (and no one has seen you hide them or place the items in your trunk! Be VERY careful!). I have heard that thieves even look for suction-cup marks on the windshield and, if they see one, they break into your car, figuring that you have a GPS device hidden in your glove box! GPS units are today's "hot" item to steal and sell.
You must employ common sense when using one of these devices, at least at the present time. You also want to make your car less "inviting" to thieves.
As a further aid in making theft somewhat less attractive, this Garmin unit has a feature that I really like - a security feature. One sets a 4-digit PIN AND sets this up at any particular desired location (generally your home). When you start up the unit, if you are at your starting point, the unit comes on automatically. If you are at any other location, you must enter the PIN. (DON'T let anyone see what you enter.) This security feature, once enabled, cannot be defeated (though you yourself can disable it). If it were operational and you were to forget (or a thief did not know) your PIN or your starting location, the only way to get the unit to work again requires sending it back to Garmin! (If a thief were foolish enough to send the unit back to Garmin and you had registered it with them - HIGHLY recommended - Garmin would know to whom the unit truly belonged.) You yourself can change the security location and/or the PIN at any time (for example, if you were away on vacation and staying at a particular hotel, that hotel could be your new starting point. Touch from within the menu, and, from wherever you happen to be, you will be taken right back to your hotel).
This particular Garmin GPS device, positioned as a "basic" or "entry-level" unit, does not feature text-to-speech (though it does speak turning instructions such as "turn right" and/or "turn left" - it repeats these instructions at least twice - and the direction of entrances and exits, so you know the side of the road on which you need to be well in advance, and it does so with excellent volume and clarity), does not have an FM transmitter, an MP3 player, or Bluetooth capability and does not include a few other features available on much-more-expensive GPS devices, but, in my opinion, those additional features which are not present on this particular model are mere frills. Functions such as those just mentioned, or even speaking the actual name of the street on which you are to turn - this last is very easy to read on this unit and the price differential from those GPS units that do offer that function is considerable - are, again in my opinion, unnecessary. They do nothing to enhance the actual performance of a GPS device in doing the job for which it was purchased.
Of course, the Garmin nuevi 250W, in common with most current electronic devices, does come with a few useful additional features which are in addition to its main function. There is a calculator (quite useful in, for example, a restaurant), a clock (which can be set to automatically switch between standard and daylight-savings time as well as show various time zones around the world), a picture viewer (to be used in conjunction with an SD card), a currency converter (that can be manually updated), and a units converter. (Even a so-called basic GPS such as this one would have been undreamed of just a few years ago!)
This GPS unit is VERY sensitive. I have routinely locked onto the satellites from within my house, even on the first floor. The very first time I turned it on, it took about three minutes to find the satellites (this was outdoors) but since then it takes but a few seconds before getting the signal no matter where I am.
I carefully researched GPS units for some time before deciding to buy this one. Frankly, I was particularly interested in Magellan's units because of their association with AAA (I have been a member for over 40 years), but, after reading on Amazon's sites and a few others about the very poor telephone support given to owners of Magellan GPS units (from India, no less), and, after researching TomTom units and reading the various user complaints about them (mostly about odd directions and poor map support), I bought this Garmin nuevi 250W and, so far, I'm glad I did. (I did call Garmin's support center with a couple of minor questions and I found the experience to be totally satisfactory. Their support is excellent.)
I think this Garmin nuevi 250W would be a safe recommendation for anyone wanting a basic Personal Navigation Device which is priced fairly, is well-made, and does its job very well. The wide 4.3-inch screen on this "W" unit, which allows much more information to be seen, is well-worth the small extra cost over the "plain" 3.5-inch Garmin nuevi 250, which, as indicated previously, is otherwise the same.
In short, I think this particular unit is a superb performer and offers excellent value for money.
And buy it from Amazon. You just won't go wrong with them!
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Update - February 24, 2008:
I like this unit so much that I bought one as a gift for my son. I also bought all of my recommended accessories for him as well. I ordered everything on February 18, "President's Day."
Though Amazon had stated that their shipping estimate was not until approximately the middle of March, one item arrived at his house a couple of days ago (February 21) and the balance all arrived yesterday (February 23). Five days! That's great service!
He telephoned me this morning to thank me for the gift. He was using it as he was speaking to me. He is as pleased with it as I am.
And again I recommend that anyone contemplating purchasing this Garmin nuevi 250W STRONGLY consider buying it from Amazon. Not only are their GPS prices better than any I have seen elsewhere, their service is first class as well.
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Update - March 11, 2008
We have friends who live about 35 miles away. We have always followed direction supplied by both MapQuest and Rand McNally and we used these (both were just about the same) to direct us to our friends' house. The trip has generally taken us from 50 minutes to an hour (depending on traffic).
Yesterday, we went our usual way to their house but we decided to let the Garmin "take us home." It took us an entirely different way than we had ever gone before - and the trip took less than 40 minutes! (It was late and there was little traffic, but even so - this "new" way is much, much better.)
The most amazing thing was that, when we started, the nuevi 250W showed an "estimated" time of arrival home as 11:00 PM. Guess what time we got home! Exactly 11:00 PM!!
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Update - June 30, 2008
Wow! What a price! $216.58! I haven't checked this item in some time and I am astounded at Amazon's price for this unit. When I bought mine in December, the price was $264.99. Who would have ever thought that the price would come down so far so fast?
I see some people complaining about slow satellite connection. I have found that if you're running the unit on its internal battery, sometimes - only sometimes - it takes a few minutes - sometimes quite a few minutes - to lock onto the satellites, especially if you have not used the unit for a while. But, if you use the unit in your car connected to the car's battery (or you have your unit outdoors plugged into an outdoor AC wall socket), the connection time is minimal even if you haven't used the unit in a long time.
For those having this problem, try using the unit as I suggest above and see if this is a good remedy. If, after trying it as I suggest, you're still having the problem, contact Amazon for an exchange. I believe that, overall, and especially at its extremely low current price, this is still one of the very best buys in a portable GPS unit.
Also - FYI: After reading the reviews on Amazon of the new 2009 updated maps, I am NOT going to buy them. (Newly purchased units may already come pre-loaded with the 2009 maps.) Even CONSUMER REPORTS magazine states that owners need only update their maps every few years and, according to many reviews, Garmin has not added some roads and stops even though they've existed for several years. And, with the prices falling the way they have been, it will probably be cheaper to just buy a new updated version of this GPS model several years from now. Who knows what they will be offering at that time and at what price?
I like it October 31, 2007
J. nusser
74 out of 75 found this review helpful
The first one I received worked out of the box, but stopped sensing the satellites after 2 days. I tried turning it off/on several times, tried several very open-to-the sky locations, and finally tried rebooting by pressing the reset button on the bottom, but nothing happened.
However, I found it so easy to use and better than previous models, especially at an attractive price ($300), that I returned the first one and got a replacement.
As strictly a GPS, the only limitation is that it does not speak the street names. It does speak that a turn is coming, turn here, etc. It also does list the name of the street to turn at in the label at the top of the screen. It's great both in automobile mode and in walking mode. We're spending a month in Boston which has all street names and is generally not laid out on a grid. The 250W is great in getting us around or to out-of-Boston places. Used it to drive to Marblehead yesterday; pressed the screen to show where we parked the car, changed to walking mode and then walked around. When it was time to go we retrieved the spot where we left the car, pressed 'go' and it walked us back to the car. Changed back to 'automobile' and drove home. Note the box includes a car charger but not the optional wall charger. Not a problem unless you expect to use it extensively w/o a car to recharge it with.
Unlike a previous poster, I find the maps, stores, restaurants, etc, quite up to date.
Other than getting a lemon on the first unit, I recommend it.
Perfect first time GPS August 14, 2007
Peter Jackson (Spring Lake, MI USA)
46 out of 53 found this review helpful
I bought this GPS system because of some upcoming long distance trips, one of which was to and thru Chicago (read I hate Chicago traffic and the irrational fear of getting forced off the highway on the south side). The thing performed very excellent as far as directions go, and even re-routed us thru south side Chicago on a detour to get us back on the right track. I was looking at the Nuvi 200, but went with the 200W because of the wide screen and because the 200W had the new up dated maps. I much prefer the wider screen and am very glad I got it. While driving it shows speed and direction of travel (N, S, E, S, etc) but when you program in for it to take you somewhere, it shows time of arrival and when to turn next. When you turn it on, it takes a couple of minutes to find the satellites, it is not instantaneous. I would buy it again in a second, and would never take a long trip to an unfamiliar place without it. The only thing I will do next time is to take a paper map to get a general layout of where I am going and generally stick to where I feel comfortable, or know that I want to go. For example, coming back thru Chicago we lost 2 hours in traffic on 90 on a Sunday afternoon. If I would have taken a paper map, I probably would have headed south to 80 and then back to Michigan. I know it would have redirected me fine. Note: you can scroll the map around to see the whole area, it is just that a paper map is all there, intstaneous, you can see the whole layout at once with having to zoom out. So far, the Nuvi200W gets my vote for an excellent GPS.
 Slow acquiring saatellite signal & clumsy User Interface September 21, 2007
D. Wong (Los Angeles)
41 out of 60 found this review helpful
Takes up to 3 minutes to acquire a signal even under clear sky. Sometimes navigation locks up for no reason. I do not like the user interface because once you are deep in the menu you have to back out one step at a time. The "STOP" button is at the exact position of the "BACK" button so I sometimes end up stopping the navigation when I just hit "BACK" once too many. No alternative way to sort POI's and Favorites.
It's a yellowpages and GPS in one! November 10, 2007
Brett G (Las Vegas, NV)
39 out of 40 found this review helpful
This is my first GPS unit and I did quite a bit of research before deciding on this particular Garmin model. For the money, it's the best deal as I don't need an mp3 player or anything like that and text to speech is an option, while nice, I'm not willing to pay another $100 or so for. I have used this unit in Los Angeles and now in Las Vegas and it has been excellent! In some locations it can take a minute to three to acquire a satelite, with it taking noticeably longer in Los Angeles (near LAX). The directions are spot on and correct quickly if an error is made. I was also impressed as I was stuck in traffic on the strip, hit the detour option, and it took me on some backroads and onto the freeway saving about 20 minutes of Friday night strip traffic! The only problems I have noticed is the unit gets kind of wacky when you set a destination for a store in a mall or average sized shopping center. It takes you in roundabout ways to get to them and has led me on more then one occassion to just turn it off when I got near the address and use good old human intelligence to finish off the trip. The biggest benefit, which I didn't envision when I bought it though, is the points of interest. I am seriously amazed at how much stores they have on this thing (and amazed more when I think that it has the same info for every US city)! It's like having a yellowpages in your pocket. I just type in a store name (Walmart, Panda Express, Fantastic Sam's, Ross's, you name it), and it finds it! If you are new to a city, or moving to a major one, the points of interest alone make this a must! Lastly, the only other negative is there is no AC charger. These things get jacked if left inside the car and I don't have an enclosed garage and I don't want it hooked up to the car charger every trip out killing the battery (probably good for 300 cycles). Don't hesitate to buy this!
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