Garmin nüvi 650 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator

The GPS has worked extremely well for me since purchasing it in June 2008. Recently the battery will not hold a recharge. I followed Garmin advice and completely discharged the device and recharged it. The new charge lasted for about 5 minutes. I was then advised to send the GPS in for a battery replacement for $99. I would have expected a battery to last longer that 21 months.

Bought in 2007, have been quite well except that sometimes it told me where to turn kinda last minute... but this is not too much a problem.

Wouldn't complain at all... until recently touch screen just stopped working all of a sudden. Tried reset, reboot. Wouldn't work. Called Customer Service, said it cost $99 for me to send it in and get a refurb one. Worst thing is, the agent i spoke with sounded relentless and harsh. He went like "you should just go get a new one that has more of an updated map". And i know! Except that I thought i could call for a better solution.

No garmin for me. Ever. Touch screen sucks!!!!!!

It's ok but has some usability issues. One thing I CAN NOT stand is not having a QWERTY keyboard layout. Also, satellite link time is annoyingly slow. Having to pay for map updates is lame. Speaker could be better.

I got this as a Christmas gift two years ago (2007) and loved it, though I really would have preferred the internal antenna. I like the charging connection being separate from the USB connection, as it makes attaching and detaching the device from the dashboard mount easier than having to unplug a cable from the back in addition to removing it from the mount.

My problem came almost two years to the day after I got this unit. I wasn't a constant user of the unit, using it primarily when I was traveling to other states or to local parts of town in which I had never traveled, so it's not like this got used and abused; rather, it was always in one of two places: my dashboard or the center console. I had a few occasions in December 2009 when the touchscreen just stopped responding. I figured it was a battery issue and therefore tried plugging it in the cigarette lighter adapter in the car as well as charging it by USB on my computer. It seemed to work the first couple of times, but then two weeks before Christmas, the screen stopped responding. I tried recharging it again to no avail and began looking for others that had this issue. I came upon a GPS repair site that said Garmin devices with serial numbers beginning with "14V" were prone to this problem, and that the touchscreen would never work again without a replacement. Seeing as how replacement touchscreens cost half the price of a new device with similar functions, it is not worth the cost of repair.

I'm just glad I didn't buy the lifetime map subscription, since it would have only gotten me one year's worth of updates. I honestly expected more out of Garmin, since my father had an old Garmin V GPS from the late 90s that's still going strong. The difference between them? His can't be rendered useless by a bum touchscreen since its input is done with physical buttons.

All in all, the device worked great while I had it; I'm just majorly disappointed that I essentially paid $150 per year to own this and could not get any further use out of it without paying for a costly repair.

This is an outstanding GPS that I bought for my mother for Christmas last year. I've owned the the Nuvi 350 for years and as long as they continue to offer maps for it, I will not upgrade b/c it's that good. The 650 basically is the same but with a wide screen. I'm not going to further review the product since I purchased it as a gift but I felt compelled to post a review when I saw the price of this unit compared to my last year's purchase. I bought the same "new" unit last year for $198.00 and I see that this year it is selling for $499.00. I've also noticed the Nuvi 350 is being sold for $359.00 when last year it was sold for $159.00. Granted, mine was purchased directly from Amazon, LLC. and these are being sold by third parties but for those who may be price conscious, it may be of value to know that these are actually Garmin's older units. They were first introduced when I purchase my Nuvi 350 four years ago. There are newer Garmin units for half the price. As good as this unit is, I would either buy one of the newer ones or wait for the price to come down.

Garmin-
I am writing this letter in response to your company's failure to address my complaint, and to inform you that as a paying customer, you will never do business with me again.

Last winter I bought a Garmin Nuvi 360, a gps unit guaranteed to navigate me through any town and city in America. However I can say that this unit has gotten me lost as many times as it has gotten me found.
On more than one occasion I found that the unit did not recognize the road I was driving on. The most annoying instance of this happening was on the interchange a few miles from my home. The unit never did recognize this interchange (though it has been there for 10 years) and was constantly re-routing me all over the place. There were also many times in which the unit would tell me to drive down a road that did not exist, and many times in which it did not recognize the road that I was driving down, displaying instead a blank field with my car driving through it.
Another extremely annoying glitch was that the unit was constantly confusing the northbound interstate with the southbound, telling me to go southbound when I had programmed it to take me north. Eventually I learned that the unit was not to be trusted, and I should follow my gut when it seemed that it was taking me down the wrong path.

Of course after calling Garmin customer support they told me that I should have downloaded the map update within 60 days of activating the unit, and 120 days was too late. Never mind that an older map set should still know the difference between north and south. I looked up the price of a map update, and it was $99.99, one unit per download.

To cap it off, yesterday I had the Garmin mounted on the windshield suction cup, and it broke free as I was getting out of the car, landed outside the vehicle, and now the screen is cracked and I cannot use it at all. I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved.

DO NOT BUY GARMIN! THERE ARE MANY GPS OPTIONS OUT THERE, AND GARMIN IS THE WORST OF THEM!

Bought this model approx. 1yr ago for my wife who drives everyday for her job. It worked fine until it hit the one year old mark. Now the screen does not recognize any touches. Recalibrating does not work either. Given Garmin's repair rate for this unit is about $95, we will be buying another unit, just not a Garmin!

I purchased the 650 because my son had one, and was very happy with it. My previous GPS was a Magellan, but it burned up in a car fire. I like the wide screen and the sensitivity of the 650's touch screen. But, I was not happy with the fact it had no Bluetooth capability, and it did not show elevations, both features which I used a lot on the smaller -- and cheaper -- Magellan. I did not find the POI screen easy to load, but did find the capability of loading custom POIs one that was definitely a plus. I have loaded highway rest stops and the Costco locations, both which I use all of the time when I am on the road.

Garmin never disappoints me. This machine is easy to use. Customer service is awesome. Website support is great. You can't go wrong.

I bought this for my husband as a Christmas present last year and he LOVES it! He takes it every where with him especially on business trips. He told me he can't believe he didn't get one sooner!

I absolutely love this product. This is the first gps that I've ever owned, and it has simply been extremely useful in navigating from place to place. I used to have to look up maps on google anytime I went anywhere. Now I just plug in the address, or even just the name of the place I want to find, and go.

There are a few negative things that I would point out, though. First, it often does not take you the most direct route. I suggest that when you always zoom about and look at the route that it wants to take you, because might be surprised that there is sometimes a more direct route that you can plainly see on the map. Second, it sometimes takes a few minutes to acquire the satellites to determine your current location, especially when you're moving. Third, it would be helpful if the business locations that you can look up were more complete. It doesn't always have the place I'm looking for in there.

Now, keep in mind that I live in a small town, so some of these things may be due to that fact. Despite these drawbacks, I've found this to be an extremely useful tool, and is definitely worth every penny we paid for it.

The gps got to me in 4 days it was in perfect conditon. I have used it more than I thought I would and it works great. It is so easy to use my 12 year old daughter can work it without reading any instructions.

It has two defects:
It does not show the speed limit on different roads, and it does show graphically which way to turn on next (left arrow or right arrow). Both were very important to me so I had to buy another GPS (TomTom) to cover these needs and even it was cheaper.

7-8 months after purchasing this item from Amazon I started noticing the touch-screen was not responsive after a few hours of usage. After a bit over a year the screen stopped working all together. I have tried every Garmin forum under the sun for a fix, no luck. So here I am stuck with a product 13-14 months old that does not work and no warranty. I would not recommend this product.

I bought this GPS for my husband for Christmas and can't imagine traveling without it. We just traveled to Myrtle Beach from Philly and back using it. It gives you detours when there is traffic, provides food and lodging information, plays music and displays your pictures from your san disk! What an awesome GPS!!!! The directions are spot on! You can even download your own icon such as a police cruiser!!!! Five stars from this family of 5!

My job has me on the road to many different places for extended periods. After the first time a GPS was a must. After a year and a half I can't imagine leaving home without it. The freedom of always knowing where you are and how to get to your destination takes a lot of stress away, allowing you to enjoy trips and explore without concern. With that said there are a few flaws and glitches that need to be considered.
For long trips, reviewing a map to verify the garmin's route is a must. The only options are the shortest route or fastest route. Often this leaves out interstates and other highways since the software does not take into account traffic lights, stop signs or city centers. It assumes you will maintain the posted speed at all times.
The business search function is very handy, but requires the yearly updates to be purchased to remain useful. The only free updates are additional graphics and software patches.

I,VE HAD THIS OVER 6 MO. NOW AND AM ADDICTED TO IT, I AM A TRUCKER AND TRAVEL ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. THIS GPS IS 98% ACCURATE FOR ME. SOME ADDRESSES IN RURAL AREAS ARE NOT LOADED ON THIS YET HOWEVER I AM TALKING FARMS AND RANCHES IN REMOTE AREAS. I HIGHLEY RECOMMEND IT.

First GPS I've owned. Easy to use, nice bright big screen.
I like the SD card slot for play music for laughs (tiny
speaker though). It works very well most of the time.
Recalculates if I miss a turn. But once in a while, it
wants me to do U-turns to get back to where it wants me
to go, even though I'm getting close to my destination
anyhow. Wish it just recalculated better, because what
it wants would just add many miles to my trip. And this
action can go on for miles. Sometimes the suction cup
falls off the windshield, but maybe I didn't do perfect
job securing it, no big deal though. For the most part
though I'm happy with this unit, and glad I have a GPS now.

If you don't already own a GPS, GET ONE. I have had several (I was a dealer 3 years ago), and once you get used to the great things they can do for you when you are in new territory. Find food, where's that motel?, where's a hospital? It's all there.
This Nuvi is another solid example of Garmin's great produts. The 650 is loaded with features, and so easy to do basic navigation, it takes about 3 minutes to get going the first time.

I had owned Magellan then Tom-tom. Last week I bought a Garmin Nuvi 650 and WOW this is really the top of the line among GPS.

Let me compare the 3:
Magellan--When you lost your way or missed a turn, this GPS is very slow to calculate.
Tomtom 3rd Edition--One of the best. It reminds you when a POIs is approaching like gas stations, etc. Very fast to recalculate when you missed a turn. User friendly. The only thing I dont like is it doesnt mentioned the street name and takes longer to recieve satelite signal. Though every turns is voice guided, it only activates when you are about to turn.

Garmin Nuvi 650--Speaks the street name and freeway entrance and exit. Very easy to use. Voice guided turns speaks ahead 300 meters away.

So easy to use my 8 yo grandson can operate it. I used it for the first time to navigate a trip into Ann Arbor MI, a city well known for having been laid out by following the trails of numerous fox hunts as there are few streets without many twists and turns, complicated by the fact that the same street changes names every mile or so. The Garmin got me exactly where I needed to go into the city and places within the city over a two day trip, and then onto Detroit where the speed limit is just about as fast as a car can go without running the state troopers off the road. I would not even have attempted to drive myself without the Garmin!!!

I am a senior driver now who over many decades has driven coast to coast seven times and either lived in or visited every major city in the U.S. Nowadays, I find it is easy for me to get lost and streets seem to be poorly marked or so wide that I don't see the cross road signs until I am passing them. The Garmin gives me directions far enough ahead of the turns for me to switch several lanes of traffic through the use of a pleasant computer voice and with typed directions across the top of the screen as well as the map layout.

I read many, many reviews before I selected this relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated unit as I did not want all the bells and whistles, like having a book read to me or for use to download music - I have a radio and CD player for that. I can't think of how they could make the unit more user friendly.

I noted there were complaints about the sound not being loud enough, well duh! Turn the music down there is only room for so many soundwaves in a given space!!! If you can't hear the output of a Garmin your music is above 85 dba and you are damaging your hearing!!!

You can buy this unit with confidence that you are getting a good deal that everyone will be able to use with ease.

Doc

The Garmin itself worked great, as I knew it would. My problem is with the description the seller gave. I purchased a new Garmin but they failed to say in the description of the product that the map was an 2007. Before I even used it I got a message "your map is over a year old, it's time to a update your". That's a disappointing statement to read for a new product. I went in to update the map as instructed, well, now that going to cost me an additional $70.00. Please let the purchaser know what year the map is on the product and I'm sure they wont be as disappointed as I was.

This was gift. I'm not a techie and don't like to be bothered with trying to figure things out, but this was easy to use, right out of the box. What I like most is the wide screen. I work in construction and have big calloused hands - this screen allowed me plenty of room to type. The first time I tried it out, I punched in a route I usually travel and was quite amazed that it took me another way that was shorter and less traffic!

I love it!
It recalculates really really quick (in a fraction of a sec.) if you miss your turn/exit. Just takes a bit to find the satellite first I turn it on.

As a former Magellan owner, I didn't know what to expect when we got our Nuvi 650. The unit is small, and doesn't obstruct from the windshield view (a problem the Magellan had due to its bulk). The package we got included the suction cup windshield mount, a leather case and the various cords and whatnot.

You can use it without plugging it in (provided the battery is charged, of course!) and to date it's not steered me wrong yet. We sometimes change the voice (it comes with a bunch of them to choose from, both male and female of various accents). It offers TTS on most of the voices which is important to me. My daughter dances competitively and so I am constantly driving her to competitions out of state, not once has the Garmin let us down.

When we first got it, I ran both units side by side for a couple trips and the Garmin does not always give the same directions as the Magellan -- but the Garmin's directions were usually quicker. Another thing I noticed was that the Garmin does not get lost in downtown areas (the Magellan could never seem to acquire satellite signals in any big downtown area).

Well worth the cost and when I eventually need to replace it, I'm going with another Garmin!

We've had our Garmin 650 for a couple of months and enjoy the female voice telling us where to go. This is a discontinued model and I called to check on the status of something that wasn't being made anymore. The man assured me it was an excellent unit, discontinued to make room for units with more bells and whistles. He assured me I would not be disappointed and he was right. This model has all the bells and whistles we need. Besides, we saved over $400! The voice tells us her best straight line route, which we sometimes overrule simply because we don't want to go that way. She quickly says "recalculating," and gives us the next best route. I like the trip information picture that gives you the direction you're driving, how much time has elapsed, when you are expected to arrive and your speed. (This is a wonderful feature when you're traveling by train or bus.) Uncanny! It's within one mile per hour of our speedometer. We plan a trip to Branson soon with a dash into NW Arkansas and back home through St. Louis. I have all the addresses we need loaded into the unit and expect to have no wrong turns on our trip. I'm guilty of wrong turns! Now my wife will not be chuckling up her sleeve. We're pleased with this Garmin and expect to enjoy it for a long time.

A perfect addition to other travel aids. Havn't had any problems getting around new cities and return to home. Can't say enough for it. Uncanny.

We really like this GPS system. The only bad thing is you have to update the system once you get it with the latest maps. Once that is done it is great! It is easy to operate and very accurate. This is our second one (the first one was stolen) and we like it a lot.

A really fine unit. Allows you to navigate from point to point with all the information you need, turns, distances, times and speeds. Voice prompts are well in advance of direction changes. I have found that the actual GPS is usually accurate to within 30 feet. The screen is easily seen on the brightest day. The only negative that I've found is that the screen tends to be to bright at night, so you may choose to adjust the intensity. The unit is a snap to program and an overall excellent choice.

I didn't really need traffic updates. My Samsung Epix GPS only received traffic updates in larger cities and you have to pay for internet access as well as ATT GPS. I also didn't mind the usb to pc connection so the extra cost for bluetooth was unnecessary. Works like a charm and although I only have the cell phone as a comparison it seems to work quickly and accurately. Worth every penny to me. There is no required service charge to access GPS through Garmin. Optionally purchased the updated national map, however. Comes with the usb cable and car charger. It will charge slowly with usb but it would have been nice to have the optional 110 charger-adapter.

I have used this GPS for over a year with varying results. I suspect the problems with it occurs across the entire Garmin product line.

Pros: A good user interface.

Cons: When you set it up to navigate by Faster Time, it does not result in the shortest time. Fastest time means it will route on roads that have a higher speed limit such as Interstate Highways. Often that results in a route that is longer in both distance and time.

Driving on highways that existed for a very long time, often it suddenly gets lost and keeps repeating, "Recomputing." All of this while continuing to drive on a highway out in the country. Then it tries to tell you to make turns don't exist. After a few minutes of this insanity, it comes to its senses.

The data is quite out of date. Driving on any road that was built in the last five years results in it getting lost.

The out-of-date map data coupled with the lousing routing software means I no longer trust what the GPS is telling me to do. I almost always go to MapQuest before going anywhere to see the route I should take. This is the second Garmin road navigation GPS that I have owned and I would not buy another without seeing if the competition makes a better GPS.

i've used this just a couple of times. in the city it works great, got me where i needed to go. I went camping this past weekend and it didn't know the campground i went to in the mountains, of course i didn't have a cell phone signal either. so just have a back up map just in case

Excellent product use it all the time . Have had it only 2 months but definetly would recommend getting one .

Prior to purchasing my Garmin nuvi 650 I read product reviews for most of the nuvi units. I felt the 650 was a good product for the price and had all of the features I wanted. Now that I have used the nuvi 650 I am completely satisfied. I don't leave home without it.

We received our Garmin GPS promptly and we are anxious to use it on our next trip this summer.The screen is clear and very visable. I'm hoping this will alleviate some aggrevation we have experienced on the road and maybe I can let my wife get in a few little naps while I drive.

After receiving my Garmin 650 GPS I could not get it to lock on to the satellites, so I sent a E_MAIL to Gramin and within a few hours I received instructions on how to program the GPS. I did as I was instructed and still no lock on. I sent another e-mail to Garmin and was instructed to send the unit back.I did, and received a new unit within a few days. This one works great. This is a Great company that puts the customer first,and stands behind their products. A great company to work with and the Garmin 650 GPS is working just fine.

My girlfriend got this for me for Christmas and I use it every day, so far I have been very happy with this product.

I got this for my wife for Christmas. Very easy to use right out of the box. She has been using for a month and no problems at all. I highly recommend this product.

this navigation which i bought for my boyrfriend birthday made him really happy. with the wide screen but not too big size, it is a good deal for anybody wants to travel.So convinience!!!!I recomend you buy this one.not too expensive.I feel so pleased when i bought this.

I got this after reading a number of reviews on different GPSs and it seemed to best meet my needs. I needed a GPS for work because I go to different homes in my city 1-2 times per week. Before I'd look up maps on Google map and print them out. Sometimes I'd find out en route that I actually need to go somewhere else which could be tricky. My thoughts about this one (which is the only one I've ever owned):
Pros:
--Easy to use and set up (and I'm not very savvy for non-computer based tech devices).
--Seems to have up to date maps, at least for my area. Yesterday a client told me that their street had just recently been named and it was on the map.

Cons:
--Does not usually choose most efficient cross-town directions. I usually ignore these, make up my own route to get the general area and then use the GPS for getting around the neighborhood and finding a specific house.
--Does not seem to factor in stop lights at all and always underestimates time of arrival for in-town driving. (I'm told it overestimates for highway driving but I haven't done that yet.) This is a pretty significant consideration for me... Google maps has been amazingly accurate at timing. Since I'm fitting in this driving to try to arrive at a certain time between other scheduled appointments it is helpful to have a fairly accurate time estimate. Now I know to add 5-10 mins to all time estimates on the GPS. I think this might be why it messes up the cross-town routes, too, since it doesn't seem to know that it takes longer to go on surface streets than to take the highway. Not a big deal now that I know, but I do still use Google maps for planning my day when I'm going to an unfamiliar area. Now I no longer need to print out maps, though, which is nice.

Overall, this GPS meets my needs for providing mostly accurate (street numbers are occasionally off by one house but street location and general area of street numbers are correct) and easy-to-use directions within neighborhoods in my town. It's been wonderful for the times when there's a change in location when I'm already on the road.

This Christmas I bought this Garmin nuvi 650 and gave it to my hubby who really wants to own a GPS but would not spend on one. He was so surprised that I got him a GPS. He liked it a lot. The silver color matches well with our car color.

After trying the gadget a couple of times, we realized that there are lots of shorter routes to places we normally visits. This meant lesser gas to consume and time spent inside the car.

One time I input a wrong address, got lost and couldn't find the restaurant we were going to. The lodging, restaurant and entertainment directory came in handy. As I was able to lookup the correct address and finally got to our destination.

Overall, I will recommend the Garmin-brand GPS to my friends and family.

I returned this Garmin 650 back to Amazon. (your service is always great by the way; no questions asked). I took a trip to Arkansas & my first indicator of something wrong should have been that it would not take the address I was going to. This was in city limits in an old subdivision. It sent me off the main highway down a one-lane clay road that ended at a cemetery. Next it sent me on a U-turn that ended at exactly where I started. So needless to say I didn't really trust it after that.
Every time I went to Travel Kit, it told me to go online at [..], where you pay for updates. This was a Brand-New GPS.
When I arrived back home (using a real map) it changed the name of one of my local streets then tried to make me turn into my neighborhood by crossing through an apartment complex & a canal where there is no bridge.
Some of my friends have Garmins & they've never had this problem. I will do a LOT more research before I buy another one. Thank God I had my map. This was a really scary trip.

This is the best GPS that I've owned, and I've I've tried them all. The MP3 player is nice too, especially on long trips!

My wife and I bought the device about 6 months ago and worked perfectly the first two months. We used it maybe 12 times before we started to experience problems with the GPS device. The satellite signal does not reach the device even though we move the antenna. We can turn the device off and on with no positive results: the maps are frozen and tells you that is trying to acquire satellite signal. We even tried to reset it from the back. The result was the same, no signal.
We left it on for 25 minutes until we noticed that the GPS acquired the signal. It worked for a couple of minutes and then lost the signal again. We are very frustrated. If you are planning to travel and want a device that shows you the way, you are better off buying a paper map.

I got this GPS navigator for my wife, and I'm glad I did. She prefers to have the unit sit down below the dash, out of the line of sight, and rely on the audio directions. Unfortunately, though, that can make it difficult to get good reception. After reading several reviews, I settled on this unit because it sounded like it would have better reception than most. I guess maybe the angled antenna does the trick, because right out of the box it synched up with the satellites much faster than my other navigator. So far, we've not found anywhere that took more than about a minute to lock on to the satellites.

My only criticism is that in order to power or charge the unit, it must be connected to the mounting cradle, with its rather large and awkward connector arrangement. Fortunately, we were able to find an alternative location that works for her, and still has space for the connector and antenna.

This fun little addition to driving sure has made a difference for my daughter. Just after receiving it for Chrsitmas, she took a trip that involved renting a car and driving in a city she'd never been in before. She took her "nuvi" along and she said it turned what could have been a nightmare into a very pleasant experience. She found it very easy to use, even on the fly. It never let her down or steered her into trouble. We actually went out and bought our newly-driving son one as well based on her experience.

Find this item to be extremely accurate and easy to use. What I like about it,is, the road on the map is alwasy going in the direction you are driving.. never sideways or opposite. as you turn, it turns, but then goes back to straight... clear voice directions and early turn warnings. you can load music and pictures, and update maps. I got a good deal on black Friday.. and am very pleased.

Great product. Gave to my parents and got set up for them. So far, so good!

I'm glad we picked this one. Easy to read and navigate onscreen. Offers lots of choices for viewing, and a good travel companion!

I started using this GPS in areas I knew to ascertain it's weaknesses. And there are some! It can't pronounce many of the street names. AND I was visiting a friend in Escondido and late at night decided to let the GPS direct me home. I have no idea where it was taking me, but when I got to the Wild Animal Park, which is not even in the direction of my home from her house, I gave up. It kept trying to get me to take little streets that I KNOW would not take me home. It might have gotten me home eventually, but it was way out of the way. Then, a block from the freeway, it told me to turn into the shopping mall which is in the wrong direction entirely. Makes me very leary to trust it. It is very good for letting you know which side of the street to enter the freeway. But for other things, I am a little disappointed. It does have many other features which are helpful. You can find a restaurant, hospital, and pretty much anything else, but I got it for finding places and I can't depend on it to do that.