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★★☆☆☆
Flawed Garmin product - be careful!
I've owned so many Garmin products over the years, it's hard to keep count. Currently, I have a unit for running, biking and two for cars. Probably owned 7 units before that, so I know Garmin. I love their interface - as opposed to Magellan or TomTom - and I was excited to read about the 3700 line because of its similarities to the iPhone/iTouch and its sophisticated software. Well, now that I've got a 3750 with a cracked, completely unusable screen, here are my topline thoughts:
Pros:
- love the size. It's thin and very sexy
- love the UI software. Again, Garmin rules!
- great cradle mounting unit with built-in speaker. The turn-by-turn directions are LOUD and clear
Cons:
- glitchy touchscreen. I had to touch input buttons several times to get the unit to respond. Uncool.
- glitchy software. The "voice" would often break up and stutter when giving directions. Also, directions were inconsistent. I was in San Diego for pleasure (Comic-Con) and traveling the same route every day. Every day, it seemed this Garmin would try to take me on a different route. I ignored the directions to follow the route I knew, and it took forever for the unit to "recalculate" and give me the correct directions.
BUT, biggest CON #1 is this: the 3700 line is VERY fragile. And I mean VERY. I was putting the 3750 into my daughter's backpack for a long day at Comic-Con, and it dropped onto a cement floor. No more than 2 feet. The screen disintegrated into nothingness.
Now, I know what you're saying to yourself: "Well, you dumb***, you dropped it on concrete - what do you expect?" Well, to be honest, better durability than that. I've so many smartphones over the years (currently iPhone 4) that I've dropped small distances - no problem. My previous Garmins could take the "rough and tumble" of dropping on a car floor or even a street without an issue.
This model is different.
There's no border around the glass screen for protection. And the glass seems very thin for its intended purposes. This is a unit that Garmin proposes walking around with. That's why it's built so sveltly. Surely, they know that things happen, that things drop - again, small distances. Shouldn't they have designed the 3700 line with a stronger, more durable screen like the nearly unbreakable screen on the iPhone or similar smartphones?
Maybe I'm an anomaly. But I've always been careful with everything I purchase. I usually resell things on eBay to move up to the newest gadget. This was a freak accident, yes. But...the Garmin should have been able to handle it. So, I'm left with an unusable, unreturnable, unsellable $300+ GPS device that could have been more.
Thumbs down. Just my perspective...
July 2010 · Electronics · verified purchase