Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

DriveSmart 61… One Step Forward, Two Steps Back PROS: • Very visible, sharp, bright and large (almost 7 inch) screen, in a compact size with very small bezel. • Touch screen function works well. • Fast command processing most of the time. • Fast start-up due to when turning off the device, is actually a sleep mode. Complete shutdown results in a little longer start up time. CONS: • A thick, bright orange alert banner opens across the top of the screen every time there is a railroad crossing, speed limit change, school in the area, or a curve in the road, etc. And it stays on between 5-10 seconds. It is annoying and unnecessary if you are responsible and drive watching the road and traffic signs at all, and it also covers up the name of the next approaching cross street. And worst of all- you CAN NOT disable or turn it off. I have read that Garmin has no plans to change this feature. • Mount is more difficult to place and release the device than older style mounts, and does not connect power to the device - requires plugging in-out the power plug every time. • Map detail is very sharp but small and fine and sometimes requires a good look while driving. • “Map Theme” (Map colors menu) could use some updating with more usable contrasting roadway color schemes, and backgrounds, etc. • The on-screen touch zoom buttons (+Plus, -Minus) change location on the screen depending on function mode. So, you tend to need to look to see where they are on the screen. • “Map Detail” menu offers More, Normal, Less. In some zoom ranges, the Normal shows more map detail than the More setting. The Less setting shows NO traffic at all. But overall, I prefer the More setting since it actually shows less confusing detail when zoomed out, but more street detail zoomed in. You have to try them and find the one with the overall detail combination you like best (not necessarily a Con). • Sparse freeway number labeling. If you don’t already know the freeways by sight in an area, the map without freeway numbers is confusing to figure out. Many cities are labeled though, but with oversized font that covers to much of the roadways, etc. • “Live Traffic” sometimes comes up within seconds, yet other times takes 5 minutes or more. “Live Traffic” is free through a free app (using blue tooth) on your smart cell phone. No phone or blue tooth running, means no “Live Traffic”. • If you don’t like “Live Traffic” and want to use “HD Digital Traffic” you MUST purchase the GTM-60 Traffic Receiver/Power Cord ($60). The older GTM-36 Traffic Receiver/Power Cord will power the device, but will NOT show any traffic. Garmin includes only the cheap ($16) power-only cable with this device. TRAFFIC MAP DISPLAY (the real deal breaker) The colored (Red, Yellow) traffic pattern display on the map is almost useless. The very thin-fine red or yellow lines are placed directly ON TOP of the freeway, and there is no way to tell which direction (or if it is in both directions) that the heavy traffic is travelling in. The ONLY way to tell the direction, is to take the time to zoom way-way in, enlarging a specific small section of a freeway so that you can see both sides, and then pan around the map with your fingers to see which direction the various heavy (red, yellow) traffic is travelling. Doing this is very cumbersome, time consuming, requires a lot of your attention, and even then, does not give you a clear overall visual picture of the different traffic patterns along possible alternate routes you may want to consider. Also, if you are following the purple line on a route you selected, any traffic colors (red, yellow) on that route will only be visible as a sliver of a line along with the purple, and ONLY AFTER you zoom way in. I contacted Garmin several times and there is no work-around for any of this or any apparent upgrade pending to fix the traffic mapping issues. My older Garmin Nuvi 2460 displays the red or yellow traffic indicator lines along the SIDE of the freeway which makes it easy to see (at a glance) which direction the slow/heavy traffic is traveling in. If you zoom the Nuvi 2460 map out, it is STILL easy to see the heavy traffic AND which direction it is travelling, AND on many different freeways in an entire region (zoomed out), thus allowing you to make a quick visual decision which route you want to plan or take. Granted, the newer “Live Traffic” available on the DriveSmart 61 updates faster and is more accurate than the very old basic FM “Garmin Traffic” I get over the Nuvi 2460 with a GTM-35 receiver cable, but that Nuvi traffic info is still pretty much correct and MUCH MORE usable the way the older Nuvi displays it. And, I augment the Nuvi traffic by comparing it to the free traffic map on my cell phone which, even though a small 5-inch screen, pretty clearly displays the red-yellow traffic along the SIDE of the freeways allowing me to see the direction the heavy traffic is traveling. All of this mostly applies if you are using the standard straight down birds-eye view of the map. If you are using the low angle, short distance 3D view of the map, then what I have described will not apply to you as much. If you only use the short distance 3D view, OR simply like to set a navigation destination and follow whatever Purple Line Garmin selects regardless of anything else, then you will probably be fine with the DriveSmart 61. BUT, if you like to be able to look ahead and determine what the traffic flow and direction looks like in a larger region, you are pretty much out of luck. CONCLUSION I really looked forward to getting the DriveSmart 61 and wanted to like it because of the larger, sharp screen in a relatively compact overall size, and I even purchased this when there was a short price dip from the $270 down to $200. But the lack of a usable traffic display makes the value of the DriveSmart 61 nowhere near a $200 price tag (let alone the standard $270) and it kills me, but I will be returning it. I was hoping to get a better upgraded traffic monitoring GPS device and not have to double check on my cell phone so much- but not so with the DriveSmart 61. The DriveSmart 61 looks very pretty and I love it (SEE PHOTOS), but my old Nuvi 2460 provides me with more actual usable navigation information (SEE PHOTOS). Hopefully in another year or two Garmin will do a better job of making a GPS mapping device for real traffic navigation. It does not seem that Garmin seriously field tested the DriveSmart 61, which could have been a very nice unit with real-life navigation usability. Very disappointing. One step forward, two steps back. Add your Comments and change my mind… Please!!