Garmin 370 GPS Navigator
The Garmin 370 will not be a stranger to those who have used its near-identical twin, the Nuvi 350. But though they may look pretty much the same on the surface. One pleasing difference is the Nuvi 370 interface with any Bluetooth-enabled phone. If you want to pair your cell phone with the Nuvi 370, just look for the Bluetooth icon on the Settings menu. You should have no problem establishing the Bluetooth link. On the GPS settings menu, simply tap the Bluetooth icon; select Change and go on to Add Device. Leave the Nuvi 370 alone a minute while it automatically searches for a device. In the meantime, activate the Bluetooth function on your cell phone to make it detectable by Nuvi 370. It should not take a minute for the device to detect your phone, exchange electronic codes, and pair up.
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Product Overview
Functionality of the Garmin nuvi 370 and your phone is beautifully integrated. For instance, if you get an incoming call, the GPS screen converts to a display of the caller ID, which allows you to decide whether to take the call or not. Another example is the way the MP3 player in the Garmin 370 automatically mutes the music when you are using the phone. One last illustration is the seamless integration of the Nuvi 370 POI database and your phone. When you want to make dinner reservations, simply touch the phone icon that appears beside the restaurant's POI number. Nuvi 370 will call the number for you. That is the beauty of fully integrated functionalities.
You can verify if the phone has been properly paired by looking for the phone icon that should be on the Nuvi 370 main menu (right-hand column). Tapping this icon leads you to its various submenu features. Remember that some cell phones may not support particular features, e.g. voice dialling. You can check for Bluetooth phones compatible with the Nuvi 370 at the Garmin website.
The Nuvi 370 dimensions are similar to the Nuvi 350 (3.9 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches), just a tad larger than a playing card deck. At 5.1 ounces, it is small enough to slip into the pocket. Its 3.5-inch screen is bright. Of course, Nuvi 370 features not only the usual MP3 player but also an Audible book player, a JPEG image display that converts into a slideshow, converters for measurements and currency, a calculator and a world clock.
It has a very helpful Travel Kit. In addition to its high quality maps, it provides extensive travel information (restaurants, museums, galleries, and more) from Fodor's travel guides and its language guides originate from the Oxford University Press. There are 5 different languages and 4 dialects, for a total of 9, plus 5 bilingual dictionaries.
Notable Benefits and Features
Garmin seems to have made the highly sensitive SiRF Star III GPS receiver its standard chipset for its newer Nuvi models. This receiver is just the ultimate! It is able to maintain its lock on satellite signals even in areas with the most difficult conditions, and GPS receivers from an older generation will already lose tracking. The time-to-first-fix (TTFF) zips through quickly in less than 50 seconds. I was really impressed by its cold-start first fix which took well under two minutes.
Route choices from the Garmin 370 were excellent and very much like all the Garmin GPS models. Well, Garmin has installed Navteq mapping data in all its units. As you may be aware of, Navteq is the source of mapping data for Google maps and virtually all online map services. The combination of Navteq mapping data and Garmin routing software has resulted in quite probably the best routing options in my experience, both in timeliness and accuracy.
Let me say, though that I thought Nuvi 370 tended to be a bit late in giving out final turn instructions. I mean the instructions seemed to come just as you get to an exit ramp, for example, while I would have preferred for this to come while still a hundred or so feet away from the ramp. But still, navigation becomes so much easier with its text-to-speech function that actually announces the name of the street where you are about to make a turn instead of simply giving the distance from the turn.
You can certainly use the Garmin 370 outside your car. But be aware that it does not have a pedestrian mode that would give you data on pathways inaccessible to cars. There are no speed warnings or school-zone alerts, and I sorely missed a dedicated volume control button (there is only one button — the power on/off button) on the device. You orchestrate control entirely through its touch screen, which Garmin thoughtfully designed to accommodate even my large (well, okay, fat) fingers.
In sum, the Garmin Nuvi 370 is definitely impressive: very compact, very accurate, lots of features. The speakers are not that great, though. Don’t get me wrong … I like its speakerphone capabilities with Bluetooth, but I think the quality of the sound issuing from the speakers is lacklustre, especially for its price.
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