Tiny genius knows it all

Have been looking for a GPS for a long time, not because I miss exits too often, but only to pile up on my gadgets. Had been monitoring the technology advancements and prices on these units for years and finally locked my choice on Garmin i3 when I found it for less than $300.00. This unit has grabbed my attention right from the moment I opened the box and to date (after about 4 months of usage), it still impresses me. I have been using it almost every day during past four months. I’ve tried almost all possible routes from my home to office using it and it rarely failed. Made by a company that has decades of experience in navigation technology and tons of navigation products in the market, you cannot go wrong with i3.

i2 vs i3 vs i5
All three of them are exact same units except that i2 has a monochrome screen, while i5 has maps preloaded compared to i3. I found i3 to be an optimal trade off between them. It comes shipped with a 128 MB transflash (microSD) card, into which I’ve successfully loaded detailed map of 6 states surrounding my state. I rarely go out of these states and I don’t see a need of i5 for me. If I can find a good deal on 1 GB transflash card and use that card instead of this 128 MB card supplied by Garmin, I can basically convert this unit into an i5.

Installation
Installing the maps and loading them into the unit (actually into the memory card via… the unit) works like a charm. Anybody who can click few buttons on a computer screen can do it. The first time I’ve installed the batteries, it struggled to get a satellite connection probably because I was indoor in my home. It never took that long again to regain the connection when it loses the connection. I am always connected in my home, road and everywhere I go. The only times I’ve noticed loosing satellite connection is when I go to my basement or when I drive down to more than 2 levels down my office’s underground garage. I just love the idea of taking it with me and mount it in any car I want including rental cars and not fixing it for a single car. And, it costs only a small fraction of a typical GPS option from auto manufacturers.

WAAS
Stands for Wide Area Augmentation System, a technology where satellites keep correcting themselves via communication to ground stations, to help determine exact position of the object being tracked. i3 is WAAS enabled empowering the unit to be able to communicate up to 12 satellites to more precisely locate the position of the unit. Garmin claims that WAAS improves the accuracy 5 times. I definitely see a difference from an older unit of another make that my friend has in his car. On rare occasions when I take an exit from a highway, it thinks I am still on highway for few yards on the ramp. Same is the case when I am driving on a service road next to a major road. Not a big deal for me as it rarely affects my directions. The unit also lets you simulate the route when there is no satellite connection, comes in very handy to start driving based on the simulation and the unit picks up satellite connection somewhere on the way.
More information on WAAS is available at http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html

User Interface
Arguably, the best aspect of the unit is its user interface. Each and every fashion of the way it communicates (screen/audio) with the users is admirable and well thought of. The user input is done using only a scroll wheel and a back button. Very rarely you would feel that you are missing a keyboard or a mouse. Pretty much everything can be done by scrolling the wheel up or down few times and pressing it. When we don’t use it for getting directions, it shows the map constantly updated based on the current position. In this mode it also acts as a compass showing the direction we are going and shows the speed tracked from the satellite. I have been observing and comparing the speed with that on my vehicle’s speedometer and it is very accurate and in fact, more accurate than my vehicle’s speedometer. My vehicles speedometer only lets me see my speed up to a precision of 1mph i.e. I can only see my speed as 1 or 2 mph, but the speed reading on the i3 tracks up to a precision of 0.1 mph i.e. I can see speed reading as 1.1, 1.2mph etc… When it is showing directions, it will voice prompt next turn as well as it will also visually show the distance before next turn. The zoom level of the map can be instantly changed using the scroll wheel. When searching to stores or restaurants, it automatically sorts the places by the ascending order of the distance from your current location. In fact, when it prompts where to go and when you pick your stored locations, it automatically stores the stored addresses not based on the address names, but based the nearest address from the current location, what a great idea. If you are physically located at a place and you want to store that address in your address book, all you have to do is press the scroll wheel for few seconds and it automatically stores the current location in your address book, not by street address, but by latitude and longitude of the current location. It will automatically number the stored address as the next address, but will also give you a chance to rename it to a word. The screens repaint themselves with almost no delay. The screen also changes to a nighttime view automatically based on the time and maintains visibility at all times.

Navigation
Garmin i3 never fails in the basic purpose of the GPS, to navigate you to your destination. The destination address can be entered using the scroll wheel and back button, and it searches for the best route from your current location using the maps database and navigates you turn by turn. The unit can be configured to give us the best route based on either being fastest or being the smallest. Fastest route is calculated using the speed limits of the road but not based on the actual traffic conditions. So, use your discretion on rush hours and highways, when taking fastest routes. If you miss a turn, it will automatically re-compute the directions based in your new location and start navigating you from the new location. An interim location can also be set as well when it is navigating to a destination address. Voice prompts are very convenient if you don’t want to look at your screen for every turn. Volume and tone of the voice prompts can be adjusted using the options. Apart from alerting you for the next turn when navigating, it also displays the time you will reach the destination calculated based on the remaining distance and speed limits of the remaining route. A great idea and comes in very handy when you are heading for an appointment and unit indirectly alerting you if are going to reach on time or not.

Small Size
The unit is real tiny unit. Same as or smaller than the size of a baseball. Was surprised when I first saw it as all I saw was pictures before that. Down side of that is that the screen is small as well. But, never I felt that I cannot read the information on the screen. Resolution and color schemes used were excellent for the screen. The unit comes with complete package containing a DVD with maps, suction mount, USB cable and a car power cable, everything you will need to use it. Only accessory I could think of is an external antenna if you live in an area that has dull satellite signals. It is hard to believe that such tiny a device can house 2 AA batteries and still has equipment to communicate with 12 satellites and paint a screen. I would have liked it more flat like a PDA to carry it in my pocket, rather than like a baseball.

Points of Interest
The detailed maps have extensive information of local restaurants, shopping, and tourism spots. It not only knows their address but also knows their phone numbers. On couple of occasions, I happened to call the restaurants to order carry out food while I am driving there and have the food ready for pick up when I reach there. Very handy feature. Apart from the pre-stored interest points, the unit also lets us enter our own custom points of interest. We can as well set alerts for speed traps, red light cameras etc… I happen to download a list of traffic traps for my area from the Internet and upload them to the device. When I drive to those locations, unit alerts with red blinking on the screen and audio alarms. The unit pays for itself if it avoids you 4 or 5 traffic tickets :-).

No touch screen feature
Garmin i3 has no touch screen facility. So the only way to interact with the unit is to use the scroll wheel on the front of the unit. It get tiresome sometimes to select each letter of a word by scrolling up and down from A to Z, but while entering addresses, it automatically fills out a choice when you enter first few characters of the street/city name. So you hardly enter complete spell. With the tiny screen it has, am not sure how useful it would have been with touch screen. Not a big deal for me for the price I paid. I strongly advice not to enter data while driving, as the scroll wheel can take your attention away from the road.

Search speed
While looking for addresses and searching for names in the points of interest, it takes little time (typically few seconds for search). May be it has to do with the read speed of the microSD card gamin has supplied. I hope to improve this by adding a high speed microSD card (when I find a good bargain on that). For whom this could be a concern, they might want to try i5 as internal memory can be faster than memory card.

Possible improvements
Batteries: Unit needs batteries in it so it could remember its previous location when turned off. If a recharging circuitry is built-in, all I had to is to drop in 2 AA rechargeable batteries and it could charge them when needed and when external power is available. This would have made the unit virtually maintenance free. Each set of alkaline batteries work for about a month provided they are not used for navigation.

Volume Control: I would have a preferred a volume control and/or mute button right on the unit, instead of having to go to options to change volume. If I have to raise the volume based on my radio volume, I had to dig through options to do it and redo it when I want to lower the volume.

As a final word, I would recommend Garmin i3 to anybody who is looking for more than a basic GPS for under $300.00.