Garmin StreetPilot 2610 In-Car GPS Receiver with 128MB CompactFlashd

I bought the Garmin 2610 (US version) as an upgrade to my Garmin GPS V. Although I was extremely pleased with the GPS V, there were a number of things that needed improvement – the size of the memory, the monochrome screen, the speed of the processor (both in calculating routes and in refreshing the map display). All of these plus more have been fixed in the 2610.

The Garmin GPS 2610 is designed as an in car navigation system. It is not suitable for other uses such as hiking as it requires either a mains (110V) or 12VDC cigarette lighter power source. The unit accepts map data from the included CDROM based software – access to a PC is essential. THe US version comes with 128Mb memory. I expanded this immediately to 256Mb but 128Mb is still pretty good. I found 256 was enough for most of the NE US in a recent road trip (VA, PA, MD, NY, VT, NH, NJ, ME). Uploading from the computer is reasonable fast (30-45 minutes). It is much faster if a dedicated USB 2.0 reader/writer is usd rather than the connection to the GPS unit directly.

The unit is easy to use – my wife finds it considerably easier than the GPS V to enter addresses and find local points of interest such as restaurants and gas stations. Route calculation is very fast – normally a matter of seconds and screen redraw is also virtually instantaneous when zooming or panning. Unlike the old GPS V, I have yet to see a
lock up or time where the unit doesn’t give turn notice quickly enough. The spoken directions are very clear to my pleasant surprise as I thought they were going to be somewhat of a novelty. The quality of the routes are generally good – there is the odd time when I would choose a different route based off my personal experience but in general, I find the unit’s routes are as good as what I could come up with when I’m in strange territory.

The screen is very clear in all weather and level of light (including with sunglasses). The ‘bean bag’ friction mount is also very good in the cars I have tried (hondas and fords) and holds the unit steady without any glue or other adhesive.

A couple of smaller enhancements make the experience much more enjoyable than the GPS V. Automatic zoom in/out where the unit will change the map scale based off how close you are to the next turn is wonderful. The touch screen is much better than the buttons (although we sometimes find a PDA pointer makes it even easier to use).

My only slight irritations are that the tabs indicating various information on the map screen (speed, distance to turn, time to destintation etc) aren’t completely intuitive to modify and not as many options are available as on the GPS V (altitude is the key one as I am strangely interested in how high I am when driving through mountains). The information is all there on other screens of the unit but just isn’t available on the tabs. The map software included with the unit seems to have many more rural roads than the software included in the GPS V although we noticed that it didn’t have all the points of interest in it (we found more gas stations than the software knew about for instance).

All in all, an excellent unit that offers clear navigation in a well made and easy to use product. Remember to download the latest software updates from Garmin as they are well worth the effort to fix the odd software glitch or give you a new enhancement (even if you didn’t know about them/want them beforehand!)

The following link gives an excellent review on the product: …….

All in all, a great product giving very clear instructions and good quality routes.
Rating: 5 / 5

It was a tough choice between the Garmin Streetpilot 2610 and the Magellan Roadmate 500 but two factors pushed me towards the Garmin: (… has more functionality (2) There seems to be a quality control issue with the Roadmate.

The Garmin Streetpilot is truly a marvel. I no longer worry about getting lost and it has definitely made me more adventurous. The screen size is sufficient for easy viewing and the audio commands are loud enough to be heard over the radio if you got music playing. Ever get stuck in a traffic jam? No problem, do a re-route and go around it. Ever have problems looking for a coffee shop or new places to eat? No problem, pull up a listing of restaurants near your location and head straight there.

The Garmin also comes with some very useful accessories. The remote is a nice option if you are eating and don’t want to muddy up the touch screen. The beanbag mount is nice for setting the Garmin on your dash if you don’t want to use the permanent mount included. The Mapsource software that comes with the Garmin allows you to enter waypoints which I don’t think is an available feature on the Magellan.

Now even though I gave this product 5 stars there are some negatives:
(1) Window XP users – There is a setting in the registry that may need to be set in order for the Mapsource software installation to occur. It was extremely annoying that the fix was not mentioned on the Garmin website and I almost returned the gps because of my frustrations with it. If you do get a 1311 error do one of two things:
a. Make sure the following registry key is set as follows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinLogon –
AllocateCDRoms = 0 (reboot after and try again)
b. Set the transfer mode for your cd-rom to PIO instead of DMA

2. No carrying case is included. It would be nice to have a case considering how much the gps costs.
Rating: 5 / 5

I upgraded to the 2610 from the Garmin GPS V. Although the GPS V was an excellent product, it had a few shortcomings. Specifically a small monochrome display, slow processor, and small 19MB internal map storage. All of those problems have been greatly improved upon with the 2610. To be fair, the GPS V has more in common with portable GPS’s and the 2610 is a complete navigation system. I was very happy with the large color screen, a substantially fast processor, audio, and as big a storage area as you want via a Sandisk memory card (up to 2GB). By the way, the entire map collection for the 2610 fits on 1.45GB. This is all of the detailed maps for North America, Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of Canada. I thought I wouldn’t care for the audio but it actually was very helpful, I didn’t have to take my eyes off the road and look to see why the GPS “beeped”, I just listened. I also liked the remote control, I can move thru the menus more quickly even though the screen is now touch sensitive. This is a major improvement from scrolling through letter menus as in the GPS V. The other area that I was pleased with was the mounting system. I use the permanent base and it is rock solid. I tried the “beanbag” base a few times and it is as good as can be expected for a base that isn’t attached to the dash. I am concerned that the heavy unit will go flying in the event of an accident, it is big enough to do damage. I am also a big fan of Garmin. The company that made this product continually improves on the software and firmware and posts updates to their website. Every update Garmin posts adds more functionality and usability. Overall, I am very impressed with the 2610, I can’t think of anything I’d change but I’m sure Garmin will manage to do so.

*** UPDATE ****
After numerous cross country roadtrips and inner city trips I have the following observations. I am very happy I went ahead and added the 2GB data card to he 2610, it allows me to load everything in the Garmin database into the 2610. The depth of the database is amazing, no matter what city I go to, it has every business or address I ever asked for, AMAZING. The routing of the 2610 seems a lot better that the GPS V I replaced. The newest firmware updates (Ver 3.40) add even more functionality. This device is now my second favorite electronic gadget of all times . Only second to my TIVO
Rating: 5 / 5