Garmin DriveSmart 61 NA LMT-S GPS with 6.95" Display, Lifetime Maps & Traffic Updates

rmorgansdrmorgansd: I bought this for a recent cross-country trip to replace a unit over five years old. Nice bright screen, easy to see even in direct daylight. That was important to me because I have had other models that you could not see when the sun shines on the screen. Has some useful features to tell you what hotels and banks and gas stations are up ahead. When I went to Chicago O’Hare airport to pick someone up I was able to select from not only departure terminal or arrival terminal but actually arrival terminal number three and it took me right there. When I arrived at the airport perimeter the GPS said “welcome to Chicago O’Hare airport.“

For all of the toll roads you find back east it will tell you what lane to be in if you have cash or the fast pass card. Found that extremely helpful. Driving to the West Coast from Chicago every few hours it would say “welcome to Chicago O’Hare airport.” It wasn’t until I got to Utah before it stopped saying that. Never figured out what was triggering that. However you have to use your brain with a GPS. It has a nice screen, lane recommendations and a good list of destinations. No GPS is perfect but I would definitely recommend...

United States on Jul 04, 2019

W. NewsomW. Newsom: This is a pretty decent GPS. 2019 review. It's almost as good as my Nuvi 2995 LMT for navigation (99% the same) with a slight improvement on the amount of roads shown. It may be a hair slower. Its display is far brighter than the old Nuvi. (With sunglasses on and in full sunlight, the DriveSmart 61 literally shines... the Nuvi is dim. Nighttime is the same.)

It has the annoying and useless warnings for curves... that's the stupidest idea in any product... ever. At least it doesn't have to be audible while navigating. [In the pictures, the shiny big one is the DriveSmart 61, and it's on a Garmin base, see below, while my Nuvi is on the "universal" mount.]

My main beef is that this will not work for a hands-free Bluetooth speakerphone. I mean, come on, Garmin, there have been in-car speakerphones since the 1990s at least, and you can't figure out the microphone? My old Nuvi was worse, because it had a weak speaker. So neither one has ever worked for phone calls. But this one has a dud mic that simply doesn't pickup my voice for callers. I drive a diesel vehicle that's a hair louder than most vehicles. I can try it in my gas SUV and see, but it's almost returnable for...

United States on Mar 19, 2019

Frostbite: While the unit is scratched all over and has a minor scratch on the screen, it works fine. Battery seems to hold a charge, it does not have much capacity however. From what I've read that's normal on these units and doesn't matter to me, long as it functions while plugged into the car. Voice commands are shockingly enough pretty easy to use, I tend to prefer pressing buttons but that's a no go while driving and this unit seems to take care of it all right. Display is beautiful and the touch screen is capacitive for sure which is another plus.

The information displayed can be a bit overwhelming but you can also customize it a bit in the settings, I'm ok with what's displayed on that front. Routing is pretty quick and seems to do just as good if not better than my google maps on the phone. I've grown to like the up ahead feature quite a bit, along with the lane indicator to keep you from hitting an exit ramp you forgot was coming up. Have not had any overheating problems so far, display is tough to see without maxing brightness in the day, but I expected that. Bluetooth with phones doesn't seem to work very well is the only complaint I really have, but I don't use that...

United States on Aug 08, 2018