Such a technological race for the buyer, no doubt, is at hand, and manufacturers continually grab the palm of one another’s technological superiority. Garmin, one of the leaders in the field of navigation systems around the world, doesn’t really like to give someone a yellow jersey of a leader, and as confirmation of this is our current tested GPS navigator Garmin Nuvi 3790T, which understands human speech
Voice Navigator
Everyone who uses the GPS navigator intensively knows how tedious it is to enter the address each time, especially if the car asks for the name of the country and city. Manufacturers partially solved this problem by making intelligent address entry and various street predictions. But this will not help if the route needs to be changed while driving. Even standing in a traffic jam, reaching for the navigator is inconvenient, but what can I say if you drive at a decent speed?
And then voice control reveals itself in all its glory. It is enough to give the appropriate command and name the address - and the navigator will lay a new route. Of course, the technology itself is not new - many of us have come up with voice dialing in cell phones, so initially it can cause reasonable skepticism. But in the yard in 2011, and technology has long stepped forward. But voice search is not the only thing that can surprise the Nuvi 3790T. After all, this is a brand new, ultra-thin navigator with a screen without rims, with a very stylish design and support for traffic jams. Let's get to know him better.
Contents of delivery
In the spirit of modernity, the Garmin Nuvi 3790T GPS navigator comes in a small box, so small that you involuntarily wonder if there will be at least a suction cup on the car glass in the box? The contents of the package pleasantly surprise:
Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Garmin Nuvi 3790T Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Together with the navigator you will get a mount on the glass and the instrument panel, battery charging, a USB cable, an FM antenna with suction cups, a software disc and user instructions. Moreover, let me show you the mount for the navigator - it is impressive! So light, technological, and at the same time reliable.
Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Garmin Nuvi 3790T Garmin Nuvi 3790T
The most convenient way to mount the navigator - a suction cup on the windshield. Plus, unlike many small manufacturers of navigators, Garmin puts a round sticker on the car dashboard in the kit - they will come in handy if the mount on the windshield cannot be used. Well, to attach the navigator to the suction cup is most convenient with a hinge.
Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Garmin Nuvi 3790T Garmin Nuvi 3790T
And if you install a larger speaker on this mount, then the sound, reflected from the windshield, will become more pleasant for the driver. Unfortunately, this stand does not have a built-in FM antenna and even a jack for connecting it: you will need it if you want to use the traffic service, because Garmin for some reason does not recognize GPRS Internet and uses the ancient technology of transmitting traffic data via FM range. In principle, this has one plus - you save on Internet traffic during the operation of the navigator.
Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Garmin Nuvi 3790T Garmin Nuvi 3790T
For its appearance, the Garmin Nuvi 3790T GPS navigator deserves a solid five: the black plastic of the front panel, the shiny side face of the case and the practical minimum of controls (only the switch button on top) - all this resembles an Apple iPhone.
The port for connecting a USB cable and charging is located below on the side, on the right side. If you use the original Garmin mount supplied in the kit, you can connect the power cable directly to it, also on the right side, which will be much easier - you do not need to connect cables every time you install the navigator.
There is a microphone on the front side, but there are no buttons here - almost the entire surface is occupied by a modern LCD screen. On the left side of the case there is a microSD card slot. Using a card in the navigator is optional.
Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Garmin Nuvi 3790T Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Looking at how thin this navigator is, you are surprised at how you managed to push the battery into it, and you no longer perceive the fact that it does not change as a drawback.
Garmin Nuvi 3790T
Garmin Nuvi 3790T Garmin Nuvi 3790T
There are no traditional caps on the back of the navigator that the user could open. Yes, and why? But a nice feature is a large grille for the built-in speaker. Moreover, the speaker is large enough and provides excellent quality playback of voice prompts.
When you hold the Garmin Nuvi 3790T GPS navigator in your hands, you immediately notice the quality of work for yourself. Unfortunately, this is a parameter that few can brag about today, but the top-end Garmin model is not just a name and price. By tactile sensations, the Garmin product came close to the iPhone: perfect assembly of the case, nothing creaks, no matter how you try, nothing hangs and does not rattle - a thoroughbred model, what can I say …
Navigator screen
For modern navigators, a high-level indicator is a screen without borders, like on the iPhone. And in the spirit of general craziness for apples, the Garmin Nuvi 3790T has a screen position sensor that automatically turns the image from landscape to portrait mode when you rotate the case. From the time of the CCP, I noted for myself that the vertical component - the course range on the navigator screen is more important than the horizontal (which is around the road). I always lacked this in navigators, but I’m so used to the horizontal orientation of the screen that right now I can’t force myself to install the navigator vertically. But for pedestrian use - it’s the most: convenient and easy, hold the navigator, as you used to hold the iPhone.
The image is very bright, the quality of the Garmin Nuvi 3790T navigator resembles Samsung smartphones with AMOLED screen and iPhone 4. I can not compare screens directly, but the Nuvi 3790T is a cut above Chinese counterparts sold under local brands. But what’s the time for a smartphone, then the navigator is in death, and every touch of the screen leaves rich fingerprints mercilessly glaring under the windshield on a bright sunny day. Literally after entering the address you want to wipe the screen, or initially properly wipe your fingers before typing the address.
The Garmin Nuvi 3790T has an interesting feature - it likes not to respond to pressing virtual buttons. That is, you press a finger on the screen, the navigator shows the rim on the icon that you pressed it, but nothing happens - and so several times in a row until the result is obtained. Mystic.
Voice control
By the way, address dialing can (and should) be done using voice commands, because voice dialing is a distinctive feature of the Garmin Nuvi3790T. It works like this: you say a voice command (by default, just “voice control”), after that - the city, street and house number. The navigator will offer to lay a new route - we agree and voila!
Of course, this is surprisingly worse than a simple “traffic jam service” or some kind of video viewing there. Well, we already wrote about the fact that the navigator pronounces street names in his native language. The main question is how stable is the voice dialing feature? Will the navigator, as a foreign driver, have to explain several times where to go? We were very surprised by the quality of speech recognition. The main thing is to talk with the navigator easily, without straining, without trying to recognize something by syllables and without raising your voice, and then the machine will understand not only such simple names as “Arbat” or “Volgograd”, but also “Komsomolsk on Amur”, "Shishkin Forest" and so on. In the event that the navigator “heard” do not understand what, he will suggest choosing the appropriate option from the list. True, when he pronounces the names, he mercilessly confuses the accents, so sometimes you think that it would be better if he was silent.
In general, voice functions are, if not a breakthrough in technology, then a very correct way of their development. This will be especially appreciated by owners of foreign cars with a very sloping windshield, where if you hang the navigator from below, you will not reach it.
Work with traffic jams
The most important property of modern car navigators, undoubtedly, is the laying of a route to bypass traffic jams and traffic jams. Garmin navigators are still not aware of the existence of such a phenomenon as the Internet, so traffic jams are received on the FM channel. The Garmin Nuvi 3790T has a fairly good receiver, so when installed on a cradle in a car, you don’t even need to connect a radio antenna - and it’s so normally caught. The main minus of the technology for transmitting data via FM is the need for the manufacturer to develop a coverage network, which, naturally, is being done slowly. Here is a simple example - within the metropolitan areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the service works, but if you only drive 10 kilometers from the city border - you can forget about traffic jams. So for residents of the region who want to optimize the route just at the entrance to the city, just like for residents of small cities, a solution from Garmin will not work.
Perhaps, in compensation for such an outdated technology, Garmin implements an excellent concept for analyzing traffic statistics (TrafficTrends). In our articles, we mentioned that this will be a logical development of the traffic service, because such an algorithm will help to predict bottlenecks on the map, both permanent and temporary, caused by road repairs, potholes, etc. You never know what they say speed sensors on the track? If the navigator is confident that the road will become blocked in the near future, it will not send you there.
Another technology (myTrends) paves the way based on the user's driving style. Well, if you purchase an accessory kit for connecting to a car computer through the ODB II port, you can use the EcoRoute HD function, which allows you to collect statistics on how much you save fuel, run tests, read error codes and reset them. That's a really useful thing in long-distance road trips, especially for those who are versed in cars, but not yet enough to buy a diagnostic computer.
Work with cards
We are already used to the fact that the official Garmin GPS-navigators are delivered complete with maps of the “Roads of Russia”. In the current edition, these maps display rather detailed outlines of houses, taking into account not only the contour of the house, but also its height. How much this is useful when navigating - I can’t dare to judge, because, as a rule, only the first row of houses is visible to the driver from the road in the city, and even then not to the full height. Once the manufacturers of navigators make the adjustment, how many lines of houses to show on the map would be just fine.
The map detail of the Garmin Nuvi 3790T is excellent, so fans of 3D houses will be delighted. Again, in pedestrian mode it is very useful to understand that the house you need is in the courtyard of new skyscrapers.
Now the terrain is also superimposed on the map - a couple of years ago Garmin introduced the topography function in its tourist navigators, and now it is used in automobile models. We did not find practical benefit from this, but the terrain display adds seriousness to the navigation instrument. Not enough, except perhaps, the provisions of the lighthouses and some wind indicators.
As we expected, the maps in the Garmin Nuvi 3790T GPS are working fine. The image detail is high, while the navigator does not “load” the screen with unnecessary data that interferes with perception. A complete database of objects allows you not to get lost in an unfamiliar city or quickly find a gas station or tire fitting in a new area. True, you have to get used to quickly turn on and off the traffic jam service, because the Nuvi 3790T can get directions to the neighboring area of the city with a length of 3, 790 kilometers, as we have seen from our own experience.
To use the navigator to the maximum, we recommend downloading a set of POI points from the Garmin.ru website with the coordinates of stationary radars, traffic police posts, speed bumps, dangerous intersections and other objects that are best known in advance.
But you should not expect that the navigator will show POI points (gas stations, pharmacies and other objects) on the map. Of course, they are in the typewriter’s memory, in the navigator’s base, and you can get directions to them, but you won’t be able to go around the city, guided by the map and follow which organizations are nearby.
Impressions of use
Describing my impressions of the Garmin Nuvi 3790T, I want to start with the fact that this navigator is a great example of thoughtful ergonomics. Judge for yourself - it is compact and lightweight, it is convenient to carry it in your pocket in pedestrian mode. And in the car you don’t need to connect the power cable to the navigator every time you install it under the windshield - the power connector is on the GPS-navigator mount housing, and the snap mechanism does not require much effort. Not enough space? Well, place the navigator upright and do not connect wires to it at all - the battery will last for a long time!
I can’t be silent about the highest sensitivity of the navigator - it perfectly catches satellites in urban conditions, and during the test trips in Moscow and St. Petersburg, I have never lost satellites (except for entering the tunnels). Moreover, the Garmin Nuvi 3790T even works if you put it in the glove compartment - and from there it will be able to voice tell you where to go. True, voice control did not work in such a situation …
Warnings about approaching radar and traffic police posts look implicit, and without sound, you can easily skip the camera.
If you describe the impressions of using the navigator in one word, then perhaps I will say “comfortable”. Somehow gently, at home, even when the device shows an incomprehensible warning “1 km / h” - you are not very upset by these glitches. You get used to the Garmin Nuvi 3790T instantly, and when it came time to return the model from testing, I thought hard about buying myself one.
Issue price
The average retail price of a Garmin Nuvi 3790T GPS navigator is 15, 000 rubles. Given the prices of Chinese PNDs at the level of 4-7 thousand, it doesn’t fit in my head that a navigator can be so expensive. But this is the top model, and you pay for a chic screen, for voice control, for a convenient design in the end. We believe that despite all the advantages of the model, its price is very high in our market. For example, in the US, the cost of $ 340 is more relevant.
findings
If you bought one GPS navigator on WinCE, but it broke, bought a second one, and it turned off, bought a third one and it doesn’t work as it should, then having paid 15-16 thousand at the box office for Nuvi 3790T, you will breathe a sigh of relief. After all, first of all, the device looks like a quality product, and in operation its middle name is comfort. Voice control is such a useful feature that you should only use it a couple of times to appreciate this convenience. Believe me, after one trip with the Garmin Nuvi 3790T, you will no longer agree to a navigator without voice control.
