1. Garmin Nuvi 1300

About Garmin. Garmin is a company that specializes in GPS products for land, sea and air. Founded in the late 1980s, Garmin is still based in its home city of Olathe, Kansas. Garmin gained popularity nationally with its in-car mobile GPS devices, giving drivers directions like no device before.

Comments

• I can't answer about the quality or source, but you will definitely be able to receive traffic data in much more places with the smartphone app. The dedicated Nuvi traffic receivers rely on signals that piggyback on regular FM audio stations. As soon as you get outside a metro area you will likely receive no traffic data. But the smartphone app should receive data wherever you get a cell signal.
  Look at your cell carrier's coverage maps. Then compare them to Navteq's coverage maps. There's quite a substantial difference. :)
• Good point, Boyd. That may just make the additional expense worth it.
  I also understand that Live updates every 2 minutes and Garmin at 5 minutes - also a bonus.
  I suspect not, but does anyone know if traffic information on major roads is provided (not just Highways) with the Live Traffic? I know Garmin Traffic doesn't give traffic information, only construction, closures, etc. on roads other than highways.
  Thanks!
• I will personally only stick with what is provided by my dedicated Garmin GPS unit. For myself personally, I will not use any navigational smart phone apps nor anything like Live Traffic that will use up my cell plan's data. I have enough to deal with keeping track of 'normal' data useage between my devices since they all share the same data plan. If you are already paying for a huge data allowance, in that case I see no issue.
• Thanks SergZak. Data usage isn't an issue for me now, but however potentially could be in the future.
  My issue is justifying an additional $19.99 for something that comes free with the device.
• That's certainly a valid point Sergey. But you've stated before that you get good traffic reception in your area. Here in the Northeast, it's very spotty and virtually useless on a long trip. If I cared about traffic data (which I don't), I think this kind of thing makes sense.
  I have one of the old 'grandfathered' AT&T iPhone unlimited data plans that you can't get anymore so data use wouldn't be a factor for me. But I don't have a compatible nuvi. And - frankly - connecting my 'smart' phone to a 'dumb' nuvi makes little sense to me. :D
• Yes, indeed...traffic -reception- here in SoCal is great. OTOH with that being said, I really don't know if I'd want to pay for the service anymore with a nuvi traffic subscription. It's a good thing though that it's pretty much free with a nuvi (if you buy the 'T' nuvi).
  In the past for me, there was a 'cool' factor involved, being able to see the traffic in the area by simply looking at the nuvi. Over time though, that 'cool' factor dissipates, especially when the service reports incidents that are simply not there or you're stuck in a jam that's never even reported. Timeliness in the reports are detrimental to the overall traffic reporting experience. This timeliness is simply not attainable reliably, no matter what service you are using. I just take the traffic reports with a grain of salt...I think I've started assessing the accuracy/inaccuracy of the reports more than actually using them as a way to avoid traffic.
• here's what I've experienced for the past 2weeks of owning a 3597lmthd.
  I have an iphone 5 with garmin smartlink traffic service. I also have 3490LMTHD since January this year and I have been running side by side.
  Although the garmin says live traffic is updated every 2 minutes, I found out that it's actually one minute for me. I can tell you that because every minute, I see a little 'circle' circling on top right on traffic pop up page. So for me, it's only one minute interval.
  As far as data usage goes, I don't have a link for it but I remember that garmin representative says a very heavy usage on live traffic will be around few MB per month. So far during the 2 weeks of live traffic usage(drove about 600 miles) it looks like I've used around 4 MB. So you are looking at less than 10MB per month.
  Also for the traffic comparison, although HD traffic gets updates on every 30 seconds, the actual traffic info is being updated quicker on live traffic. So it doesn't matter if HD traffic receives the traffic info twice as much it will receive the 'old info' compare to live traffic. Live traffic is on par with google traffic whenever I check the traffic. I think it's because there's no 'middle man' for the live traffic(it can send whatever new traffic info straight from the internet/server to your nuvi via your smartphone data while the HD traffic needs to send the info to radio station first then broadcast then you will receive the info which takes longer time to process).
  I definitely recommend the live traffic service over HD. It seems live traffic is really 'live'.
  Hope this helps.
• Great post uheenada! :D

  As far as data usage goes, I don't have a link for it but I remember that garmin representative says a very heavy usage on live traffic will be around few MB per month.

  Here you go:
  http://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={7a34c330-3a6d-11e1-613e-000000000000}
  __________________
  How much mobile data do Garmin Live Services consume?
  01/17/2012
  Garmin Smartphone Link does not consume large amounts of data. Based on average consumption while using a Garmin navigator, we estimate an average monthly data usage of around 2 MB per month. Very heavy users might use up to 20 MB per month.
• If you are only woried about the $19.95 I suggest an app WAZE which is free and just goes to your phone. The app is free but does use your data.
• Sorry if this is a dumb question but is Live Traffic a reoccurring charge of $19.95? It did say subscription, if so I don't think it's worth it.
  

Garmin Nuvi 1300