Quality Gold Plating - Garmin 1490lmt Review

Garmin 1490lmt Review

Garmin 1490lmt specs

product dimensions: 5.3 x 5.3 x 2.6 inches; 1 pound
5 inch backit TFT color touch screen with 480 x 272 WQVGA pixel resolution
Batteries: 1 lithium ion battery- included;
Bluetooth wireless technology with built-in microphone and speaker for hands-free calling. One year warranty.
Preloaded with City Navigator NT lower 48 states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico,
Lifetime Maps and Traffic
FM Traffic Receiver with Vehicle Power Cable
Vehicle Suction Cup Mount; dashboard disc
USB Cable
Quick Start Manual-full manual online

Garmin 1490lmt Features

Lifetime map and traffic updates traffic only in major metro areas that support it (map updates 4x per year) no expirations
POIs, about 6 million points of interest/upload custom points

City Navigator NT street maps, (US, Canada, Mexico, virgin Is, P.Rico)

Lane Assist with Junction view

pedestrian navigation options

ecoRoute,calculates a more fuel-effecient route, displays fuel cost of a trip when you shut the car off -- You need *bluetooth* to use the EcoRoute HD, both 1300s and 1400s have plain ecoRoute.

Route Planning: save up to 10 routes

Trip Log: trail of up to 10,000 points, see where you have been on map

Speed Limit display for most major roads and your current speed turns red if you go over speed limit

Digital Elevation Maps-shaded contours of terrain

HotFix satellite prediction- faster calculations of your position

Travel Tools: JPEG pic. viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more

Photo Navigation: download pictures from Garmin Connect Photos and navigate to them

Where am I?: emergency locator, latitude & longitude coordinates, nearest address, closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations

Garmin Lock: anti-theft feature

Garmin Garage: download custom voices and vehicles-limited choices- search for more choices on internet-Garmin also offers free software for you to record your own voice to give directions.

MicroSD cards: optional plug in, for purchase (European maps)

Bluetooth phone: make calls hands free- voice activated dialing

Data Logging: great for people who log mileage for tax reasons

Fuel economy calculation- figures average miles per gallon

Breadcrumbs: a blue line appears behind you showing your path. pointless until you get lost and you see the blue line and realize you're driving in a circle. Also great for finding your way back, like to the rental depot.

Satellite view: from the Home screen, press and hold the signal strength bars in top left corner for 10 seconds to see GPS accuracy, speed and elevation and graphic of satellites above and their strength.

CityXplorer (optional) starting at $9.99 helps you navigate city public transit. Know where to walk, catch a bus, subway, tram or other transportation and how long it will take to get there.

watch the gps walk-through and see best price here

20 Tips for the Garmin 1490 lmt

Quick Start guide is worthless -go to Garmin site to get a user guide.

Update maps within 60 days of first use or can lose your updates!

Updated maps exceeds available memory (1.3GB vs 3.7GB in other garmin units) so delete all the languages you are not using first, OR

get a MicroSD card (8GB is under $12) before you download the update, choose "Install Options" in your upgrade download, if you don't you won't have the Mapinstall program they tell you about in the manual. (manual is online) You need this program to get more maps. Then-- go to my.garmin.com and create a login user name. DO NOT register yet!, close browser windows.
Plug in your GPS into your computer without a browser open. Then open Internet Explorer (runs better) go to my.Garmin.com -- login and register -- update your firmware first then maps. (charge 4 hrs before use) about 3-5 hours, do at night.

Updating Maps can delete junction view. JV has to be re-installed manually by downloading a file and mounting the GPS as a drive, search the help files,(not on the JV page of Garmin.) If JV doesn't work in your area: ..search Garmin help files, find JV file for your unit....follow directions to save them to your desktop.....do not use map installer program to install map files, follow the directions to mount the GPS as a drive and manually insert files into correct location for your unit. If JV still doesn't work they may not work in your area..or installed wrong..or wrong file.

Personalisation: Once updated go through the options, lots of choices on how you want it to find routes, deal with traffic, how you want the maps to look, 2D,3D, track top to your direction or top to always north, and other info that can optionally be on the map screen. Out of the box everything is turned on and you will only see the 4.3" of map on route as it has 4 tabs of optional info along the right side. If you want 5 inches of map- disable the side tabs in settings and you can also pick what info from a good selection of options.

Screen Calibration- if you keep hitting the wrong key or menus are hard to navigate because of incorrect key presses. POWER OFF then press on bottom right corner and the power button while keeping your finger in the corner. Wait about 30-45 seconds and a black dot on a white screen appears in top left hand corner with cross hairs. Follow on screen directions to calibrate your touch screen.

Traffic: many have complained traffic doesn't work, it works in areas it services. Go to Tools>settings>Navigation>Avoidances and make a change. Set Avoidances to clear (no green check mark) next to traffic and press OK. Make sure your Route Preference is set to "Faster Time". Now it will work great.

If you have the Traffic Avoidance enabled you can get some really odd routes. Keep traffic info turned on but disable traffic in the avoidances setting tab. Then it warns you of traffic on your route, lets you see where and gives you a detour option- take or ignore.

Lifetime Traffic has small ads popping up,(they are small and in the corner and show up when you slow down) to avoid this get a unit without traffic(such as the 1300LM and subscribe to traffic for ad free service

Don't need Bluetooth? get theGarmin nüvi 1450LMT 5-Inch Portable ... (is the 1490 without bluetooth)

Extend battery life: skip the traffic radio and run on battery, with the right settings you can get 3 hours before the warning. The final power option is just Power, that is an optional cord you buy that's a lot less bulky than the powered traffic cord. seeGarmin Original Replacement 12V Ciga...

Mapsource- downloadable program from the Garmin site (awesome). This will allow you to EDIT your maps. Add POIs etc.(but can't import a spreadsheet of favorites)

Wireless updates: never do wireless updates on any computer chip based device unless you are on your home wireless network, because if it fails on the road you're out of luck.

Voice Command: from main screen say "voice command" and it pops you into voice command mode. If it gets slow, restart it.

Picture viewer: is very slow with large pictures, crop them first to load faster.

EcoRoute without EcoRoute HD cable is not very accurate, get theGarmin ecoRoute HD Vehicle Diagnosti... (gives real time info about engine parameters-performance and fuel economy on GPS screen) or turn off.

Comes with Car Adapter, but aRapid Wall / AC Charger for select G... is faster and good to charge overnight if you are without your computer on a trip.

Master Reset: if you wish to sell your gps-reset to factory settings Power off then press finger on bottom right corner and press the power button while keeping your finger in the corner. Wait about 30-45 seconds and "do you want to reset all user data" message appears, select yes and all your personal data is erased.

Free Garmin Garage where you can download custom voices and vehicles. Enhance your travel experience with optional plug-in microSD cards.

Keep your eye on a company called "Inrix", that predicts traffic like a weather forecast. They have 3000 major companies helping to bring this new technology to the market, Garmin may include this forecast in future GPS systems.

If you drive a small or compact car the 5in is too big and may even be hazardous (obstructs view),consider the 4.3" or make sure you can return it for this reason.

Reasons to choose the Garmin 1490lmt

Bluetooth phone paring is easy and works great, noise cancelling and mic is good so caller can hear you and not road noise. After informing your cell phone you trust Nuvi, the connection is made automatically, it just connects as soon as you get in the car! (excellent bluetooth if you get the 1390 or 1490)

With 5in screen size you won't have to take your eyes off the road as it can be seen in your peripheral vision. Also gives more viewing area and more data about the travel details, set to advanced display. Keep the screen brightness at 60-70% it's that bright. Polarised sunglasses won't effect it.

Volume is loud and clear, no crackling or distortion at 80% or less. But 60% is plenty.

Speed limit icon shows your actual speed and turns red when over the limit.

Maximum map detail keeps up during fast turns and high street density, never leaves you with a partial view of a map.

Easy to enter and re-arrange route points.

Knowing total trip time is nice.

Great integration with EcoRoute HD

Switching from an overhead view of the map to regular guidance is as easy as sliding your finger.

Fuel economy calculation- when you fill up- log your gas price, number of miles you drove and number of gallons. The Garmin1490lmt keeps a spreadsheet of these values and figures your average and uses it to calculate your consumption.

The Data logging builds a .csv file you can open in Excel which includes date, start time, origin location, destination location, mileage driven, time driving from A to B and is a great feature for people who log milage.

The Route Planning allows you to save 10 routes by points and preview simulated turns and it sorts multiple destinations to provide an efficient route for your errands, deliveries or sales route.

Lane assist with Junction view guides you to the correct lane for an approaching turn or exit, making it easy to get to. It displays road signs and junctions on your route along with arrows that indicate the proper lane. When approaching complex multi-level freeways and interchanges the garmin will flip to Junction view and marks a path through these complicated type roadways and shows the optimum lane if there is more than one lane leading into it. (available when in select metropolitan cities.)

You will love Lifetime Maps as updates otherwise are about $80 a year.

Keyboard choice between qwerty or ABC.

Vehicles and voices can be downloaded from the garmin site but the internet has thousands of them. Garmin also offers free software for you to record your own voice.