SimonAndBaker.com
Garmin C330 StreetPilot
1200 East 151st Street
Olathe , KS 66062
Unit 5, The Quadrangle
Abbey Park Industrial Estate
Romsey, Hampshire
SO51 9 DL , UK
The Garmin C330 StreetPilot is a street map based global positioning system (GPS) custom designed for use in a car. My overall impression of the Garmin C330 was excellent. I really liked this unit. I was able to test this unit in my home city where I am familiar with the roads, and also when I traveled to a large east coast city where we rented a car that did not have a GPS already installed.
When we traveled with the C330 we landed in an unfamiliar airport in a large east coast city. The C330 is small and lightweight enough that it easily fits in a small travel bag. The Garmin unit acquired its position quickly so we didn’t have to wait on it after we were inside our rental car. Before we left our home I had already entered the destination address of our hotel as well as several other important trip destinations. To find our hotel we had to drive well over an hour late at night but it was a snap finding our hotel with this GPS device. During our stay some folks recommended several restaurants for us to eat at. When we reached our hotel room after our daily activities, I turned on our Garmin C330 GPS and it brought up a list of all the local restaurants. The Garmin restaurant list showed the closest ones first. We were interested in seafood only. The Garmin allowed us to filter out and list only seafood restaurants. On a cold and rainy night with poor visibility we found the recommended restaurant easily even though it was located down a hard to find back alley street.
The C330’s voice instructions were simple and easy to follow. It would say things like, “Drive 4.3 miles then exit right. In 2 miles exit right. Exit Right. In .2 miles turn left. Turn left. Drive 400 feet then turn right.” When we would veer off course it would recalculate a new route. There was a volume control wheel on the side of the GPS. I really liked that I could turn the unit up when road noise conditions got too loud to hear. I have used GPS units in the past, which didn’t seem to have a loud enough sound volume, but this was not the case with the C330.
The C330 came with a suction cup windshield based mounting kit. We would stick the suction cup mount to our front windshield in a convenient location and then snap the GPS into the mount. I was concerned about the suction cup mount being able to hold the unit without falling. I found that it worked really well. The unit never fell off the windshield it was mounted to. On the bottom of the mount there is a quick release button that allowd us to pop the GPS free from the mount. I used this every time we stopped and parked because I didn’t want to leave a GPS on the dash where it might be a temptation for someone to take. The quick release button worked very well.
I really like to know which direction is north when I get to a new place. On the GPS there is a trip information dashboard screen that has a compass as well as a number of other useful screens like, current speed, distance to destination, distance traveled, overall average speed, moving average speed, maximum speed, total trip time, moving time, and stopped time.
The display on the C330 is a color LCD fingertip sensitive touch screen. The display had a night mode and a day mode. The GPS figured out automatically when it was night and when it was daytime and used a different background for night and day. This improved the readability of the screen. There was also a brightness adjustment control for the screen. In the brightest sun I would have liked for the screen to be just a little brighter.
I am always concerned about battery performance, and I don’t like the idea of having to purchase batteries for handheld devices. There are no batteries to purchase because the batteries are rechargeable lithium-ion. The unit will run up to 8 hours on a single charge. Data storage is indefinite and no battery power is required for this feature. This meant I didn’t have to worry about running the batteries down and losing my data as a result.
In our experience the C330 never made a wrong turn, it figured out its position quickly on power up, the display was easy to read and understand, the voice directions were easy to hear and understand, and it performed flawlessly. I can recommend the Garmin StreetPilot C330 to my friends and family.
Battery up to 8 hours, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, includes a 12V car charger.
Manufacturer/distributor Garmin
Type of product Automotive GPS
Features Pre-programmed with City Select® NT, providing street-level detail and addresses, plus listings of nearest restaurants, hotels, ATMs, etc., in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. It had a receiver WAAS-enabled 12 parallel channel GPS, a display: 2.8” W x 2.1” H (3.5” diagonal), 320 x 240 pixels; QVGA transflective TFT with 16-bit color; 64K colors; bright white LED backlight and touch screen, available with maps of Europe, fingertip touch screen interface, look up addresses and points of interest, 2D or 3D map perspective, upload custom POIs, including alerts for speed zones and safety cams, SD memory card expansion slot , StreetPilot Asian Americas in 5 Asian languages (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, or Taiwanese). Screen-width scale 640 feet to 4,000 miles.
Navigation features: Routes automatically calculated with turn-by-turn instructions; custom road preference allows user to prioritize choice of back roads or major highways; automatic off-route recalc shows how to get back on track if the user misses a turn or exit. Trip computer with Resettable odometer, timers, average and maximum speeds. Acquisition times: Warm: Approximately 15 seconds, Cold: Approximately 45 seconds, AutoLocate®: Approximately 2 minutes . Update rate 1/second, continuous.
GPS accuracy: Position: < 15 meters (49 feet), 95% typical, Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec steady state. GPS (WAAS) accuracy: Position: < 3 meters, 95% typical, Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec steady state. Interface USB 2.0 full-speed. Antenna is a Built-in patch; MCX-type connector for optional external GPS antenna connection. Data storage is indefinite; no memory battery required. Temperature range: 32°F to 140°F (0°C to 60°C).
Retail price $349.99 U.S.
Description: A street map based GPS that was custom designed for use in an automobile.
Made of Plastic
Made in China
Colors Black plastic case with a silver plastic border around the color LCD display screen.
Sizes Display: 2.8” W x 2.1” H (3.5” diagonal ), 320 x 240 pixels; Unit dimensions: 4.4” W x 3.2” H x 2.8” D
Weight 9.45 ounces
Warranty “ This Garmin product is warranted to be free from defects in material or workmanship for one year from the date of purchase. Within this period, Garmin will at its sole option repair or replace any components that fail in normal use. Such repairs or replacement will be made at no charge to the customer for parts or labor, provided that the customer shall be responsible for any transportation cost. This warranty does not cover failures due to abuse, misuse, accident, or unauthorized alteration or repairs.”
Number of days tested 30
Country(s) tested U.S.A.
Other The C330 package included: a StreetPilot c330, Preloaded City Navigator NT North America or Europe (full coverage), SD memory card slot, Vehicle suction cup mount with 12-volt adapter, PC/USB interface cable, Quick reference guide.
Date of review Dec 2006
Would you use this product again? Yes
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