Garmin Nuvi 855 4.3" Touchscreen GPS

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is voice-activation any good?

I bought this from Costco several months ago. A lot of people have had problems with it compared to the earlier 700 series, but others have had a good experience, including myself. The voice activation requires a bit of patience to use, it is a second or two slow - but I am not "manic", so it is not a problem. It will recognize your voice commands, but you must learn the command words it responses to. Also, the interior of the car has to be reasonably quiet for the voice recognition to work. Overall, I am happy with it.

I have this unit and like the features, but MSN direct will cost you an extra $100 for a lifetime subscription. Without MSN you don't get the traffic service.

I was considering this unit however I finally ordered the 255W with minimal features but a lot cheaper. I was tempting to buy the 855 for the voice recognition feature but I doubted it would work properly.

It seems that the voice command function of this thing is no more effective than the R2-D2 unit (by Hasbro) that I have owned since a decade. Instead of training the unit to understand you, you have to be trained to communicate with it and it should operate in a fairly quiet environment. My R2 unit is cute though, because it will refuse to do the tricks if I overload it with commands.

According to #2 this unit should only be in somewhat hing-end cars to minimize noisiness. But anyway, voice operated devices are supposed to be fun, not accurate LOL. Try it with t-mobile, at&t and a whole bunch of machine operated government agencies phonelines. "Listen carefully... because our menu has been changed... " I wish my wife can tell me that at dinner...

As soon as you buy it goto garmin.com to register, download update programs and use them to download and install updates. With all new updates the unit works great. And yes, buy it from Costco to get the 2nd year warranty.

With the lane assistance feature it finally becomes as useful as a Navigon PND from 5 years ago.

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