Garmin Nuvi 3700 Series Announced Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:47 am
Thinner, looks like an iPhone.
Garmin wrote:
Ever since Garmin introduced the world to the first iconic nüvi personal navigation device, the PND's that have followed have maintained much of the same look and feel. That all changes today. Garmin, the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the nüvi 3700 series, setting new standards for design, features and ease of use in personal navigation devices. Boasting a new ultra-thin, pocket-friendly design and large-screen, high-resolution glass display with capacitive touch panel, the nüvi 3700 series won the coveted Red Dot Design Award in the world’s largest and most renowned design competition.
“Personal navigation is entering a new era, and the nüvi 3700 series has the stunning design and seamlessly intuitive interface to lead the way,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Our designers and engineers were challenged to rethink an industry icon, and the result is as pristine as it is practical.”
Internationally acclaimed design
At less than 9mm of overall thickness, the nüvi 3700 series is easily the thinnest portable navigator on the market – an irresistible design that begs to be turned on and shown off. The sleek new look made a big impact by winning the product design competition at this year’s Red Dot Design Awards in a field of more than 4,000 submissions from 57 countries.
Picture perfect in landscape or portrait
The award-winning design of nüvi 3790T, nüvi 3760T and nüvi 3750 continues with the easy-to-use 4.3” WVGA display with smooth glass capacitive touch panel that lets users see their preloaded maps and intuitive menus in landscape or portrait modes – ideal for use in the car or on foot.
Zoom, pinch, press and drag with Multi-touch
The new capacitive multi-touch display in the nüvi 3700 series allows users to zoom in and out (by double-tapping or “pinching” the map), browse surrounding areas on the map (dragging a finger), or change perspective from 2D to 3D and rotate the map 360 degrees (two-finger drag or twist). And to avoid inadvertent touches, the nüvi 3700 series features a simple screen lock, so you can tap the power button, slide nüvi into your pocket and go.
Garmin’s nü flagship: nüvi 3790T
• With a customizable “wake-up phrase” to initiate voice-activated navigation, nüvi 3790T lets you tell it what to do and where to go while you keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.
• And the road ahead never looked so realistic, thanks to the unprecedented details of 3D terrain and 3D buildings. Whether you’re heading for rolling hills or urban canyons, the shaded topography and realistic landmarks provide unrivaled context and enhanced situational awareness.
nüRoute with trafficTrends™ and myTrends™
• Providing efficient routing and realistic arrival times, trafficTrends™ recommends routes using historical traffic data and recurring trends at any given time or day.
• Making your commute easier than ever, nüvi 3700 series remembers your frequent destinations and uses myTrends™ to predict your destination without you needing to activate a route, displaying your arrival time and best route based on relevant traffic information.
Smarter routing in your car and on foot
• For safer, stress-free travel, nüvi 3790T and nüvi 3760T feature free lifetime traffic alerts and Bluetooth® wireless technology for hands-free calling with a compatible phone.
• The entire nüvi 3700 series is preloaded with ecoRoute™ to help drivers with fuel-efficient navigation, helping to conserve both gas and money.
• Take the nüvi 3700 series with you and enjoy the new streamlined, pocket-friendly design even more through enhanced pedestrian mode with public transit options through cityXplorer™ content. Available at www.garmin.com, cityXplorer helps you with options to navigate by foot or using a combination of buses, tramway, metro and suburban rail systems.
Innovations abound in nüvi 3700 series
• Voice prompts are clearer than ever because of a secondary speaker located on the powered suction cup mount, offering the highest sound quality in the nüvi lineup.
• Customizable wallpaper – view, crop and save images right on your nüvi.
• Lane assist with junction view helps you navigate with confidence while nüvi directs you to the preferred lane, with realistic images of upcoming complex junctions where available.
• Speed limit indicator displays speed limits for most major roads.
• Patented auto time zone allows nüvi to automatically adjust your time zone while navigating.
• Garmin Connect™ Photos will associate your favorite images with saved locations. Visit http://connect.garmin.com for additional information.
• "Where Am I?" feature lets you quickly tap the screen to find the closest hospitals, police stations, gas stations, nearest address, intersection and coordinates.
Based on my experience, it is still not as good as IQ Routes. They just don't appear to have the same volume of data to aggregate as TomTom/Tele Atlas do in that regard.
Now, if we assume (I have no idea if this is happening or not) that Garmin will aggregate and pass data back to Navteq from these particular devices, then within about a year I suspect they would be on par with IQ Routes.
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:22 pm
Looks very interesting. Finally they have gotten back to their roots with a unit that works in both landscape and portrait mode, like the GPS V offered back in the 1990's. That has the potential to make a much better "crossover" product, but I sort of doubt that we will see the kind of features that a real handheld offers.
Anxious to learn more about this. It's interesting that this product has won design awards and "international acclaim", but we've never heard of it before.
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:02 pm
It really depends on how well they have executed these new features. The 1200/1300/1400/1600 series added some "iPhone-like" features that don't quite measure up IMO. Moving the map in browse mode exhibits "physics", for example, so you can "throw" the map to scroll faster/farther. But it is poorly implemented and makes the screen very twitchy and hard to position exactly where you want it. I hope they have overcome this on the new models.
Any word as to the type of processor? I hope it's a LOT more powerful than the existing Nuvi's if they hope to support real 3d features. If they did things right, this could be a very cool product though.
Whatever happened to the Nuvi 18x0 series by the way?
Whatever happened to the Nuvi 18x0 series by the way?
That is a really good question-- perhaps it fell victim to the economy and Garmin realized they didn't want to build more "high end" devices. Or (or perhaps "and") maybe the 1690T sales were not what they had hoped for.
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Mon Apr 19, 2010 6:34 pm
Just watched the YouTube video that you linked to on GPSreview and it made me laugh. Why not just come right out and say "we wanted to make it look just like an iPhone". Very funny the way their design engineers talk as though this was some great new brainstorm from Olathe. But I will admit, it looks cool and it might interest me if it works as well as it looks.
But when they started talking about using thinner components, including the antenna, that made me wonder whether any function has been compromised by their obsession with thin-ness. As an iPhone user, I see that my Nuvi's get faster satellite lock and can get a signal indoors where the iPhone can't. I wonder if that is an iPhone specific issue, or if it's related to cramming too much stuff in too little space?
The GPS chip on smartphones are typically very low power chips... thus the need to make them "A-GPS" chips. So that is why smartphones often take longer to get a signal when a dedicated GPS device will typically have a "full power" GPS chip.
"With trafficTrends, your nüvi 3790T automatically learns daytime trends for traffic flow to improve your routes and better predict your estimated time of arrival based on time of day and day of week. And you get free trafficTrends™ updates every time you connect your device to myGarmin."
Garmin will most likely include this on all future models and as they outsell TT here the catch up time will be very short indeed. IMO this makes Garmin much more competitive also with the personal driving habits added in maybe better right away.
Just to add that this form factor could probably be very easily be made to fit a phone into it for a connected phone device.
[quote="Tim"]Based on my experience, it is still not as good as IQ Routes. They just don't appear to have the same volume of data to aggregate as TomTom/Tele Atlas do in that regard.
Now, if we assume (I have no idea if this is happening or not) that Garmin will aggregate and pass data back to Navteq from these particular devices, then within about a year I suspect they would be on par with IQ Routes.[/quote]
Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Minnesota
Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:05 pm
Do we know yet what kind of info can be seen on the map screen? I like they way my 1690 can have the 4 boxes on the right side with the driving info like the old Streetpilots.
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:20 pm
caryrae wrote:
Do we know yet what kind of info can be seen on the map screen? I like they way my 1690 can have the 4 boxes on the right side with the driving info like the old Streetpilots.
I have a 1350 which also has the alternate screen layout with 4 fields on the right. But I have to chuckle just a bit. The Speed field at the bottom can't be changed (takes you to the trip computer when tapped) so that leaves 3 user selectable fields.
And for those three fields there are.... three choices. The same 3 choices for each field: Direction of Travel, Elevation, Time of Day. So many choices.... Should I put the time at the top, or in the middle? Or maybe I should show the elevation in all three!
When navigating a route, you have 5 choices for each field, which makes more sense. Also, it is much different from the old StreetPilots. My 2620 had collapsible "tabs" - tap and the field collapsed into a little blue tab, showing you more of the map. And there were a lot of different options for the tabs, including the size of the font. I'm sure we will never see anything like that on the Nuvi though.
But getting back to your question, click on the image in Tim's article that shows two Nuvi's in landscape mode with the trip computer on the right. Now look at the bottom of the screen on the left unit. It shows pedestrian mode with what I assume is a user-selectable field on the bottom right. And it is showing the gps signal strength. AFAIK, that has never been an option on the Nuvi before (although it is on Garmin handhelds).
Last edited by Boyd on Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:21 pm; edited 1 time in total
It really depends on how well they have executed these new features. The 1200/1300/1400/1600 series added some "iPhone-like" features that don't quite measure up IMO.
completely agree, the current 1690 UI experience is very un iPhone-like
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:48 am
caryrae wrote:
The 1690 must be the 1st and only Garmin to use nuLink since it says in the specs they will not use the nuLink service.
That is why I asked about the 18x0 series which was reported sometime last summer in the same articles that discussed the soon to be released 16x0 series. The 18x0 series was sounding a bit like "NuviFone without a phone". It supposedly had a browser, e-mail client, apps and linux OS. But the odd thing was it only had wifi and no cell connectivity. That might have been in a different member of the series?
Display resolution, WxH: 800 x 480 pixels
Display type: glass, dual-orietation, WQVGA color TFT with white backlight
WQVA is not 800x480 pixels, it is what they call their "normal" widescreen Nuvi's. Look at the specs for their other models, such as the 1350
Quote:
Display resolution, WxH: 480 x 272 pixels
Display type: WQVGA color TFT with white backlight
So I wonder if the 3700 series really does have 800x480 pixels? The screen is the same physical size as the 1300 series. If true, that is a really high dot pitch screen, similar to the iPAQ 310 which was a bit of an oddity for a 4" screen.
Joined: 15 Oct 2008 Posts: 26 Location: Bayville, NJ USA
Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:36 am
caryrae wrote:
The 1690 must be the 1st and only Garmin to use nuLink since it says in the specs they will not use the nuLink service.
Yes I saw this immediately, and it is very very interesting, and disappointing. While this new Nuvi line appears to be a nice update in many ways, it's growing increasingly hard IMO to expect the average consumer to pay these prices for a "non-connected" device - one that doesn't have the "real" time traffic, Google search, etc, etc. This seems especially true with new Android phones and Google Navigation upping the ante, essentially giving away free navigation services left off these new premier Nuvi's. The GPS enthusiast will still consider separate GPS units a necessity, but IMO the average Joe is gonna be less and less likely to drop $400 on a Nuvi without connected features. I am quite surprised that none of the 3 new units have it, and I consider it a failure to look forward by Garmin. As another posted noted though, perhaps other units this year may have the service. Time will tell ...
... and I consider it a failure to look forward by Garmin. As another posted noted though, perhaps other units this year may have the service. Time will tell ...
product strategy 101
I hope they can launch this new form factor w/o buzzing speakers, bluetooth call buzz, memory limitations or other engineering glitches. at face value looks very slick.
Having spoke to a very pleasant Garmin support tech the other day about an other issue, I happened to ask abou the 1690 and NuLink traffic. He told me that he has the 1690 personally and gave me some more info.
One thing he did mention was that NuLink would prompt you for permission to upload your location and speed data back to Garmin (or whomever collects the data for Garmin). This must be the kind of data that will popluate the NuTrends data referred to in this article.
If it's true, it would be a much faster way to collect and dissiminate traffic status and trend analysis (prediction) without wiating for 3rd party data.
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Tue Apr 20, 2010 1:08 pm
jordanal wrote:
One thing he did mention was that NuLink would prompt you for permission to upload your location and speed data back to Garmin (or whomever collects the data for Garmin). This must be the kind of data that will popluate the NuTrends data referred to in this article.
No doubt, but evidently they want you to connect your 37x0 to your computer regularly to update the traffic data, and I assume they will also collect data from you at the same time. TomTom Home has been doing this for quite some time.
One thing he did mention was that NuLink would prompt you for permission to upload your location and speed data back to Garmin (or whomever collects the data for Garmin). This must be the kind of data that will popluate the NuTrends data referred to in this article.
No doubt, but evidently they want you to connect your 37x0 to your computer regularly to update the traffic data, and I assume they will also collect data from you at the same time. TomTom Home has been doing this for quite some time.
The way the support guy explained it to me, the uploaded data is live, back over the NuLink - since it's cell-based (two way communications is inherant). I assume the 37x0 uses NuLink as well and therefor a PC upload wouldn't be nessesary and traffic and trend analysis would be collected live.
I just wish the entire exterior of all the Garmin units0 were all black or dark gray. The light colored gray or chrome edge reflects terribly back onto the windshield.
Display resolution, WxH: 800 x 480 pixels
Display type: glass, dual-orietation, WQVGA color TFT with white backlight
WQVA is not 800x480 pixels, it is what they call their "normal" widescreen Nuvi's. Look at the specs for their other models, such as the 1350
Quote:
Display resolution, WxH: 480 x 272 pixels
Display type: WQVGA color TFT with white backlight
So I wonder if the 3700 series really does have 800x480 pixels? The screen is the same physical size as the 1300 series. If true, that is a really high dot pitch screen, similar to the iPAQ 310 which was a bit of an oddity for a 4" screen.
On the Garmin site it shows the 3700 series with a WVGA and not a WQVGA. Is WVGA better then WQVGA?
Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Minnesota
Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:01 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlpM5osmUTE
A 30 sec video of a guy showing a little how the touchscreen works. The scrolling looks pretty nice.
If any of you saw the new iPhone that was lost by a Apple Software Engineer and somehow Gizmodo got their hands on (saw it on News today), the 3700 Nuvi's look exactly like it.
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 11575 Location: New Jersey
Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:18 pm
caryrae wrote:
On the Garmin site it shows the 3700 series with a WVGA and not a WQVGA. Is WVGA better then WQVGA?
Ah good, they fixed the specs. It originally said WQVGA - see my post above - that was copied and pasted directly from the specs page.
Some of you may not go back far enough to remember what VGA is (was). Video Graphics Array which was the standard 640x480 that IBM created with the PC. QVGA means Quarter VGA, or 1/4 the screen size of VGA: 320x240. These are all 4:3 aspect ratio standards.
When you add the W it indicates Widescreen. There is some disagreement/confusion on exactly what this means, but Garmin calls their regular widescreen Nuvi's WQVGA at 480x272 pixels. So they are now calling the 3700 WVGA - Wide VGA at 800x480.
Generally speaking, more pixels are better. But it depends on how you put them to use. It could also result in slower performance since there are more dots to sling around.
As it appears that 13xx & 14xx series devices are contributing to the nuroutes data for Navteq I wonder if those users will get the benefit of a software update to include it too??
I think I have a pretty good idea of the answer of course....................
This redesign of the nuvi line has the potential to reinvigorate it for at least the next 12-24 months. IMHO it's a stunning form for a highway navigator. And talk about pocketable! Good improvements on screen resolution which makes detail easier to see at arm's length on a windshield mount. What video I've seen shows a much more fluid screen redraw when browsing the map. Adding trafficTrends (Navteq's Traffic Patterns) largely answers any perceived routing advantage from Garmin's main rival TomTom and their IQR. Even myTrends will be beneficial for many regular users navigating their way to and from work in urban areas.
These new models should certainly have eye-appeal for that significant percentage of potential buyers who have no plans or need for a smartphone and it's added monthly costs but love the smartphone look. For that reason alone the lack of connected services with an ongoing subscription makes perfect sense. Then there's the serious users who recognize that smartphone navigation just isn't on par yet with a dedicated gps device like those from Garmin, TomTom and others, but may still use their phone for quick lookups of POI's, weather reports, news headlines and the like. They don't need the added cost of connected services either. (Of course if they really want an all-in-one where the navigation experience is a primary focus, they can always wander over to T-Mobile for the new Android-based Garminfone arriving next month. )
This nuvi redesign is the most significant improvement to the line since it's introduction IMO. Even without the software/hardware improvements, the look alone would have spurred sales. With the routing and display changes I expect these to be the most successful new models introduced by any PND manufacturer this year. I know I plan to hold off on a new pnd until I can see these in action, hopefully by the end of June.
Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Minnesota
Wed Apr 21, 2010 6:43 pm
About how long does the avg. PND take to drop in price when they first come out? Like with the Motonav TN765t about a month and a half after it came out one place started selling it for $100 cheaper then when it came out. I am sure it depends on how good they sell?
Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 449 Location: Rhode Island
Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:24 pm
I've been trying to see where that includes the TrafficTrends historical data and so far no luck.
[quote="gatorguy"]Of course if they really want an all-in-one where the navigation experience is a primary focus, they can always wander over to T-Mobile for the new Android-based Garminfone arriving next month.
[/quote]
Joined: 01 May 2009 Posts: 1108 Location: Boston, MA
Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:30 pm
Tim wrote:
Based on my experience, it is still not as good as IQ Routes. They just don't appear to have the same volume of data to aggregate as TomTom/Tele Atlas do in that regard.
A while back, a Teleatlas white paper said their competition (aka: Traffic Patterns) didn't cover non-TMC-encoded roads, while SpeedProfiles/IQroutes does.
Have you been able to sense whether TrafficPatterns / TrafficTrends has off-TMC coverage now? eg: have you seen time-of-day differences in non-TMC roads yet?
I hadn't heard of that before-- but it makes sense with what I've seen so far. Routes change very little outside of high traffic areas so that could very well be the case.
I have a coverage map for TrafficPatterns, but the res isn't great. It does look like major routes tho. But that should cover the majority of the rush hour traffic holdups I would think
I"d also expect coverage to expand fairly quickly with Garmin on-board with the project.
Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 449 Location: Rhode Island
Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:14 am
The data they used would have come from existing traffic.com sources which because of their focus would have been level 4 & 5 roads only.
New sources of data for Navteq including Nokia phones and Garmins certainly would catch up and overwhelm TomTom's available sources in the US anyway. Its a timing issue. TomTom is better right now but the writing is on the wall.
This was the only disadvantage I could cite in not getting a 1690 a while back. I have emailed Garmin about whether the Garminfone includes Traffictrends, if it does that may be where I head now.
mvl wrote:
Tim wrote:
Based on my experience, it is still not as good as IQ Routes. They just don't appear to have the same volume of data to aggregate as TomTom/Tele Atlas do in that regard.
A while back, a Teleatlas white paper said their competition (aka: Traffic Patterns) didn't cover non-TMC-encoded roads, while SpeedProfiles/IQroutes does.
Have you been able to sense whether TrafficPatterns / TrafficTrends has off-TMC coverage now? eg: have you seen time-of-day differences in non-TMC roads yet?
Joined: 01 May 2009 Posts: 1108 Location: Boston, MA
Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:37 am
Tim wrote:
I hadn't heard of that before-- but it makes sense with what I've seen so far. Routes change very little outside of high traffic areas so that could very well be the case.
I found the link. See page 5 below:
http://www.teleatlas.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/content/ta_ct021521.pdf
I'm wondering if the TMC restriction was part of the technical implementation (meaning it's unlikely that coverage expands any time soon), or if it was just a limitation of early probing capabilities (which Nokia maps and 1690's should fix in short order).
Oh, and one more question, Tim. Is TrafficTrends integrated into ETA estimates? If so, have you noticed whether they properly handle <10mph (IQroutes doesn't)? If they do both, a good argument can be made that TrafficTrends is already better than IQroutes in urban rush hour.
Oh, and one more question, Tim. Is TrafficTrends integrated into ETA estimates? If so, have you noticed whether they properly handle <10mph (IQroutes doesn't)?
My experience with TrafficPatterns is that it will adjust routes and route ETAs, but not by nearly enough. In other words if you look at the 405 in Los Angeles during rush hour when it is a stop and go parking lot for dozens of miles... it might estimate 59 mph instead of the non-traffic 65mph when traffic is always flowing at around 15-20mph.
In other words there just isn't enough data (from what I've seen) to really analyze what it is doing.
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Why not just come right out and say "we wanted to make it look just like an iPhone". Very funny the way their design engineers talk as though this was some great new brainstorm from Olathe. But I will admit, it looks cool and it might interest me if it works as well as it looks.
no matter how nice they look.