Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-D
6.95"
Product ratings
Pros
Cons
92 reviews
Actually a great device. Workmanship top. Functions flop.
This is the successor to my Garmin 2595 LMT. It promises a lot and looks great: huge display. Clear design, voice control. Perfect at first sight. But it turned into a big disappointment: the problems are in the details.
Navigation: Voice control works perfectly. The radio should be off, both for complete addresses, favourites, POIs or even weather announcements. The route selection is mostly sensible and the display of the journey super. 5 stars for navigation operation.
With software version 4.5, the Navi fails to be accurate with the arrival time when calculating routes. Reset: Not possible.
An example: The sat nav calculated a whole 8:11 minutes driving time for a journey of 1.2km on an 80 main road with no traffic and no bends. However, I agree with the device on one point: "No delays ahead". (See picture below)
Factually, there are two problems:
1. the arrival time usually shows a multiple of delay, without the journey having factored in any delay.
2. the device does not seem to be able to clear some congestion messages on main roads. For example, the Bünztalstrasse (Lenzburg - Wohlen): This has a delay of 50 minutes 365 days a year, although this is actually a maximum of 2 minutes.
Garmin knows about the problem - it has been reported frequently recently. The only option is to wait for another update, or to have it reset by Garmin's repair service = 10 days waiver and send in the device.
No stars for navigation quality, but two for route selection and overview.
Let's move on to the other functions:
The battery is only good for 12V direct operation. The battery is only a support. That's okay, because there is no pedestrian mode. So the device stays in the vehicle anyway. No rating.
The Garmin can read out messages from the mobile phone. That's great when Whatsapp messages arrive. Reading out emails, on the other hand, is an ordeal: the whole sender block, all brackets and dots... Really everything is read out that you don't want to hear until the real text is read out. And this must be written in German.
Too bad: It is not possible to regulate which apps are allowed to send messages. You have to be aware that the phone's battery is used very heavily. User-friendliness: two stars
A hands-free kit is also available. Incomprehensibly, there is no volume control for it. It can only be controlled via the overall volume control: So if you adjust the phone volume, the navigation system will yell at you. User-friendliness: 2 stars.
I miss my completely unprecious Garmin 2595 LMT. It could do a lot less. But it did it properly and sophisticatedly.Pro
- Good route guidance
- Great display
- Clarity
- Reads out messages (German only)
- Hands-free kit
Contra
- Calculates arrival time incorrectly at all times
- No volume control for hands-free function
- No control over which messages are displayed by the mobile phone
- Read out messages in display language only
- Reading out messages by email is a disaster
The latest navigation system with a large screen
Works with smartphone and with DAB.
Pro
- Large, sharp screen
- Very little edge! This makes the device not clunky for the size of the screen.
- Good connectivity options (WLAN, Bluetooth)
- Reacts quickly
- Clear map display
- Everything that makes Garmin so special
- Easily legible street names
Contra
- No 3D elevation profile or whatever it's called, but a beautiful and fluid 3D display.
Highly recommended
A great navigation device for higher demands. Not the fastest, but still acceptable speed when calculating routes.
Pro
- large display
- lifetime map updates
- Hands-free kit included
- good route guidance
Contra
- Display difficult to read in sunlight (convertible)
- a little slow in calculating routes
Wrong and misleading navigation; I will not buy Garmin again
Even the predecessor model had the habit of suddenly wanting to leave the main route when driving through a large town or city and to navigate through impossible side streets and residential areas, possibly ending up in front of a no-passing sign. When I drive home from my supermarket (5 km in the countryside), and then I know the way, the device suddenly wants to turn off onto a side road where no one would ever think of driving through and then promptly ends up next to a manure heap in front of a no-driving sign. I have experienced situations like this with Garmin many times and if you don't know exactly that you are now on the main road and not where the device wants to go, then you end up in nirvana. I have not found any settings on the device where you can specifically avoid such stupid "shortcuts". There is also nothing to set under "Avoidances" that can prevent exactly these misdirections. At most, you can set a certain road under "own avoidances"; but then you have to know the area; and the device still wants to drive through it! It just seems to be unteachable! Turn-off instructions also come much too early and when it says "turn right here" then it is possibly a courtyard entrance and ends in front of the garage doors. The road where you should really turn right is 50m further ahead. You just have to know the area. But then I don't need a sat nav any more to get to my destination!
Pro
- large display
- update via WLAN
Contra
- stupid and idiotic abbreviations that are useless
- Under "own avoidances" you can enter whatever you want, the device does not obey.
Recommendable with minor restrictions
The big advantage of the GARMIN devices is that you can download your own POIs, and for me this is a main criterion for buying an external navigation device. This navi fulfils this 100%. However, searching for your own POIs in the map display is a bit tedious; NAVIGON had clearly solved this better.
The large display is very pleasant, but for this size I would also expect the possibility of displaying more information. Unfortunately, this is not the case, everything is simply larger and certainly easier to read, but that's it. From this point of view, you can make do with a smaller display, as the functionality of the smaller Drive Smart model is the same.
I have also noticed the phenomenon that sometimes the route is deviated from and a route that is not so optimal from the user's point of view is taken, but I can get over that, NAVIGON was more precise in this respect. Also, the settings "Shorter time" or "Shorter route" do not always guide you through a route that I would have chosen. At least, if you are preparing for a route, you can simply adjust the route to your own taste on the map.
For traffic news, a smartphone has to be paired, so it's at the user's expense. Once paired, the navigation device automatically pairs with the smartphone, provided Bluetooth is activated on both. I'm not a fan of this, however, Bluetooth is switched off wherever possible for me, so I have to switch it on separately when driving, which I only do on longer journeys. The advantage of this is that no additional subscription is necessary.
Despite the fact that GARMIN took over NAVIGON some time ago, not all user-friendly features of those navigation systems have been integrated into the GARMIN devices. There is still some potential for improvement.
All in all, however, a decent device and with this display size, the price/performance ratio is OK.Pro
- Large display
- Price / Performance
- x-thousands of own POIs loadable
Contra
- Despite the large screen, no additional information can be displayed or configured.
- not always sensible choice of route
- Somewhat cumbersome search for own POIs
- A smartphone must be paired for traffic reports
6 out of 92 reviews
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