Garmin nuvi 2699LMT HD 6'' GPS Lifetime Maps & HD Traffic (Renewed)

Substantial upgrade from the Garmin GPS I had previously. Display is very clear and the voice direction is great. Locked up on me once but a quick turn off and restart and everything was right as rain. I was able to easily transfer all my saved locations from my old Garmin GPS too. No complaints yet and I just got back from Florida where it was used pretty much everyday. Voice command takes some getting used to but once you learn the best way to give the voice commands it works great without having to draw your attention away from driving. Virtually hands free operation. Very happy with this purchase.

Very nice upgrade from my Nuvi 660. Following in my comparison:Best Specification include: 1. Screen Size is excellent. Going from a 4.3" to a 6" display is incredible. 2. Thin profile. The 660 was shaped like a brick. 2699 is shaped more like a smart phone. 3. No antenna to put up. Do not have to fold up an antenna to get GPS. 4. Antenna is much stronger. Turning both on at the same time, the 2699 boots right up ready to go. The 660 asks me if I am indoors. 5. No case for the 2699. At least the 660 came with a leather case. 6. Maps no longer fit on 660. I have to install them to an SD card. Funny thing is that my new 2699 reports 79% full in Garmin Express. That seems like a lot for a system that was just purchased. I worry about expansion room.Capabilities: 1) I basically bought the 2699 for lane assist. After going to Wisconsin and missing several exits because of poor instruction by the 660, I decided I had to purchase. So far it is great! No more having to "Recalculate" every time I am on the wrong side of the road. 2) 2699 shows you which way you will turn next. 660 was only voice prompted. 3) Voice navigation is so nice. 4) Touch screen with finger scrolling and zoom is a welcome change. 660 was just out of date in the area. I was forever trying to scroll through screens with my finger. 5) Having speed limit of roads showing is very nice. Especially when your speed display turns red because you are going too fast. 6) Warning indicator of School zones is good. 7) Customizable display to show upcoming items and such 8) Multiple routes to select from is very nice. 9) Asking if you want to avoid Toll roads rather than just avoiding them. We wasted 30 minutes being routed around in Orlando to avoid a Toll road. If I had the 2699 then, I could have skipped that aggravation. 10) Customizable avoidances. Now I can avoid roads and neighborhoods. Will definitely keep me out of trouble.Areas I was not impressed: 1)SMARTLINK APP is aggravating. Sometimes it works. Great idea with terrible execution by Garmin. 2) Integration with Foursquare is odd. With huge companies like TripAdvisor, why integrate with a company no one knows? 3) Traffic notification. I have HD Traffic but have no idea if it works. I will need to travel to a big city to find out if it is any good. Why can't it integrate with items like WAZE that have real users constantly updating road conditions. 4) Using it as a speaker for phone calls. Just like the 660 this is obsolete and useless. You can hear and communicate much better on a Bluetooth earpiece that runs a fraction of the cost. 5) Automatic volume. I have not heard it make any changes according to environment. 6) No capability to broadcast through my cars Bluetooth. I know, my 660 did not either, but this seems like such a blatant miss by Garmin. Heck, even the cheapest Bluetooth phone does that.Areas I am looking forward to trying out: 1) Trip planning - Finally I can have multiple waypoints. Looking forward to trying it out. 2) Trying out the new navigation mode of "Less fuel". No more just Faster time or shorter distance.

The 2699 LMTHT is a good Navigation unit but it doesn't find a lot of the addresses I enter so I have to use Google Maps on my phone instead. Once I arrive at the location I will save it to my Garmin so it is in there for next time but that kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it.. The voice command it basically pointless. Out of the 20 times I have searched for something using voice command it actually found the address 1 time so I find it much quicker to just type in the address the old school way "and hope it finds it"The 6" unit is pretty big so the suction cup tends to pop off the windshield quite a bit. This is one of those situations where bigger is not always better. Stick with the 2599 or another 5" unit it will be plenty big enough.The old school mini USB power plug on the back is ridiculous.. Everything I own from my phone to my Bluetooth earpiece uses a micro USB plug so it would be nice to be able to use the same power cord for everything but NO I have to use the nice, neat micro USB bungee cord for my phone, etc and this long, always in the way, mini plug for the one thing that sits right in the middle of my dash. Not to mention from what I have read the Garmin has to have this particular plug otherwise it won't work properly.I know it is impossible to make everyone happy with everything but some of these issues just seem like no brainers. It does what it is suppose to do 50% of the time therefore I gave it 3 stars. I still find myself using my phone GPS more than my Garmin but I guess it's just out of convenience and I know it'll find the location quickly.

This review is for a refurbished 2699LMTHD sold by Dave Parkers and fulfilled by Amazon. It came with a TA20 "basic" power cable (i.e. didn't have a blob with electronics in the wire.) I've just had it a day but it seems to be working fine and in particular receives HD traffic just fine, which I mention because it's easy to find reviews and blogs that state theirs doesn't work because a "special" power cable with an HD receiver in it is necessary, not the TA20.Some people say there was a first-generation 2699LMTHD with those issues, and then Garmin put the HD receiver inside the GPS unit itself without changing the model number. Bad job, if it's true. If you buy one today you may not be sure which version you're getting.Garmin also doesn't make it easy to tell if you're receiving HD traffic or basic traffic. If you want to check a new unit I think the quickest test is to tap the 'weather' button on the setup page - I'm reasonably sure that's a feature of the HD traffic channel.Mine also works with the BC-30 backup camera. (The BC-30 does require a special power cable, labeled "BC30", so wouldn't work for an older 2699 that also required a (different) special cable.)