With SatNavs taking a hit by converged Smartphone manufactures such as HTC & Google Android, its understandable that Garmin have unleashed a device into the market that almost looks like a certain Apple product we all know and love.
Design
Placing the device side by side next to an iPhone or iPod Touch for example you can certainly see the similarities, even more so when you realise the 4.3” display (which has a resolution of 800 x 480) features an accelerometer and multi-touch controls. However regardless of this the 3790T is certainly one sexy piece of kit!
Weighing in at 113g it looks fantastic, with a brush metal finish at the back and an ultra thin profile. As a result of this it feels great to hold when manipulating the interface or when navigating on foot.
At the back of the device you will also find a speaker grill which provides ample audio quality when used in the car, yet the car cradle mount does have its own external speaker which improves the quality further.
Interface
For those who have used a Garmin before you will be familiar with their trademark 'Where to' and 'View map' opening interface. However Garmin have added subtle improvements, such as the seamless transition from portrait to landscape mode via the accelerometer. Manipulating the map view also benefits from the multi-touch pinch controls, for zooming in or scrolling through the various options.
Features
You will even find a handy route planner enclosed and the standard support for Extras (3rd party software to enhance the product such as Garmins own CityXplorer), as well as geo-tagged image navigation, POI (you can add your own and choose an icon to mark the point on the map) and ecoRoute (fuel saving tools). But the gem of the crop is the addition of its new Voice control system.
Voice control is a useful safety feature as it allows you to keep your hands on the wheel when driving. However most of the voice systems we have used in the past don’t quite work in the way they should do, for example you still need to press the screen to bring up the function and then repeatedly press the screen when it exists out of an option.
Garmin though have developed a system that works as it should do, as you can program in a voice activated phrase to control the device from any screen.......
Just speak the phrase and it brings up a list of commands that you can scroll up and down with using your voice. This works pretty effectively within the car at most noise levels, though you need to remember to speak nice and clear. Also we liked that Garmin’s system doesn’t bomb you out of functions until you are ready, i.e. you have total control over when you want to exit an option.
Bluetooth hands free is also onboard and this works alongside the above voice control system. We could use it to dial numbers from our contacts list (the Garmin also pulls over call history) and dial new numbers, though this process is a little bit more long winded when speaking individual numbers - its faster to speak them quickly and naturally.
As for call quality (we paired up the Garmin to our iPhone), despite having a touch of echo at the start and end of the call, the Gamin’s reception cleared quickly and both recipients could hear each other loud and clear – especially at our end as we had the benefit of the loud speaker placed at the back of the car cradle.
What no Live services?!
This is something that concerned us at first when we discovered that the 3790T did not feature the same Live services as its cousin the 1690. Instead you get an older life-time pan European subscription to its TMC traffic service, which in all fairness at least cuts out the ongoing costs that a Live subscription would warrant.
Unfortunately performance form the TMC highlighted one of the reasons why it is not such an effective platform – compared to HD. Traffic accuracy was hit and miss with several false reports being mixed in with accurate ones.
Still its default camera database proved more effective than most SatNavs out the box, by picking up all cameras on our test route.
Routing Performance
Out on the road the Garmin could pick up our location pretty quickly and whilst the Gamin’s display lacked the same level of directional aids found on the Navigon range, its WVGA display looked vibrant, with the street names easy to view and its text-to-speech voice directions were crystal clear also.
It also features a new motorway lane guidance system called PhotoReal Junction view, which for us offered a more realistic views of the junctions we approached.
One area that has improved - more than anything - was the route efficiency. Garmin like to call this nuRoutes which works in a similar way to Navigon and TomTom's myRoutes/IQ Routes technology. Out on the road we did notice an improvement to routing, with the device directing to paths that we ourselves would go on, so top marks to Garmin for this.
As well as the above you also have ecoRoute fuel saving tools, which work after you’ve keyed in some car specific details, such as the price of petrol and your vehicles city/motorway mpg. the software will start to amass reports about your journey (including the cost of fuel) which can then be viewed back on the device or via Excel.
Basic fuel costs can also be displayed before you set off on a journey.
Note: Garmin provide the latest map gurantee policy, so you allways get the latest maps, the ones installed on the device were City Navigator Europe NT 2011.
