I purchased this product from Amazon when planning my move from Maine to Virginia, a drive of over 600 miles. I had made the drive down once before using the aforementioned Garmin 200, and after seeing how invaluable the GPS proved to be in the first case, I decided I needed one for myself.

The nuvi 260 is widescreen, and has considerably more screen real estate than does the nuvi 200. You don’t really notice too much while you are just viewing the map, since most of the detail is concentrated in the middle of the screen anyways. It does make text entry easier – the widescreen is a better analogue to a standard keyboard, and by default the touch screen keyboard is laid out in QWERTY style. You can switch it back to alphabetical if you wish, but I found the QWERTY to be instantly usable.

The other main distinction between the 260 and 200, and more generally between it and the cheaper models, is the text to speech feature. What this means in laymen’s terms is that instead of saying “Turn right in 400 yards”, it says “Turn right on Wendy Lane in 400 yards”, or “Arriving at Best Buy on right” as opposed to “Arriving at destination on right.” Hearing the streets announced is very helpful; when driving through crowded urban areas, there are often multiple streets in quick succession, so knowing you have a turn in 400 yards isn’t always very helpful. Hearing the name of the street ensures you make the turn. I have definitely missed turns or made the wrong turn before when using the nuvi 200; that has not yet happened with this 260 model. The voice is slightly robotic, but it’s not distractingly bad.

Finally, I just want to say that this has been invaluable for my move, not just for getting me down to Virginia safe and sound. Half of its utility has come after I arrived. When you are in a new area and without Internet access, it’s very hard to know where things are. With this unit, you can browse nearby attractions, e.g. the local library, without knowing specifically what you are looking for. Not only does it then show you the way there, but it also lists the phone number for said locations. Again, when you are without Internet and telephone book, this feature is priceless.

I wish this featured traffic integration out of the box; I believe you need to get the nuvi 255 or similar unit for that. In general it’s very hard to understand the numbering convention that Garmin uses for its products. Higher doesn’t necessarily mean more advanced.

If you do a lot of driving but don’t absolutely need traffic routing, get this unit. You won’t be disappointed.