The Garmin nuvi 1250 will
get you around North America or Europe

Overview

The Garmin nuvi 1250 easily fits in your pocket and won’t stretch your wallet either.

At an affordable MSRP of $149 you’ll get the necessary basics to navigate to your destination. Thanks to regional preloaded maps of either North America or Europe and its slim design with a 3.5” TFT color screen, it’s an extremely portable GPS system just may be the best GPS for you. The Garmin nuvi 1250 includes text to speech enabling the GPS to announce streets by name. In addition it offers pedestrian navigation options and includes ecoRout e™. which calculates a more fuel-efficient route to your destination. With the purchase of a traffic receiver, you can get up-to-date traffic information allowing you to bypass traffic slow-downs or tie-ups.

The Garmin nuvi 1250 redefines portable, affordable navigation. This thin nuvi GPS has preloaded maps for North America or Europe, announces streets by name, offers pedestrian navigation options and calculates a more fuel-efficient route with ecoRoute™.

Pedestrian Navigation

If you are a stranger in a big city the Garmin nuvi 1250 is the perfect travel companion.

With its enhanced pedestrian navigation capabilities, it’s perfect for getting around town. Download optional cityXplorer™. content to help you navigate city public transit. Know where to walk, where to catch the bus, subway, tram or other transportation and how long it will take to get there. CityXplorer maps are available for select cities throughout North America and Europe. And with prices as low as $9.99, you'll have money left over to spend in the big city.

Portability

Twenty-five percent slimmer than other Garmin nuvi GPS , you can take the Garmin nuvi 1250 anywhere. It easily fits in your pocket or purse, and its rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot.

Get Turn-by-Turn Directions

The Garmin nuvi 1250 has an intuitive interface which greets you with two simple questions: "Where To?" and "View Map." Touch the color screen to easily look up addresses and services and get voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions that speak street names to your destination. This safety feature allows you to keep your eyes on the road while getting instructions on where to go. It comes preloaded with City Navigator® NT street maps for North America or Europe. This nuvi GPS has nearly 6 million points of interest (POIs) and 2-D or 3-D maps. The Garmin nuvi 1250 includes digital elevation maps which show you shaded contours at higher zoom levels, giving you a big picture of the surrounding terrain. With the its’ enhanced user interface, you can slide your finger to conveniently scroll between screens similar to the new smart phones.

But Wait! There’s More

Navigation is just the beginning. The Garmin nuvi GPS 1250 saves you gas and money with ecoRoute — a green feature that calculates the most fuel-efficient route, tracks fuel usage and more. The Garmin nuvi GPS 1250 includes many travel tools, including JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. With photo navigation, you can download pictures from Garmin Connect™ Photos. and navigate to them. It's also compatible with lifetime traffic alerts (receiver purchase required).

With the nuvi GPS "Where Am I?" feature emergency locator, you always know your location. Simply tap the screen to get your exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and fuel stations. The Garmin nuvi features Garmin Lock™, an anti-theft feature, and is compatible with our free Garmin Garage™. where you can download custom voices and vehicles. You can also purchase “after market” voices. to add to you Garmin nuvi 1250. Enhance your travel experience with optional plug-in microSD™ cards. The microSD card is not supplied with the nuvi GPS and must be purchased separately.

If you are like me, you may want to get detailed information on how the Garmin nuvi 1250 operates. I have found that the operators manual is a great source of information. Just click on Garmin nuvi 1250 manual. and you can view the operator’s manual for these automotive GPS units.

Features:

• Voice prompts (e.g. "Turn right in 500 ft."): yes (internal speaker)
• Auto re-route (fast off-route and detour recalculation): yes
• Choice of route setup (faster time, shorter distance, off road): yes
• Route avoidance (avoid highways, tolls etc.): yes
• FM traffic compatible: yes
• MSN® Direct compatible: yes
• Speed limit indicator (displays speed limit for most major roads in the U.S. and Europe): yes
• Where Am I? (find closest hospitals, police & gas stations, nearest address & intersection): yes
• ecoRoute™ (calculates a more fuel-efficient route) : yes
• Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest): yes
• Garmin Garage™ vehicles compatible (download car-shaped icons to your device): yes
• Garmin Garage™ voices compatible (download custom voices to your device): yes
• Photo navigation (navigate to geotagged photos): yes
• World travel clock, currency & unit converter, calculator: yes
• Picture viewer: yes
• Garmin Lock™ (anti-theft feature): yes
• Touchscreen: yes

NOTE: This nuvi mass storage device is compatible with Windows® XP or newer and Mac® OS X 10.4 or later.

Car GPS Reviews

Garmin nuvi 1250 Specifications

Introduced: March 2009
Unit dimensions: WxHxD: 3.7"W x 2.9"H x .6"D
Display size: WxH: 2.8"W x 2.1"H; 3.5" diag
Display resolution: WxH: 320 x 240 pixels
Display type: QVGA color antiglare TFT with white backlight
Weight: 4.0 ounces
Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion
Battery life: up to 4 hours
Waterproof: no
High-sensitivity receiver: yes
RoHS version available: yes

What's in the Box:

* nüvi 1250
* Preloaded City Navigator® NT for North America or Europe (full coverage)
* Vehicle suction cup mount
* Vehicle power cable
* Dashboard disc
* Quick start manual

Note: The state of Minnesota prohibits the installation of portable GPS units on the windshield of your vehicle.

Owner Reviews

Amazon: Garmin nuvi 1250 reviews

By Eric Jain, April 28, 2010

Got this to replace an old nüvi 260 after its power switch broke (looks like the sliding power switch has been replaced by a push button, hope it's less fragile). The new model feels much snappier than the old model (e.g. less lag after tapping buttons on the screen, and more frequent screen updates while navigating). The old model would sometimes take ages to find satellites; hasn't happened with the new model, so far.

My favorite two new features are tracklogs (which can be copied and uploaded), and the indication of the current speed limit. I also like the topographic information that is shown on maps, but it's only visible when zoomed out far. First thing I did was update the software and maps. Took a while, but worked without a glitch (on Windows). Note that a cable is not included, but the device has a standard mini-USB port.

One of the things I liked least with the old model was scrolling around the map with the touch screen. Somehow they managed to make it even worse with the new model; the map jumps all over the place. On the other hand the touch screen works fine for typing and selecting options. Zooming in and out now uses an animation, but the device isn't really powerful enough to do that smoothly (and there doesn't appear to be a way to disable that).

There is also still no easy way to select from multiple routes; if you don't like the proposed route, you can either go into the settings and change from e.g. "fastest route" to "most fuel efficient" and see what that does (tedious), or you can create a waypoint to force an alternate route (only one is allowed, so that won't work in all cases).

The area were the name of the street or intersection at the next turn is shown has shrunk a bit, and when your next turn is "Exit 127: Yadda-Yadda Street to Hwy 66", the text (including the exit number) is too small to read while driving. Might not be an issue on models with a larger screen (and of course you can use the text to speech function to avoid having to read anything off the device).

TestFreaks

By mkmitch, Mar 5, 2010

I wanted a simple to use GPS that would help me on my business travel, since my cheap company stoppped paying for GPS with rental cars. This one is perfect.. It's easy to operate (rather intuitive), just the right size to pack in my brief case, or to leave in my own car. The only thing I didn't like was the windshield mount; but no big deal I bought a dash mount kit for about $13,00 that works great, and is also easy enough to pack when traveling by air. I just got back from a driving trip this afternoon - I used the GPS to get me to an unfamiliar place and back, find my hotel, find resturants, and gas staions. I didn't get lost once! The price was great. I am very happy with this purchase.

By duvetreviewer, Dec 22, 2009

I LOVE this little gadget. I have waited for a couple of years to see the prices go down and the technology get better and I am really glad I did. I debated about whether or not to get the larger screen but since you can't really look at it while you are driving it doesn't really matter how large the screen is. You can change the languages and setting favorites is a breeze. I definitely would reccommend this product!

Garmin nuvi 1250 Owner Ratings

Amazon

16 reviews
5 star = 7
4 star = 4
3 star = 2
2 star = 1
1 star = 2

TestFreaks: 26 reviews, 9.4 out of possible 10

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