The new philosophy of the assisted navigation is to have multimedia tools more and more complete and versatile. Garmin also follows this trend, with a complete system to travel. The complete endowment is: navigator with eco-leather case, complete multilingual manuals, USB cable for the computer connection, suction cap for car glass, adhesive disk for fixing on the dashboard, car power supply.
The cartography of the Italian territory is preinstalled in the internal memory of the navigator, so there is no danger to loose the data in case of accidental system reset.
 

The appearance of the nüvi 310 is very compact, similar to a PDA computer. Also the weight of about 140 grams, makes it easily transportable in a breast-pocket. Reduced dimensions do not prejudice from having a well readable display in any light condition and a perfect satellite reception. When one talks about Garmin, one talks about one of the world leaders in the assisted navigation, famous in the world for the precision of its tools. The quality of the audio is also well audible without distortions, despite the reduced dimensions of the loudspeaker. The SD cards slot opens the doors to the multimedia and allows the user to have music and images with her/him.

Press for some seconds the power button and the screen goes on. The disposition of the icons on the display is intuitive, after few minutes everyone is able to sail without problems in the various menu items. During the satellites acquisition, the reached accuracy degree and the position of visible satellites is shown. As we can see in the images, remarkable theoretical precisions are reach, this translates into an indication very near the road cartography. The reception also takes place without problems with the cloudy sky or in rain case and keeps sufficient in the alleys of old city centres (where houses obscure the visibility of the satellites). Whereas present (see the box below) is possible to activate the error corrections system WAAS/EGNOS to obtain very high precisions.

The exact time is taken directly by the satellites, so it is very precise. This characteristic, not present in other navigators, has a positive impact on the calculations of the times of way and the measures done by the trip computer. The cartography is shown with clearness and wealth of points of interest. The streets detail and the quality of the shown paths is well readable, with auto zoom functions and 3D views always adequate.

The touch screen is fast and precise with a good anti glare treatment. Day/night visualizations are also well done, with a more than sufficient brightness. The audio is well perceptible, with a good impact also at maximum volume and a series of vocal indications rich of details and close to the trip.

	From the start screen, we can access to the three menu sections to manage the various function aspects. An icon series helps the user in the choice of the available functions. All the menus are well translated into the various available languages. Functions concerning the POI (Points Of Interest) are complete and well structured. A very useful function is the possibility of inserting the geographic coordinates of a place (latitude and longitude), so as find it on the map. All the navigators should have this function aboard.

The Travel Kit menu is very rich of functions, starting from the dictionary for foreign languages to the guide of the resorts to visit. Also the audiobook reading function is comfortable to enjoy the pleasure of reading without diverting the look. To complete the accessories an MP3 player, a picture viewer with slideshow capabilities, a valid worl dclock with the time zones, two converters and the always useful pocket calculator. These accessories become indispensable as soon as one starts using them and do the difference among various GPS navigators.
 

The GPS system is based on a satellite web in orbit (you can find a deepening in my review on TomTom Mobile: http://www.marcodesalvo.com/recensione_tomtom5.htm)
Signals coming from the satellites are disturbed by numerous atmospheric factors degrading the precision and causing signal losses.
To have a high precision was invented the america system WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) that uses geostationary satellites and terrestrial radio stations to correct the position errors introduced by the GPS satellites. When the navigator hooks the WAAS system, the reachable precision is up to 2 meters, sufficient to land a plane without pilot!
The European system equivalent to the WAAS, calleds EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System) offers the same precision characteristics. An Asiatic system (MSAS) also exists but it covers a more reduced zone and is not hooked by the Garmin.
To recognize the new WAAS or EGNOS satellites, the navigator needs about 15 minutes of time, during them is necessary stop in a zone with a wide sky visibility.

During the driving is easy to distract if one concentrates the attention on the navigation menu. The Secure Mode prevents from these carelessnesses: the system hooks the speed of the vehicle and allows to work only to stationary vehicle (speed 0 Km/h).
Other element of big usefulness is the Garmin Lock, an antitheft system based on a PIN code (in a way analogous on the mobile phones) that prevents from the use in theft case. Is also possible to communicate to Garmin the theft of a navigator so as any form of technical assistance or repair in Europe is blocked forever. The Italian link for this service is:
http://www.garmin.it/supporto_unita_rubate.php


On the side of the usability, the nüvi 310 has a good graphics and route planning in line with its competitors. One can choose route preferences concerning the kind of vehicle (car, on foot, truck, etc.), the more less time, to the shorter distance, set up ways to stages and realtime look for alternatives.
The Trip Computer offers a complete visualization of all the journey parameters, well organized and readable.
The cartography can be set on several levels of detail and zoom. Textual routes are shown in a clear and well organized way.
The representation of our vehicle is of big effect (almost as a videogame) and one can download from the Internet personalized vehichles with real 3D sights.

The traffic information service is based on the TMC channel (Traffic Message Channel) present in the RDS data of the radio. To receive these pieces of information is needed an FM radio kit that must be tuned to the stations offering the service. Is a good practice to ask Garmin the effective coverage and availability of this free service.

The Garmin nüvi 310 is Plug & Play device. It connects to the computer with the USB cable and in a few seconds it is recognized. In presence of an SD card in the expansion slot, the relative icon is also shown. The navigation of the memory of the device is well structured, with a set of folders containing the varoius multimedia files. Is also present the instruction manual in Acrobat format.

The cartography and POI updates, are made with specific system utilities. For the POI we can use PoiLoader, for the cartography is possible to work with MapSource. Direct links for this software are present at the end of the review.

A good product for the assisted navigation, provided with useful multimedia, with excellent satellites reception characteristics.
Waiting for a future where all the mobile phones will have their satellite navigator, the nüvi 310 as a faithful companion of journey for all seasons.
In the following some useful links:

Corporate Homepage:
http://www.garmin.com/

Garmin Italy:
http://www.garmin.it/

American page of nüvi 310:
http://www.garmin.com/products/nuvi310/

Italian page of nüvi 310:
http://www.garmin.it/prodotti.php?codice=GN310

Compatibility Bluetooth phone list for the handsfree system of nüvi 310. Select the phone's brand and the model. Click on GO button to view the compatibility specifications.
http://www.garmin.com/bluetooth/phones.jsp

Available accessories and international maps:
http://www.garmin.it/accessori.php?codice=GN310

Software updates in italian:
http://www.garmin.it/software.php?codice=GN310

FAQ in italian (very good quality):
http://www.garmin.it/faq.php?codice=GN310

Personalized vehicles installation:
http://www.garmin.com/vehicles/index.jsp

MapSource, software for electronic maps management:
http://www.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209

POI loader, utility to load third party POIs:
http://www.garmin.com/products/poiloader/