Chock full of features, easy to use and reasonably priced. The Garmin Nuvi 2460LT is one of the company’s better offerings to date. Strangely enough, it’s got features that aren’t offered in some of their higher end, more expensive devices.
Features
The 5 inch screen on the unit is the first thing you would notice, with the increased display area showing a neat, no-frills arrangement of menu elements and clear 3D views of the routes. At around $299 (a more patient search online will get you a better bargain) it’s hard to pass up, and comes preloaded with maps of the US, Canada and Mexico, a suction cup car mount, power cable and a USB connector. But dig deeper and the features included with the Garmin Nuvi 2460LT will get you wondering how you could’ve possibly done without them for so long. There’s a voice command interface similar to the higher 3000 series from Garmin. It’s activated by a customizable phrase, and from there you can select items in the menu or set a destination, all without taking your hands off the steering wheel. The unit can also pair with a Bluetooth-equipped cellular phone and act as a hands free unit.
Safety features include Lane Assist, which takes the guess work out of changing lanes, and Junction View which will give the driver a better idea of how the road ahead is laid out. The unit also knows the speed limits on major roads and will warn the driver visually when these limits are reached.
The unit can also tell you which streets are clogged with traffic through an FM traffic receiver and free lifetime traffic updates. Moreover, it can also actually learn traffic trends along commonly travelled routes then suggest alternative streets accordingly. If that’s not enough, through its myTrends predictive routing feature, the Garmin Nuvi 2460LT quickly learns routine destinations (like home, school and work) and will automatically plot the route and give an estimated arrival time.
It can also help save on gas by giving more economical routing choices, giving an estimation of trip costs and report mileage. There’s also a nifty multi-destination option where the device will plot out the best or most economical route.
Cons
A few bugs have been reported by users. One was the noticeable hesitation of a few seconds when a route is changed on the fly, which sometimes takes a few seconds to be recomputed. This may be attributed to the extra processing resources needed by the “learning” and predictive features. The free lifetime traffic update feature is ad-driven, and some have found the appearance of extra texts on screen to be distractive, although admittedly, the advertisements are displayed only during stops. The Junction View, while stellar in most big cities, fell short of displaying accurate information for smaller inner roads. Also, sound quality of calls made through the device’s speakers via Bluetooth could be improved.
Conclusion
It’s hard not to recommend the Garmin Nuvi 2460LT. The sheer list of new features and useable functions coupled with competitive pricing more than justify the purchase of the unit.