UPDATE: Read our Garmin nuvi 260 review
Garmin today announced the newest member of the entry level nuvi 200-series, the Garmin nuvi 260. The 260 will offer all the features of the Garmin nuvi 250, adding text-to-speech to the mix, so it will say "turn right on Main Street" instead of "turn right in 200 feet."
Like other members of the nuvi 200 series, the Garmin nuvi 260 will have a 3.5" wide screen and the new internal antenna. If you want an MP3 player or the option to add live traffic, you'll need to move up to the 300 series. To compare other nuvi models, check out our Garmin nuvi comparison chart.
The Garmin nuvi 260 is slated to be available this month at a suggested retail price of $499.99, though we expect to see that discounted $100 or more.
What's next for the nuvi series? Perhaps Garmin will announce a wide-screen nuvi 260W a little later this fall.
I expect there will be huge discounting from the MSRP for the 260, with a street price below that of the Nuvi 350. Otherwise the only competition for the Nuvi 260 will be Garmin itself. The Nuvi 350 is an immensely popluar product right now. It can be bought online for about $360. Currently the 260 sells for for $450. Why would a customer pay more for a product (the 260) with less features? The 260 is basically a 350 minus the audio player, flip-up antennae, and optional traffic info ability.
I have been waiting for Garmin to come out with a 200 series model with a text-to-speech feature, as I hate the flip-up antennae in the 300 series. It is a pain to use, plus is a weak link, in that it will certainly break one day.
Posted by: Jeff Schillinger | August 19, 2007 at 08:33 AM
Is this unit comaptible with MacIntosh Computers
Posted by: Philippe Leibzig | November 28, 2007 at 06:06 PM
Not fully. Although it's easy to use a nuvi without ever hooking it up to a computer. Garmin is working on making MapSource Mac compatible, but isn't fully there yet. There are some posts on their blog about it here...
http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/applemac/index.html
Posted by: Rich Owings | November 28, 2007 at 06:17 PM