The nüvi 765T introduces 3-D lane assist, 3-D building view, faster screen redraws, route planning, and host of other new enhancements to Garmin's already top-notch nüvi product line. A few grievances aside, the new 7x5T series is a major update from previous nüvi models, and ups the ante in GPS navigation. Physically identical to the nüvi 785T, the 765T uses an included FM traffic receiver instead of the MSN Direct service used on the more expensive 785T.

Navigating With The nüvi 765T

Power on the nüvi 765T, and within a few seconds the Main Menu appears:
GPS satellite strength (Tip: touching and holding this icon brings up a more detailed satellite page)
Bluetooth status
Battery status
Current time (Tap to change time settings)
Where to? - Tap to begin entering a destination
View Map
Volume
Tools menu

Whether navigating to a destination, or simply driving around, you'll spend most of your time with the nüvi 765T looking at the Map Screen, shown above.

The nüvi 765T benefits from an updated map screen design that improves on Garmin's already excellent layout. An upcoming turn indicator has been added - a most welcome addition that now displays the direction of an upcoming turn, or lane guidance information when appropriate. Also updated are the information bar, zoom icons, traffic icon, and the ability to customize the data field in the lower right corner of the map.

Let's take a closer look at the information displayed on the map:
Upcoming Turn Indicator - Displays the direction of the next turn, or lane guidance information when appropriate. Touch this icon to view the Next Turn page, or the Lane Assist page (if available).
Text Bar - This text bar displays the current navigation instruction. Tapping on this bar opens the turn list (a list of all up-coming turns)
Zoom - Touch the plus or minus icon to zoom in and out on the map
Vehicle icon - This customizable icon represents your vehicle on the map. Tapping on the vehicle icons allows you to save your current location (even if there's not a valid street address at your location)
Highlighted Route - The highlighted route is "painted", or marked, in magenta color
Traffic - Displays traffic alerts that will impact your planned route. Touching this icon brings up the Traffic menu.
Speed Limit - When available, the nüvi 765T displays the speed limit for the current road you are driving on
Speed - Displays your current speed. Touch this icon to view the Trip Computer
Menu - Tap the Menu icon to return to the Menu page
Data Field - This customizable data field can be set to display Arrival Time, Distance to Destination, Remaining Drive Time, Direction of Travel, Elevation, or Time of Day

One of the best new additions to the nüvi 765T's Map Screen is the ability to customize what information is displayed in the information bar. Tap the right data field to choose from a list of available information.

The data field can be set to display:
Estimated Time of Arrival
Distance to Destination
Estimated Time to Destination
Direction of Travel
Elevation
Time of Day

I would have liked the ability to customize both the left and right data fields (the left data field can only display your current speed), but this is still a great addition to the Map screen and a level of customization that was previously not available. The upcoming turn indicator (top left on the map screen) now displays lane guidance information, when available. Tapping this icon displays the Next Turn page, or Lane Assist page, shown below.

New to the nüvi 7x5 models, Garmin's new Lane Assist Page automatically appears (where available) when approaching highway intersections. This view realistically displays road signs and junctions on the route, along with a large arrow that indicates the proper lane for navigation.

TomTom, Magellan, and Navigon have all released GPS units with variations of 3D Lane Guidance features, but Garmin's version is the best implementation I've seen yet. The 3-D rendering is visually appealing, and the map angle does a very good job conveying where you'll need to drive. Highway signs depicted in the Lane Assist view mirror the actual signage on the road, further enhancing the usefulness of this feature.

Garmin's Lane Assist page also knows your current lane of travel, and adjusts the 3-D rendering accordingly. So, if you're driving in the right lane, for example, the Lane Assist page might display an arrow saying to merge left and continue on the highway. But if you're already driving in the left lane, Lane Assist would instead display arrows pointing straight ahead.

Leveraging the preloaded digital elevation maps, the nüvi 765T displays the 3-D building view when navigating in some areas. For the most part, 3-D building view is only available in larger urban areas.

The nüvi 765T seems to automatically know when to display solid 3-D building structures, and when it makes more sense to use a transparent 3-D view. I noticed when driving in dense urban environments, like New York City, the nüvi automatically switched to a transparent 3-D view. But when fewer structures were present, or when the map angle permitted, the nüvi displayed solid 3-D buildings instead.

Some structures, such as major museums, buildings, and other landmarks, are more accurately rendered in 3-D building view, and have photo-realistic skins mapped to the 3-D building structure. The 2-D map view, shown above, lets you scroll around the map using your finger to re-center the map. POIs are displayed on the map, and can be navigated to by touching the icon. 3-D landmarks also appear on the 2-D map. Touching the arrow icon in the upper-left area on the map screen switches between 3-D and 2-D maps. Touching the circular arrow rotates the viewing angle in 3-D view.

The Turn List is a list of all upcoming turns. The turn list can be viewed by tapping on the text bar (the horizontal green bar across the top of the Map Screen). Each turn can be selected to view a more detailed view of the turn, or the Lane Assist view if available. Tapping on Speed data field on the Map screen (left bubble on the information bar) brings up the trip information page, shown above. This screen displays a running counter of various statistics about the "trip", or since it was last reset.

A well designed map is essential for any turn-by-turn navigation system. Garmin's map is easy to read, uncluttered, functional, and automatically intelligently adapts to various driving conditions. The automatic zoom feature automatically adjusts the map's zoom level based on your speed and proximity to a given turn.

One of the first things you notice when navigating with the nüvi 765T is the exceptionally fast map frame rate. Garmin says the nüvi 765T can achieve frame rates as fast as 10fps. My testing confirmed frame rates up to 10fps, making the nüvi 765's maximum frame rate roughly 20 times that of the older nüvi 600 series GPS units. The refresh rate of the map page is 10hz. When viewing the map in driving mode, map scrolling can be so smooth it almost reminds one of the sweeping hand of an automatic watch movement.

However, when driving in heavily populated areas like New York and Boston, where the maps are considerably more complex to draw, and the nüvi must also contend with transparent 3-D buildings to render, the frame rate dropped to less than half. Nevertheless, even at its worst, the nüvi 765T is still many times faster at map redraws than any previous Garmin model.

Entering A Street Address

In order to test the nüvi 765T's address entry system and ease of use, I'll enter a destination address in New York City: 135 Central Park West. After powering on the nüvi 765T, the Main Menu screen appears, as shown above. To begin entering a street address, tap "Where to?" from the Main Menu. Most of the time you'll probably be driving to a street address (as opposed to a business name or intersection). After tapping on Where to? from the Main Menu, tap Address to begin entering a street address.

The nüvi 765T automatically defaults to use the State you are currently located in (New York, in this case). If your destination address is in a State other than your current location, tap Change State or Country. I'm entering a destination address in New York City, so I type out N-E-W-space, and the nüvi 765T automatically produces a short list of matching City names to choose from.

Use the on-screen keypad to enter the house or building number of the destination address, and touch Done.The final step in entering the destination address is the street name. I'm entering an address on "Central Park West" in New York City, so I start to spell out C-E-N-T-R-A-L...

When entering a street name, you only enter the main portion of the street name, and allow the GPS to search for possible matches. For example, if you are looking for "North Main" street, you would only enter "Main" as the search criteria, and the GPS would produce a list of matching street names, such as "South Main Street" and "North Main Street". With the address fully entered into the nüvi 765T, the destination can be viewed on the map by tapping Map, saved to the address book by tapping Save, or the nüvi can start driving to the destination by pressing the large green Go! button.

Another new enhancement to the nüvi 765T is the route summary information displayed to the left of the green Go! button. This information box displays after a second or two (it's an animated box that slides out to the left of the Go! button), and shows the current usage mode, total distance, and estimated drive time. Tapping Map in the previous menu displays the destination address on the map, allowing you take a look at the destination address before you start navigating.

A 3-D map of the destination address can be viewed by tapping the arrow icon in the upper-left area of the map screen. Touch the green Go! button and the nüvi 765T begins navigating to the destination address.

Traffic

The nüvi 765T includes free traffic service for the life of the device. The catch? It's ad-based, which means advertisements will periodically appear while using the GPS. The good news is that's not nearly as bad as it sounds, and the ads aren't terribly distracting or annoying. When calculating the route to a destination, the nüvi 765T evaluates current traffic conditions and automatically optimizes the route for the shortest time. If a severe traffic delay occurs on your route while driving to the destination, the nüvi 765T automatically recalculates a new route to avoid the problem.

The nüvi 765T can receive traffic alerts using the included GTM 20 FM Traffic receiver, or via Garmin's optional MSN Direct receiver. The 765T's included receiver provides free, ad-sponsored traffic alerts, while the optional MSN Direct receiver requires an annual subscription, or a lifetime activation fee of around $130. Once the traffic receiver is connected to the 765T, traffic service is enabled and the GPS is ready to begin receiving alerts. Note that unlike previous nüvis, the 765T doesn't require a subscription or activation. Just connect the receiver and you're ready to go.

If a traffic alert is received that will impact the planned route, the traffic icon changes color to indicate the severity of the traffic conditions on your route:
Green = Traffic is flowing normally
Yellow = Traffic is slightly congested
Red = Traffic is heavily congested or stopped

The traffic icon also displays how much time the delay has added to the trip. Non-severe traffic alerts won't cause the nüvi to find an alternate route, but you can still see how much of a delay the traffic will cause. The nüvi 765T automatically attempts to avoid severe traffic when an alert is received. However, you can also manually avoid certain traffic conditions by touching Avoid on the details page for a given incident.

The Traffic page allows you to view traffic conditions the following ways:
Show Traffic Map - displays traffic conditions on the map. You can manually scroll around and see all traffic incidents on the map
Traffic Search - lists all traffic delays that have been received, sorted by distance from your current location
Traffic on Route - displays the traffic incidents along the current planned route

Touching Traffic Search displays a list of all traffic alerts that have been received, listed in order of closeness to your location. More details can be viewed for each incident by tapping on the alert. The Traffic on Route page displays the current traffic alerts that have been received along your planned route. Ads occasionally appeared on the Main Menu in a small, horizontal blue box across the top of the screen. They seemed to only appear once per use, when the unit was first powered on, and never appeared on the Main Menu again until the unit was powered off and on again.

Tapping on an ad initiates a POI search for the relevant business. In this case, tapping on the Wells Fargo ad causes the nüvi to search for nearby Wells Fargo banks. Ads can also show up during a POI search, and are contextual based on the type of POI you're searching for. For example, when searching for a hotel, the nüvi displayed an ad for Ramada hotels.

On occasion, the nüvi displays coupon ads for discounts at nearby businesses. For example, while I was driving near a BP gas station, an ad for BP appeared on the map screen. Touching the ad brought up the coupon details screen, shown above. Touching the area inside the dotted line searches for nearby BP gas stations.

Canceling A Route

Tapping on the Menu button while navigating to an address brings up the Main Menu, shown above. From here, you can stop routing to the destination by tapping on Stop, or detour around a problem area by (such as a traffic jam or closed road) by tapping on Detour.

Including the Stop button on the Main Menu is a nice feature. I've tested a lot of GPS devices over the years, and have found that canceling a route can be a surprisingly difficult task. For example, looking at the menu on a TomTom GPS, it looks like there's no way to cancel the route at all (you can make this option appear by switching the TomTom to "Advanced" mode, but under the default menu there's simply no way to cancel the current route).

In my testing I found the detour function worked adequately, although there are no options for specifying how far you want to avoid the current problem, or ability to choose from a list of alternate routes, or exclude specific roads from the trip. But it does provide a quick and easy way to get off the current road if you run into a problem.

GPS Reception Performance

Garmin no longer discloses which GPS chipset they use in their devices. The nüvi 765T I tested used a chipset provided by MediaTek.  The nüvi 765T's chipset performed better than the SiRF StarIII equipped nüvi 660, both indoors and out. The nüvi 765T generally performed slightly better than the SiRF StarIII equipped nüvi 660, and much better than the nüvi 265WT, which was considerably less sensitive than either the 765T or the much older nüvi 660.  Testing revealed that the more expensive 7x5 series is using a higher performance GPS receiver than the 265WT.  Indoor, outdoor, and in-vehicle test results consistently showed the nüvi 765T's GPS receiver is more sensitive than either the 265WT's or nüvi 660's.

Conclusion

The nüvi 705 series replaces the nüvi 700 series, and offers a number of significant improvements. Compared to the older nüvi 760, the 765T offers:
Free lifetime traffic
Lane assist
3-D buildings
Faster route calculations
HotFix for faster GPS acquisition times
Faster screen refresh rate that makes map scrolling much smoother

Several new map screen enhancements make the 765T easier to navigate with than it's predecessor, the nüvi 760. The nüvi 765T now displays an upcoming turn indicator on the map screen, and can also show arrival time, remaining drive time, remaining distance, direction of travel, or the current time.

The 765T's new 3-D Lane Assist renders upcoming highway exits in almost photographic detail, and does indeed make complex highway intersections much easier to negotiate. But 3-D data it isn't yet available for most highway intersections, and 3-D Lane Assist only appeared once and a great while. No doubt this will improve over time, as NAVTEQ (Garmin's mapping provider) continues to build out its 3D database).

Transparent 3-D buildings and photo-realistic landmarks, available when driving in larger cities, bring a new level of realism to the map screen. And speed limit information is also displayed on the map, when available.

Traffic alerts are displayed in an intuitive way, and it's now possible to view traffic conditions along the planned route, as well as in surrounding areas (this isn't possible on the nüvi 760).

Physically, the nüvi 765T is identical to the 755T and 785T. Elegant and simple, all 705-series models share the same 4.3-inch widescreen display, and black rubber-coated case. A headphone jack and SD memory card slot allow the nüvi 765T to function as a basic mp3 player with expandable storage, and an internal FM transmitter can pipe audio through your vehicle's stereo system.