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Garmin’s interface is a key to their success and one of the things that makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip.

The nüvi 800s aren’t the first GPS navigators to offer voice recognition, but the level of flexibility they offer sets a new standard for simple and intuitive use.

The device comes with a little remote control that mounts on your steering wheel. It has two buttons. One is, “listen.” The other is, “stop listening”. Hit the “listen” button to start voice recognition. Then you can speak any of the words that appear on the display, and the device will understand, or you can ask questions based on most points of interest. Say, “find nearest Italian restaurant,” for example, and you’ll get a list of nearby spots. Say “go to” and name of the one you want, and you get turn-by-turn directions to dinner. The nüvi 880 also knows the names of many large business brands, so you can just say, “find place, Starbucks,” if that’s your coffee mojo.

Of course, if you know the address you want to go to, you can say that too, and the nüvi will give you directions, all without having to reach over to the dashboard and touch it.

Speech recognition is available for American English, British English, European French, European Spanish, German, Italian, and Netherlands Dutch languages.

Check out a full description of MSN Direct content features, or a coverage map for MSN Direct services.

A 3-month subscription to MSN Direct is included with the device. After that, subscription fees are $49.95 per year, or $129.95 for a lifetime subscription.

The widescreen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are more widely spaced and somewhat easier to push.

In addition, nüvi accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs

Important note about map updates: Due to our high volume of sales, almost every Garmin portable GPS navigator sold by Amazon.com will come with the most recent map version. If you ever do need a map update, you can purchase one from Amazon.com at our Garmin Store.

Navigation is just the beginning. The nüvi 880 features travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, MP3 player, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and configurable vehicle icons that let you select car-shaped graphics to show your location on the map.

This device is compatible with optional content plug-ins available via microSD card, such as the Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs

note that the 800 series is unique among nüvis, in that the 800s use microSD cards, where all other nüvis use SD cards..

Garmin has also added the ability for customers to add custom points of interest (POI’s) from third parties such as school zones and safety cameras.