Loaded and wide—that's how personal navigation stalwart Garmin describes its newest addition to the nüvi line of GPS devices. And after taking the nüvi 760 for a spin, I have to agree. The 760 sports a trimmer, slicker design and adds a number of cool new features and welcome refinements to the top-rated 600 series. (Both the 660 and 680 have earned our Editors' Choice award.) The best part: These improvements won't cost you any more than the 660's price of $799—making the nüvi 760 our new favorite.

The first thing you'll notice about the 760—before you even turn it on—is the attractive new charcoal-gray bezel that replaces the brushed-metal bezel found on all other nüvis. Measuring 3.0 by 4.8 by 0.8 inches (HWD), the 760 is thinner than the 660, making it one of the slimmest personal navigation devices on the market, yet it sports a bright, wide 4.3-inch display. Adding to its compactness is the elimination of the fold-out GPS antenna found on the 300 and 600 series, which has been replaced with an internal antenna.

The device sports a new main-menu page with large icons for "Where to?" and "View map." Smaller icons for Phone, Volume, and Tools appear at the bottom of the screen. The 600 series has eight icons per page, but the 760 reduces that number to six per page. The larger icons make menu selection easier.

In the past, one of my few complaints about Garmin navigation systems has been the omission of multisegment routing, an indispensable feature for long road trips. I'll have to cross that complaint off of my list, since the nüvi 760 now handles multisegment routing for up to ten routes. For each route, you can add waypoints using any of the options on the "Where to?" menu including addresses, POIs, Recently Found, Intersections, Cities, or by browsing the map. When you plot a route, you have the option of changing the name, adding or removing waypoints, manually reordering the waypoints, letting the nüvi optimally reorder the points for you, or forcing a recalculation.

If you've ever forgotten your car's location in a large parking lot, you'll love the new "Last Position" feature. When you remove the 760 from its mounting bracket, it automatically remembers its last position (where you parked). You can easily find your vehicle by selecting "Last Position" from the Favorites menu. And since you'll likely be walking to the car, you can take advantage of pedestrian mode.

"Where Am I?" is another attractive new feature, similar to the one I first saw on the Magellan Maestro 4040: The unit can tell you your current latitude/longitude along with the nearest intersections. To these features Garmin adds the nearest street address as well as icons that let you search for the nearest hospitals, police stations, or gas stations with a single tap. From this menu you can navigate directly to those places, or, if you have a phone paired with the 760's Bluetooth speakerphone interface, you can call them.

When a company updates a product with new features, it's equally important that the old favorites stay intact. I'm happy to report that the components we liked in the 600 series nüvis remain in the 760. Like all Garmin's widescreen products, the 760 features a 4.3-inch , 480-by-272-pixel WQVGA display. The sunlight-readable screen is much better than the one found on the 300 series—especially when viewed through polarized sunglasses. And there's an RDS FM traffic receiver that's integrated into the DC power cord, a feature that was introduced on the company's StreetPilot C550. The purchase of the 760 covers three months of Clear Channel's live traffic service; thereafter, a 15-month subscription costs $60.

If you'd like to receive traffic, movie information, and gas pricing via MSN Direct, as you can with the 680 model, Garmin sells an optional $124.99 MSN Direct FM receiver; a free firmware upgrade is required. Included with the receiver is a three-month subscription to MSN direct data. Thereafter, it will cost you $60 per year.

Like most of Garmin's premium products, the 760 preloads Navteq-based maps for the United States and Canada as well as a POI database on its internal 2GB of memory. The 760, like other nüvis, has a built-in MP3 player as well as a picture viewer. Approximately 527MB of the internal memory is available for your tunes or photos. An SD card slot allows for optional maps, travel guides, language guides, or additional multimedia content.

The 760 boasts Garmin's excellent Bluetooth phone interface. I paired the device with my LG VX9900 phone without any problems. And, as I've reported about other nüvis, the call log and all the contacts stored in my phone were transferred to the 760 and were immediately available for me to use. To test voice quality I used the speakerphone to call my voicemail at a distance of about 14 inches from the mic. When I played back the message, voice quality sounded fine. In fact, since there was so little echo, it was difficult to tell that the call was even coming from a speakerphone.—Next: On the Road

On the Road

Except for the new features noted, operation of the nüvi 760 mirrors that of previous-generation nüvis. It has the same routing profiles (shortest or fastest), vehicle types (automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian) and avoidances (U-turns, highways, toll roads, traffic, and ferries) found on other traffic-enabled nüvis. Routes generated matched the routes created by virtually all other nüvis I've tested, and the text-to-speech function worked without a hitch. While test-driving the 760, I discovered that Garmin added a new feature: speed-limit postings. On major roads, a speed-limit sign will pop up on the map view if the data is available.

Live traffic information could be better. In its Maestro 4050, Magellan provides you with a view of all live traffic events in ascending distance from your current location. For some traffic incidents, the Maestro even lists the average speed. The 760 doesn't provide a list view of traffic incidents, however, nor does it provide average speed information.

Among the 760's premium features is an FM modulator that lets you play the nüvi's audio (directions and music) through your car stereo. It uses the built-in traffic receiver to help you find an open channel. Unfortunately, in a large metropolitan area like New York City, there are virtually no open channels. I did scan the FM band and, upon tuning to the third "open" channel it found, I was able to hear the nüvi. I've never had much success when testing FM modulators in this metro area, even those designed for iPods. Of course, if you live almost anywhere else, the nüvi's FM modulator may work well for you, though it's not an important feature on my checklist. I'd rather use the audio output jack on the nüvi to connect to my car stereo—where it works more reliably.

This version of Garmin's nüvi adds a number of useful enhancements to the already capable 660 yet has the same list price of $799. If you're in the market for a "wide and loaded" navigation device, the nüvi 760 is an excellent choice.

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