New Garmin StreetPilot 2730 GPS - Announced Officially
In addition to the StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 Media Center GPS's that were announced, the Garmin also let news out on the StreetPilot 2730. The StreetPilot 2730 is built on the existing 2700 chassis, which means a smaller screen (compared to the 7" screen on the 7200/7500 - see related article). Hey, what can I say, the 2730 takes a whole bunch of the 7200/7500 features and jams it into the 2700 chassis, without the big screen. There you have it, that's what you need to know. It doesn't do video playback, and doesn't do the Dead Reckoning of the 7500. What does it do? It does GPS stuff, with a pretty good set of goodies; enough to be interesting.
FM Modulation
The StreetPilot 2730 allows for FM modulation through the 12 V power adapter. The frequency can be selected through a menu on the GPS unit. In my experience, one frequency may be enough for day to day operation, but you may find yourself digging through this menu repeatedly for a long trip; maybe they can get a selection for a few favorites right off the main menu? This drives the ability for lots of other stuff...
MP3 Player - Internal and External
The StreetPilot 2730 comes ready for MP3's, an increasingly popular feature for GPS units. You can upload to the onboard memory. The unit does not have an SD card slot. You can browse and then play by artist, album, genre, and playlists.
Audible.com connected Audio Book Player
Yes, with the MP3 player capability the StreetPilot 2730 is able to work with Audible.com to bring audio books on the road. You can connect the StreetPilot to the computer, download the audiobook and off you go.
XM Receiver
The unit has the ability to receive XM satellite signals for traffic, stock and weather information through an XM smart antenna. (Additional $3.95 over the music subscription, or $9.99 alone.) This is only one option for receiving traffic.
Traffic Avoidance
The big plus for high end GPS units is the ability to look at real-time traffic incidents and route you around the problem. The StreetPilot 2730 categorizes the severity of the traffic incident: Low - traffic still flowing, Medium - traffic a bit congested, High - traffic heavily congested or stopped. With a touch of the screen you'll be able to route around the incident.
Custom POIs and Proximity Alerts
Not a totally new feature on this unit, but the StreetPilot 2730 has the ability to upload custom Points of Interest, and then the ability to set proximity alerts. More popular in Europe where there are more speed cameras, the idea is that you can drop in a custom POI for the speed camera, and a pop-up alert can tell you when you are getting close... a potentially big money saver for you.
Remote Control
Yea, might seem like a waste, but when you have this thing on a dash that's more than an arm's length away, a remote control is great. These units will most likely be very popular in the RV set, so this type of thing would be great for those expansive dash areas.
Other Stuff
The StreetPilot 2730 comes with a pretty advanced set of features here, including the ability to save routes, edit them by adding stops (advanced route planning), turning on a track logging feature that allows you to record mileage (good for business mileage tracking), the ability to save favorite locations, the ability to designate a "home" location that is two clicks off of the main menu - very fast to navigate home, and the typical list of customizable features that allow you to navigate all over to POI's and back with the already loaded detailed maps and POI database.
How is it different than the Streetpilot 7200/7500?
The StreetPilot 2730 does not have video playback, does not allow for audio inputs (iPod), and can't use the GTM-10 FM input for real-time traffic data feeds. It can not do dead reckoning like the 7500. Oh, yea, the screen is smaller on the 2730, but you know that by now. The StreetPilot is waterproof to IPX7 standards; the StreetPilot 7200/7500 is not waterproof.
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Posted by Scott Martin at October 31, 2005 6:21 AM
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