Summary: I've been a long-time user of GPS units and this is certainly one of the best I've ever used. Upon switching on the device for the first time, you are immediately greeted with a large and super bright LCD. The screen literally dwarfs the LCDs found in lesser units, such as the nuvi 350 or the TomTom One. The flip-up antenna coupled with the excellent (but aging? More on that later) SIRF StarIII chipset results in top notch performance in the area that matters the most, routing and navigation. The integrated power cable and MSN receiver provides a simple solution to wires running all over the place. I hooked it up to a cigarette adapter port inside the center arm-rest and coiled up the rest of the cable. Rounding up the exterior, it seems the body shell isn't the strongest in the world and would crack were it not for the better than average suction cup. While the cup itself is pretty elegant, the suction mechanism seems to \"pop\" out during spirited driving. Imagine a 500 dollar GPS dropping into your lap while cornering at high speed. This is precisely why I switched to Garmin's bubble or friction mount which has been far better than I expected.

Garmin's top notch UI is so easy, even a caveman could master it in a few minutes. However, I strongly feel they should provide a firmware update that'd change the current UI to the one found on their latest devices, the nuvi 7xx and 2xx. The only reason why most people consider buying a Nuvi 680 is MSN Direct's enhanced services, which include traffic and weather updates, gas prices and movie listings. While the weather updates and movie listings were accurate for the most part, gas prices and traffic services aren't upto the mark. Even though all the major gas stations in Atlanta are covered, the prices are often 2 or even 3 days old. The MSN Direct web site mentions they collect gas prices by observing credit card transactions at gas pumps around the country. If they can do this bit, why can't they go one step further and collect gas prices for transactions occurring on the same day? I've started using the gas price list as a rough guide to the cheapest pumps around me. However, one can only guess the actual price at that pump today.

Traffic updates is the most important feature on the 680 and I'm sorry to say, while it is definitely impressive, the actual \"updates\" either take far too long to reach the device or are completely off the mark in terms of delay times. Almost every delay mentioned on the MSN traffic screen starts off as a \"1 minute delay, x miles ahead\". Upon getting to that spot, you are usually greeted with one of two scenarios: no traffic at all or a mind-boggling traffic jam. I've yet to see an actual \"1 minute delay\" traffic jam. Another pet peeve of mine is that it doesn't route you around the traffic jam if there's a single \"one minute delay\" on your planned route, even if that jam might be the biggest traffic pile up in the history of mankind, the result being that I end up with a decision based on my own instinct.

Other features on the 680 are more of marketing crap rather than truly useful features if you ask me. The MP3 player, audiobook reader, dictionaries and other applications are best suited for laptops or PDAs. I would rather see a solution to integrate my iPod than fill a puny 1 or 2 gigs worth of music on an SD card.

Overall, the Nuvi 680 is the one of the most feature packed GPS units on the market and with prices of such devices falling faster than gravity, it's only a matter of time before the 680 presents itself as a value for money device. At the moment however, unless you really want traffic updates and gas prices, your money is better spent elsewhere. Movie listings and weather updates are just tacky add-ons since they have no value in daily commute cycles. My next purchase will probably be a nuvi 760, assuming I can get my hands on one.

Summary: Being an owner of a Tom Tom 910 and a new owner of a Nuvi 680, each one of this unit perform well in some areas than the other.Nuvi 680 wins over Tom Tom 910 in terms of portability, accuracy, and MSN features such as traffic and gas. When I bought the 910 I was expected that TOM TOM will have the RDS-TMC ready within a month. That did not happen and we are still yet to receive it. I live in a congested area to me the traffic feature is necessary.

Summary: OMG one off the best GPS systems I've ever used. I have tried the tomtom and megellion and both are not as perfect as the 680.
worth every penny.