Customer Reviews

Garmin nuvi 3598LMT-D EU 5" Sat Nav with UK + Full Europe Maps, Free Lifetime Map Updates, Digital Traffic Alerts, Bluetooth with Magnetic Mount

I have purchased tom tom for over 20 years however although the HD traffic is good be aware! The availability of the service is appalling. After being asked by Tom Tom to renew my subscription (50 quid) I thought it was time to ditch them and try Garmin. This is an excellent product, the quality is much better than tom tom and the traffic uses the RDS traffic system. However if you do want to link to the live traffic through your phone the subscription is much cheaper although you do need to use your phones data service.

The product looks and feels like an apple product such is the finish and the screen is much better than rival tom tom devices. It's less bulky although the traffic receiver is external to the device (but very small and built into the wire).

The traffic options for Garmin are confusing there are three different options one is traffic via the FM, one is via the DAB frequency and one is via a smart phone (Internet link). The difference between the FM and DAB is the speed of the transmission DAB is every 30 seconds and FM is every 1-2 minutes. The smart link (phone) system is live.

I think I am a convert, it's a shame tom tom provide such a poor service, I doubt they would provide their service availability stats but trust me they are very poor - just read the other reviews here.

I have owned TomTom devices for the last 6 years and have got through 3 of them now. Appalled by the consistently poor(non-existent) service offered by TomTom and the fact that my last two devices have basically died and won't even turn on without being plugged in to a power source I decided to try something else. Believe me, this was not a decision I took lightly as I had been loyal to TomTom for years and very nearly bought the new TomTom Go 5000/6000. I tried both out extensively and decided against the new generation of TomTom device as it has been released in an appalling state of development and should never have been released - just google reviews for it to see what people have to say! There is very limited functionality and I think this new generation has gone for 'pretty' in terms of graphics rather than a proper user interface. Anyway... the Garmin nuvi 3598 is the best SatNav I have ever used by a country mile. The touchscreen is clear and responsive, the voice control works! But more than that, the interface is engaging and interactive. It has taken a little while to get used to from being a TomTom user for years but I have persevered and it has been worth it. The performance exceeds anything I have seen from TomTom in a multitude of ways. Here are just a few of them:

Real-signs are shown which actually look like the ones on the motorway
Junction numbers come up on screen and are spoken making navigation easier
The digital traffic is the best I have ever used, 30 second updates make the information meaningful and you can see delays building long in front of you, helping you make informed decisions about routing. This is far superior to TomTom traffic which I have been using for 4 years and thought theirs was good. (Much more detailed information is available: Broken down vehicle reported in lane one for example).
Place names are shown on the map.
Touch a point on the map to navigate to it.
Detailed weather information etc. available to view
Garmin Smartphone Link actually works unlike TomTom Search which was always very clunky.
There are a plethora of other features which I am still discovering two weeks after buying the device!

The only couple of minor issues I have with Garmin are that to date no manual has been released making using the 3598 a bit like 'suck it and see'. Secondly I have seen comments that the arrival time estimated can be overstated by the device. This appears to be true to a degree if the journey is very short or only on minor roads. In reality my TomTom underestimated the journey time, particularly when there was a traffic delay and ultimately I'd rather arrive early than late, therefore the Garmin wins for me on this score too!

In summary, long time Garmin customers will love it as the functionality and sheer usability of the device is fantastic. For TomTom customers, all I can say is give it a go and stick with it. It beats every TomTom I've ever owned hands down. Best tech decision I've ever made. I may never go back to TomTom unless they sort their development, support and usability issues out.

Have just completed a 1500 mile journey across Europe having just acquired it .The problems I encountered were.
1) In planning the trip I tried to download Garmin Basecamp to my computer but this failed repeatedly.
2) Voice-over commands were frequently incomprehensible. In France she neither spoke with a French accent nor an anglicised phonetic rendering she just got the names wrong. This did not matter too much because :
3)She gave the street names you were turning into . Not very useful because you usually do not know the name of the street anyway so it does not provide a check. It would have been better to give the direction stated on signpost..
4)S lightly unreliable on roundabouts. Method was to tell you to take a numbered turn off eg 'take the third turning off' but would fail to include one of the minor turnings. Great care was needed
5) Once directed to a dead end. On the other hand once directed on rutted track through graveyard which was just fine!
6) Trip -planner quite hard to use because you could not enter where you want the journey to end only intermediate points. What you have to do is go to 'Edit journey' then 'optimise route' then 'Done' then 'Save journey'. Odd glitch as it is such an obvious one.
By and large an excellent device and I would recommend it. Don't bother with the travel pack if you are offered it.It comes with a case which does not fit.

This is a review from a faithful tom tom owner, who has been blown away by garmin 3598! Tom tom, you have seen the last of me as I am now a BIG Garmin fan!

I have had this Garmin nuvi 3598 for a few days now and been testing it. some slight issues initially because it wasn't reading out the street names but when I downloaded the latest updates it gave me the extra voice which reads those names. screen is clear, love the magnetic mount and super sleek design. It really puts the very basic TomTom 6000 in the shade.
full of useful functions including the voice command. It works better than expected.

Just the odd blip here and there with regards to routes - on fastest route it doesn't always take the best roads in my opinion. Its obviously based its assumptions on speed limits on routes rather than local knowledge. For example, it wanted me to go a longer way around to get to my house when I would normally know of a short cut (down a B road). It took me down the "A" road route as its a 50MPH zone but would not have been faster due to traffic.

Despite that minor point, I am very pleased I have switched to garmin (even though they are a tad expensive), because I think the added free digital traffic, map updates and speed cameras is a very good offer. I got a free accessory kit too with mine so that helped with the expense. The new tom tom is bulky and very basic and really cannot be fairly compared to this more superior Garmin 3598. Its top of the range as I write this review and I believe it to be the best on the market after researching tom toms, and others. Which magazine gave its predecessor a high recommendation, so I am sure this model will follow suit.

Even the digital traffic works without that silly little aerial which you are expected to fix to the windscreen! Magic! yes the signal increases ever so slightly if I do attach it, but for me, everything is working just perfect without having that wire stuck in front of me as I zoom along! LOL

Garmin, I take my hat off to you! It's a super unit..looks so cool in my car and basically I have ditched the Audi built in satnav (3 yr old) as my new garmin is far superior and easier/quicker to operate. I have had no update issues, everything works just fine so I would have no hesitation in recommending this garmin 3598 to anyone who wants to invest in an exceptional quality piece of kit.

After several Tomtoms I became disappointed with many aspects. Poor connection to live services, poor connection to satellites and depleted battery. Garmin has free maps and digital traffic plus it connects to satellites instantly. Should have done it sooner.

Same as the 2798 except with analogue traffic
I have had no issues with this unit and found it totally reliable, everything I chucked at it was dealt with no problem.
I use this every day on multi drop and has found every address entered.
I have now upgraded to the 2798 with digital traffic no problems there sync to I-Phone no probs.

After several Tomtoms I became disappointed with many aspects. Poor connection to live services, poor connection to satellites and depleted battery. Garmin has free maps and digital traffic plus it connects to satellites instantly. Should have done it sooner.

I had a series of TomToms and had been pleased and impressed with them...with the Traffic re-routing in particular....but the latest Tom Tom suddenly started losing the GPS signal which is no use (plus I tired of paying for the map updates and HD traffic info each year when on Garmin they are free for life). I also have a lot of other Garmin GPS stuff which I rate highly. So I went for the Garmin as it seemed to have a lot of good reviews versus the TomToms. Have to say am a bit underwhelmed. First up it wouldn't load the default European map update as it didn't have enough space without an SD card. It didn't actually tell me this....just refused to load the update. With no documentation worth having I finally worked out the issue and loaded just the GB map update and that seems to be fine. Otherwise the routing doesn't seem as good as the TomTom...it seems to default to main roads whereas the TomTom would take you down quieter side roads...a bit convoluted perhaps but in my opinion faster. I also seem to get spurious traffic delay inspired re-routing....there's nothing on the radio and when running the TomTom in parallel nothing on that either. On the limited occasions I have parallel run them the Tom Tom seems to provide a better alternative route. So all told, it's OK but I remain to be convinced it is as good as/better than an equivalent Tom Tom.....it may well be that you get what you pay (annually) for.

I actually bought this elsewhere (as Amazon didn't sell it), but it was very recently and I ended up taking it back so I wanted to share my experience.

I really wanted this to be good as it should be perfect for me. My main requirement was a sat-nav, with good traffic that I didn't have to connect to my phone and that I didn't have to update too often and this ticked all the boxes. The digital traffic sounds great, as do lifetime maps and traffic plus Bluetooth, voice activation and lots of other goodies. However sadly it lets itself down quite badly.

Firstly the good bits:

It does look and feel nice, stylish and the menus are nice, clear and obvious. There isn't a manual which I know some people won't like, but the help on the device does work well and is fairly intuitive.

The voice command worked well, although I did have to repeat myself occasionally.

It recalculates quickly and the screen and voice prompts are clear, it will get you there and it is easy to use.

The traffic works quite well, it seemed pretty accurate, updates quickly, offers alternative routes and gives good information.

And now the bad bits:

There are a few minor niggles, the hands free phone worked, but when the voice directions were set at a reasonable level I had to increase the volume when I answered the phone or I couldn't hear it...not very handy or safe when driving along (although this may have been changeable in settings, but I couldn't find it).

The active lane guidance is a nice feature, but often the picture of the junction is the actual junction rather than the lanes leading up to it. What this means is that to be at a point o recognise the photo then it's too late to do anything about it. So i do wonder how useful it is.

A slighlty bigger niggle is that the time estimation is very poor and overestimates, specifically on non-motorways. It may be because that it uses `real' journey data, but it seems that it allows approx 1 min waiting at every junction or roundabout. To give you an idea, my local supermarket is 6 mins away (which is what my old `basic' garmin sat-nav said) but the 2598 reckoned 10 mins. Another local journey in perfect conditions (i.e. my old sat nav) is 30 mins, it took 32, this unit estimated 41 (and it didn't think there was traffic, this was just bad timing). In case you might think this is me driving super fast etc, I don't (my wife says I drive "like a granny") and I was always late base on old sat-nav.

But the really big one, the one that means I've given it a low score and the reason I have taken it back, is that the unit doesn't find the best route to your destination. It seemed a bit odd on my first long journey, it said use the motorway when I thought cutting across country would be better. I ignored it and cut across, the unit initially added 10 mins, but then as i drove took off 25 mins, on a 1 hour journey, so my way was quicker. Odd, so I checked the trip to my parents (a 1hr route I know well). There are two options; M6 or M5 (round Brum). Perfect traffic (i.e. old sat-nav, online route predictors) M6 is 6 mins faster, but in reality the M6 takes longer (there is always traffic and roadworks). This unit added 20 mins to the `perfect' M6 journey (with no traffic)...this is presumably allowing for the `realistic journey times' mentioned above, fine, the M6 does take longer...so why doesn't it send me down the M5? (Incidentally I tried this on the TomTom real traffic web page and it did send me down the M5!)

I tried this on a couple of other journeys i know too and it seems to do the same thing. Pick the best route under ideal conditions and stick to it, even if it has the information telling it other routes are better.

I am sure that the unit will get some good review on this site, because if you didn't know any better then it will get you there in the time it predicts (probably faster), but based on my tests I just don't trust it.

I have given it 2 stars as it will do the job (if badly) and has lots of goodies for the money.

The extras are nice, but the bottom line is that I want it to pick the best route to get me from A to B and it doesn't. A real shame as it was very close to being a great bit of kit.

ADDITIONAL:
Since writing this review I have purchased a TomTom 1005 (I agree with other reviews that the very latest TomTom's seem over priced and underspec'd). I agree with other reviewers that this Garmin Unit is much better, looks better, simpler to use, faster and is in general a much slicker piece of kit (i.e. you seem to have to press things on the TomTom to use the voice commands...which kinda makes it pointless). However the TomTom gives me accurate (to within a min or two timings) and better routing (it also tells you where the times have come from i.e. total time = best time +traffic + guessed busy route)...I guess it boils down to what is important to you in a satnav

what a superlative of a Sat- Nav, I am so delighted with this new product, though Garmin make the using of it so much more difficult than is necessary, I cannot fault the equipment, however one must be careful when down-loading the maps, (it does not come with the maps already loaded as the cover America as well). I down-loaded the whole of Europe as we Motor-home yearly, though the language thus far had been English (British) when the down-load had completed the language had been changed to Czechoslavakian with three alternative languages, French, Italian and Latvian, owners must have access to a computer and have obtained the program Garmin Express, where without much difficulty the voice languages can be selected to the language of their choice. But do not be put off, this is a worthy purchase, thank you Amazon