Connected Garmin nuvi 1695 clears the FCC

EDIT: I’ve now posted my hands on Garmin nuLink 1695 review.

A Garmin nuvi 1695 showed up on the FCC’s website today; unfortunately, they didn’t include a lot of details. About all we can say at this time is that the 1695 is a connected PND with Bluetooth, and it appears to utilize GSM for cellular connectivity, just like the 1690. Judging by the sketch above, this is not a connected version of the new super-thin 3700 series. But it may not be too long before we get the full details, as Garmin already has a placeholder page set up for the nuvi 1695.

So what differentiates the 1695 from the 1690? Perhaps it will have the 3700 series’ historical road speed database (dubbed nuTrends by the gang in Olathe). That would actually make a lot of sense, as a connected 1695 could be sending crowd-sourced data back in real time, helping them fine-tune their foray into this technology. That’s my guess anyway. What’s yours?