On the first use(left charging overnight) it alerted battery is dead.

Perhaps Garmin saves money installing cheap batteries when manufacturing.

The unit will not turn on if I have it plugged into my PC to keep the anemic battery charged while I enter points into favorites

These are the pros and cons (my opinion of course).PROS:*Large display*Ability to shape your route.*My accessories for my nuvi work with the Drive 61CONS:*Not very user friendly*Battery life is horrible about an hour

Garmin has always had a problem with poor battery life but this is the first time I've gotten a new unit that doesn't work at all (this would have been my fourth Garmin device)

Easy to use, love the big screen and great battery life.

And yes - a better battery is definitely called for!Just one man's opinion - but I've logged many

What other reviewers are reporting about battery life is true: the battery will drain very quickly both in use and even when turned off

Poor battery life.

For several weeks, I couldn't figure out why my battery was dead or near-dead every time I turned the unit on

Plus for me a major reason to have one of these things instead of using a smartphone is to use it ad hoc (solely on battery) for a short 15 minute trip, which is impossible because of the horrible battery designed into this thing

Battery dead when I received the unit charged the battery turned off unit two days later battery dead note did not use tech support

The battery is good for about 45 minutes compared to 4 hours in my old 255W

I do plan to keep it on a charger while driving, but the battery really should not be this weak

maybe Garmin just sources the cheapest junk batteries it can find.

I usually use my phone for directions, but lately it seems that using the phone's GPS system significantly drains the battery AND my data allowance.

I don't mind a thicker device if it improves the battery

The batteries in Amazon have bad reviews, so I went to a good battery source for batteries.