Hello,
I am nuts about Electronic Gadget's, Any Electronic Gadget, but mainly GPSs, and their good bits, bad bits, and even the ugly bits, I'll try to be as open minded and informative about them for you as possible, plus a bonus side of repair knowledge to help with the well-known good and bad, so if I could help someone and inform of the best GPSs around, which will help another person make a right decision, that is all I want, and will be pleased that I helped someone with a couple of written words of wisdom. any information is purely from my point of view, everybody writes a review of a device, but there may be a few little bits of information that make or break a decision for you. Also checkout the Blog link at the bottom of the hub for Tonnes more GPS info.
I hope I have been informative for you, in whatever way you see it..
All the best to you
Regards
Richard.
In today's fast lifestyle, we need the GPS for the speed, accuracy, and consistency of getting somewhere, and the GPS is the complete tool for the job !!!
It could locate to inside 6 feet of the destination, which is pretty good by any Mapping/compass standard's, there are different GPS for different scenario's, IE: the regular Car Driver's GPS, the Walker's GPS, the Fisherman, the dog tracker, the sailor, the pilot, the runner, the Truck Driver's GPS etc... So as you may guess, they all have different features on them, Let it be said, you get what you pay for, this is not a big surprise, this is De facto in all walks of life, So if you are thinking of investing in a GPS, Digging a bit deeper in your pocket will help in finding a better device, I am trying to inform of good bits, and the bad bits of the GPS world, and yes, a little of are good, some are bad, and some are ugly :)
But enough about me, let's talk GPS.
Pros: Lane assist alerts you to the lane to be in BEFORE the turn, Instant GPS lock right out of the parking ramp, Blue tooth, Speech recognition that actually works (unlike Garmin which I had to return)- speak the address and it WORKS!!, exclusively $400
Cons: Because it costs so much less than Garmin and has two times the features I nearly did not buy it thinking it would not be as high quality as claimed- I was plesantly suprised the Navigon is everything claimed and more
Summary: First off this thing actually has features that works. Second, you can use it in a large city and get to where you are going due to of its advanced features. When you get in the car and turn the key the device starts automatically. The voice recognition lets you speak in the destination address. The blue tooth connects to your phone letting you make hands free calls. As you control out of the parking ramp in Century City or Downtown LA the instant lock feature finds a GPS signal in seconds which is key in a downtown full of one way streets where one wrong turn means 20 minutes of time lost. Then as you get on the freeway full of bumper to bumper traffic the lane assist shows you in reality view (looks exactly the same as freeway road signs and all and has an arrow in the exact land you will need to be in to merge or exit the freeway. The included LIFETIME traffic avoids and reroutes arounds traffic back ups. Garmin charges you a yearly fee for traffic for a device with half the features and that costs twice as much. Navigon charges only $79 for three years of maps and they update the maps 4 times a year. Garmin charges $99 bucks for one map update that is 6 months to 1.5 years old depending upon when in the year you buy it (by the time they roll out the update it is 6 months old and then they sell it for the next year.
Navigon also beefed up their POI database because I had the 2100 Max before and this has way more POIs. Moreover, having full Zagot reviews for resturants is HUGE if you travel a lot like I do.
best gps on the market...
best gps value...
The siren call of technology called as well as I, its faithful servant, answered. This time, I purchased the Garmin Nuvi 200. I found it to be an excellent device.
My decision process:
All GPS devices allow you to enter addresses and guide you there. Some of the significant differences between them:
1. Bluetooth. On a GPS, Bluetooth allows you to answer phone calls from your cell phone, update traffic via that same phone, and play music.
Bluetooth calling is nice, but that feature'll cost you at least another $50.00 in the Garmin line, the Nuvi 360. I already have the $50.00 Motorola T305 which works well. I could give the T305 away to a needy California driver, but if I share the Nuvi with my wife, I'd be out two functions. Plus, I can put the T305 on my visor and I'd have to have the Nuvi 360 on my windshield the whole time (Unless space or money is an issue, it's better to have separate devices for different tasks.).
Image from Amazon
Motorola T305 Bluetooth Portable Hands-Free Speaker - Black
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Garmin nA~1/4vi 360 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth and Text-to-Speech
2. Traffic updates. I don't concern about receiving traffic information.
3. Music. Between Sirius and my car stereo that plays mp3s and controls my iPod, I can summon any song in the well-known universe, producing anything on a GPS having to do with music a waste.
4. Points of interest. This one I care about. The Navigon 2100, my previous GPS, disappointed me when I couldn't find many of the points I find most interesting (Gaming/Comic book store, Frogurt, etc.). The Navigon 2100 has 1.3 million points of interests- not enough, apparently.
Image from Amazon
Navigon 2100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
5. Widescreen. This seems like a gimmick to me- something meant to appeal to individuals used to their wide screen laptops. Well, the only reason to have a wide screen is to watch movies, right? On a GPS, you need to see what's ahead more than what's on the sides, si? So, why sacrifice height for width?
6. Text to speech. If it works better than telephone speech recognition (big "if"), and if you drive by yourself, this can be a great feature. You can consult for a nearby gas station or Taco Bell without pulling over. It's an not cheap extra, however. You'd have to move up the the $800.00 Nuvi 850 to get it in a Garmin product.
Image from Amazon
Garmin nA~1/4vi 850 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
So, I go into Staples. The cheapest two GPSs were the Nuvi 200 and the Tom Tom One XL. Both were on sale, but the Nuvi was $50.00 cheaper and had the same features except for the unimportant wide screen.
Image from Amazon
TomTom ONE 3rd Edition 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Vehicle Navigator
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TomTom ONE XL 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Map of US and Canada)
I opened it in the parking lot, plugged it in, and instantly got it working. I didn't need to read the manual. Initially, I had it set to just show where I was headed as I drove (I like that I now have a compass.). This is where it gets dangerous: The screen mesmerized me, and I kept taking my eyes off the road.
Unlike the Navigon, I could find the points of interest I was looking for and even gave me the phone number to most stores. The Nuvi has over three million interesting points.
The Nuvi 200 is super well-to-do to program. It anticipates states and cities as I type and guides me there through voice directions. Here's where it gets controversial: In order to pay back campaign debt, Hillary Clinton lends her honey-sweet voice to the Nuvi. I don't mind, but during long stretches, the Nuvi starts talking about health care (just kidding).
You can save destinations with one as "home" so you can find your way back from wherever you are (Advice for married men: Don't make the strip club, "home.") You can halt if you want to take a break from driving or pull into a gas station. You can also program that gas station ahead of time- it allows one per route.
The screen presents useful information like estimated time of arrival (ETA), time spent on road, and a turn list. The POI is very intuitive. The map is in 3-D or overhead. It shows digital pictures- big whoop. You can update it from the net too.
It passed the non-nerdy wife test; my wife figured it out with just a little help.
Some features I missed from the Navigon are "Lane Assist" and "Reality View" which make freeway choices clearer.
"OK," you're asking, "It works in a large metropolis like Los Angeles, but what about some primitive backwater? Would it be able to find addresses and such?"
To give it a real test, I drove to Phoenix, a wretched hive of scum and villainy next to California.
It passed. I fed it some addresses, found them, and I was on my way.
Conclusion: This is a better basic GPS, and if you don't need to the expensive frills, an excellent choice.