GPS, Ask Engadget: Best 4.3-inch GPS unit?
By Darren Murph 
posted May 1st 2009 2:46AM
posted May 1st 2009 2:46AM
We know, it's a little late here on the east coast to be "thinking clearly," but we (and David) are pleading with you to pull it together in order to contribute. Afterwards, you and your freshened mind can shoot us a question to ask at engadget dawt com. "I know, it's a really boring question, but the last time this was asked was 2 years ago. I'm looking for a 4.3-inch GPS unit with decent battery life (so I can walk around with it as well as use it in my car), Bluetooth for making wireless calls, and good voice-recognition. Traffic updates would be a plus, too. I don't care too much about multimedia functions. Is there anything out there that fits the bill? I hope to hear some advice from the community!"
As do we David, as do we. So, what's the verdict here, folks? Are connected units worth the monthly surcharge? Sound off below!
Nuvi 760 is the best deal right now. You can find
For under $200 if you look around. It does everything you need and it's rock solid!
+1 to nuvi 760...its loaded with features and is great!
whatever's on sale at buy.com
Garmin Nuvi 265WT, its the best GPS ive owned!
+1 for the 265wt.
It brings features to the $250 cost area that were only in $500+ GPS units mere months ago.
4.3" screen, built in bluetooth, lifetime traffic through an included FM-TMC receiver, garmin quality all around. There's not much more you could ask for in a GPS.
Another vote for the 265WT. Picks up the satellites fast (biggest gripe of my nuvi 350 and 200w were slow satellite pick-up) and also recalculates fast which comes in real handy when you miss a turn or don't want to deal with a certain route.
Free lifetime traffic and I picked up a refurb for under $200 on eBay. 2010 maps just came out, so the upgrade is free.
I also have the 265WT, cheap at Costco with a case...;.)
Another +1 for the 265wt - it's what I bought my fiancee. That being said, I'm keeping my eye out for a 755t for myself, though it axes the Bluetooth (built into my car) but adds lane assist. I believe the 765t adds it back, but the price starts going up.
So, with the spec list as requested, I believe the 265wt is it.
Over Christmas I was able to pick up a 765T for $100 less than the 755T so just keep your eyes open.
Also +1 for this unit. I must confess it is my first GPS, but after receiving one for Christmas I am hooked to using it. Traffic updates are free and great (when you're in an area that can get them, like near cities) and its super fast.
i'm not sure about gps...but i've had lots of complements about my 4.3-inch unit
From your imaginary girlfriend?
no alex, but i've had a few from your real mom
MEDION GoPal E4435 is pretty solid, but has a rather weak battery
one is stupid and the other is a moron xD
iPhone!
IT HAS 4.3-INCH SCREEN!?? Since when? It states, "GPS Unit", not phone with GPS in it. C'mon..
@holy If you had read closely you would have noticed that bluetooth for wireless calls was mentioned by the OP.
I also have to point out that I and my wife have had our iphones go bonkers many a time and tell us that we are miles from where we really were. Because of it my wife and I have decided to get a real GPS for the car...so no, the iPhone is not the best GPS around.
Idk who's more stupid, iKurt4 or Dane.
Garmin Nuvi 750 FTW! No bluetooth.. but it did survive a 60 MPH slide on asphalt when it fell off my motorcycle. Barely a scratch on it!
Best? I'm not sure, but absolutely NOT the TomTom. I can't believe what a POS it is compared to my dirt cheap 5 year old Garmin.
It's best to check the better review sites. Each unit has its foibles. Some are slow to recalculate, some are slow to pick up the satellites. A few have volume so low that the speech is useless except when played through the FM radio. Several have very expensive map updates (Garmin?).
But this one takes the cake: we bought an almost-top-of-the-line TomTom only to find that it won't take the vast majority of street addresses here in Hawaii. We returned it, of course. Also, it won't take some addresses in New Jersey and elsewhere. Why? The addresses have hyphens or dashes, but there is no hyphen on any TomTom keyboard. So 94-1234 Myhome Lane cannot be entered at all. Periodic emails to TomTom UK (the USA office doesn't bother to reply) elicit a reply that it's not fixed yet. We've known about the problem for at least two years.
A Magellan unit told us to turn when we were in the center lane a few feet from the intersection. Over and over again, it did that. Occasionally we were already in the intersection when it spoke up. So we returned it also. Some of the street names were missing from the map until you got to the streets. Not too good.
So bottom line, do your research.
+1 for the nuvi 750. Got it for a steal at $250 2 years ago. The new 265WT is basically the same thing with lifetime traffic, so that's a good one too.
I do NOT agree.
the 265 doesn't have the quicjk release mount, doesn;t have the 'find me' feature that creates a temporary waypoint when you remove the device from it's cradle.
Calling the two the same means that you only need basic navigation, possibly traffic services and the speed limit indicators.
There is so much more.
Garmin 745w. BT, + Media crap, + traffic+ a sweet glossly black finish. If you own a nissan it'll even dock in some of the dashboards with a kit from nissan.
I have the Navigon 7100. 4.3'' screen and FREE Lifetime Traffic. It has bluetooth for calls, but the quality isn't nearly as good as my Jawbone. The Navigon 7200T is the 4.3'' model out now (on Amazon for $200). And the Navigon 7300T is the upcoming model which should have their to MyRoutes software. The lifetime traffic updates is a great feature considering that the big companies like Garmin charge a monthly fee for the same thing. The Navigon isn't perfect, and it doesn't have any multiple accent speech feature, but I will definitely stick with them when I need to upgrade.
@superflush
Garmin gives out free lifetime traffic now on any xxxT model, ie the 265WT.
Garmin nuvi 265WT. Just got it yesterday, and it is absolutely awesome :)
I have run Navigon software on my Navigon, as well as iGo, and TomTom, and the Navigon software is just better, it prompts you early enough to make your turns (99% of the time) and has never taken me down any one-way streets here in Germany. My only gripe is you can't tell it what route to take, meaning I like going one way, and it will try to take you it's way every time, I just wish it could store routes you use and offer them later, like "Route 1 by way of Main, Route 2 by way of 1St, Route 3 by way of Jackson" . It's only real failings are that it won't save GPS location if your not on a street, and it should have some sort of on-screen notification when you've left it in "Pedestrian Mode", I could not figure out one time why it insisted on making me take a ferry across a river, and it's a little slow to acquire the satellites sometimes.
TomTom sucks, it may as well say "Turn left, right back there", and iGo just does whatever wants, maybe you'll end up where you want to go.
Since the hardware was the same, it was really more of a test of the software, and Navigon is the best I've tried.
-> My only gripe is you can't tell it what route to take, meaning I like going one way, and it will try to take you it's way every time, I just wish it could store routes you use and offer them later, like "Route 1 by way of Main, Route 2 by way of 1St, Route 3 by way of Jackson"
In other words, NAVIGON's new MyRoutes software. (See, someone must have heard you!)
@Scott
What you want is exactly what MyRoutes should be. I hope it is pretty good. I know that one of my only complaints with my Navigon is that there will be a way I want to go, and the Navigon will never realize and recalculate it the exact way that I want to. And, after I drive that specific way a few times, I wish it would just store it as my preferred route. I hope MyRoutes does this.
I vote for the Navigon 8200T (7200T) featurewise.
But the iPaq 310 is wonderfully hackable (and cheap).
The best? Nothing beats a nuvi 765T.
I had a nuvi 680 earlier but the MSN subscription was the biggest piece of crap ever.
Certainly any one of the nuvi series from Garmin - there's a lot to choose from. The simplest & cheapest are really very good and then they add B&W and go up from there. Excellent GPS receivers, excellent screens, data handling between the unit and computers is top notch. Bluetooth is handy but is best in a very quiet vehicle. Map updates are easy to handle and you can even get update subscriptions for the life of the unit.
I've been using different GPS units since 1995 (way, way back), and now we've got several nuvi's, very happy with all of them.
This isn't a complaint against any GPS unit, but I've not found the traffic data to be detailed/timely enough to be of much use. That will probably evolve and depend a great deal on the DOT of each area anyway.
265WT for me!
The best GPS is always going to be the high end models for the brands so best for the dollar might be a better question. The Garmins are always a bit more expensive but you can find them for sale. The TomTom has a less refined interface but great satellite acquisition. I personal like the Navigon's interface and design. The early models were notorious for slow satellite acquisition and route creating. The new models have vast improvements. I am looking forward to the 4300T because of the traffic, zagat ratings and rand mcnally scenic routes. It does more than just point A to B. Additionally, its MSRP is 199.99, so one sale and you can get a tremendous GPS for a price we never saw the Garmins, TomTOms or Magellans reach. For a bit more money the 7300T will great. Its not that I dont like the garmin 265WT, its a great model, but its MSRP was 349.99, one can find it now much cheaper. So dollar for dollar the Navigon line.
I love the Garmin Nuvi 770. I don't need bluetooth because I have it in my car. The interface is great and it's really accurate. The problem is I found the MSN and TMC traffic updates sucked. The traffic was great in the Dash Express but it really bit the big one as a gps. So, I just bought the TomTom 740 Go Live because the traffic is connected and in Massachusetts traffic can change in no time. We'll see how it goes with that before I decide to sell the Garmin.
I really like the Garmin 255W. Basically the same as the 265WT but no bluetooth and no free traffic updates both of which I don't need or can't use.
The Garmin Nuvi 660 was the best unit I've ever had. I got a Nuvi 755T and had to return it. The auto-zoom in Track up mode made it unusable for me and tech support informed me there was no way to turn it off (unlike most other Garmins I've used).
I picked up a Nuvi 765T a few months ago. Up until then I had always used the integrated GPS in the cars I have, but one vehicle (Jeep Wrangler) doesn't have integrated GPS and I was sick of using my iphone to "navigate" (more like try to avoid crashing).
Overall, I've been very pleased with it. Pros: Very bright, responsive touch screen. I've been using it mostly in the DC and mid atlantic region, and the free traffic updates are generally accurate. It can lag a bit around rush hour (ie: backups start on the beltway and it might take 15 mins to get the info) but still, it's really good since its free. The lane assist is nice when you're at an interchange where it works. I wish there were more. Upgrades are easy on a Mac and PC. I actually use the built in media stuff to store a bunch of music for the road. I plug the audio out into my aux in on the wrangler and use it for music and phone calls. I'm currently just using the internal storage (2GB). I'll probably put an SD card in it at some point.
Cons: Sound volume on calls and music is a bit low. I have to turn the aux jax to 11 to hear things as well as I want. Part of that may be an artifact that I'm in a Jeep and not a proper car. Pulling trip data out of it on a Mac is a bit awkward. I have to grab a file way deep in the filesystem and pull it to my local drive. First gen iPhone was impossible to pair up and get to work properly. This GPS is actually what forced my hand to upgrade to a 3G iPhone (sad, I know).
It was a bit spendy, but it had every feature I wanted. Overall, I'm pleased with it. if I had to grade it, I'd give it 4 eggs out of 5 ;)
Dash Express hands down!
Anytime I take friends for a ride, and we go eat dinner... everybody is amazed at my continuous updates of traffic conditions, Yahoo Local searches, gas price checker, etc...
Then they wonder why they've never heard of it...
Dash Express +1!
Garmin nuvi 750
Are you kidding? iPhone 3G does all that and more!
tomtom go 720 All the features you asked for.. Plus many, many more.. this is the 3rd gps i've used and it's by far the best... just catch a refurb deal at buy.com
I love this unit also, and you can also get it refurb at Amazon for around $175. At least in New York my TomTom has been great.
I looked at the high end Tom Tom and Garmin's, i know there are others but i don't buy tv's from SUNY, so i looked at the top guys. If you want a GPS that is for true travelers and road warriors, you want a Garmin model hands down. But Garmins display while driving on the road sucks, Tom Tom shows you your speed in reference to the limit, miles to go, etc etc, all the time. Garmin just recently added only some of that infor and it looks like an afterthought. Garmin does not show POI's on the moving map, Tom Tom does. But Garmin's routing engine is superior if you do your research, and it has 6 million POI's instead of 1 million. Useful when in a new city. If i was driving around MY city most of the time, then tom tom for the HUD capabilities (more info for everyday driving), but since I travel for a living it was Garmin all the way.
Don't forget TomTom offer better goodies, such as app updates are free for the lifetime as long as your device is supported (you're sure to get 3yrs of support). Garmin charges you for app updates. Obviously app updates refer to the HUD & the features, so with a TomTom, when new features come out, your older device has them too.
Both devices charge you for new maps, but at least TomTom has community updates where any TomTom user can add new POIs or make map changes and share them with the rest of the world and this feature works as long as your map is 12months old or less.
This is a point I never see a review bring up, it's overlooked.
This is a case of, "Ask 10 people, and get 15 different answers." LOL!
I did months and months of research. Making myself familiar with what's out there and which features are most important to me. At the end it simply came down to the "best bang for the buck". Found a factory refurbished Magellan Maestro 4250 for $120 at Amazon. 4.3" and text to speech was the two main features I was looking for. This fit my bill at a great price.
Another vote for the Garmin nuvi 7 series; they're awesome. I have an older nuvi 760 (can be had for dirt cheap now) and I just added the nuMaps Lifetime map update from Garmin and it's the one thing I never leave home without, it's that handy. If money was not a concern, the newer 7 series add Lane Assist, Junction View and other minor upgrades (lifetime traffic etc...).
The mapping is great (Navteq), the UI and screen are really fantastic, the internal high-gain antenna is awesome (I get full signal in my basement!) and the routing engine (in North America) really puts other makes of GPSs to shame (coming from someone who's also used TomToms and Magellans frequently). Garmin all the way.