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!
All i will contribute here is that a new batch of Garmins, the 1000 series are coming out at the end of this month, so i would hold off buying until then.
we have settled on a Tom Tom 720. can be found for - $200. as soon as you hook it up with the computer software it upgrades itself to the current 730/930 firmware with all the current features. what sold us was the excellent voice recognition when choosing a destination (my wife can't be fooling around with typing on a touchscreen when she's in a hurry) and the new lane zoom-in feature. auto lane zoom-in rules when you're navigating 6 lane highways with lots of exchanges, like say, HWY 85 going through downtown Atlanta.
@ larry
we knew about the no hyphen and no letters in street numbers deal but we haven't encountered it yet. when all else fails we look up the POI instead or trust Google Maps on the cell to cross ref the location.
best advice: when the GPS goes on, don't turn off your brain.
I had ISSUES with the Garmin NUVI series, and the lack of STREET DETAIL.
Most of the time at most zoom levels the number of street names displayed was like 2 or 3.
I was used to using Google Maps, and older Garming M5, that shows street names.
So you'd get a display with lots of lines, but very few of the lines with street names on them.
Which is useless if you want to use the device for map-like navigation and not have to plan a route every time you want to go somewhere, if you may already know where-abouts the destination is.
My guess is that they do this to keep you from reading the screen while driving?!
It was annoying, and I sold it.
garmin all the way, any of the above. bluetooth works swimmingly on mine, satellites are a touch slow for me, but i can deal with that. i've had bad experiences with tom tom..
also if you live in baltimore, don't leave your suction cup holder in the window.. i did and my car got broken into. my gps and ipod were thankfully both at home, but i felt somehow jipped that my car got broken into and nothing was stolen. also, don't cover your drivers side window with an opaque material.. REALLY hard to drive.
I was going to get the Gamin 265WT as well (from newegg), but ended up getting a Magellan Maestro 4370 from Best Buy. A little cheaper than the Garmin on NE, even at BB, but it also has Bluetooth, traffic (although not free for life), 6 million POI, blah, blah, blah, but what I like most about it, is it's 800x480 res screen, but the Garmin and most other units still have 480x272 res screens. It makes difference.
the guy said he wants a unit with voice recognition, as in being able to speak to his gps. the only gps unit with voice recognition worth getting are any of the units in th garmin 800 series (855, 865, 885). now if he really meant to say text to speech(spoken street names) instead of voice recognition then i would say any unit from garmin starting with the nuvi 265wt or above.
There comes a pricepoint where a $600-$800 GPS just isn't worth it!
I present to you the Viliv S5:
http://www.myviliv.com/ces/main_s5.html
This UMPC is completly wireless and has GPS, WiFi, touch screen and a 120GB hard drive and 2GB ram...All running on an Atom processor...
Of course, if you stop by Geeks.com, you can probably get a nice GPS for under $120...I got my refurbed Tom Tom One there for $100...works fine for what I want.
But I dont' always carry it with me, so running GPS software on My HTC Tilt is a more convenient GPS...and it was free from my carrier! Can't beat that!
Ed
web/gadget guru
Funny, because I don't wonder.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/03/dash-cuts-50-employees-drastically-changing-business-model/
Toshiba TG01 with TOMTOM 6 installed. It's ultraportable, 4", and it can double as a phone, net-tablet, and media player :)
I also used a late model Garmin alot, but did not like it:
-- it does not display upcoming exit as a bent arrow
-- it does show distance to the next exit, but also includes exits that you SHOULD NOT take. Why in the world would it announce "drive straight" exits that I should not take????
-- announcing "not exits", combined with lack of arrow means I should look at minimap to verify every false exit alert. Stay away from Garmin!
The Sanyo NVM-4370 has BT, T2S, built-in traffic receiver, and backup camera input for < $100. Just no speech input.
I've had a few, but the TomTom is my favourite. Currently have the 920t. It's very easy to use, accurate and the free traffic reports have come in useful.
The only times I've missed a turning is when I've purposefully muted the device and not noticed the onscreen instructions, but it's very quick to re-calculate the route. I should stress, that when i have sound switched on, I've never missed a turning. It's always been very accurate for me. My 920t has been mainly used in the UK, but also in France, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Worked flawlessly in all those countries.
garmin 255w
Easy to use, nice screen, good features, good price.
And best of all, even my father can work it.
Navigon, by far, has given me the best experience with PNDs. As others have commented, the lifetime traffic updates and rerouting is great! Bluetooth works great for me. And the main thing, navigation is very accurate, it even picks up a signal inside my condo (1st floor in a 2 floor building) with no "line of sight" to the sky. Also it has super fast recalculation if you miss a turn. The eye candy is a plus, reality view (which shows you where to go when approaching complex freeway intersections) is AWESOME. The only thing that I wasn't too happy with at first was the windshield/dash mount. It seem rather larger than others i used/seen in the past but after a while of using it, I got used to it. I took it on my vacations to Hawaii and also Puerto Rico and it worked flawlessly there. I used the Garmin and it is OK, I didn't like the "flip-up" antenna and it didn't pickup indoors but the navigation was good, just not the same experience as the Navigon. I also have the mapquest on my bberry which works good when i need to make a quick trip but a standalone PND is the best way to go and you will not regret your Navigon purchase. I had their first attempt which was built by fujitsu/simmens and worked great, very portable. Last year I bought the 7100 (wife wanted a larger display for when she drove) and was even better. Good luck!
I am on my third GPS unit, Its not as simple to update as my Tom Tom was, and the garmin seemed to do everything snappier, but the Navigon 5100Max i have right now is my favorite of all time.
Bluetooth handsfree, 3dLane assist is awsome, GUI isnt bad, Lifetime traffic, and 2 free years of map updates. And it connects SO FAST where i live anyway.
249$ at your local radioshack!
I've been using Garmin products for the last five years (my iQue M5 still works perfectly...), and had nothing but trouble with the speaker on my Garmin 765T; after extensive searches about this issue, it seems that there's a disproportionate amount of Garmin users with the same problem, on many different models - a fact that seems to point towards poor quality control at their assembly lines. Keep that in mind before buying!
I believe a lot of the different opinions are based on the fact that TomTom/Garmin/Navigon are not equal in map quality in every region. From what I've read TomTom doesn't seem to be the best choice for the north american market, and Garmin did up until recently only release one map update per year here in europe.
Personally I definately like the TomTom UI the most, it may not be pretty, but it's very intuitive and clear, furthermore TomTom/TeleAtlas with it's mapshare & IQ-routes provides excellent routing, at least here in europe, imho.
Garmin is awesome. Be sure to check out the accessory software available from Garmin! Like the point of interest app (free) that allows you to load red light cam data etc. Also check out Geocaching.com for links to apps that allow you to load sattellite photos, USGS maps and more.
Magellan 4370. Awesome product for the Money ($249 on sale at Best Buy). Hi-Res screen and graphics, bluetooth, qwerty, Widescreen, mp3. What more could you ask?
Garmin Nuvi 765T