The GPS navigation system offers a number of compelling safety benefits to travelers venturing into unfamiliar territory, including keeping us from getting lost, guiding us to the nearest service station, rest area or hospital, and allowing us to report our precise location to emergency responders. Though the presence of another electronic device in the car can be a distraction, those of us who remember wrestling with large, unwieldy paper maps while trying to keep our eyes on the road see the in-vehicle GPS revolution as a net benefit, particularly with the addition of voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions.
TomTom's iPhone App
Now there’s a new revolution afoot, namely the growing availability and sophistication of GPS features on smartphones, such as the iPhone, Android and Google Nexus One. However, from a safety perspective, there are strong arguments as to why the GPS on your mobile phone is best used while you’re stopped or sitting in the passenger seat and a dedicated in-vehicle GPS unit remains a better choice:
- Eyes Forward – Read With Your Ears: One of the principal dangers of electronic devices in the car is the fact that they draw your eyes away from the road ahead. Virtually all dedicated in-car GPS navigation systems include spoken turn-by-turn directions (”in one mile, turn left”). The best units also include text-to-speech capability, i.e., they read the street names aloud (”in one mile, turn left on Main Street”). Mobile phone apps don’t always include these features and the speaker volume and sound quality is usually much better on dedicated GPS units, which have larger speakers. Read more
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Our Top Picks: The Best of the Best. If you don’t have the time to invest reading reviews and comparisons, consult our Top Picks below for our top recommendations in each of four categories. Since all of the GPS units we feature are rated 4 stars or higher, our Top Picks truly are the "best of the best.".
If you’d like to do some more research, consult our GPS Buyers Guide which will give you an in-depth look at GPS features to look for and, of course, our GPS Reviews to find the top-rated GPS with the features you’re looking for. Remember: All the GPS units we feature are rated 4 stars or better. We’ve done the homework for you.
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1. Easiest to Use Mid-Range GPS for the Car
Garmin’s nuvi series has been all about constant innovation and improving on what just a few months ago seemed to be as top-of-the-line as the series could get. The 7×5 series, which includes the 755T, 765T, 775T and 785T does it again, with the addition of some compelling "gotta have" features and smaller touches that continue to refine this excellent product without undermining its performance. The nuvi 755T earned PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award, and its praise, including, "…features that the 755T offers, including the Lane Assist view, 3D Landmarks, and Garmin Connect Photos, make an excellent navigation experience even better." Any of Garmin’s nüvi series is perfect for someone who’s easily intimidated by complicated devices, driving, or both! It’s small, portable, completely touch-screen controlled, and takes simplicity to a new level. No confusing buttons — just a touch screen with two options: “Where To?” and “View Map.” The unit guides you each step of the way, providing spoken turn-by-turn directions to your destination. If you miss a turn, no worries — the unit will instantly recalculate your route and get you back on track. Want to add live traffic updates? Many of the Garmin nuvi series are live traffic-capable, including the 765T, which includes a traffic receiver and a free lifetime traffic subscription.
| The nüvi 7×5 Series: |
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2. Best Fully-Featured GPS for the Car
Looking for the best top-of-the-line, fully-featured GPS? It’s Garmin’s nüvi series again, which has taken its blending of form and function to a new level, offering an elegant yet essential travel tool to the traveler. Building on the the overwhelming success of Garmin’s nuvi line, which both dominate U.S. sales and consistently garner the highest owner satisfaction ratings, the nuvi 880 brings the strong nuvi heritage forward with a breakthrough in voice-recognition technology. At last you can talk back to your GPS and it will listen! According to CNET reviewers, "…we were blown away at its accuracy…Even with the radio in the background, the system was able to understand and compute all our voice commands and more importantly, perform them accurately." Want some coffee? Simply say, "Find place, Starbucks." That’s much easier than hunting and pecking on a touch screen in freeway traffic. The fully-featured 880 earned PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award and calls the nüvi an “indispensable travel companion…a portable GPS navigator, traveler’s reference, and digital entertainment system, all in one.” Garmin’s 800 series offers multi-destination routing — which offers you the optimal route when you need to make many stops — along with Garmin’s “Where Am I?” safety feature. The nüvi sports Garmin’s top-end GPS features, such as a brilliant touch screen, pre-loaded maps for North America, text-to-speech, which reads street names out loud when announcing turns, automatic rerouting if you miss a turn or encounter a detour, and live traffic updates.
Update: In 2009, the nuvi 880 was replaced with the 885, which adds Lane Guidance, among other features. We’ve found the 885 in better supply and available at lower prices than the 880 with no sacrifice in quality and a net gain in features:
| The nüvi 8×5 Series: |
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3. Best Handheld GPS for the Back Country, Boat, or Vehicle
For the hiker, hunter, fisherman or anyone who likes to explore the back country,
the 5-star Garmin GPSMap 60csx is powerful handheld unit that’s all about versatility and ruggedness. It’s waterproof and is an ideal choice if you’ll be in the field, on the water, and need a unit that is packed with features yet portable and durable. It also provides turn-by-turn driving directions for use in the car. It even has a “geocaching” mode. A great single unit solution to a wide range of navigation challenges. There are newer and more powerful handhelds available since the 60csx was introduced, namely Garmin’s Oregon and Colorado series (see below), but we still have great admiration for the 60csx. Winner of Outside Magazine’s “Gear of the Year” award.
| More Top Handheld GPS Gift Choices: |
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4. Most Economical GPS for the Car
TomTom has managed to bring entry-level to, well, a new level with the latest offerings of its popular ONE series. TomTom’s value-packed ONE 140 and 140S offer an attractive upgrade to the ONE 130 and 130S, competitively positioning them in the entry-level category of in-vehicle GPS systems, which includes Garmin’s popular 2×5 series. Most significant, TomTom has now included its Advanced Lane Guidance feature into the ONE 140 series, a feature until now seen only on midrange and top GPS units. In its Editor’s Choice 4-star review, PC Magazine states, "TomTom’s One 140-S has more features than you’d typically expect from a $200 GPS device from a top manufacturer." Though you might miss some higher end features,the TomTom ONE 140S won’t disappoint as a reliable traveling companion. The 140S includes text-to-speech, an important safety feature. Consider also the widescreen versions of the ONE 140 and 140S, the XL 340 and 340S, along with the XL 340S LIVE which also includes TomTom’s LIVE services for traffic, Google local search, fuel prices, weather and more.
| More Top Economical GPS Gift Choices: |
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The immensely popular sport of "geocaching" (pronounced "JEE-oh-cashing") is essentially an outdoor treasure hunt game in which participants containers (called "caches" or "geocaches") anywhere in the world. While the origins of the sport are attributed to the 150-year-old sport known as "letterboxing," which uses references to landmarks and clues hidden in stories, the 21st-century geocaching uses a web site to provide clues and latitude/longitude coordinates, and most of its participants use handheld GPS systems to find their cache.
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Updated every hour, today’s top-selling GPS units from our affiliate, Amazon.com. See top sellers in these categories:
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Fuel costs are outta sight, and it looks like the situation will only get worse. You’ll find lots of ads for “high tech fuel savers,” but most of these are gimmicks and rip-offs. But there is one high-tech device that really does save you fuel — lots of it. It’s your GPS Navigation System. Among the many other benefits your GPS provides, saving you fuel is one of its best yet unsung benefits. With fuel prices at all-time highs and heading still higher, it won’t take long for your GPS investment to pay for itself in fuel savings along. Here are six ways that a GPS Navigation System improve your fuel economy (and save you time and stress to boot).
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