For most of this past year we have used our iPhones as our primary navigation tool.
The iPhone’s Google Maps program ties into our address book, offers incredibly powerful search, and it even displays an overlay showing traffic conditions in most major cities. The maps are gorgeous and detailed, and you can even zoom down to earth and use “street view” to look around.
But Google Maps is absolutely useless when you don’t have a good cell phone signal, and even when you do the user interface makes such basic tasks as “recalculate my route” a clumsy multi-tap affair.
We’ve been craving something better – something a bit more optimized for in-vehicle navigation…
Past Options:
My first navigation GPS was the Palm-OS powered Garmin iQue 3600, and it spoiled me.
Even though the iQue 3600 came out over five years ago, the 320×480 resolutions screen and the highly detailed map rendering would still stand up today. Despite being more advanced in dozens of other ways, Garmin’s current flagship nÁ¼vi 885T actually has a LOWER resolution screen than my ancient iQue – displaying just 480×272 pixels.
When it comes to maps, the more pixels the better. As I start my research – it boggles my mind that the iQue’s 480×320 resolution screen still has not been equalled or topped. A GPS with a 4″ 640×480 VGA resolution screen would be heaven. Why isn’t anyone offering one?
The best option for getting highly detailed maps on the go has been to use our MacBook Pros and their 15″ 1400×1050 resolution screens. But we’ve grown tired of juggling a laptop in the passenger seat of our Jeep. It’s also a hassle needing to fire up VMware just to run Microsoft Streets & Trips.
(BTW – Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009 is still the best laptop mapping software I’ve seen, and there is nothing like it for Mac OS yet. IMHO – It is one of the only reasons left for ever booting into Windows.)
And despite the great large screen, the laptop user interface isn’t well suited for on-the-go use. We need something smaller and simpler than a laptop, even if it means giving up on screen resolution and map detail.
What is the best GPS for us?
Market leaders Tom Tom and Garmin have a huge array of models and options, and so do many of the other players in this highly competitive space. The amount of choices is literally overwhelming.
A few early contenders:
- Dash Express – I had been very much looking forward to “the world’s first internet connected GPS”, but it looks as if Dash has crashed and is essentially out of business now after barely getting the extremely innovative Express to market. You can find good deals on the Express now as stock is cleared out, but be aware that the many bugs will likely never be fixed.
- Garmin nÁ¼vi 885T – Our fellow Technomad Ben Willmore loves his 885T so much that he is buying a second one for his Jeep. The key feature of Garmin’s flagship 885T is that it supports full voice recognition for entering addresses – allowing true hands free operation. It also supports traffic and weather and gas price downloads via a $50/year MSN Direct subscription. Ben has shown us his, and it is indeed extremely impressive – though pricey.
- Garmin nÁ¼vi 500 – Small and waterproof, and designed as much for hiking and biking and urban exploring as in-car use. The nÁ¼vi 500 even comes with topo maps for the entire country pre-installed, as well as special features for Geocaching. I love the multi-use flexibility that this GPS offers.
- Garmin nÁ¼vi 255W – A fraction of the cost of the 885T, and yet it seems to have almost all of the same same features (other than voice control). The slightly more expensive Garmin nuvi 265WT adds Bluetooth support (yawn) and free lifetime ad-supported traffic. The very similar Garmin nÁ¼vi 765T model line goes even further – with a brighter screen, a better windshield mount, and a few more non-essential features such as 3D building views.
- Garmin nÁ¼vi 1350 – Garmin’s next generation of small GPS units are still only available for pre-order, but they should start shipping later in June. The nÁ¼vi 1300 series is slimmer and lighter than the 255W, and the new pedestrian features and support for public transit routing means that it is designed to be carried in a pocket just as much as on the dash.
- TomTom GO 740 – Garmin’s chief rival is TomTom, and TomTom’s flagship GPS is the “Internet Connected” Go 740. Like the defunct Dash Express, the Go 740 can search for POI’s on the internet as well as in its own database. These online-enabled services (including gas prices and traffic as well) cost $10/month.
- TomTom GO 720 – Tom Tom has a reputation of having less accurate US maps than Garmin, but they do offer a lot of features for the price. The full-featured TomTom Go 720 is selling for less than $150 now, and you can even get a refurbished TomTom ONE 130 for just $50! That is an amazing amount of technology for the price…
- Magellan RoadMate 1470 – The Magellan 1470 has a larger screen than most of these other options (4.7″ vs 4.3″ or 3.5″), and it also includes an integrated AAA TourBook information guide that provides not just POI listings, but reviews and discounts as well. For under $200, this looks to be an amazing option.
Thoughts, feedback, suggestions, and warnings are all appreciated.
The search for the perfect technomadia GPS has begun…
Avoiding parkways (not just highways) is important to us and google maps doesn’t seem to have that option. We have a high top van and don’t want to make that mistake.
I own a TomTom One and I’ve been very frustrated by the quality of the maps. I used my “free map upgrade” voucher late last year so the map is relatively current, less than a year old. Door-to-door routing is pretty much hit or miss once you get out of major cities, major highways are not updated (for example, a new bypass on I-40 has been completed for 2-3 years or more – but the TomTom maps have not been updated to reflect this as of late last year), and important addresses such as ferry docks have been wrong. On my most recent trip the GPS directed me onto a narrow back street that ultimately led to a boat ramp over a mile away from the actual ferry. I’m hesitant to buy an update to the maps as I’ve yet to find a way to preview the new maps and they cost 1/2 as much as a new unit. I’m currently considering a Garmin unit as a replacement.
An alternative I’ve also considered is a 9″ netbook with a USB or bluetooth GPS running Microsoft Streets & Trips or Delorme Trip Planner. 9″ netbooks with SSD drives are available with XP for $200 or less. MountGuys sells an inexpensive netbook mount that attaches to the passenger seat mounting bolt and looks like it would fold out of the way when not in use for around $20. Basically for around $300 I could have a netbook based navigation system that would double as an mp3 player and internet browser (when I’m stopped). I currently own a 10″ netbook (Asus 1000HE) and I’ve been impressed with it so far. The lack of a touch-screen (although touch screen models are coming to market later this year) is the big drawback, it would make it more difficult to quickly change a route, but that’s the sort of thing you really shouldn’t do while driving anyway! You can find a review of the mount here: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=41836
This is becoming a long post – basically my experience with my TomTom has been that it’s accurate in major cities – on a recent trip to St. Louis it directed me exactly to the door of the house I was looking for – and awful everywhere else. When I visited my parents (who live in a relatively rural area) it was nearly a mile off, if I hadn’t been familiar with the area I would have been lost.
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..When even the bad can do some good… =-.
I’m glad to hear someone else considering the netbook route! That’s something I thought of us a great compromise for our needs.. and would also allow the passenger to blog, twitter and reply to e-mails more easily while we’re in motion. We already have a fantastic mount that we used when I had to be ‘on-call’ during the work day too.
We’ve pretty much found that all GPS’s and maps have their problems. Streets and Trips for sure took us on some interesting adventures (once, it routed us down a dirt road that had a boulder barricade.. we did end up seeing a black bear wander by us however.. so I don’t complain about it too much 😉 ). But that certainly wasn’t an isolated incident.
We’re currently experimenting with an older Garmin that my father was kind enough to gift us with. We don’t normally use a GPS for actual routing (until we get closer to our destination), as we enjoy spontaneously changing our routes and exploring cute little towns and such. And it is giving us the things we wanted, which is a map for the driver to easily refer to.
We previously used our iPhones for most of our navigating (still do, actually).. and we’ve found the accuracy of Google’s Maps falls off significantly in cities outside the Bay Area.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
– Cherie