Luxury GPS receivers

Voice commands, Web access now available on cheaper models

There's increasingly less reason to spend more than $350 for an auto GPS receiver, according to reviews. Luxury features that cost $1,000 in mid-2008, such as the ability to recognize voice commands, are popping up on under-$250 GPS receivers. The latest craze -- Internet-connected GPS -- can now be had on TomTom units under $350 (see our Best Auto GPS section).

But if you want the absolute top-of-the-line, critics say, you want the Garmin nuvi 1690 (*Est. $500). It's the first Garmin GPS that connects to the Internet, and so far experts like it better than TomTom's connected units.

"The first connected GPS you might actually buy," GPSMagazine.com dubs the nuvi 1690.

Like the TomTom Go 740 Live (*Est. $375), the Garmin nuvi 1690 uses its Internet connection to find virtually unlimited points of interest, traffic alerts and the lowest gas prices along your route. But the nuvi 1690 "moves further into the connected arena" than TomTom, according to one leading consumer organization. For example, when you're out, the nuvi 1690's Ciao! social networking service can tell you if your friends are nearby (as long as they're connected with Ciao!, GyPSii or Buddy Beacon on their GPS devices or cell phones). TomTom's connected units can locate people, too, but only other TomTom users.

The Garmin nuvi 1690 initially costs more than the TomTom Go 740 Live, but Craig Ellison at PC World points out that the Garmin comes with two free years of Internet-connected services, so it actually costs less in the long run than the TomTom, which charges $10 a month for its "Live" services. GPSMagazine.com finds the Garmin easier to use than the TomTom, too.

However, the first few owner reviews of the Garmin nuvi 1690 at Amazon.com are already complaining of glitches, crashed units and lousy tech support. Pop-up ads annoy some reviewers (they appear during point-of-interest searches). And the nuvi 1690 omits some upscale Garmin features, including 3-D building view and voice commands.

If you want to command your GPS unit with your voice, you can opt for the Garmin nuvi 885T (*Est. $420).

"The nuvi 885T succeeds where many others have failed, delivering speech recognition that actually works, and ease of use that other devices can only dream of," says GPSMagazine.com. "Virtually every GPS function can be performed using your voice."

However, you don't even have to pay that much: The Garmin nuvi 855 (*Est. $245) is identical to the nuvi 885T, except the cheaper nuvi 855 omits Bluetooth (which is too quiet on Garmin units for phone calls anyway, some owners say) and uses an FM traffic receiver instead of MSN Direct (which Microsoft plans to discontinue on Jan. 1, 2012, due to lack of sales). Critics point out that with these voice-command auto GPS devices, you'll give up some of the useful features from the top-rated midprice Garmin nuvi 765T (*Est. $270), including free traffic for life.

Other high-end models from Garmin and TomTom

Garmin has another new entry in the luxury GPS market, the Garmin nuvi 1490T (*Est. $465). Its main asset is a 5-inch screen that reviews say looks enormous next to normal widescreen GPS units.

"Five inches may not sound like a big difference compared to the more standard 4.3-inch screen, but trust me, your eyes (and ears) will thank you," says Fletcher Previn at GPSMagazine.com, who notes that the nuvi 1490T also has a bigger, louder speaker than other Garmin units. He likes the nuvi 1490T so well that he plans to replace his own Garmin nuvi 765T with one.

The nuvi 1490T is more advanced than Garmin's other big-screen unit, the Garmin nuvi 5000 (*Est. $260), which lacks a battery (it only works when plugged in), lane assist, Bluetooth, ecoRoute (the ability to calculate the most fuel-efficient route) and free traffic information for the life of the unit -- all of which you'll get on the nuvi 1490T. However, like other new Garmin models, the nuvi 1490T lacks some of the features you'll find on the top-rated Garmin nuvi 765T; there's no 3-D building view, for example, and the nuvi 1490T won't tell you where you parked your car. And although it gets some good owner reviews, other owners complain that their brand-new nuvi 1490Ts crashed or never worked properly.

TomTom dominates in the U.K. market, and testers there prefer the TomTom Go 930 (*Est. $250) and its version with traffic information included, the TomTom Go 930T (*Est. $450). Reviewers say these car GPS receivers include some nifty features: advanced lane guidance (similar to Garmin's lane assist, which tells you which lane to be in at an interchange), IQ routes (which draws on other TomTom users' experiences to pick the best routes) and dead reckoning, which allows the units to keep navigating even if they lose the satellite signal.

But U.S. reviewers find flaws with these high-end TomTom GPS systems. Advanced lane guidance and IQ routes aren't available in most areas. TomTom's free Home software -- which you must use to download any new voices or map updates -- "is so buggy I had to uninstall it in order to restore my PC to a functioning state," writes GPSMagazine.com's Previn. Rich Owings of GPSTracklog.com says the software failed the first time he tried to install it. Finally, testers say the TomToms understand some voice commands, but you can't run them by voice alone as you can with the Garmin voice-command GPS receivers.