Sat-nav Test

February 2008

There’s no sign of the portable sat-nav boom slowing, with new models, updates and features hitting the market at a staggering pace. And that’s not the only good news for drivers, because prices are tumbling as firms fight for market share.

Such a fast-moving line-up makes picking a unit increasingly difficult – so we have done the hard work for you by hitting the road with 16 of the biggest sellers to see which you should buy.

As the systems develop, so does our list of desirable features – we looked for widescreens (four inches and above) for easy route recognition, Bluetooth hands-free with the ability to download the address and TMC traffic information, preferably without a long, ugly aerial. Speed trap warnings should be directional, and with sat-nav theft rising a security code is a good idea. Text to speech – where a voice tells you the road name etc – is a bonus, especially when it also reads SMS messages. Plus, we wanted a good range of points of interest (POI), rather than simply a national list of chains.

Each system was tested on our speed trap route. We tapped in five postcodes to check databases, and rated map accuracy by seeing if two now-defunct roundabouts were still showing.

Verdict

With such a wide range of features and prices, picking a winner was never going to be easy. But for us, the Garmin Nüvi 760 takes the prize. It blends plenty of hi-tech wizardry with simple controls, accurate mapping and speed traps – on top of the best POIs around – all at a cracking price.

Magellan’s Maestro 4245 has a long specification tally and is our Recommended choice. And the Garmin Nüvi 200 makes a good budget buy, although it was pushed hard by the Medion GoPal E3410 and TomTom One 3rd Edition. Of the speed trap locator-based sat-navs, the Snooper Syrius S600 Plus edged out the PogoDrive.

Top 3

1. Garmin Nüvi 760
2. Magellan Maestro 4245
3. Garmin Nüvi 200

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