Garmin nuvi 50

Recommended

This does without the 3597’s live traffic, but is a third of the price. The nüvi 50 is part of Garmin’s Essentials range, so while it’s not quite as feature-packed, you still get lane assistant and junction view data.

The screen is large and simple to understand, even if the maps aren’t quite as colourful as rivals’. And as this uses the same database as the more expensive Garmin, it’s just as accurate.

Route recalculation was behind the best, but at seven seconds it was still faster than the similarly priced devices from TomTom and Mio. It doesn’t include Bluetooth, live traffic updates or European maps, although it has a simple-to-use mount, easy-to-understand menus and clear directions, so the nüvi 50 is our pick of the basic devices.