When the first Bluetooth GPS receiver came out, honestly I thought that was something I didn’t need. Actually, I’m not one of those drivers who spends a lot of time talking on the phone. Later when I upgraded my GPS to a unit that had Bluetooth, I loved being able to talk “hands-free” so much I would never consider buying a unit without that capability.
Buying a GPS is sometimes difficult because there are so many manufacturers and they have so many products to choose from. If you’re focusing on a GPS that has Bluetooth, then you’re narrowing the field down some, but still, you have a ton of possibilities.
In this article I’m going to make the choice of the right Bluetooth GPS a little (how about a lot?) easier for you. Once you finish reading this, you’ll be ready to purchase the right unit for your needs and your budget.
One thing that helped me when I bought my unit was realizing there are three main manufacturers of GPS devices. Garmin is the industry leader with probably 70% of the market share. Tom Tom is fast catching up with great products and great prices. And Magellan certainly holds its own as one of the early pioneers with a lot of proprietary features.
I’m not going to tell you which unit I chose. I will tell you it was made by one of these three.
Let’s talk about each of these companies and their GPS’s that have Bluetooth capability.
Garmin
Garmin has a huge range of products. They have several GPS devices that have Bluetooth integration. Personally, I like their newer, sleeker nuvi line. The nuvis are replacing the StreetPilot as Garmin’s flagship line of GPS receivers.
There are several nuvis with Bluetooth. Their numbers are the 360, 370, 660, 670, 680, 760, 770, 780, and the recent arrivals the 880 and the 5000.
The 300s all have the smaller 3.5-inch screens. The main difference between the 300s and the 600s is the screen size. If you want a huge screen, try the 5000! It’s screen is a huge 5.2-inches along the diagonal.
The 600s also have what’s called FM transmission capability. That is, the sound from the GPS is routed through your car’s stereo system.
What the 700s offer above the 300s and the 600s is multi-destination routing. In other words, if you want to drive from New York to Calgary to Vancouver to San Francisco, you can enter all that information in your GPS at one time and it will calculate the best route to get you to all three places. (Unfortunately, it can’t make the drive shorter!)
Nuvis currently run from right around $200 for the 300s to $350 or so for the 700s. The 5000 is currently around $650, and the 880 runs about $1,000.
Magellan
I absolutely adore Magellan’s Maestro line! In that line, there are two GPS’s that support Bluetooth, the 3250 and the 4250. They are the same, except the 4250 has the larger 4.3-inch screen.
These devices are comparable to the Garmin nuvis. Magellan does have a proprietary thing with AAA, where they offer their Tour Book actually on the device. (You have to be a AAA member to access it.)
At the moment, the 3250 will set you back about $200. Believe me, that’s a lot of GPS for that amount of money. And the 4250 is about $250.
Tom Tom
Tom Tom is the newer kid on the block. And they have been aggressively gaining market share with great products and very aggressive pricing. The Tom Tom Go line supports Bluetooth. The Go 510 runs slightly less than $200 and the Go 920 runs between $300 and $350.
Unfortunately, no six hundred word article can tell you all you need to know about these great devices, even if you narrow it down to just the ones with Bluetooth. What you need to do now, is to get on an informative website where you can actually look at specific models and check their current prices.
By: Rick Cole
Posts Tagged ‘Budget’
How to Choose the Right Bluetooth GPS Receiver
February 9th, 2010What’s the Best GPS For Car Use?
January 20th, 2010
To find the best GPS for car use, you have to understand a little about the market. Specifically, you need to know who makes the best GPS systems, what their features are and how much that’s going to cost. Then you can choose the best GPS for your needs and budget.
In the United States, there are three manufacturers of GPS systems you need to focus on–Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan. Garmin is without doubt the industry leader, selling around half of the GPS devices sold. Tom Tom and Magellan each sell about 20%. So, these three companies represent about 90% of the total U. S. market.
Although there are several other companies that make GPS’s, I would look no further than these three.
Buying a GPS is a little difficult, sometimes.
Even if you focus on just these three manufacturers there’s still a ton of models to choose from. Also, GPS devices all have features that normally you might not have considered important, like what they call FM transmission–the ability of your GPS to send it’s sound through your car’s stereo system.
I’ve been reviewing GPS systems for quite a while, and I’ve written several hundred reviews. One thing that seems to help people is to divide the marketplace into three areas, entry-level, mid-range, and high-end. Within each of these divisions, it’s easier to say which unit is actually the best GPS for car use.
So, let’s talk about each of these market segments in order, starting with the entry-level market.
Best GPS for Car, Entry-Level
In a short, 500 word, article it’s impossible to give the GPS marketplace a complete treatment. So at each price point, I’m going to mention one of two GPS’s that I really like and give you an indication of why. You can then continue your own research online on a good website.
There are four entry-level devices I like. The Garmin nuvi’s 200 and 350. The Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition, and the Magellan Maestro 3100.
The nuvi 200, One, 3rd Edition, and the Maestro 3100 all sell for about $150. Of these three, the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition offers the most features for the money. The nuvi 350 is slighly higher at $200, but it has a lot of features only found in more expensive devices, like traffic alerts and actually saying street names when it tells you where to turn.
Personally, of these four, I would go with either the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition or the nuvi 350 according to how much money you want to spend.
Best GPS for Car, Mid-Range
Again, Magellan, Tom Tom, and Garmin all have good products. At the lower end of the mid-range, I would probably go with the Magellan Maestro 4250. It only sells for about $250 and has a ton of features including AAA’s famous Tour Guide right on the device.
Tom Tom’s GO line offers some good products, like the GO 920T, but frankly I think they’re a little overpriced.
If you’re willing to spend $300 or so, then you’ll want to check out Garmin’s nuvi 760. The nuvi 760 has Bluetooth and multiple point routing, among a host of other features. It’s currently selling for just under $350. That’s a lot of GPS for the money.
Best GPS for Car, High-End
The high end of the market belongs to Garmin. And their best product is the state-of-the-art Garmin nuvi 880. What can’t the 880 do? It will cost you a cool $900, but if you’re looking for cutting edge technology, you’ve found it!
What you need to do now is to find an informative website where you can browse individual units and find out their current selling price.
By: Rick Cole
How to Pick a GPS Unit to Fit Your Budget
December 27th, 2009
Knowing how to pick a GPS unit to fit your budget sounds easy, but there’s actually quite a bit to understand about these neat little devices. When you’re buying a GPS unit for the first time, of even if you’re upgrading, you can sometimes feel like you need a master’s degree in electrical engineering just to comprehend what you’re buying.
It doesn’t have to be that confusing! Hopefully, this article will make the choice of the right GPS a little easier for you.
First off, let’s look at what basic features any GPS will have.
All GPS units do the following:
They…
Show you where you are and tell you how to get to your destination Come pre-programmed with a database of Points of Interest (POI’s) Come pre-loaded with maps of at least the lower 48 United States Have a touch screen interface Most can be used as a digital picture viewer, audio book reader, and mp3 player
There are three main manufacturers of GPS units, which in the United States account for almost 90% of the market. They are Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan. GPS units that do these basic functions are currently running less than $150. Some examples are the Garmin nuvi 200, the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition, and the Magellan Maestro 3100.
As far as how to pick a GPS unit from among these three: Garmin is known in the United States for quality; the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition offers a few more features than the other two; and the Maestro 3100 is priced slightly less than the Garmin or the Tom Tom.
You just have to decide what’s important to you, quality, features, or price.
All three of these companies make a great product, by the way. You won’t go wrong with any of the three.
Of course, if you want to spend more money, you can get more features.
Upgraded features include:
Bluetooth for hands-free calling Telling you not only where to turn, but actually saying the name of the street (very helpful!) Choice of larger screen, 4.3-inches More maps Much larger POI database Multiple route calculation capability
All three of these companies, Garmin, Tom Tom, and Magellan are very competitive in the middle price range ($300 more or less). Tom Tom and Garmin are essentially neck and neck, here. What differentiates between the two are again Garmin’s reputation for quality and Tom Tom’s extra features. Tom Tom has this great thing where you can download map changes that have been generated by real Tom Tom users. Magellan is certainly very competitive, also. Especially with their deal with AAA, where they offer AAA’s Tour Book right in the device’s database. (Great for AAA lovers like me!)
As far as the upper end of the price spectrum, Garmin is absolutely the top dog! The Garmin nuvi 700’s and 800’s dominate the high end market. The Garmin nuvi 880, for instance, sells for right under $1,000. It can do everything except maybe cook your waffles for you. (They’re adding that next year!)
With this information, how to pick a GPS unit should not be all that difficult! You first need to decide on your price range, then check out the specific products offered. To do this you need an informative website where you can browse models and take a look at their current prices.
By: Rick Cole
