The Garmin DriveSmart 55 is our new top pick and the Garmin Drive 52 is our budget pick, our also-great pick for world travelers is still the TomTom Go 520 >After testing the latest models
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You can simply make use of your phone for driving instructions, but a separate GPS device makes navigating easier, works where you don’t have protection, and frees up the device for any other uses. The Garmin DriveSmart 55 stands apart since it combines best-in-class instructions, points-of-interest data, motorist alerts, and map that is free because of the most useful multi-touch display we’ve seen on any GPS product.
Our pick
Garmin DriveSmart 55
The most useful vehicle GPS
Best-in-class guidelines, motorist alerts, tourist attractions, and free map updates—combined utilizing the screen we’ve that is best seen on any GPS unit—set the DriveSmart 55 independent of the pack.
Buying Choices
Might be rented out already
*At the full time of publishing, the purchase price had been $180 .
The DriveSmart 55’s super-crisp 1200×720-pixel capacitive display is much sharper and better to read compared to the 480×272 display typical on most similarly sized models. And its own multi-touch control is a lot easier for zooming in or out for a map compared to typical GPS screen’s settings. Although the 5.5-inch display screen is bigger than on typical models—which have 5-inch screens—the general unit is somewhat smaller because of the 55’s sleek design that is bezel-less. The 55 can also connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth, which lets you send destinations to the device, get incoming messages on-screen, and receive extra trip and traffic info like the best GPS models. The DriveSmart’s considerable points-of-interest database helps show you to an area’s best web web web sites and organizations, with built-in TripAdvisor ranks, Foursquare listings, History Network web internet sites, and US National Park directories, which other brands’ models don’t offer. The 55 also provides helpful traffic information in a lot of metro areas, reacts to sound commands as well as the most effective GPS devices, and like other top models includes free lifetime map updates—a comparison into the pricey updates you get for a lot of cars’ built-in nav systems.
Additionally great
TomTom get 520
Better GPS for world tourists
You receive more free maps for lots more countries than with Garmin models, nevertheless the TomTom Go display that is 520’sn’t as razor- sharp and also the device is not as an easy task to make use of since the DriveSmart 55.
Buying Choices
Can be rented out already
The TomTom Go 520 is an excellent option to take with you in the event that you usually travel outside the united states as it provides free online globe maps, that are split, costly acquisitions for Garmin models. TomTom’s handy magnetic mount can be a bonus that is nice.
Although the Go 520 provides lots of the exact exact same features while the Garmin DriveSmart 55, we like the 55 because it gives more specific directions and clearer lane guidance, it has 
a sharper display, its menu system is easier to use, its voice controls are more extensive, and it offers more driver alerts for US use.
Budget choose
As you approach the next change, a green perimeter light starts illuminating in the bottom regarding the display and slowly rises up the edges, finishing a group at the very top just like you achieve your turn. We discovered this artistic cue to be interestingly effective, particularly in thick areas with a lot of roads near together, therefore we had been impressed because of the Speak’s navigational abilities, considering its size and lack of a display.
Nonetheless, unlike other units, the Speak has to be combined with an iphone that is compatible Android os smartphone via Bluetooth to work after all. This pairing additionally permits the talk to provide Amazon’s Alexa electronic associate, if you already need a smartphone to make it work, you can just use Siri or Google Assistant for those type of functions though we haven't seen the value of having Alexa in a car. (Garmin additionally offers the pricier talk Plus, which will be a variation with a dashcam and safety that is integrated much like those associated with the Garmin DriveAssist 51 LMT-S.)
The Klashwerks Raven is really a multi-function unit that combines a dashcam with navigation, protection, and car monitoring. But we weren’t impressed with is navigation functions. Locations must be input through a Bluetooth-paired smartphone application, as well as the unit’s display provides only fundamental artistic guidance. (it is possible to visit a map that is full the phone’s software, but that will require having another device on your own dash.) When paired, sound instructions are heard through the car’s speakers, nevertheless when the Raven’s was left by us software doing something different because of the phone (such as for instance flow music), the navigation stopped entirely.