GPS - reviews and price comparison

Type

GPS-units can have different designs depending on what usage they are intended for. They can for example be customized for cars, boats or handheld, to be used with computers, PDAs (Palm Pilots) or mobile phones.
This guide is mainly focusing on GPS-navigators to be used in cars or handheld. Handheld units can either be separate or a module to a PDA.

(Show more about GPS in cars) Handheld units can often be mounted in cars and car navigators can often be removed and used as handheld, even if they won’t be as handy.
For GPS navigators intended for usage in cars it is important to have simple and accessible menus with a quick response to your commands. Therefore it is recommended to thoroughly read test- and user reviews of the GPSs you are interested in.
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GPS-types:

Car navigator	Handheld navigator
Navigator module for PDA, wireless	Navigator module for PDA, plug-in

Display

A bigger display is generally easier to read, which is especially important when driving.

High resolution (many pixels) means that the display can show much information in one screen. Colour displays are also to be preferred, since the information is much more distinct in colour.

The pictures below show how much information that can be displayed with different resolutions. All of the GPS navigators below are made by the same manufacturer (TomTom).

176x208 pixels 176x208 pixels b/w (simulated)	320x240 pixels
	480x272 pixels

If the GPS is a module to a PDA it will use the PDS'a display.

Accuracy

The GPS-units can usually give the position with some ten meters accuracy. That is enough for avoiding errors when driving.

(more on accuracy) To get a better accuracy some GPS-units use DGPS which can correct the position. The following question concern accuracy for both DGPS and GPS.
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Start-up

When the GPS has been turned off it will take little while before in can show the position again. If it has only been off a short period of time (at most a couple of hours) it will quickly find the position. This is called warm start. After a longer period of being off it has to update more data, which takes more time. This is called cold start.
Most units have a cold start-up time of 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The warm start-up time is usually between 5 and 30 seconds.

If you are using the GPS daily it can be irritating to have to wait a couple of minutes before the GPS can start to show the route and position. In this case you might want to look for a GPS with a short cold start-up time. If you make several stops every day it is handy with a short warm start-up time.

Batteries and power

GPS navigators for cars are usually powered by the car’s battery but if you remove it from the car you will of course need other batteries.
If you are using the GPS handheld it can be important with a long battery time and/or replaceable batteries.

Bluetooth (for GPS-module to PDA)

All GPS-units have an antenna which receives satellite signals for positioning. GPS-modules to PDAs exist in three variations:

• The module is an expansion card which is plugged into the PDA and the antenna is attached to the card.
• The module is an expansion card which is plugged into the PDA and the antenna is connected to card with a cable.
• The module has a built-in antenna and communicates wirelessly (via Bluetooth) with the PDA.

The type with cable works well if the antenna is placed in for example a car, but is unhandy when handheld. The wireless communication via Bluetooth is of course handy, both in cars and handheld, but is also more expensive.

Weight

For a handheld GPS it could of course be of importance that the GPS-unit is handy and not too chunky.

Rating/awards

On testwinner.co.uk all the different ratings given by expert testers have been translated into a percentage from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum rating.
The average rating for a product can indicate different things. A low average rating is a warning that the product maybe won't live up the expectations created by the ads for the product. A high rating often means that the product has great features and works well. The more tests of the product the better accuracy in the average rating.

The amount of test wins/awards shows how many times the product has been named winner or been selected "Editor's Choice", "Best Buy" or received similar positive awards in tests. An award means that the product stands out from the competition in one way or another. It can be by giving value for money or by being innovative, or simply by just filling its purpose in a really good way.