Garmin 1450LMT Portable Navigator Lifetime
Couldn't decide which GPS would be better for a huge sales trip to a new state, Florida, so we bought them both to try out. We logged 1900 miles with the TomTom and about 1600 with the Garmin.
In short, they're both extremely good and very close to each other. In practice the only real difference is that it was a bit easier to find addresses with the Garmin. That's partially a result of entering them street number first, then the street name--as they're usually written. On the TomTom you enter the street name first, then the number. Also, Garmin just automatically figured out what I was looking for better.
We have a hard time deciding against the TomTom though because of its traffic features. It automatically redirected us when we hit traffic. The Garmin is supposed to do that, but the TomTom is better. For instance, we were really pressed for time heading back to the airport. The TomTom wanted to pop over to a different freeway. It turns out we would have been a few minutes faster on that route because it was less congested. Turned out the airport was shut down anyway for a tornado, but we were close enough to flight time that it might have made a big difference. I believe the TomTom feature bases that on more than just traffic. I believe they gather real-world data about which routes happen to go faster.
My other small knock on the Garmin is that it seemed to be really paranoid about bringing you to your final destination in a very easy fashion. For instance, rather than have me turn left off a busy street into my hotel, it would take me on four different turns beforehand so that I could make a nice, easy right-handed turn into the hotel. Maybe there's a setting to adjust that, but I couldn't find it.
-Apparently the TomTom doesn't power down automatically. I thought that would be a deal-breaker, but in practice we always popped them off the stand and powered them down anyway to deter thieves. If you wanted to leave it mounted permanently that would probably be a big deal.
Other nick-nacks that didn't really matter much in practice, but might be worth noting:
-NUVI's data display is better looking, a bit easier to make entries with, and has an audio cue for tapping in data and selections.
-With the NUVI you can just tap the screen to pull out to a North/South map view and easily zoom in or out to see where you're heading.
-TomTom shows which lane you should be exiting right up until you take it. Nuvi shows it a bit before you get there--not quite as helpful for how I drive.
-TomTom's mount is a more clever, compact design.
-Initially we got our power cords switched. The NUVI worked fine with the TomTom charger, but the TomTom appears to have not liked the NUVI charger. Could be a problem if you lost the supplied charger. Also, battery life on the TomTom appeared worse than the NUVI--though the battery on both were lame enough that having a power cord was mandatory either way. Maybe 3 hours max.
-TomTom tended to provide a little more cushion when predicting arrival time.
-Had to get a new voice from the Garmin site because the standard one was annoying.
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