The death of the dedicated GPS device has been exaggerated. Sure, smartphones integrate talented—and a lot of times, free—navigation apps, but not everyone wants to use a phone or a tablet for driving directions. With a standalone GPS, you can just leave it in the car and forget about it until you need it, and you don’t have to worry about draining your phone’s battery.
With goodies like free traffic reporting, lifetime map updates, and local search now commonplace, today’s GPS devices can do a lot more than they ever have, and they’ve never been more affordable—thanks in part to stiff competition from those aforementioned nav-enabled phones and tablets.
That said, the GPS market has contracted so much that we no longer test and review dedicated devices. And it has dwindled down to just two major players: Garmin and Tom Tom. The good news is that these manufacturers have received top ratings from us in the past, and the models we recommend here are their most popular, with the best customer ratings.
So if you’re searching for the right GPS device, one of these should get you where you’re going.
