If you’re interested in buying a gps unit then really you have two choices when it comes to manufactures. You either go for a TomTom or a Garmin as these are the two major manufactures for car gps units on the market right now.
The do have competition especially in some of the more specific areas such as trucking gps units where Rand McNally have been operating in for the last 20 years and produce a very good truck gps, however for motorcycles and cars, really TomTom and Garmin and the two manufactures that you want to know about.
Magellan
Magellan gps units are the new kid on the block whilst you would think that a gps manufacture that has been named after one of the most famous explorers in the world, would be able to manufacture a decent gps unit, sadly this is not the case and whilst they do manufacture gps units, I would highly recommend that you don’t buy one. In the short term they will give you a decent gps unit, however in the long term, often something goes wrong with them or the maps are not as updateable as they should be.
For this reason we would highly recommend that you stick to the major players in this market that whilst maybe slightly more expensive, they will give you a better gps unit over the long term and most importantly features that you can actually use.
TomTom Vs Garmin Interface
The interface is one of the most important parts of any gps unit given that it really controls how well you’re going to use your gps unit. A difficult interface means that whilst your gps unit might have all the features in the world, if you cannot find them, you’re not going to use them. Luckily both Garmin and TomTom have fantastic interface’s and really there is very little difference between the two manufactures.
TomTom Vs. Garmin Screen’s
Both TomTom and Garmin manufacture fantastic screen’s meaning that in normal conditions either screen will be surfice to view your gps unit. The real screen test comes when you want to view a gps screen either in direct sunlight or when it’s dark out side meaning that the only light source comes from within the gps unit itself.
In this situation, the clarity of the Garmin Nuvi model easily wins over the TomTom screen especially on the larger models. The nuvi units are much more easily visible during our test’s meaning that you can easily see the screen. On the smaller models, the difference is slight, however the larger 6 and 7 inch models, the difference is major especially when you’re viewing your gps unit in direct sunlight.
TomTom Vs. Garmin Maps
Probably the most important aspect of any gps unit is it maps as really these are the difference between a good gps unit and a great one. All TomTom and Garmin gps units come as standard with detailed maps of the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada and whilst both offer maps of Mexico and Europe the difference comes when you want to venture further afield to the Far East or Africa. TomTom’s asian maps are not very good and they do not have coverage for major countries such as India or Japan. Most importantly they do not allow you to add any third-party maps to your unit meaning that if you want to take your gps unit with you on your travels to Asia then you need to look at a Garmin rather than a TomTom unit. Firstly Garmin has fantastic coverage of most of Asia to include India, China, Vietnam and the Philippines and secondly, if Garmin don’t have maps for a location that you want to go to then you will be able to buy third party maps and use them with your device. These means that for a country like Japan where neither TomTom or Garmin produce maps for, you will be able to use your Garmin unit with third party maps that you can buy online.
The major downside of Garmin maps is that they are very small with their coverage meaning that you have to buy a separate map for each country that you want to go to, whereas TomTom have a much larger surface area to each map meaning that you don’t have to buy as many maps. As an example, for the whole of western Europe, TomTom sell this as one map, whereas Garmin split this into 7 different maps meaning that you have to buy all 7 different maps to drive around the country.
TomTom Vs. Garmin Map’s and Navigation
TomTom has one really big problem when it comes to navigation meaning that it often loses this battle easily. It’s big problem is traffic alerts. On nearly all the Garmin range, they offer free lifetime map update and free traffic alerts as signalled by the LMT after the model. This means that your gps unit will always have up to date maps and will be able to take advantage of any traffic jams that are along your route. The TomTom has the same free map updates, but if you want traffic alerts, then you have to plug in your smartphone and use its connection to the internet to receive them. This is a big problem for many and really begs the question why you would buy a gps unit at all. Surely if you have use your phone for traffic, you would just use your smartphone for navigation as well.
For this reason the TomTom models always lose, however they do make themselves up given that their maps are slightly better than the Garmin’s, both in the level of detail that they offer and the size of the maps. Let’s imagine you’re sat in New York and want to travel around Europe. You will have to buy maps of Europe which you can load onto your gps unit. For the TomTom models, you can simple buy three maps which will cover the whole of Europe, but the Garmin you need 10 different maps to cover the whole of Europe. At over 100 USD per map, this will cost you some dollars.
TomTom Vs. Garmin Points of Interest
In the good old days when the points of interest databases first came out, this was a real selling point of a gps unit, however with advancements of technology, they are becoming more and more crazy. Two years ago Garmin had around 6 million points of interest in their data base covering the entire US with everything from hotels to ATM’s and Gas Stations to shopping malls included. Recently this has got even more crazy to the point where now Garmin has over 10 million and has done a deal with Foursquares meaning that you can now also read reviews about each place you want to go to all from your car. Again we really cannot see much in the way of differences between the Garmin or TomTom points of interest databases, however the Garmin models do arrange them into categories better than the TomTom models which makes them easier to browse through and find exactly what you want.
TomTom Vs. Garmin Extra Features
- Battery Life – Very similar between the two manufactures
- Price – Very Similar
- Navigation – Very Similar, Both models have turn-by-turn directions, 3D mapping and guidance when entering complicated intersections.
- Bluetooth – We have tried bluetooth on many different model with the TomTom and Garmin range and really the Garmin range wins this battle. Lots of TomTom models work very well, but Garmin, well we have not found a model that does not work fantastically well to date.
Overall, choosing between TomTom and Garmin is a very difficult choice and often users will carry on buying the same manufacture that they have always used. Some people call this brand loyalty, whilst others feel that they know their way around the gps unit and want to carry on using the specific type of gps unit. Our favourite, the Garmin wins hands down. We love them and if you look through our reviews, you will notice that Garmin wins most of time produce the best Car GPS Unit, The Best Truck GPS Unit and many other gps models.