You expect plenty of great features when you spend more than $600 for a high-end in-car portable GPS navigator, and the latest models deliver. Road warriors, frequent business travelers, and those who travel internationally will appreciate these travel companions. See below for my top picks in navigators that do it all. See the in-car GPS price and feature comparison chart to understand how these high-end models differ from more economical units.
Garmin Nuvi 760 (about $750)
Photo © Garmin
The Nuvi 760's sharp and bright 4.3-inch wide screen provides a nice interface for a long list of features. A fully-loaded map set with points of interest includes hotels, restaurants, ATMs and more. You can add custom points of interest. A "Where am I" feature shows your location relative to the nearest hospitals, police stations and other vital services. The Nuvi 760 remembers its exact location automatically when you remove it from its windshield or dash mount, which is great if you park in a large lot, such as an amusement park, airport, etc. Additional high-end features include: hands-free calling interface, traffic alerts and avoidance, MP3 player, audio book player, anti-theft lock, and plug-in SD card for language translation.
TomTom GO 920T (about $700)
Photo © TomTom
We continue our tour of the cream of the crop with the TomTom 920T, which sports "enhanced position technology" offering continuous navigation, even in places where GPS signals may not reach, such as tunnels and parking garages. The 920T comes with the TomTom advanced RDS-TMC traffic receiver, providing traffic alerts, delay estimates, and quickly calculated reroutes. A comprehensive map set of the U.S., Canada and Europe comes preloaded on 4GB of internal memory. You can personalize and share your maps and manage them on your home PC. An included hands-free phone kit and high-quality speaker manage your on-the-road communication. Text-to-speech and downloadable voices round out this stand-out unit.
