GPS Comparison Chart

Car GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation systems are advanced automobile accessories that make traveling even to unfamiliar places easy and comfortable. These systems are powdered by satellites, and are hence able to guide you anywhere on this planet once you attach them to your car. GPS systems guide you with voice prompts and visual maps while taking wrong turns or directions. These devices can be either fixed units or hand held GPS machines, used for navigation purposes. GPS comes in two different forms, mapping and non-mapping. Mapping GPS is used to plan your routes and is fed into the machine to lead you throughout the journey. Non-mapping GPS helps to spot a particular item for example, finding out your car location when you have lost the way.

How to Choose a GPS Navigation System?

The two points that you should consider before buying a GPS navigation system are: the purpose of buying the system, and your price range. If you are simply looking for some extra guidance on the road, you can go for basic GPS models or if you want the device to point out some specific locations like restaurants and hotels along with guidance, you can go for high end GPS models. A basic GPS model without many features can cost anywhere around $100, but as the price range increases, you can get a GPS model which is completely voice commanded, has real time traffic information, calculates routes that are reliable, and has many other features. Another point that shouldn't be ignored is the model reviews, as they are one of the most important factors while comparing devices.

Car GPS Comparison Chart

As soon as you have a general idea of what kind of features you want in the device and which models come under your price range, you can start comparing the GPS system devices. Though, it's not very easy as you may find some specific features in one device which may not be present in the other devices. The following GPS feature comparison chart will make things easier for you.

GPS Device	Harman Kardon Guide + Play GPS 810	TomTom GO 920T	Cobra Nav One	Garmin Nuvi 680	Magellan GPS 4250
Price	$600	$500	$520	$620	$450
Traffic-Data Provider	Total Traffic Network (Clear Channel)	RDS-TMC	Clear Channel	MSN Direct	NAVTEQ
Chipset	SIRF Star III	Global Locate or SIRF Star III	Custom (Sirf III Equivalent)	SIRF Star III	SIRF Star III
Battery Life	2.5 - 4 Hours	5 Hours	2-3 Hours	7 Hours	4 Hours
Traffic-Data Receiver	Built-In	External Wire Antenna or Bluetooth Cellphone	External Antenna	Built-In	Built-In
Displays Speed-Camera Alerts	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Bluetooth Phone Calling	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Call Point of Interest (POI) Directly	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number of POIs	12 Million	3 Million	7.6 Million	6 Million	6 Million
Demo Mode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
User-Submitted Map Corrections	No	Yes	No	No	No
SD Card Slot	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
FM Transmitter (Plays Audio Through Your Sound System)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Displays Incoming SMS Messages Onscreen	No	Yes	No	No	Yes

Hence, the above GPS comparison chart gives instant information about the most popular Global Positioning System models in the market today, so you don't need to go through multiple sources of information in order to get a complete picture of how the models match up. By referring to this chart you can easily make out which models fit best in your requirements and budget.