TomTom XL 340TM (Lifetime Traffice & Maps Edition)

Pros: The directions are clear, repetitive and easy to understand. The user interface is a quick learn. POI's are numerous and quick to load. Startup is fast and the GPS signal is fast to connect.

Cons: For certain items, the preferences menu can be a little bit inefficient. Once a favorite is entered, it no longer displays the street address for that favorite. The text-to-speech is hit or miss, but is improving. I'm not crazy about the "easy port."

Summary: I am a gadget freak, and have used several GPS units over the past few years, including Garmin, Magellan and Tom Tom. I am completely confused by all the positive reviews for the Garmin units, as I find them to be misleading, confusing and extremely frustrating. Of the three brands I've used, Tom Tom has been BY FAR the best for me. For each instruction, there is an advanced warning, a second warning and then the final "turn now," which comes in plenty of time to actually make the turn. The volume can be set to increase with your speed, which can be annoying I suppose, but I like it and you can turn it off. The screen also moves at a good pace so it's easy to determine where you are in relation to your turn. One of this unit's best features is the double instruction, which will tell you "turn left on [street name], then turn right," which is useful when there is a turn immediately following another.

The menus on the navigation screen can be customized to show everything you want to know or to be simple. Also, volume and traffic can be easily reached with one touch of the screen.

This unit also finds POI's far faster than Garmin units have. You can search them by name or browse by category.

One minor annoyance is that you have to enter your state first, even if you are looking up an address by the zip code. I find that strange but very minor.

Another positive is the price. For the features, the Tom Tom units are cheaper than Garmin.

As I said, I am a gadget freak, and in my opinion, the Tom Tom units far exceed the Garmin or Magellan units. I do suggest you get a current one, as some of the older units have some suspect text-to-speech. It may be my imagination, but this one seems to have superior TTS than my older one.