Distance GPS

The Bottom Line: By itself, the Garmin Nuvi 1690 is merely a solidly performing GPS device, but it earns its keep through the free nuLink service, giving users easy access to up-to-the-minute data for safety, convenience, and entertainment.

Specs: Hiking, Automotive, Navigation instructions, Street name announcement, 6.2 oz

The Bottom Line: The Pioneer AVIC-U310BT isn't perfect, but it meets most people's needs for navigation, hands-free calling, and digital audio playback at a very affordable price.

Specs: 20 channel, Automotive, Audible signal(s), 3.7 lbs

The Bottom Line: The Geomate.jr sits in a class of its own as a child-friendly and easy-to-use handheld, geocaching device.

Specs: Hiking, 3.2 oz

The Bottom Line: The Nokia 500 Auto Navigation improves over its predecessor and offers a decent set of features and performance, but the GPS needs some work in terms of ease of use and interface.

Specs: Automotive, Navigation instructions

The Bottom Line: As we've come to expect from the Nuvi line, the Garmin Nuvi 880 offers an impressive feature list and solid performance, but it's the accurate speech recognition that really pushes the Nuvi 880 over the edge and makes it one of the best GPS we've tested to date.

Specs: Automotive, Navigation instructions, Street name announcement, 6.2 oz

The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a high-end in-car GPS with the latest features, the TomTom GO 930 delivers with accurate directions and new navigation tools like advanced lane guidance and voice address entry.

The Bottom Line: Despite ease of use and an affordable price tag, the entry-level Magellan RoadMate 1200 portable navigation system suffers from various performance issues.

Specs: Automotive, Navigation instructions, Warnings, 4.94 oz

The Bottom Line: Despite some minor shortcomings, the Magellan Maestro 4250 is a solid and accurate mid-level portable navigation system with a helpful voice-command feature.

Specs: Automotive, Navigation instructions, Voice command recognition, 6.9 oz

The Bottom Line: As an entry-level GPS device, the Jensen NVX225 offers all the basics at an affordable price tag, but you can get a better user experience and more from the Mio C230 or Garmin Nuvi 200.

Specs: Automotive, Navigation instructions

The Bottom Line: Style and ease of use mark this basic portable navigation and multimedia device, but the Harman Kardon Guide + Play GPS-500 doesn't offer the same smooth performance and efficiency of competing products.

Specs: Automotive, Navigation instructions