Consumer Reports revises GPS ratings, adds new navigators

As with many consumer electronics products, the portable navigation device market has changed dramatically in recent years. New product generations roll out every few months, and premium features quickly become commonplace. To reflect these trends, we have revised how we present our GPS ratings and even adjusted the scoring system.

For years, we separated GPS devices into three categories: Basic, Traffic Optional, and Traffic Ready. This break down fit well with how people perceived the devices and how the products themselves were positioned. However, traffic has become commonplace, often available as a free service on a device that costs little more than a model without this helpful feature. Further, Basic units have become chum for sales flyers, though most buyers are choosing better-equipped models for slightly more money.

So, with our latest ratings update, we are instead focusing on devices by screen size. Ratings are now presented in 3.5 inch, 4.3 inch, and 4.7- to 7-inch sizes. We think of these ranges as small, medium, and large, with medium being the size that is the best choice for most shoppers, balancing portability, visibility, and cost.

To make the ratings easier to read at a glance, and to better reflect the product evolution, we have combined some categories and added others.

For instance, we combined Entering destination and Use of controls into the simpler: Ease of use. We maintain that this is among the most important attributes for a portable navigator and continue to weigh this heavily in our scoring.

Also, we combined Routing options and Routing time into a single designation: Routing.

Another change you may notice is that we removed the rating for Portability. A few years ago, there was significant variation in the size of the devices, but now portability is typically commensurate with screen size. One exception is with the mounts, and we note significant differences on the model pages when applicable. All ratings have a small "iText" graphic that can be selected to learn more about a given category.

With the latest ratings update made this week, we have added the following devices:

Magellan Roadmate 9055, TomTom Via 1435 T, TomTom Via 1405 T, TomTom Via 1505 T, and TomTom Via 1535 T.

Combined, the updated buying advice and improved ratings can help point GPS shoppers in the right direction.

—Jeff Bartlett