Who Wins the Garmin Vs TomTom GPS Debate?
Garmin vs TomTom GPS? Who wins in this debate? Honestly, it has a lot to do with which segment of the car GPS marketplace you're looking at. In this article, we're going to talk about Garmin vs TomTom in general, what each company has to offer in terms of models and prices. So, if you want to know my opinion on who wins the Garmin vs TomTom GPS debate, read on!
To answer this question, let's look at the product ranges of each of these companies. Garmin first.
I am talking about car GPS here. No motorcycle, no trekking, etc just car. It used to be that Garmin had two lines of after market car GPS, the StreetPilot and the new nuvis. Garmin has essentially discontinued StreetPilots, although you can still find them at some online retailers. The Nuvi line is what you need to pay attention to, and that's what we'll be discussing.
As far as understanding the Garmin vs TomTom GPS discussion goes, you need to know that the Nuvis ranges in price from less than $100 to around $400. You can get an original Garmin nuvi, 205 for less than $90 from many online retailers. You can get Garmin's top model, the 3790t for $450, or around. The 205 gives you a basic GPS system, but not much else. With the 3790t, you get an artificially intelligent state-of-the-art GPS system in an attractive, newly designed case that can remember the routes you take frequently and even make day-to-day choices provides. There isn't much that the 3790 can't do.
Right here, as far as our debate about Garmin vs TomTom GPS, is where TomTom falls short. It's at the innovative, high end of the market. Well, I am talking from the point of view of America. TomTom is a European company, and TomTom has outperformed Garmin as far as European GPS's go... at least for now.
TomTom offers some heavy competition to Garmin in the lower half of the price range. Let's say less than $200. Their XL and XXL series are excellent, widescreen GPS systems, with a lot of the features you'd expect on a GPS. It could be that feature for feature TomTom is a little less expensive than Garmin. I'm not sure. To be honest it varies everywhere. So, it's not part of the Garmin vs TomTom GPS argument.
I know that for entry-level GPS systems, TomTom has some really great new tools. Take, for example, TomTom Easy. It's a miniaturized GPS at a low cost. But what EASE is there is not in nuvi 205... well, it's easy to use. TomTom has successfully simplified the user interface so that anyone can use EASE exactly. It is very intuitive.
So, who wins the Garmin vs TomTom debate. This is just my opinion, mind, but in the low end of the market, I think they are neck and neck. Above $200, it's TomTom GPS in every way!