cnet compares garmin and tomtom, ignores price
Sep 18, 2008 garmin, gps navigation, reviews, tomtom
CNet featured tomtom go 930 and garmin nuvi 880 very recently on their site and had 3 judges to compare these two high end GPS navigation systems. As you know TomTom and Garmin are big competitors where Garmin has more share in the U.S. and TomTom more in Europe.
Back in the days we had done a similar feature and price comparison for Garmin vs TomTom and that article had gotten a lot of attention.
Now CNet’s doing something very similar comparing the two in the following categories (winner for each category noted inside parentheses):
- design (garmin)
- user interface (garmin)
- features (garmin)
- route guidance (tomtom)
- performance (tie)
Now that’s all really nice to categorize and have a winner for each category, but people! why not consider price? How many of you out there read reviews and not care about price? If you’re like us price will be one of the most important categories. Don’t you think so?
If you wondering on Amazon TomTom GO 930 costs $457 where as Garmin Nuvi 880 costs $674. Garmin is about 1.5 more expensive.
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September 18th, 2008 at 5:33 am
If price is that important you’re not gonna buy a “high end” GPS, you’re gonna go for the €150 kind. On the other hand if you really need it to do the job right the price becomes less important, my first GPS was €2000, the last one I bought a year ago was €900.
It seems that €400+ GPSes are now considered high end so people buying those are gonna look at what and how the GPS does the job.
(At least CNET actually used the GPSes and did not just read the specs of the back of the box ….)
September 19th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Hugo – See how [fill in name here] is contributing and you’re not?
Seriously, Hugo has a legitimate point about price being less of an issue, or a non-issue, when the criteria is for the most feature-packed, perfomance-oriented device. I paid $2,000USD for the factory navigation system in my car, and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again because its integration with the vehicle’s ancillary systems makes its use so much more convenient than a “stuck to the windshield” solution. Some people may disagree, but in the context of a new car, $2,000 is fairly inconsequential given the convenience involved.
September 19th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
i guess it depends on how much disposable income you have. For me the price is a big issue.
It sounds like top two commenters think more $$ = better GPS.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I would like to point out that yes, garmin is 1.5 more expensive but it also LOST the “route guidance” match…
And what should you use your navigator for then?! :)
October 27th, 2008 at 3:53 am
There is just price around it. That means that to buy the RSS 2, you’ll be spending a $ 1.43 to get it. Read reviews.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
strikes me that route guidance is the main if not only substantive test…for a GPS unit…and that Clearly belongs to TomTom it apprears not to mention
price/performance on this test criteria….clearly TT is superior…