2024 the best gps navigation review


Price: $149.95
(as of Nov 14, 2024 13:17:16 UTC - Details)

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User Manual [PDF ]

With its simple menus and easy-to-read maps, Garmin Drive 52 lets you view turn-by-turn directions at a glance on a bright 5” touchscreen display. Offering preloaded detailed maps of the U.S. and Canada — with map updates plus helpful driver alerts to encourage safer driving — this GPS navigator complements any road trip or daily commute.
5" GPS navigator with driver alerts and travel data.External memory storage: This USB mass storage device is compatible with Windows XP or newer and Mac OS X 10.4 or later..Control Method:Touch.Special Feature:Touchscreen.
Easy-to-use 5" GPS navigator includes detailed map updates of the U.S. and Canada
Simple on-screen menus and bright, easy-to-see maps
Garmin Traffic is ready to use right out of the box — without use of a smartphone
Road trip-ready with The HISTORY Channel database of notable historic sites, a U.S. national parks directory, TripAdvisor traveler ratings and millions of Foursquare points of interest (POIs).Included Components: Garmin Drive 52, Vehicle Suction Cup Mount, Vehicle Power Cable, Usb Cable, Quick Start Manual. Display Size 4.4"W x 2.5"H (11.1 x 6.3 cm); 5.0" diag (12.7 cm)
Reviewer: beancounterboy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Invaluable piece of kit - I live in the UK and needed it for travel in USA/Canada
Review: Really excellent piece of kit that proved totally invaluable for our trip from the UK to Canada. After years of working from paper maps and internet screen shots - we rented a vehicle in Florida (back in 2019) that came with a dash mounted Garmin as a free upgrade and immediately realised it was taking a huge amount of stress and pre-planning away from us. Post pandemic and travelling again I decided to buy this unit to make life much easier. Living in the UK - I was able to order this GPS (SatNav) on Amazon.com (rather than Amazon.co.uk) and have it delivered to me in the UK direct from the USA. It is a great sized unit that is very very easy and intuitive to use and for the driver to see and read as you are driving. Like all GPS (SatNav) units it can very occasionally get small things wrong - but 99.999% it was very accurate. Anyone travelling to Canada - be warned that mobile/cell phone costs in Canada are unbelievably high - therefore EVEN with a USA/Canadian sim card in our phone - it would have cost a fortune to buy enough data in Canada (not necessarily the same in the USA which had much cheaper mobile/cell phone charges) to use a smart phone as a GPS/SatNav. Therefore we found it much more cost effective to buy the GPS/SatNav outright and it will work for years for future visits.One last thing about this model - after doing loads of research online - it tells you that this model is designed to work in tandem with a connected mobile/cell phone in order to receive traffic updates. It tells you this model works perfectly well as a GPS/SatNav on its own - but will not give live traffic updates without a connected mobile/cell phone - I considered this before buying - but decided that route guidance was enough and more important to me that anything else. HOWEVERE - after arriving in Canada - this device WAS giving us live traffic reports and rerouting to take the least congested routes - and we did NOT pair it with a mobile/cell phone - but still received live traffic reports.Great unit - Highly Recommended

Reviewer: Morn Dogs
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Easy to read screen.
Review: I had an old Garmin gps that died so I replaced it with this one. I like this one even better. The screen is larger and very easy to read. The voice is clear and tells me enough ahead that a turn is coming up. I like the little attention-getting warning "ping" when the speed limit is changing ahead or when I'm going faster than the limit.It was easy to learn how to use this gps because it works very similarly to my old Garmin. But this updated model is better in many ways.

Reviewer: Zodoz
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: still a good car GPS but with some drawbacks compared to older Garmins
Review: If you still use a stand alone car GPS, Garmin remains the last strong hold making stand alone units, thus I bought another as my older one is acting up, but I will repair my older one to use as backup as this new one is a step back in some respect. They are also good for domestic rentals, as you can bring presets and customs with you rather than relearning the nav unit in a rental. Garmin also pioneered car GPS, so the UI and design are optimal for drivers compared to free Google maps navigators; I use both when driving. For under $100, Garmins are still a steal. This review is after 1 week of daily road use.ProsComing from a Garmin nuvi since 2010 and 2013, you can functionally do all older unit do and its overall like a slightly bigger and faster version of the nuvi, otherwise the same. However, moving from a 2010 unit to a 2013 nuvi, there were all improvements. But moving from 2013, to 2022 is a step back in some functionsBuild quality is the same, high, since 2010, no longer rubber coated to make it easier to grip, but still worksthe LCD screen has a tighter dot pitch and is clearer, and this unit is larger than my nuvithe touch seems more responsivethe directions are spoken clearly and enunciated with emphasis in critical areas, like when a turn is about to happenupdates online are faster download and install, but work similarly as older unitsGarmin Express is simple and easy to use, and offers more functions now than older versions, see photoable to carry forward my custom POI and locations, moving them from my nuvi to the 52max volume is very loud, and so is brightness to see in full sunlight, I had to tone both down, a good thing, using Google maps to navigate on my phone, the phone is neither loud enough and would be useless if not being able to send the audio the car infotainmentthe newer design mounting clip uses the standard suction cup base, and takes getting used too but it allows me to use other Garmin accessory mountsGarmin has never gotten me lost in 1000mi+ trips, but some detours in backcountry, had some odd round abouts, for a country ride during the day it can be entertaining, at night it can be scary. However, Google Maps has taken me to bad detour routes, so I don't trust it for detours but it great for speed traps, alerts, and real time traffic.Conscustom POI do not migrate automatically, and there are no instructions. Open the POI folder in your older Garmin once the Garmin is attached to the PC, copy the POI to your PC, and remove the old Garmin, attach the new Garmin and drag that POI to the same folder in the new GarminThe color scheme for speed and limit is more bland and less alerting, and there is only one trip setting appearing on the right border, in the older units you could customize it in many ways to maximize the delivery of data on the small screen .. see photoon the fly detour requires up to 4 clicks, compared to one in the nuvi. One to hide the current trip setting, one to bring up the menu, one to select 'route', which is what detour is now called, then clicks again to select how far to detour. Luckily it does do the same thing, but getting to it is very annoying, being able to reroute on the fly when an accident or issue appears ahead of you is a key value a Garmin is for me, and they made it harder to use.The amount of custom voices is reduced, the voice sounds more mechanical and less natural, and is not as smoothly generated, there is a harshness to the voice synthesis, compared to older GarminsThe killer to this model is the battery is only 1 hour, if at all, and mine barely got 15 minutes. Older garmins were are least 2 hours. Even after 1-2 recharges, I couldn't get it to last over 15 minutes, and later returned my unit as defective, and I already reduced the brightness and volume to under 50%. This means if you try adjusting it without the car adapter power, it will rapidly eat the battery down, and it also slowly eats the battery when the unit is off. You can conserve battery power by holding the Power button down until the TURN OFF dialog appears, cutting standby power to minimum. I often started the trip with the unit dead, and it wouldn't start until a minute or two for the battery to charge from zero. I bought another unit and returned my first, and it got 1 hour, but again, its barely enough.Garmin 52 with TrafficIf you live in a well populated place, OTA Traffic has more options than older Garmins and is free and will save you a lot of time in wasted traffic. It uses the same cable as older Garmins that have Traffic. Its plug and play and what I changed my 52 too, and the ads don't say, upgrade maps are lifetime of the unit. It uses as much of the onboard memory as it can, then offloads stuff to the SD Card. For over 10 yrs, Garmins still have a max of 32GB SD cards, and been more than enough for decades. The OTA Traffic has less data than the upgraded model Garmins with bluetooth connect to your phone, to use its data for traffic updates, but reliability of the connection varies with your phone model, while the OTA is trouble free out of box.

Reviewer: colonelwa
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Parents now know where they're going!
Review: Bought this for father-in-law who still uses a flip phone. He frequently travels the back roads and is venturing further and further into the hinterlands. His wife didn't mind the wandering but had had enough with his "wondering" (where he was). Garmin has them on the right road! This is the third or fourth Garmin car GPS I've owned. Easy to set up, easy to update (essential!) and most importantly, easy to use, even for my semi-luddite FIL!

Reviewer: F. J. Roman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Tennessee Traffic
Review: I bought this because I was going to be in Tennessee for the first time. Worried about the "special" highway troopers there. I was also worried about how to find my way around.My best new friend "Ms. Garmin" took excellent care of me. This thing does not only told me where to turn left or right. It actually instructed me to stay on the right or left lane depending on where my next turn would be.Simple, but very, very useful.

Reviewer: Sheri
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Direction for the directionally challenged
Review: Just what I needed something that say turn left or right not go north or south. Bigger than my phone so much easier to see. Bluetoithed to my phone so updates and messages cone thru both text thru garmin phone calls thru car it's great!

Reviewer: Gator Bates
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Garmin 010-02038-02 DriveSmart 65 is a "must have" navigator
Review: I really, really like my Garmin 010-02038-02 DriveSmart 65. It is SO helpful when I travel on trips, and it is SO accurate guiding me through unknown territories! It is such a wonderful & precise instrument and worth EVERY PENNY I spent on it. Great buy on Amazon!

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Overall happy with my purchase, used on my motorcycle.

Reviewer: Tavo Espinosa
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excelente producto lo compré para un viaje a Los Ángeles sabia que tenia que rentar un coche y necesitaba un gps, es preciso y dinámico no necesita de nada solo actualizarlo

Reviewer: Noel Ng
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Navigator come with US and Canada maps only.Assume that as I am buyin from Singapore through Amazon Singapore, it should be preloaded with Singapore Maps.Tried to download from Garmin web Singapore map but has been unsuccessful too.Navigator comes with good review even though no more in production but ridiculous if it cannot download the maps I want.Not sure if Amazon has a solution or can I return the product.

Reviewer: Mitch
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: It's cool when I am in Canada and the kilometers are switched to miles per hour, so it's a no brainer for me to drive the speed limit. There is a "ding" sound when the speed limit changes. Easy to read maps, easy to use.

Reviewer: Robinson G.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Todo bien, Cuenta con los napas de México lo Recomiendo...

Customers say

Customers like the ease of use, value for money, and quality of the GPS. They mention it's easy to program destinations, input information, and perfect for directions when driving. Some are also satisfied with the display quality, screen size, and features. However, some customers have different opinions on functionality and voice recognition.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

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