What’s the Cheapest GPS with Text to Speech?
So, what’s the cheapest GPS with text to speech? Before I attempt to answer that, let’s lay down some
ground rules. I’m sure you can find some knock-off from some unknown company, which says it has text
to speech. And it may well have. But the problem is it will last about three weeks, if that. You’ll have no
support. And the maps will be completely out of date. So, let’s not count “junk” in with our cheapest GPS
with text to speech survey.
So, let’s stick with the top manufacturers, Garmin, TomTom and Magellan. We’ll talk about their products
in order.
Garmin has put text to speech capability in all but a very few of their nuvi series. Their cheapest GPS
with text to speech right now is the nuvi 255. At just over $100, the nuvi 255 is a very solid little device.
It has a 3.5-inch touch screen and text to speech voice instructions. Although, it would have been
considered state of the art only a few years ago, the nuvi 255 today is well…a little lacking in bells and
whistles.
You can spend $50 more and get a variety of nuvis with text to speech and lots of other goodies, like
Bluetooth so you can use your phone with the device. But as far as being the cheapest GPS with text to
speech, the nuvi 255 is probably it, for Garmin, that is.
As far as TomTom is concerned, they have a new entry level GPS called the TomTom EASE, which I like a
lot. It’s ever so slightly more expensive than the nuvi 255, but it’s got text to speech, plus TomTom’s
proprietary MapShare technology, which is sort of a user generated mapping feature. One thing that’s
really great about the TomTom EASE is that’s it’s really, really easy to use! When you turn it on, there are
only two icons to choose from. You don’t have to read instructions to be on your way to a new
destination, and of course, hearing the street names said to you as you drive.
Magellan’s lowest priced text to speech models are little pricier than Garmin’s or TomTom’s. The
Magellan Maestro 4220 and 3220 both sell f