5 GPS features you don't need

GPS receivers are becoming more feature-rich every year. But what works and what doesn't? Here are five features that you just don't need.

1. Traffic - I recently saw that 50% of people with live traffic on their GPS don't use it. Great idea, but it ain't ready for primetime yet. You'll get plenty of erroneous reports, and you'll also come across lots of bottlenecks that go unreported.
2. FM transmitter - Useless in urban areas where the FM band is crowded, but of possible interest to the 0.1% of the population living in rural, mountainous areas.
3. MP3 player - As much as I like seeing the track and artist name on my GPS screen, the tinny speakers aren't made for listening to music. If your GPS has an audio out jack, and your receiver an audio in, you could connect them, but then you'd have cables strung everywhere. TomTom has an iPod control cable for their GO units, but there's that cable thing again. A car stereo with Bluetooth and a nuvi 7x5T unit might give you a better option, but lacking the former I haven't tried it.
4. Bluetooth - When it does work, it generally sounds horrible for the person on the other end of the call. Exceptions -- my experience with the TomTom GO 730 was better than most, but what I'm really impressed by is the nuvi 7x5T I've been testing. It won't do everything I wanted it to, but the sound quality in early use has been great. Stay tuned for a full report. UPDATE: Bluetooth that works.
5. 3D buildings - Useless eye candy.

There you have it. Save your money. In an upcoming post I'll look at features that are worth paying for.

Comments

[dragonslayer]

What?! Traffic is the only reason I use a GPS. The GPS built into my car is useless because it doesn't have traffic.

I know how to get everywhere in my city (it's a numbered grid, it's easy). I just need to know the most efficient path. Because traffic is really only available on highways and a few major roads, I only pull out the GPS when I expect to travel via expressway (going to the airport, daily commute to the suburbs, etc.).

I have a Garmin Nuvi 680 with MSN Direct traffic. It's right far more often than it's wrong. Far more often.

[Rich Owings]

Ha! I knew I'd attract comments with a post like that! Hey, what metro area are you in? I ask because some traffic services perform better in some metro areas than others, and it might help someone else to know.