Garmin Nuvi 50

We drive all over the country but up until now we’ve been relying on our smartphones to help us navigate the length and breadth of the country, and it can be really annoying when this feature eats up our phone’s precious battery life. When Tesco Compare offered me the chance to review a Sat-Nav I couldn’t resist. The Garmin Nuvi 50 is our family’s first sat-nav and has become a bit of a novelty, in fact I even tested it on a route I knew well just to see how it went.

Ever since sat-navs became popular all those years ago I was always put off by the huge price tag, however this device retails at around £50 which is a lot cheaper that I expected.  At that price I thought there had to be a catch.

The only negative comment I have is that it doesn’t have a traffic option.  Also it  is made from chunky plastic rather than metal like some of the higher priced models, but to me that just makes it more kid proof.

Using the Garmin Nuvi 50 is a doddle and it works straight out of the box.  There’s the option to add other maps to the device but I haven’t needed to do that yet. This is then a great choice if you’re planning a European road trip.  I would advise that you keep the in car adapter handy at all times as the battery life doesn’t last too long, much like the effect of using maps has on my mobile phone.  A great feature that a didn’t expect to find was ‘speed camera detection’, which should come in handy for those with already sky high insurance premiums.  Another great feature is the lane assist split screen that displays when you’re approaching major junctions or interchanging motorways.

For the price and it’s ease of use, I would have no problem recommending this device to friends and family if there looking for a well priced sat nav, that helps save your smartphone’s battery on future journeys.