Sat navs: Compare features & prices Garmin Nuvi 1490T review http://www.which.co.uk/technology/computing/reviews/sat-navs/garmin-nuvi-1490t/review/

Since purchasing this model I have over 20 various issues with this model and most have been reported to Garmin without them giving me any confidence that they can resolve any of the issues.I'm not going to bore anyone with in depth details of each issues but listed here are some you should be aware of and Garmin are also aware of having reported them to their technical support team.As much as 5% of the road speed limits displayed are inaccurate. Remember, just one inaccurate speed limit displayed can add 3 points and a fine if you taken the advice of the displayed speed limit.Map freezes as often as 5 times a day. Does not calculate the quickest route even if you have set it for this option. Often takes you down a side road and back onto the main road you were just driving on. (I have been told this happens many times on other Garmin models by my colleagues).Your current speed displayed very often freezes and therefore showing you the incorrect speed you are driving at. This happens up to 5 times a day on my sat nav. Driving in built up areas such as London you cannot see the roads as the map is cluttered full of icons indicating shops, restaurants, stations, theatres etc. Calculating a simple route can take up to 3 minutes to finish calculating whilst other times it can take 5 seconds to calculate the same route. (I don't understand the logic behind how this can be so, but believe me it does). Lane assist is brilliant but can be he most dangerous tool on the unit, even causing you to have a major or even fatal accident on a fast motorway. Therefore never trust it, even if it gets it right for most of the time. At roundabouts it may say take 3rd exit meaning turn right on a four exit roundabout. But the roundabout Icon will sometimes show you to turn left. This model has a very limited memory capacity and therefore will often display 'Memory Full'. Having set the shortest route and without setting any avoidances, the unit may take you on a non direct route adding up to possibly an extra half an hour to what should be a 10 minute route. Manual zooming in does not stay at zoomed in level. Route often takes you down non existent roads or very often takes you down no through roads. Garmin's answer to this is download the latest map. As the model I purchased has lifetime updates I always update to the latest map. And guess what, the same issues apply, taking me down no through roads and roads don't exist etc. One member mentioned the poor power connector going faulty. Yes I had the same problem. Garmin replaced my model under the warranty. And guess what, all the issues I encountered as documented here also apply to the replacement model I have now received. Therefore it's a model issue and not on one faulty unit. I could go on but I think there's enough reasons for you whether a Garmin unit is for you or not. On a last note, I think Which? should do more in depth research into their testing of these units as most of these issues would have then come to light.

I bought this unit to replace an old Navman with radio traffic reporting, as the Navman maps could not be updated. This unit provides traffic reporting via a radio signal too, so there is no ongoing fee or mobile phone data connection needed for receiving traffic details. Also, it has 'lifetime' map updates (not sure if this was a special deal or standard).I find that it can be difficult to find some places on the system - you need to guess where the Garmin thinks they are: for somewhere I was trying to find recently, I entered the 'town' as 'Upton' and the road could not be found; I tried 'Noctorum', no good; I tried 'Prenton', no good either - the correct answer was 'Birkenhead'. I settled for a neighbouring street which did appear to be in 'Prenton'. When I arrived at the location, I checked the address on the Garmin and it told me I was on the correct street in Prenton - not Birkenhead. On another occasion, I tried using 'Birkenhead' as the town but that, too, was wrong - on that occasion I should have put 'Tranmere'. (Birhenhead is a town and arguably Prenton, Upton, Noctorum and Tranmere are different suburbs of Birkenhead - but application of these distinctions seems random. The chances are that if you need to use a Satnav you don't actually know the precise name of the town or locality so these distinctions are very difficult).Another irritation is that you must start off by entering the correct Country. We live on the border of England and Wales. If the machine is set on 'England', Wrexham doesn't exist. If set on Wales, Chester doesn't exist - fine, but what's wrong with having a setting for UK? It's very difficult by simply reading the place name to know whether some of the villages on the border are in England or Wales....Apart from the problems above, the unit seems to be very good. It has an excellent clear display and shows junctions very well. The talking lady gets very confused over some of the place names and can't cope well with odd combinations of letters. If you can cope with her confusions, it's great.

Bought this unit to replace my old Tom Tom. What a disappointment! Not sure how Which is testing satnav's but sure something not right in that department. Used it now for several months including trips abroad. I found this unit most frustrating, poor intuitive use. Wrong routing, no wonder sat nav's got such a bad reputation for taking you onto impossible roads. Had not experienced it until using this unit. I find myself getting the old TomTom out. Still far better than this garmin. Never had the urge of throwing it out of the window through frustration.

I bought this on the strength of the Which? report to replace my ancient small-screened Navman satnavs outdated maps. Oh Dear! I find that I am stiill using the Navman in preference to the Garmin as the Garmin's routing is far less direct than that on the Navman. This is the only Which? best buy purchase that I have been disappointed with and certainly wouldn't recommend it.

Excellent to use and update, large clear screen a bonus.Beats the Landrover and Honda built in satnavs on routing each time, especially on rerouting because of hold ups.However it has broken internally twice but Garmin have repaired at no charge on each occasion. I would buy one again.

Used occasionally in conjunction with Audi's in-built MMI system (updated with 2011 maps) and overall found it to be good additional safeguard though at times a compromise. However Nuvi let us down badly in recent visit to Paris. Despite both passeneger and driver speaking good French, the primitive franglais used by Nuvi's 'lady' navigator was utterly unintelligble and so irritating we eventually switched off relying wholly on MMI and sixth sense. When on the 'peripherique' we noted place names e.g. Porte de Clignancourt though abbreviated to Pte.) Nuvi's navigator would anounce this literally as P T E .... etc. creating total confusion until we twigged what was being said! This was a minor problem compared to the left turn instructions for which we would anticipate by positioning the vehicle to the left lane, only to find that we needed to keep right, proceed along an upcoming slip road and then turn left on a viaduct over the road. The visual display also failed to show these fly-over crossings instead showing them as merely left-turn junctions. We lost a lot of time, covered more miles then needed and ended up wholly frustrated by the exerecise. Other than these issues a good system and worth the investment. We have yet to see whether changing the navigator has any tangible improvement to the irritating voice with its ludicrous pronunciation and/or improvements to instructions when approaching junctions.I would still exercise extreme caution though - fortunately Audi's MMI always saved the day, and though not perfect is not being here reviewed. KrisJay