Garmin Drive 51LMT-S 5" Sat Nav with UK and Ireland Maps | Review

Ad | Gifted  The Garmin Drive 51LMT-S is an entry-level GPS navigator from Garmin , one of the largest Sat Nav makers in the market. T...

Ad | Gifted 

The Garmin Drive 51LMT-S is an entry-level GPS navigator from Garmin, one of the largest Sat Nav makers in the market. The Sat Nav boasts of a bright 5.0-inch dual-orientation display, preloaded lifetime maps, real-time services such as live traffic & live parking, TripAdvisor ratings for hotels & attractions, driver alerts and many other useful features.

What's in the box

Included in the box are the following:

• Garmin Drive™ 51 LMT-S Unit with preloaded maps of UK & Ireland
• Vehicle suction cup mount
• Vehicle power cable
• USB cable and
• Setup pamphlet (The user manual is not included in the box. You need to download the PDF version from Garmin's website.)

The Garmin Drive 51LMT-S was very easy to set up and ready within minutes to use. Having used Google Maps (on the smartphone) as our Sat Nav up until now, the first thing to catch my attention was the bright 5-inch dual-orientation display. The wide screen size means more information is displayed at once and everything on the screen is clear. The hard plastic used in the construction of the Sat Nav looks of a good quality and the interface is also easy to navigate.

Navigation

The Sat Nav like any other similar device plots a path from Point A to Point B based on your preferences i.e. preferred routes, avoiding tolls or delays etc. Once you select the route and are on your way, the screen displays a lot of information like:

• the next action in your route
• distance to your next action
• name of the road you are travelling on
• vehicle speed
• estimated arrival time and so on.

In addition to the standard directions, what we liked about the Garmin Drive 51 LMT-S is the fact that it has a landmark based direction system as well. It gives you directions to turn based on local landmarks, i.e. 'turn left after the church', 'turn right after KFC' and so on. Obviously, it only includes landmarks that have been there for a long time but we found this feature very useful especially when driving in towns that we had never visited earlier.

Also good was the active lane guidance feature. Wherever available the device suggests the lane in which you should travel.

Driver Alerts

The Garmin Drive 51 LMT-S provides 'driver alerts' that increase situational awareness and thereby support safer driving. While these are not available in all areas, where available they cover the following:

• school zones
• speed limit reduction
• railroad or animal crossing
• curves
• fatigue warning (if you have been driving for more than two hours without stopping)
• slower traffic and so on.

The device also provides lifetime red light and speed camera warning.

Lifetime maps and live traffic

The 51 LMT-S comes preloaded with detailed maps of the UK & Ireland with free lifetime maps updates. It also includes free lifetime Live Traffic via the Smartphone Link App. Once you have installed the app on your smartphone, you can pair it with your Garmin device and then have access to a number of live services (listed below) from Garmin.

- Live traffic
- Live parking (availability of parking spaces at your destination)
- Weather forecasts
- Foursquare/TripAdvisor points of interest
- Real-time safety cameras etc.

Overall, the Garmin Drive 51 LMT-S is a nice device. We liked the way all the information is displayed on the screen and once set up the device is very easy to use. The display is clear and the driver alerts, Garmin's Real Directions feature and the Live Parking feature are very useful.

If anything needs to be improved it is the loading (start) time which we feel is a bit too slow.

If you are looking to invest in an entry level Sat Nav that is not too expensive but still comes with lots of useful features then the Garmin Drive 51LMT-S is a good bet. It retails at £119.99 and can be ordered online from: www.halfords.com