Spoken street names useful in navigation units, magazine says

If you're in the market for a portable navigation unit, features such as spoken street names and reality view/lane assist are worth the money while traffic information, connected services and voice recognition are not as essential, says Consumer Reports magazine.

Less expensive navigation models are even offering the service via which the unit will speak the names of streets or highway numbers rather than telling drivers to merge or turn in a specific direction. Reality view/lane assist is a feature commonly packaged as one that displays three-dimensional views of exits, signs and intersections as well as the best lane to be in for upcoming driving maneuvers.

The magazine found that other features were not as handy, saying that local traffic is often better received on the radio and connected services often have yearly or monthly fees when most of the same information can be received by consumers on their phones or iPods. The voice-recognition feature is one that the magazine said is useful but oftentimes has glitches, requiring a lot of patience.

The magazine also recommended two models per price range:

$150 or less: Magellan Maestro 4350, $150; TomTom One 140S, $100

$250 or less: Garmin Nuvi 1490T, $250; TomTom Go 740 Live, $250

$250 or more: Garmin Nuvi 3760T, $400; Motorola Motonav TN765t, $280

By Byron Trimble