Buy the top-of-the range Navman GPS this year, and you can score monthly map updates. Buy the cheaper ones and you can upgrade — but it’ll cost you.
Navman’s launched its 2013 GPS range, comprising three models; the top of the line $279 MY450LMT, mid-range $229 MY400LMT and entry level $169 EZY250LM models respectively.
The big banner feature for this year is that the top range includes monthly map updates, still performed via connection to your PC, although they’ve added Mac compatibility to their desktop software. As you’d expect, the less you pay, the less you get in terms of features within the GPS models, although they’re all on the cheaper end of the spectrum compared to the asking price of a GPS just a few years ago, not to mention the frankly ludicrous prices that car manufacturers ask for in-dash GPS units.
Monthly updates are free for the 450LMT, but if you want them for the 400LMT or 250LM, you’ll have to cough up $149 to enable the feature.
Given the price difference between them, I suspect they’re planning on shifting more than a few of the premium 450LMT units, although dropping the feature doesn’t mean you get no map updates at all. Navman (along with pretty much everyone else in the satnav space) started offering lifetime updates for its GPS models last year, and that’s true of these ones as well. Omit the monthly updates, and you’re looking at quarterly updates instead.