Garmin nüvi 2460LT review

Garmin’s brand new nüvi 2460LT is packed with features – just as it should be at this price. In fact, this Garmin sat nav‘s price is the same as the TomTom Via Live 120. The 2460LT has a bigger 5in screen, but the same 480×272 resolution as the 120, and is resistive rather than capacitive. Despite this, the touchscreen is responsive and was always fast to respond.

The menus allow you to scroll by swiping up and down, and they’re logically organised, so it’s easy to find what you want. The home screen’s two icons are particularly clear: ‘Where To?’ and ‘View Map’. Entering an address is reasonably straightforward, although you have to remember to select the country first. You can’t for example type ‘Edinburgh’ before changing the country from England to Scotland. As you’d expect, you can also pick a destination from the Points of Interest database or the nearby car parks, Favourites and Recently Found lists.

The 2460LT is the first satnav we’ve tested that can also be reliably controlled by voice, albeit a slightly raised one. Simply say “Voice Command” and a list of possible commands is shown. You can enter an address, cancel the route, adjust the volume and more. When choosing a destination from a list of results, you just say the number next to the result.

When driving, the route is clearly highlighted in pink, and the next road name is shown in large letters at the top. Current speed and road limit are in the bottom-right corner, with ETA bottom-left. The next turn is shown top-left, but there’s no early warning of a second turn as you get with TomTom satnavs. Spoken instructions are very clear, with road names pronounced correctly on the whole. Lane assistance on motorways is similar to other satnavs, but Garmin has digitised photos of the actual junctions making things even clearer than usual. These ‘PhotoReal’ images are shown in the right half of the screen, with the navigation view on the left, making the signs hard to read as they’re so small.

There are lots of other features, including the ability to customise the home screen, specify areas and roads to avoid, a photo viewer, calculator and ‘Where am I?’ emergency locator. More importantly, there’s a TMC receiver for traffic information and Bluetooth for pairing a mobile phone for hands-free calling. There’s also ecoRoute which helps monitor your average fuel consumption and improve it through economical driving. A leaf symbol is shown in the navigation view and turns red when you accelerate or brake too hard; it turns green when you’re gentle with the pedals. However, this system works far better when paired with the ecoRoute HD attachment.

We liked the 2460LT a lot, but it lacks the live services of other models such as the more expensive nüLink! 1695 and similarly priced TomTom Via Live 120. Although those services are subscription based, it’s nice to have the option of real-time traffic information and Google Local Search. For this reason, the TomTom is the slightly better-value choice.