Road buddies

The Maestro's main draw is the clarity of its 4.3-inch touch screen. Picture quality and overall design are both exceptional. It's a little bulkier and heavier than the Garmin Nuvi, which is fine if you keep it in your personal vehicle but not so great for frequent car renters. The touch screen's response time is a tad slow, and the Maestro hogs electricity. On both my tests, the battery lasted just two hours on a single charge. (Running out of juice on the way to a meeting is a deal breaker for me.) The unit ships with a car charger that adds more bulk to your travel bag. Plus, I hate cluttering up my car with wires.

On the bright side, the Maestro's Bluetooth capability allows you to use it as a hands-free speaker system for your cell phone, and the voice-recognition feature lets you place calls while driving. And I loved Magellan's lane guidance feature, which highlights the lanes you should take and grays out the ones to avoid. This makes complicated interchanges easy to navigate.

Bottom Line: I'm sticking with my Garmin Nuvi. It's an exceptionally intuitive and responsive device, and the small form factor makes it the perfect GPS for us road warriors.

NEXT: Escort Passport 8500 X50 Radar Detector: $300