By M. J. Holland

After much research (and after upgrading from the 7200T because the sale price made it hard to pass up!) I am thoroughly pleased with the 8100T. As mentioned, I did EXTENSIVE research, and was originally going to purchase the Garmin 765, which is also a great unit. By feature list, here’s why I opted for the 8100T:

Largest screen available: I had an in-dash unit in my previous car, and I wanted something large and easy to see. 4.8″ really does give you more viewing real estate!

Feature set: with voice address entry (which, once rained in the environment it will be used has worked flawlessly!), Exit guide (see what’s ahead and get there with a screen touch) and the 3D Terrain View, not offered by any competitor, the choice was obvious!

Lifetime Real Traffic: I need traffic that works, not some dumbed-down ad-based version. this has worked like a champ and the option to auto-reroute or manually ask to recalc. is a great feature!

Inexpensive Map Updates: at $79 retail (even less on Amazon!) you get 3 years, 3 YEARS of map updates (up to 1 per quarter!) including POI’s! That’s a fraction of the next competitor! 

Get the full review here

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