Garmin Quest 2, a Powerful GPS Companion

The Garmin Quest 2 is a perfect travel companion, whether you're behind the wheel or hoofing it. At 4.5 by 2.2 by 0.9 inches and 5.5 ounces, the Garmin Quest 2 is roughly the size of a PDA. The device has a solid construction and is comfortable in the hand, but since you can view maps only in landscape mode, you must hold the unit horizontally when traveling on foot.

The Quest 2's face has a 2.2-by-1.5-inch screen that displays 256 colors at a 240-by-160-pixel resolution. It's not the sharpest or brightest screen we've seen, and it's certainly not the largest. Fortunately, the system supports voice-guided directions (via the included 12-volt power/speaker adapter on the windshield mount), so you don't have to rely solely on text directions while driving.

 Also on the upside, the screen is readable in direct sunlight. Because the Quest 2 doesn't have a touch screen, all functions are handled through the nine rubberized controls to the right of display: power on/off, find, zoom in, zoom out, menu, speak, OK, page, and a four-way navigation toggle. (A keyboard appears onscreen whenever a text entry is required.) Though the buttons are tactile, the menus and interface aren't all that intuitive and require a number of extra steps just to accomplish one task.

Quest 2 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded, highly detailed City Navigator NT maps and nearly 6 million points of interest (POIs), including hotels, restaurants, ATMs and more. Plus, there's 35 MB of extra map storage for downloading data from a variety of Map Source software, allowing you to customize it for your off-road and marine excursions. At $750it's a bit pricey.