Reviewed: Garmin's 2013 sat-nav

Been testing a new Garmin sat-nav for the last few weeks, part of the 2013 range of portable devices for drivers. The catchily named Nuvi 3598 LMT-D is the range-topper costing £299, but you get a lot for your money. The five-inch screen is the best I’ve ever seen, with smartphone levels of touch-screen clarity. Features include active lane guidance, which makes it 100 per cent clear which bit of the carriageway you should be on. Commands such as ‘be in either of the two right-hand lanes’ leave little room for error and it works well. Less reliable is the 3D Traffic Live feature, which gives a graphical representation of your journey and where/when any hold-ups are detected. It's worked well on a couple of occasions, proving very accurate. But I had an interesting situation on the M25 where a friend went one way round and I went the other because the Garmin told me it was the quicker route. When I ran into the roadworks near Clacket Lane services, it was obviously not and I was stuck for an hour. It was a jam which hadn't appeared quickly and I don't know why the Garmin didn't detect it. Annoyingly, my friend had a clear run home. And just yesterday it randomly predicted ‘slippery road in 61 miles’. I got there and there was nothing. I like the ‘on fastest route’ confirmation that you can set to be on screen, but relying on the Bluetooth connectivity to use it as a speaker for phone calls is a waste of time. The quality and volume of the speech you get is very poor. All in all, a positive experience and the best nav I've ever used, but I’m yet to be convinced it’s worth £300 to get one.