The TomTom VIA 1535TM ($249.95 direct), the company's latest mid-range portable navigation device, is a good performer. While the VIA 1535TM doesn't have every feature in the book, I wouldn't expect it to at this price. But it's easily powerful enough to act as your main GPS unit for the next several years. And the best part: It delivers free lifetime map and traffic updates without displaying ads.

Design, Routing, and POIs
TomTom's thinnest PND to date, the VIA 1535TM features a brushed-aluminum finish, a thin frame, and a nearly flush screen that gives it a high-end feel. The GPS measures 3.1 by 4.7 by 1.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.5 ounces, but that depth figure includes the attached EasyPort mount. The 5-inch plastic resistive LCD sports a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and 480-by-272-pixel resolution. Overall brightness and readability are about average for the class. TomTom's new day and night modes have more attractive color combinations than before.

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Setting up a route was easy enough, though it required a few extra key presses than necessary. I found it easy to input addresses, and the unit's type-ahead feature minimized the number of button presses needed. The interface was fairly sluggish, though; not as bad as some older units, but not as snappy as the Garmin nüvi 2350LMT ($229, 4 stars) is. Finding POIs was more troublesome. TomTom offers dozens of categories, yet doesn't break down the biggest, most commonly used one: shopping. It took eight pages of scrolling through mom-and-pop stores just to find the nearest supermarket, which is only two miles away from my house. Aside from those quibbles, the button layouts and overall presentation were fine.

Map Graphics and Routing Performance
Once underway, things improved. Map graphics were a step up from earlier TomTom units. There were more color gradients than before, and I saw some additional textures that improved the presentation. More importantly, the fonts at the bottom of the screen are larger. It's easy to tell at a glance how far ahead the next turn is, your current speed, the current speed limit of the road you're on, and how far away the final destination is. Tap the speed limit button, and you can toggle the map between 2D and 3D modes. Tapping the next turn icon will repeat the audio cue. The VIA 1535TM also displays lane assistance arrows to show you where to stay on highways, and it pops up a nicer-looking 3D graphic to clearly illustrate exits and more complex interchanges.

TomTom's IQ Routes help the company refine its estimated arrival times and best route choices. Over time, the company collects data from subscribers in order to compare actual arrival times with estimated times. Routing was nearly flawless. Everything I would expect the unit to do, it did, on a variety of highway, interstate, and city test routes. It even chose ever-so-slightly longer routes in distance that ended up shorter in actuality, destinations that kept tripping up a two-year-old Garmin I had on hand for comparison. The VIA 1535TM finally fixes a perennial TomTom bugaboo: When you approach your destination, it tells you what side of the road it's on.

Speaking of which, voice prompts, although slightly tinny sounding, were the best I've heard in recent memory: clearly spoken, with just the right frequency and timing, and with all the correct pronunciations. A bar along the right keeps you posted of current traffic jams, if any; these reports accurately mirrored what I saw during the review period.

Other Features and Conclusions
There's a Bluetooth hands-free mode, which is useful if your car doesn't already have one. There's also 2GB of internal flash memory for storing maps. The VIA 1535TM's Settings section is one of the largest I've seen, with plenty of configuration choices for nearly every aspect of the unit. To cite just two examples, I was annoyed that VIA didn't power down when I shut the car off, and I also didn't like having to tap one extra time to switch from the route planning view to the map view to begin each trip. Both of these annoyances were easy to dispatch, although strangely, there's no way to set the 1535TM so that it turns on with the car's ignition each time. You can also create your own POI folders as well as manage favorites, though I couldn't find a way to easily break the stock POI database into subcategories.

While Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan devices differ in various details, they're all approaching a level of functionality that should suit most any user. That's not an attempt to back out of choosing a winner. The Gamin nüvi 2350LMT displays occasional ads, which makes us nuts, but it's more responsive in day-to-day operation, and it's much easier to locate and navigate to POIs; that device remains our Editors' Choice. The TomTom VIA 1535 TM isn't quite as responsive or well-organized, but it offers adaptive routing and is highly customizable, and you get lifetime traffic alerts without the ads. A more budget-minded option is the Magellan RoadMate 2035 ($169.99, 3.5 stars), which doesn't have as informative a display, but which offers (ad-supported) lifetime traffic alerts and clear sounding voice prompts for a lower price.

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