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They all have different virtues. I did a lot of research on them recently, and that's what I found.
If you drive mostly locally in a city, for instance, you'll want one that reads the names of the streets instead of just saying "Turn Left in 200 ft." Another useful feature is one that automatically zooms in on the turn, because that will help you be sure which street you are turning on when two streets are close together. Last week in a strange town I turned down a one way street because I misread the screen.
If you drive on long trips, you'll want one that gives you more options to change routes, and a Point of Interest database (restaurants, stores, museums, whatever) with a ton of choices. It's helpful when you are on I-10 between Sonora and Fort Stockton to know where the nearest gas station is, for instance, and it's helpful if you can choose a different route at the push of a button. It's also convenient in a strange city, when the original route it gives you leads you to a closed road or a traffic jam.
Also, look for what info is displayed on the screen, and how easy it is to change it. The most useful screen I ever had was a cheap Mio that all the reviewers refused to take seriously, but it allowed three different trip fields to be displayed at once. Most allow one at a time. Some let you toggle between several fields, and some are fixed, so that you have to change the settings to change the display. The fields I mean are things like trip distance, trip time remaining, ETA, direction, even speed. Mine now even shows elevation, which is fun to play with sometimes, and even helpful at times. The Mio let me show trip distance remaining and ETA (and one other setting) at the same time. That was really convenient on long trips, but it wasn't really important for going across town.
There used to be issues with which map company the device used, and the type of locator chip, but I'm not up on that. i think one map company actually bought the other, so I'm not sure that's an issue as much. check out Cnet.com or gpsreview.net for that type of info, and specific reviews on models.
Just some obeservations about brands. I use a Magellan now. It's fast at picking routes, and it has a great database (it even lets me search for vegetarian restaurants specifically, for instance). With just a couple of screen touches I can get four alternate routes (Shortest, fastest, least freeways, most freeways), or reroute around an obstruction for a few miles. It automatically adjusts if you go off route, and it's quick to get you back where it wants you (sometimes that's annoying, but it helps if you get lost). It lets you toggle through a lot of data, but it only displays one set at a time. It also has the fewest screen touches to find what you want than most others I've used. The maps are pretty simplistic (though not bad).
TomTom and Garmin are the other two popular brand. TomTom has cute maps. I thought both gave me too few options, though. At one time, you couldn't even program multiple destinations for a trip (say you want to go to DisneyWorld via Dauphin Island--you'd have to route to the closest place, then start a new trip when you get there). Don't know if they've fixed that. They are both good brands, but look for the features you want. Also, models vary greatly, even if they have similar numbers, so be sure you get the exact model you want, or the features may be dramatically different.
Mio makes a cheap model with a lot of features, and honestly it was easier to use and more efficient than TomTom or Garmin for me, and had features that none of the others have. A lot of reviewers won't even look at them, but I like them.
Anyway, that's some basics. Read reviews. Check out the actual model, though. Reviewers are weird. One on the Mio said the screen couldn't be seen in bright sunlight, for instance, when there was no problem with it, and the one I'm using now was supposed to be difficult to mount, but the reviewer missed a very simple trick that made it easy (described in the instructions, even).
cnet.com even has a list of "Best GPS systems," so if you want to skip the research, just click on their list and glance at the reviews. They are usually very good. And Google for prices--I got mine for a 150 at a major store when most people were selling it for 299, so there's a huge price swing on some of them.
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