No idea what's the best, *but*: The accuracy/consistency of a good quality pencil gauge is certainly good enough to keep your tires inflated properly, just remember that much depends on the user.
I have two Milton brand pencil-type gauges, one is at *least* 20 years old(maybe 25!), the other(identical model) is a year or three newer. I've always been reasonably careful with them, both still work very well. Why 2? Lost the first one, bought the other, then a few weeks later found the first one again!
When the 2nd one was new(OK, a few weeks old
), it & the older one read 1 psi apart. To this day, they *still* read 1 psi apart- no foolin'! I keep one in my car, the other in Mom's car. While I can't vouch for their absolute accuracy, and they certainly can't *both* be exactly accurate, they do both continue to give very consistent readings, & consistency is the key. Experiment with pressures a bit, & you'll quickly find the best cold pressure for *those* tires, on *your* car, using *this* gauge. Then stick with it. This will give you *much* better service than blindly following the tire shop's recommendation(which may be completely wrong for your car), or the mfg recommendation(ditto), etc. They get locked into a "one size fits all" pressure for a certain model of tire, no matter what size the tire or what it's on, & it just doesn't work that way in the real world. Correct pressure is a matter of load, & (mostly)what provides the best tire footprint.
Now, I like neat gadgets as much as the next guy, and if you want a nice new digital tire gauge & can affore the tarrif, I say go for it. It should serve you well, & the "cool factor" is way up there.
You can buy more high-$$ bells & whistles- but you can take equally good care of your tires with a decent consistent pencil gauge. My old Milton gauges are still doing just fine- but they *do* require that I use them!
The one exception I'd make- those doing any kind of competitive racing may well need the extra accuracy of the uber-gauges. The rest of us are free to choose. Dunno what a good Milton costs these days, but I bet it's a lot less than $30.
