[Closed] What in-car Sat-Nav

I’ve just bought a TomTom Start 25 off Amazon and have been fairly impressed. It’s easy to use and has a decent, clear 5” wide view screen. The unit is easily updated from your computer. It recalculates quickly and has an excellent 3D view. The screen lacks responsiveness though. All in all - very pleased.

Last time I looked at dedicated devices there was "TomTom" and "the rest."

These days, I can't see much reason to do that personally. CoPilot on my smartphone does 90% of what my old Tomtom did.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............

Frankly, a stand-alone satnav is pretty redundant now. You could pick up an iPhone 3Gs now for a really low price and put CoPilot on it for half the price of TomTom, £18.99 against £49.95, and that's the Premium version of CoPilot. Get an iP4 and it's even better, plus you can put apps like Viewranger or UK Map or MotionX-GPS on it as well, for OS mapping at 1:50k or 1:25k.
Plus you get free updates of CoPilot or TomTom on a regular basis, with maps included.

I use my Android phone sat nav works very well!

Surely running a phone as a GPS abroad could cost a fortune in data?

I've a Garmin Nuvi and that works fine abroad, except in Belgium for reasons best know to the Belgians I guess. My sisters Tom Tom has exactly the same issues with the Belgians too. I lost the maps for it when changed PCs as home and Garmin sorted me out with no problems and at no cost to me.

I guess Tom Tom are fine too.

Surely running a phone as a GPS abroad could cost a fortune in data?

In my humble opinion there's no point in a sat nav that can't do traffic as otherwise, apart from being automated, it's doesn't offer much more than human + map. Given that, I'd go TomTom as I believe the TomTom Live traffic is waaaaaay better than anyone else's system, though maybe I'm out of date.

As a Tom Tom user next one I'd buy will be a Garmin.

Too many wrong turns from Tom Tom.

Nick, that's going to sort out the map but, depending on your phone I guess, the GPS needs a 3g signal and therefore a data connection?

Surely running a phone as a GPS abroad could cost a fortune in data?

Good point only use mine in UK!

the GPS needs a 3g signal and therefore a data connection?

In my humble opinion there's no point in a sat nav that can't do traffic as otherwise, apart from being automated, it's doesn't offer much more than human + map

Now if - like me - you'd ever had to navigate your way around a wet and dark city centre at rush hour for the first time with just an A-Z, I think you'd re-think that statement

To the OP Tomtom stand alone unit every time

The screen on my smartphone is simply not big enough for me to use safely as an in-car SatNav. I’ve found that the SN screen also works much better in bright sunlight. The GPS receiver is stronger and the mapping more accurate IMHO. My smartphone switched screen when calls came in, which was invariably at the most inopportune moment during the route. I generally find that dedicated devices perform better than those that have a different primary purpose.

the GPS needs a 3g signal and therefore a data connection?

No it doesn't.

I used CoPilot in the US for a fortnight recently with no data connection whatsoever. Worked fine.

I had a Tom Tom, it broke after 2 years, I replaced it with a Garmin. Never buy a Garmin, who ever wrote it's algorithms needs shooting, it's choice of routes is bad, it doesn't know what a no right turn is, and it's traffic avoidance doesn't work. Tom tom every time.

After getting sick of using CoPilot on my phone which was really unreliable I have bought a Garmin in the last month. I wish I'd done it ages ago. I'm really impressed with the 3590LMT, the only downside was the cost of the unit, but also their add-ons. Traffic is £20 PA!

Tom tom live traffic, taken me all round Europe with no issues and probably saved me a fortune.

thanks guys - Garmin offer free maps and traffic for life at the moment - is that worth having in comparison to nowt offered from tomtom ?

I have a TomTom XL with Western Europe maps bought about three years ago for a drive to Switzerland, it's been pretty good but I ever updated the maps as always seemed to expensive. Routing has always been excellent and my only major gripe was the time it took to get a GPS fix, sometimes as long as three minutes!

Anyway I finally updated the maps for a drive to the Alpes and it got a software update at the same time... Wow, the new user interface and display is much better and GPS takes seconds - looks like it was a software bug 😳

On the drive to Aple D'Huez last week it was faultless, getting us to the door of both our [remote] overnight stop over and destination.

I'm not convinced about traffic versions, seem expensive but never tried one so can't really comment. I drive into London virtually daily and the radio works fine for me, just ask SatNav to re route around issues.

I've been in cars with Smart phone systems and they are not as good as a stand alone solution for a number of reasons plus, as noted above the cost for data overseas would be prohibitive. Can't comment on other systems but I'm always very impressed with a brand that improves existing hardware with software updates. My XL feels brand new which is nice. Gets my vote.

as noted above the cost for data overseas would be prohibitive

Once again, this is a myth. The only time a GPS will use data is when you first switch it on, and it's a negligible amount. If the data connection is switched off it may take a little longer to acquire a satellite lock, but it'll still work.

[b]GPS does not [i]require [/i]a data connection.[/b]

If you don't have maps preloaded on the phone then downloading them can use a lot of data. But most (all?) paid-for navigation apps and a number of free ones come with maps already installed.

I use an app [citymaps2go] for walking around duties on my iPhone, I just download whatever I need before I go - simple

Still wouldn't use it for a driving sat nav though

The TomTom traffic stuff is really good but the device itself (GO 1000 Live) is driving me slightly crazy with bugs and the fact I can't update it. It occasionally randomly reboots itself (although once it comes back on it remembers the route info thankfully) and recently has stopped getting a GPS lock until you do a hard reset (on reboot it locks on fine). What I've failed to do in 1.5 years of ownership is update the firmware on it (despite trying on 3 different PCs with different OSs), the updates download but it never completes updating the device. It's a common issue (although for me the fixes haven't worked and I have 15 years IT experience...) and no way I could recommend buying one as a result.

Couger, obviously GPS doesn't need data but the phone does. You make a good point about maps and I would be interested to know just how much data a smart app needs. Last time I was abroad I got hit hard with charges mostly due to email, so I now turn data roaming off when abroad now and just use WiFi where I can. Don't think a navigation App will work without data on so you would have to stay connected - 58.05p ex VAT per MB on my plan.

Could be wrong though and might be fine.

Couger

Almost.

GPS doesn't need data but the phone does.

For what?

Don't think a navigation App will work without data on so you would have to stay connected

You're mistaken, sorry. This is what I'm getting at. If you have locally stored maps, it [i]does not need a data connection.[/i] Why would it?

If you don't have locally stored maps, eg Google Maps not pre-cached, then it could get expensive as it downloads tiles. But CoPilot et al all come with their own maps, so the only thing it would use data for is aGPS when you first switch it on and then any 'value added' live services like Traffic, none of which are actually required.

Fair enough.