Sat Nav recommendations

[jmak]

Hi all

 

Found myself looking for a new sat nav - my 54 week old Tomtom 820 live no longer connects via USB. While that doesn't stop it working yet, as the micro USB is also the charging point, I'm not inclined to risk £50 on buying a 1 year subscription to Live services.

 

The best thing about the Tomtom has been the traffic information - it has saved us many hours over the last year. Has anyone tried the Garmin system - based on DAB communication vs Tomtom's GSM network?

 

I've been more than happy with the device, just severely put off by the lack of robustness...

 

Thanks in advance.

[pughburt]

Ive got a Samsung S4, the in-built google maps navigation is live and direct and also free gives you up to the minute traffic alerts. Never let me down and saves needing an additional device.

[Dos_Box]

Can't recommend Garmin ATM. Got a Nuvi 255W and the software in the past couple of year has you going miles out of your way and tends to avoid the route you wanted to take. So it has you avoiding motorways when you wanted to use them and the quickest rout has you going through small villages and single track roads that delay you hugely. The options now only offer two choices: Best Time and Fuel Efficient, neither of which get you to where you need to be in the time you wanted.

I'm now using CoPilot on my Android phone. It's faster and better than the Garmin in almost every way.

 

Edited to add: Oh yeah, it also has you leaving at random motorway junctions (after you ignore its suggested route - as you almost will do) and then re-joining the motorway on the other side.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Dos_Box

[creese]

Testing various Sat Nav apps for my Sensation and Galaxy Tab2 in preparation fro my forthcoming trip to S Africa. Navigator works well. Edited August 23, 2013 by creese

[elsiegee40]

We bought the TomTom GO Live 825 to replace our old TomTom 920 that wouldn't charge unless the wire was connected at a very precise angle.

 

It's good, but I preferred our old one! This one insists on taking the traffic into account as soon as you switch it on. The old one you could program without the wire for the traffic and then connect the traffic and see what the change was.

 

We got lifetime free map updates on the new one thanks to an offer when we bought it.

[creese]

I'm now using CoPilot on my Android phone. .

 

Tried this briefly just now. It seems to only allow one map. I downloaded Southern Africa but can't get Europe without paying.

[jmak]

So, any idea how much data you use on the smartphone based ones? Neither I or my wife have smartphones at the minute (sacrilege for a techie, but I really don't miss mine). We've also always had PAYG phones and currently both spend less than £5/month on top ups, so all of the contracts seem expensive for the amount of calls or txt messages we use.

 

Any using Nokia "Here"? I can get a Lumia 520 for £80 which sounds like a decent phone at my kind of price

[creese]

So, any idea how much data you use on the smartphone based ones?

 

Download the maps and updates via wifi, so none.

[elsiegee40]

Smartphone ones are all very well as long as you only use them in the same country as your phone contract and the signal is excellent in places where you get lost.

 

As we travel to Europe pretty regularly and the "middle of nowhere" in the UK tends to have rubbish mobile signals, we stuck to a conventional satnav.

[creese]

Smartphone ones are all very well as long as you only use them in the same country as your phone contract and the signal is excellent in places where you get lost.

 

As we travel to Europe pretty regularly and the "middle of nowhere" in the UK tends to have rubbish mobile signals, we stuck to a conventional satnav.

 

I'll be using my tablet, so no contract. All offline maps and GPS.

[Danp]

I use Navfree on my HTC One

[newpersn]

Google maps. If connected to internet you also get street view when you there.

 

If you enter house number.

[Thesweeney]

I have a lumia 710 running the old WP 7.5.. Nokia Drive works a treat for me. On payg and never noticed a big hit on my data usage..

[sted]

tried google maps and was deeply unimpressed the routes where crap and the spoken directions inaccurate enough to be hopeless.

nokia maps on my 925 wasnt impressed with couldnt tell it to avoid a roadblock

liked my old tom tom 520 i liked but the car charger died and map updates were expensive

currently gotba garmin with traffic lead map updates are huge 3gb like it but it does seem to pick odd routes

[ricki]

Hi

 

I love my tom tom and am on my second some of the new ones come with lifetime maps and for a £130 one its great

 

Sony are ok but a pain when they get old.

 

I dont like the garmens and her who must be obayed sent it back after 2 days as it took her on a trip of 1 hour 50 mins from Preston to Blackpool.

[MatthewL]

I have not long replaced my NavMan with a TomTom Go Live 1005, its over kill for my needs but I wanted it mainly for the bracket which can be left in the car. Cannot fault the live traffic or any of it, gets me everywhere I don't know.

[timbo343]

I was using google navigation then used navfree on my sensation but switched back to google navigation. Now on the s4, im using google nav.

 

The pros for navfree... tells you how many miles left, current speed etc.

 

The pros for for google... smoother graphics, will get you there (i had a bad experience with navfree once)

 

Google nav could be made so much better with the common notifications such as miles remaining, speed etc.

 

For a notification of the speed i use an overlay called gMapsSpeed beta and it sits in the bottom left of the phone.

 

9 times out of 10 google nav us pretty much correct on when you.are going to arrive at your destination, maybe about 3 to 4 mins out though.

Edited August 23, 2013 by timbo343

[TomCollins]

If I am in the UK I use Waze, a community-based navigation app, useful to me as quite alot of people have it locally and submit traffic alerts which are picked up by it.

 

Outside of the UK, it's the Garmin 255W.

[Arthur]

nokia maps on my 925 wasn't impressed with couldnt tell it to avoid a roadblock

Is Nokia HERE Drive+ any good? I thought HERE Maps was just a map app?

[sted]

Is Nokia HERE Drive+ any good? I thought HERE Maps was just a map app?

 

thats what i meant

[Arthur]

that's what I meant

Ah! I think I'll stick with the satnav and map apps on Android in that case.