Group Test: smartphone satnav apps

tomtom

I am still using tomtom 6 on my winmo omnia pro. I will probably move to copilot rather than get another map for tomtom. As an ebay purchase it was fantastic and has done me proud for a few years.

I tried ndrive on the wife android and it was fecking awful going round newcastle. In the end it was easier for her to open google maps and tell me where to go.

For an impromptu mount you cant beat a lump of blu-tack either.

Tried most of the offerings here.

And Google Navigation and Navigon are my favorites.

I use Google Maps for UK navigation, and Navigon when abroad (as I don't want to enable roaming data).

Google is apparently working on offline caching for Google Maps/Navigation on Android, and when this arrives, there won't be any need for anything else.

Slightly Sygic...

I recently purchased the Sygic maps for my HTC Touch Diamond 2 (which incidentally I bought after reading an El Reg review and is absolute pony..) for a cycling holiday in Brittany. I found that it drains the battery like hellfire and the cycle mode is almost pointless (admittedly it kept us of the motorway, but certainly did not take the cycle routes or back roads into consideration.

I did, however, have lots of fun changing the voice to the American lady... especially as the roundabout foibles are greatly exaggerated when it is referred to as a "traffic circle"...

@Fred 5

The apps that require an active data link to download map data on the hoof are Google Maps, Wisepilot and Skobbler.

You missed out NavDroyd on Android!

It's based on OSM, which makes it a good thing in my view as its only 4 pounds on the market. Been out now for a couple of months, there are constant updates and its made by Germans!

Simple, but gets the job done and the best bit its completely offline, ie. you download the map data on your phone, and then you can use it without needing data transfers. Perfect for when your roaming, which is when you most probably will need navigation!

CoPilot convert

I used to be a hardcore TomTom fan, but quickly got cheesed off with paying a lot of money for maps/regions only to be forced into paying that cost again at full price when the software was updated. No such thing as customer loyalty? My AV gives me 40% renewal discount each year.

After getting fed up of being ripped off by them I tried CoPilot, love it, probably use it's features more than I do TomTom's and I've forked out for the traffic which is v.useful. Another thing I like about CoPilot is the ability to update the speed camera database for free whenever I like (although judging by the financial pressures of today's councils might not be much of an issue for much longer).

Prefer the overall look of CoPilot as well, find their map interface easy on the eye.

They vary widely by platform!

Just one datapoint: I have two instances of Nokia/OVI maps. On the N900 (maemo) it's very annoying and barely usable. On the E71 (symbian) it's great, despite the much smaller screen. Wouldn't surprise me if some of the others showed big platform differences too.

I've no idea why the maemo version should be so f***ed up. Particularly annoying given there's no google maps app for maemo either.

Google Maps Navigation needs work

For me it makes so very odd choices on the home to work route, wanting to direct me towards the town centre, round the ring road and then back to the motorway junction. It seems to have a thing for "major roads" that doesn't lead to the most efficient route.

Vodafone SatNav

I have a Nokia E71

with it came bundled a Satnav package, am not sure whose it was. I have since downloaded googlemaps and ovimaps and tried to use them both for Satnav.

However, by far the best Satnav I have used on the phone was the Vodafone's own branded SatNav - I generally only use it when I am heading into a city I do not know very well.

The first time I used it was heading from Peebles to Perth. as I approached Edinburgh, a Traffic announcement on the Radio told me that Edinburgh bypass was totally blocked due to a few accidents.

I headed into Edinburgh, a city I have never driven through and do not know well at all.

I turned on the SatNav told it I was going to Perth and let it go as I continued heading into the city.

it quickly established my location and my route. - the first thing it told me was 'Updating route due to Traffic'.

The route then took me through the centre of Edinburgh quickly and easily on a friday late afternoon.

I arrived at the Forth Road bridge without any problems.

Arriving at the Girlfriends 10minutes later than I expected.

A great tool, that I would only replace when I change to an Android phone (will stay with vodafone especially if they have created similar for the Android).

The best part it is Free.

Research fail

"All but the latest generation of monster Android handsets have screens frankly just a little too small for easy satnav viewing."

So the 4.2 inch screen on my WinMo powered HTC HD2 is too small then?

Such a shame.

Googlemaps route planning

You can use GoogleMaps on the web to plan your route in detail - dragging the little markers to add waypoints or avoid particular roads, then save it to 'My Maps', open it in GoogleMaps on the phone and then navigate it.

OVI

I've got Ovi maps on my E71, it's very good but I still prefer a dedicated car based sat nav. This is beacuse I like a big screen in the car, and any phone with a big enough screen is bigger than I want to carry about as a phone.

However I'm torn, I have to pay for map and safety camera updates with Tom Tom but not with Ovi. Also I can download any of the world maps for free with OVI, and use them on holiday. (I do use my E71 when navigating on foot. It picked a location within seconds of exiting the tube last time I was in London, and was very good in helping me reach the right address.)

Just to be paranoid...

On my smart phone I have to give permission to Google to get data from my handset in order to run Google Maps.

Now I can understand if my phone asks for a map centered around my coordinates, or to provide map and routing information to point X with my starting position Y.

Except that well... its Google. So as I use their maps and routing, what are they doing with that information? I mean, in theory... they are tracking you, know your destination, they know who you are... What other things are they tracking?

Paranoid? No, but just someone who values their privacy and recognizes that in a google world you have no privacy.

Google Navigation

Don't forget that with Froyo it's now voice activated (albeit a bit clunky), I had a fiddle with it the other day and it does seem t work quite well.

CoPilot

I find that CoPilot consistently drops the GPS connection at some point on any significant journey - circa 30 minutes or more. Perhaps it's my Hero but I find I have to power cycle the phone before it will get a fix again.

Not good!

STILL no TomTom on Android?

Don't understand why Tom Tom are dragging their dutch clogs with the release of an Android version. It's the only thing I use these days on WinMo.

CoPilot on HTC Magic (Vodafone)

CoPilot on my HTC Magic is excellent (okay I had one or two crashes, but I think that could have been my car charger playing). I used it in Germany and the Netherlands as well and it didn't steer me wrong!

For the price it's very reasonable.

Ovi is nice

I used iGo on a stand-alone satnav and it wasn't very good, very prone to crashing. Mind you, the satnav was Czech in origin, and the only things they seem to do well is girls and beer. Not an insignificant contribution towards making the world a better place, to be sure, but that doesn't make their satnavs any less rubbish.

Navigon I tried on the iPhone 3G and it works reasonably well, but is prone to crashing. Also, it seemed quite dear for what it did. So then my contract was up for renewal and I bought a Nokia E72.

Ovi Maps, daft name notwithstanding, does the job well, although the maps for my particular region seem to be quite old, but they are very precise. The user interface is nice enough, and the guidance is generally spot-on. All in all, the phone is awful as far as the software is concerned, but the keyboard is great for texting and the satnav works well enough. I'm not buying another S60 phone again, but give me a nice featurephone with a QWERTY keyboard and Ovi Maps, and I, an iTard of the highest magnitude, will happily use it as my second phone.

I think you SatNav is broken, it cannot find Garmin!

No Garmin, no point. Anyway for me, providing data is not an issue Google Maps is the way, especially with the useful integration with Layar!

Garmin

Folks, unless I am very much mistaken Garmin only currently sell a mobile navigation app for Blackberry along with its Garmin-Asus satnav phones. The general idea behind this roundup was to look at satnav apps that are available for a selection of platforms (yes I know TomTom is currently iPhone only).

If Garmin's Mobile XT software for Windows had still been available to buy at the time of writing I would have included it.

http://www.garmin.com/sites/uk/products/mobile-phones/

Interesting review, shocked you recommend OVI at all.

Ovi maps is like a dead dog for the N900. It doesn't have voice at all is barely supported and isn't on the list of free OVI maps they advertise, it can't find you most of the time. I stood on oxford street in london (that well known central road in a world capital), 25 minutes of waiting and half my battery and it showed me a beige map with no roads. Couldn't even find the streets I was on. I wouldn't touch Ovi maps with someone elses barge pole.

Sygic however works well (version 10 is far better than version 9 which is still around)

Then again I use tom tom on my 2 year old winmo tytn 2, far better and less CPU hungry than the N900 offerings. (The phone that is, not just the map software)

Route 66

You forgot about Route 66 Maps - the software is to be found on Samsung Wave under the name Samsung LBS and is shipped also with other Samsung devices (WinMo or Symbian).

CoPilot

I am using CoPilot on Android (Froyo) and whilst it works pretty well it does have some issues:

- They don't seem to be using the keyboard driver correctly so you can't input numbers by the push and hold mechanism that is the standard way of doing it - you have to go into the alternate number keyboard (really useful for entering postcodes!)

- When you have entered a postcode and go back to it from history it doesn't seem to go back to the full postcode location correctly

- There's no ability to paste into the address field (maybe down to non-standard keyboard handling again?)

- You can't move what is a comparatively large application onto the SDCard to free up phone memory

- ALK are saying they have no map updates coming for Europe on their support channels - its soon going to go out of date. They claim this is down to their provider - I suspect they just didn't get the right agreement with their map provider...

It might be best of breed, but its a long way from perfect

Ovi

I recently travelled across EU using solely Ovi for navigation. It is barely tolerable and does not deserve the outrageously high score given by elreg.

If you are travelling in Shengen you need to subject yourself to a voluntary border control. Instead of happily traversing borders at 75mph you have to stop and reboot the phone. Some imbecile has coded the map reading task as realtime so when it has to load a new country map too fast it crashes one or more of the other realtime threads on the phone. Bluetooth is nearly always the victim, though the entire phone may go limp. Same for germany and province borders.

Key routes are not present - like ex-Yugo ring roads around cities. So you end up sitting for 2h in a roadworks traffic jam in downtown belgrade blessing the map quality. Search indexes are also pretty flimsy.

Overall, its only saving grace is that it is free and the free price tag is well deserved if you want to travel anywhere further than your local supermarket.

OVI Maps

I know it's 'Cool' to hate Nokia right now with all the Lemmings going for iTarded devices and throwing all their personal data away to google. but...... I have a N900 & a N97

N900's aren't really designed for mass market usage and they haven't upgraded OVI Maps on there for some time so don't even bother.

N97 .. OVI Maps is absolutely brilliant, it gets me from Manchester to Frankfurt without a glitch what-so-ever, the only downside with it is that it can lag sometimes but other than that it's certainly the best Phone based satnav out there in terms of features and quality AND i didn't get a huge bill because my maps are loaded onto a microSD Card :-)

Copilot experiences

ALK Copilot Live is certainly usable and good when it works but mess about with it, change your device and try to restore it on Android and expect hours of harmless fun trying to get the damn thing to work again......

DId they actually test some of these for REAL?

As the Google Navigation review on Android claims that it "lacks an automatic re-routing facility".

ReRouting works just fine for me, if I drive off route, it recalculates and continues as it was...

Google Nav and CoPilot

I've tried both GoogleNav and CoPilot on my Streak (Android 1.6) recently, and both seem to have the same problem of not handling phone calls well. I've only tested this whilst stationary, but both have the SatNav screen completely replaced by the incoming phone call, and after the call (using bluetooth headset), it returns to the home screen rather than navigation. This isn't exactly ideal, and if I was the sort of person that got lots of phonecalls, then it would render the mobile close to useless for this purpose.

What I'd expect, is a subtle on-screen indication of a phone call which doesn't block the navigation view.

My other problem with CoPilot is that I can't find a way of displaying estimated journey time (apparently it's possible, but I can't find a way of making it work and anyway, it should be there by default). Most of the time, I know roughly where I'm going and use the SatNav for deciding whether I have time to stop off at a service station before my meeting. Not having this feature makes me want to stick with Google Nav, despite it's lack of other features.

The 5" Streak however is definitely big enough to use as a satnav.

One last thing - the option to switch between overhead and 3D view is really nice (my old SatNav, a PSP, has it). It switches to a large scale (configurable) 2D view if the distance to the next event is greater than 3km. Generally, if all I'm doing is travelling along a road, being able to see how far along it I am is far more useful than seeing the turnoffs I'm going to be ignoring. Especially useful on the M1, where I can be on the same road for 3 hours+.

Cheap GPS/Phone Mount

Bluetack is the cheapest and best way of mounting your smartphone on your dashboard. I do it al the time. Just stick a blob on any bit that sticks out a bit (like one of the vents) and you're away and can spend your money on something else.

CoPilot on Android 2.2

I used CoPilot extensively on my Hero. Worked reasonably well. I not use a Nexus One running vanilla 2.2. CoPilot does not install properly never mind actually run. CoPilot support is non-existent beyond the usual canned responses. I have requested a refund as i am unable to use the product but, so far and as expected, they are totally ignoring me. The comments on the Android Market are very similar. I really would not recommend this product to anyone, even my worst enemy.