SatNav recommendations: TomTom, SmartPhone or Tablet?

Destination_..._?

I paid a bit extra and purchased the Tomtom live services sat nav model.Its a fantastic piece of equipment , very easy simple to use.
It has saved me time Stress and fuel numerous times by rerouting my journey to avoid any road closures , Massive traffic jams or accidents on the motorways etc ahead of me .Glad i Payed more for the device its really worth it .

agrinnall

I was in John Lewis in Glasgow last weekend, idly browsing the SatNav section, when a chap piped up that he was a rep from TomTom, there to help people if they had any questions. My TomTom One is about 8 years old so when he demonstrated what the new ones could do I was pretty impressed with progress in that time (although not enough to actually spend any money on buying one yet!).

Arfa__

OK, gone for the TomTom Start 60, was £130 in Tesco. Thought that was pretty good. Simple, easy option. Had wanted it for drive up North tonight, was supposed to have been delivered to local Tesco this afternoon, but now they say expected delivery date is tomorrow - grrrr!

Indout96

Dedicated sat navs are tested to sit on the windscreen, in direct sunlight or damp, with hot moist or cool dry conditioned air being blown on them at different times.

Tablets and phones generally haven't. Their hardware will also be going flat out with some navigation applications for prolonged periods of time.

My first nav system was on a palm type device, it fried in the sun - but we were in Texas and it was 110 deg
Never had a problem with Tom Tom or Garmin but I prefer Tom Tom and love the "Live" service

Wongsky

I swear by Nokia handsets for the sat nav software.

Previously, and for a long time I used standalone automotive sat navs - had several Garmins, and a couple of TomToms.

When I first got a Nokia 5230 a couple of years back, I started using that and never looked back - free map updates, worldwide mapping, if you want it, traffic and "safety camera" alerts (the last 2 require data access whilst you're using the sat nav app.

Also, you don't need to use data or have a sim to load maps and use it as a sat nav - it may take longer to acquire the sats without data, and you won't get any traffic info, or safety camera updates (but you can preload the file for that).

I have my current handset (a Nokia N8, which I have as a contract phone - although it was free on my contract) that I use most of the time, and my old Nokia 5230, that I run with no sim in, that I have as a backup.

I've been abroad a couple of times, and preloaded the maps before I went, so it's a flexible solution for travel, too.

The main thing that pushed me that way, was mapping updates for standalone sat navs - I realise you can now pay subscriptions - but they're not cheap, or you can pay occasional one-off fees for it - but say you've had your sat nav 2 or 3 years, so it's far from being the latest thing - you're not really going to want to spend much money on a mapping update, when a new budget sat nav is not much more expensive.

That was the situation I was in before moving over to Nokia maps on my phones - I had a Garmin C550 streetpilot (which was quite a good sat nav in it's day - TTS, bluetooth, TMC for traffic info, played mp3s) but after a few years when the maps were getting a little long in the tooth, the choice I had was spend money on mapping updates for an aging sat nav, buy a new one, or buy one with the same features (quite expensive for everything I wanted). Then along came a free, spare, handset (Nokia 5230) that my wife got for £5 delivery from her mobile contract renewal (in addition to the handset she was getting) and as I was on the same network, it was something of a no-brainer to at least give Nokia maps a go.

NBLondon

Arfa__ wrote: »

No idea which Garmin models are any good. Any recommendations?

Garmin Nuvi series are the direct competitor to the TomTom ones you are looking at. As suggested before - find a place you can play with them and see which screen and interface suits you.

I actually find the £120 Garmin is better than the (supposedly £500) unit that Ford factory fitted to my Mk3 Focus. (Anybody know who makes those?)

Lum

I've gotten by fine these last few years just fine with an Android phone. I've previously had dedicated devices from Garmin and TomTom (I prefer Garmin)

You can get windscreen mounts for most if not all Android phones, and I've not had a problem with them overheating, even on long trips.

Not sure I'd want to use a tablet. Maybe a 7" one would be ok but the rest would be too big, you'd block half your windscreen or have to mount it lower.

My current setup is a PDAir aluminium case w/ windscreen mount housing a Motorola Droid 4. I have a USB charging cable for it, and an audio cable plugged into the aux-in on the Mondeo.

Load the phone up with tunes, start the satnav app and away you go, it even pauses the music while it gives you directions. I do tend to program my destination in in advance however, but this is mainly because the phone has a slider keyboard which is much nicer to use than a touchscreen.


I would argue that since you plan on buying a smartphone anyway, unless you really need something about the dedicated satnav, the money saving option would be to just use that.

eschaton

My last two Sat Navs have been Tomtom.

Previously I would always have said get a Tomtom. I bought the Live 750 2 years ago and find that it takes ages to find satellites on start up.

I decided to replace it as I am going to the South of France next weekend and want something reliable. I paid Tomtom £65 last year to update maps and a nearby new road/layout that I expected to see updated was still the same old layout, money well spent? no.

I have just bought a Garmin 2595LMT and compared to what I have spent on Tomtom in the past, it is excellent value.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-2595LMT-Lifetime-Updates-Bluetooth/dp/B005LGTLWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346421390&sr=8-1

5" screen, bluetooth, europe maps and lifetime map updates and traffic alerts.

£152.48 and if you buy today, £30 cashback from Garmin making it only £122.48.

I set it up last night and yes I do prefer the Tomtom but probably because I am not used to the Garmin. For the money, it's a great pice of kit.

kylehp04

I've always preferred my garmin satnav, I just think they are easier to read then the tomtoms plus when I bought mine it was cheaper than any tomtom on the market and had all the same features.

The only downside however is that you have to pay to upgrade the maps and it's not cheap!!

Lum

Oh and a bonus point for using a phone. You're less likely to get lazy and leave the thing stuck to your windscreen overnight.

I do leave the mount stuck to my windscreen, but it's obvious that it's just a phone mount with no device in it.