SatNav recommendations: TomTom, SmartPhone or Tablet?

NeverEnough

LisaW123 wrote: »

How about a map.

That wasn't the OP's question. They asked specifically about satnavs, not your opinion about if they should be allowed one or not.

Arfa__

My only experience of TMC was with my old Becker satnav, which came with a long wire antenna to drape across dash. I replaced this with an adaptor to patch into roof aerial, more so to tidy things up. I had no trouble picked up traffic news, highlighting roads blue and presenting the option to evade. However the traffic news was often out of date. Still it was free, so better than nowt.

For speed cams I was using the POIWarner add application. I first tried using this with some free databases, but they were out of date and missing directional info, so you always got warned about cameras on the other side of the road. I then subscribed to POIHandler's database for a measly €12/yr, which was much better maintained (and had the direction camera faced).

Yeah, I can see how the phone option may have been cheaper in some situations. However reasons against it my case were:-

Two of using same car, thus needing two decent phones setup.
Need same phone ideally, to share same cradle, plus cost of cradle.
I've got an ancient Nokia, wife has old iPhone 3G, both on PAYG with low usage. So we'd have big outlay to upgrade phones and increase in monthly bill to get adequate data allowance.
Do phone sat nav apps, still give you directions when taking a call?