Satnav on mobiles

agme28

Hi

I am looking at getting a new phone soon but want advice on which have the best satnav apps. My HTC Wildfire has it on Google Maps but it's pretty slow...is this just because the operating system is poor? Would it work better on a newer phone? I used to have Nokia Maps on my Nokia 5800 and that worked beautifully. I can't afford an iPhone and am toying with going onto PAYG as I don't use my £15 monthly plan allowance looking at the stats. Or I could pay less but would I still get a half decent phone? I am with T-Mobile atm. Would I need 500mb to use the satnav every so often? Thanks.

DUTR

Nav free is good, the google navigation is good too, suspect it could be the now slow processor inthe wildfire, that said I have a wildfire too, but use sygic on there.

agme28

Did you have to pay much for that? And am I right in thinking it doesn't require the internet? But still needs to locate satellites? It looks interesting from what I've briefly seen.

grumbler

Google maps/navigation do require internet, but you can get it for free at Ovivo.
All(?) other apps have the maps preloaded and don't need mobile internet.

DUTR

agme28 wrote: »

Did you have to pay much for that? And am I right in thinking it doesn't require the internet? But still needs to locate satellites? It looks interesting from what I've briefly seen.

Sygic and Navfree do not require data, as the maps are loaded onto the SD card, if you use additional services like traffic , then data will be used.

sillygoose

TomTom on Android is good, a lot like a regular sat nav unit and doesn't need data as the map is onboard but its pricey at £40. I have a copy but rarely need it.

But it does seem that other app developers now have access to incorporating the excellent TomTom maps at a cheaper price. For example

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mireo.dontpanic.uk

looks really good value at £13.49 including UK maps, especially as the maps include free lifetime updates. Its still early days for this app though so I would see how it develops for a while yet.

robbies_gal

just out of curiosity how much data does google maps/nav use say on an hours jouney?

Neil49

gabbyevs wrote: »

just out of curiosity how much data does google maps/nav use say on an hours jouney?

If your phone version allows it then you can save sections of Google maps off-line and not incur data costs while using it for sat nav purposes as gps is not reliant on a data connection

My wifi only tablet also does that and works fine as a sat nav (with a 7 inch screen)

robbies_gal

thanks shall give it a go

im-lost

Id recommend copilot, either their free version, that gives you one free map, such as UK or France etc, very similar to their copilot live premium version, but missing some features, maps are stored on the sd card.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alk.copilot.mapviewer

I use the Europe premium version of copilot,very good app.

UK £19.99
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alk.copilot.eumarket.premiumeumaj

Europe £34.99
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alk.copilot.eumarket.premiumeupan

Ive never got the idea that you would want a gps / satnav thats reliant on an internet connection, what happens if you get lost and haven't got a phone signal? your phones cut off for some reason?

Not all that expensive for peace of mind.. saying that if you look around a lot of apps can be had for free, not that I condone piracy, but, you know, just chucking it out there.

in_the_Cotswolds

I have M8 on my S3. It's free and quite good.