[Advice] SatNavs.

[dancefloorlandmine]

I know that a number of you have SatNav devices, and some of you might have been through more than one. Having had an unscheduled detour this morning, I've finally decided that I'm going to bite the bullet and get one soon. But, being indecisive, I'm appealling for advice.

So, far, the top options appear to be the ViaMichelin X-970T, the TomTom ONE XL GB (Traffic), or, if I get carried away, the TomTom GO 520 Traffic.

Anyone had any good/bad experiences with any of the above - Amazon's user reviews are somewhat inconclusive ("sliced bread"/"road to hell")?

My want list includes: postcode and address searching, decent clear display, speed camera locations and speed limit information (too many Tiger Tokens), traffic alerts and rerouting. Out of car portability is less important, but might be handy. Hands-free phone function might be useful, if it works well.

Music playing and photo displaying less useful - my cameras don't use the relevant card sizes, and I have a CD player and an audio input to my stereo already.

Comments

[willmate.livejournal.com]

TomTom One is very good at being a SatNav device.

I've had bad reports about its traffic routing (it considers traffic problems that might be 3-4 hours drive away (and thus gone when you get there) when routing you. I don't use traffic alerts (you get a month's free trial)

Can't remember if it shows speed cameras (I think it does) but it definitely does speed limit info, and has great maps.

I believe it's pretty cheap these days (relative to what they used to be).

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

Speed camera notification is an extra (at least we haven't got it), and in fact it count all traffic cameras, including traffic light cameras and ones that are on the other side of the road! Which can apparently become a tad annoying as it effectively means the damned thing beeps at you every 2 seconds in town!

Speed limit info is not entirely correct - some roads are not known, some are incorrect. But again that could be sorted with a paid update thing.

I think TOMTOM is great, but I haven't had much experience of alternatives.

[drplokta]

We have a TomTom 510.

For decent traffic alerts on a TomTom (and presumably others), you need a mobile phone with Bluetooth and the ability to use it to connect to the Internet from other devices. If you're going to use it much, an all-you-can-eat data contract would probably be a good idea -- I don't know how much data it actually shifts, as I have an all-you-can-eat contract. You can get a device to plug into it that basically picks up RDS warnings, but that's a lot less comprehensive.

A lot of the speed limit information on the TomTom database is wrong. The speed cameras are on a different database, so it's not uncommon to be told that you're in a 30mph speed limit and approaching a speed camera set to enforce the 50mph limit.

The hands-free functionality is annoying, because you have to have remembered to plug in an external mic, and if you're connected to it for traffic updates you can't stop it acting as a hands-free as well. And it won't download your address book, so you basically can't use it to dial out.

But don't take this as a negative review. I wouldn't be without it.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

If you're going to go the mobile phone route, it's best to go the whole hog and get Copilot - it's what we use and it's one of the best sat nav platforms out there (we've been reviewing a lot of them for Tom's Hardware, and it's consistently one of the most accurate and with the best POI selections).

02 are currently doing it in a bundle deal with the HTC Kaiser (ISTR O2 call it the Stellar) which is a decent phone with a built-in GPS...

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Cheers!

Probably not going to go the phone route, though - my current personal communicator is a second-hand NOKIA 6230, with my ancient T-Mobile PAYG SIM in it, on the "text heavy PAYG" deal. Nice and cheap for texting, and I rarely do anything else ... [grin]

[metastasis.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend avoiding the phone route. I'm got phone based SatNav at the moment and it's rather disturbing when you're trying to work out directions in a difficult area and you're SatNav goes away because you've got an incoming call....

[hungry-pixel.livejournal.com]

My Tomtom is fantastic for satnav, and variable for avoiding traffic - it can be a bit of a pain to program in a specific route too. However, as I mainly use it to find B from A, I'm very happy with it.

[doctorrdave.livejournal.com]

Having used Garman and TomTom sat nav devices, my personal experience is that the Garman is a neater, smaller, and ultimately less useful package, which the TomTom One XL (new as of a few weeks ago), does the basic sat nav thing, and the rerouting thing extremely well, with what are now free map updates. Not tried it with the traffic information yet, but for getting from A to B its not yet given me a problem. Also, and I count this as a bonus, reasonably accurate estimates of arrival times.

[felishumanus.livejournal.com]

I have a TomTom One Europe...at the time the offer on it made it cheaper than just buying the UK only model.

I find it ok although it does insist that some houses are at a different end of the street compared to reality. Also as with all sat navs new road may not be on it, so expect for them to tell you that you are driving in a field from time to time

You can set it for walking only routes, but as i have not tried this I am assuming it just takes you via the roads rather than off road.

I have recently updated and added on points of interest online for free, and I believe you can get updates for speed cameras this way too and map updates but they may cost money though

[metastasis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, landmine, I'm sure you're too smart not to do this, but do look at reality first, and then use the SatNav for advice. For example my mobile phone based TomTom does try and send me the wrong way down a few one way streets in central London....

[silenttex.livejournal.com]

I have the TomTom One (Traffic). The only criticism I have of it is that I find the screen a little small. The XL should solve that.
The traffic updates are handled via an aerial that you sucker to the windscreen and plug in to the unit. The only time I've been re-routed and been able to cross my original route, I could see plenty of stationary traffic, so I've not had any problems with routing.
I've noticed a few incorrect speed limits, but the camera locations have been bang on (though I don't think it differentiates between speed cameras and traffic light cameras, and it will always alert you to cameras for the other carriageway). You can customise the alerts, from type of camera to alert tone used.

[nevla.livejournal.com]

i can reccomend the cheap TomTom One. Matches all of your requirements, and for a few quid you can download Eddie Izzard's voice for it from his website.
Fantastic. :)

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

"Cross the...er...yeaaaaah...."

[daevid.livejournal.com]

StaNavs are great on the A1 atm... they get lost so easily with all the work being done bypassing the roundabouts ;)

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

I think it's funny watching people slow down and panic because there's suddenly a roundabout missing from where they were expecting one. That'll teach them not to use their eyes :)

[daevid.livejournal.com]

Heheheh... SatNav should be a backup device just in case... i just love those that rely on it totally but do not follow it to the letter ;)

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

I often wonder how many people in big 4x4's take 'turn left' literally when on a motorway or something, and go straight over the barrier and up the verge...

I tend to use mine pretty much only at street level for directions, and for the estimated time of arrival on longer journeys.

[daevid.livejournal.com]

Yup, me too... especially when navigating round towns/ cities that i have not been to...

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

rich_r can probably provide tales of being a passenger on some unscheduled urban tours back when I had the BigRedHappyFunBus ... [grin]

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

You were just trying to visit every street in Bradford before going to the gig I think. Oh yes, that must have been the reason. Not that we were lost or anything....

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Err ... yes, yes, that was it. I was checking the location of curry houses. Or something ...

Actually, it was Maidstone which came to mind, too ... [grin] And I won't mention Sheffield ...

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

Ah now Maidstone was different. We'd already spotted the pub on the first or second circuit round the town. It was such a nice day we obviously decided to have a good look at the sights.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

[grin] Of course.

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

I'm currently using a cheap Satnav I bought in ASDA a couple of years ago. Doesn't do anything fancy, but does work very well at giving me the map information I need. I often detour off the route it plans, based on the road signs, but it replans the route within a couple of metres usually.

[djm4]

Looks like the consensus here is for TomTom. Just as a counter data-point, I liked the display and interface on angelmine's Garmin SatNav sufficiently that I've just bought a Garmin Nuvi 250 Widescreen. 'Just' as in 'earlier today', though, so I haven't used it yet, unfortunately.

I can't really quantify what I liked particularly about the interface on the Garmin - it just seemed to display the information in a way I could more instantly follow.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Cheers - I suspect that I'll need to go to Halfords or similar and do a comparison of the interfaces, if possible. And especially of the way that they depict directions on screen.

Whose was it/which model was it that was being used in France?

[djm4]

It was clare_nce's, and it was an add-on to her Palm, IIRC.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Ah! Oh well.

[sam-cp.livejournal.com]

I have a TomTom XL Europe, it is fantastic. It is really easy to programme. Ours has automatic camera alerts cause we asked for that in the shop. Depending on where you buy depends on what extra's you get.

[kathbad]

I love my tomtom - although I have not done much in the way of looking at extra features...

[jinxcw.livejournal.com]

FYI I've just received an email from Amazon - they've got "Up to 50% off TomTom GPS and accessories"

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Heh. [nonchalant whistle] [grin]