Author Topic: Budget Sat Navs (Read 183 times)

M3ta7h3ad · **on:** February 10, 2012, 01:28:51 AM

Budget Sat Navs

on: February 10, 2012, 01:28:51 AM

Right, after driving to london today and almost getting completely shafted by the congestion charge. I cannot carry on using my bloody Samsung Galaxy sh*te as a satnav. It'll get a fix for 5 minutes, the rest of the entire journey it'll sit there "Waiting for GPS Satellites" showing me a vague blue circle that as it turns out was about 11 Miles short of where I actually was.

Don't get me wrong it's a great phone and media device and in a pinch it'll sort of make an effort at least of kind of pinpointing an area of the map so you can work out your location yourself but it is rubbish as a satnav. No other phone I've had has been as bad even those running windows CE.

So having had enough i'm looking for a decent standalone satnav unit I can use in the car. Not looking to spend more than £50, certainly not more than £100.

What decent ones are out there?

Biggest thing - I want to be able to update maps, I have a navman S30, it works great cost me £30 at the time but the problem is it's maps are from 2004.

Don't need speed cameras

Don't need media players

Would be nice to have intelligent routing or traffic details, not for detours... radio traffic does the job well enough for that but for ETA's

Lane Assist is nice to have, been caught out a few times driving on the M25.

FM Transmitter... not needed, they're pants.

Headphone socket would be nice for me to physically wire it into my bluetooth helmet headset for use on the motorbike.

Last Edit: February 10, 2012, 01:32:03 AM by M3ta7h3ad #187;

Bacon · **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2012, 02:06:10 AM

Re: Budget Sat Navs

Reply #1 on: February 10, 2012, 02:06:10 AM

TomTom Start or Start 2 have the latest maps except the new range of TomToms but i hear they are crap.

You can get the starts on Argos/Tesco Ebay Outlets (refurb open boxed) for a whack cheaper than new.

The maps on the Start 2 were up to date ish, i've never paid to have the maps upgraded as i feel its a load of crap, if you buy a new satnav like i did twice you expect it to have the latest maps, this time around i bought an XL IQ routes refurb from TomTom direct and its worse (Older maps and doesn't pick up all the cameras), even after moaning at them and getting a map update it was crap so stick to the later generation Start range.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOMTOM-START-2-UK-ROI-AND-EUROPE-GPS-SAT-NAV-/330571310131?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_GPSSystems_GPSSystems&hash=item4cf795e433

You could try a Garmin but they are even worse, unless you like driving down single track a lot.

PS. I use my step fathers old Tom Tom One and that picks everything up and has good maps, its a bit random tbh, its like they just decided to put older maps on the newer products, doesn't make sense.

Last Edit: February 10, 2012, 02:13:04 AM by Bacon #187;

M3ta7h3ad · **Reply #2 on:** February 10, 2012, 11:07:08 AM

Re: Budget Sat Navs

Reply #2 on: February 10, 2012, 11:07:08 AM

Aside from one cock up with my dads tt one that had a hotel on the wrong side of a motorway it's been pretty good.

Does anyone rate the f&h setups from ebuyer? I hear folk have been putting tomtom maps on them.

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XEntity · **Reply #3 on:** February 10, 2012, 17:59:36 PM

Re: Budget Sat Navs

Reply #3 on: February 10, 2012, 17:59:36 PM

Unfortunately I've been hearing the same about the new TomToms, as the TomTom I have was one of the older ones with IQ routes (IQ routes does make a reasonable difference as well) I think mines the XL with IQ routes, has blue tooth and stuff.

You can also put TomTom on some of the cheap SatNavs as they are based on CE, I used to have one, but no idea if they still make an up to date version for CE and from my experience it ran really slow, roundabouts in London were never fun with it, hence getting a proper TomTom in the end.

M3ta7h3ad · **Reply #4 on:** February 10, 2012, 20:16:24 PM

Re: Budget Sat Navs

Reply #4 on: February 10, 2012, 20:16:24 PM

Yeah, think I'll have to go Tomtom to be honest, but until payday happens I found a suitable replacement for my phone satnav.

Another phone satnav

My XDA Orbit (found in a cupboard today) still runs. Never had issues with it as a satnav before (little slow on initial fix but otherwise pretty solid) but I've lost the co-pilot sd card so can't use the co-pilot software.

Didn't have a spare simcard and didn't really want to pay data charges anyway so wanted an on-disk setup.

Ended up finding: http://navigatorfree.mapfactor.com/en/ was pretty simple to install, worldwide regions too and works... well it's interface is iffy as hell especially due to the tiny screen on the orbit but it does the job better than my Galaxy S.

Last Edit: February 10, 2012, 20:24:58 PM by M3ta7h3ad #187;

soopahfly · **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2012, 23:54:30 PM

Re: Budget Sat Navs

Reply #5 on: February 13, 2012, 23:54:30 PM

Tomtom is readily available for XDA's

Although, iGo was much better imo.

M3ta7h3ad · **Reply #6 on:** February 15, 2012, 00:02:39 AM

Re: Budget Sat Navs

Reply #6 on: February 15, 2012, 00:02:39 AM

Only problem with xda tom tom is a lack of updated maps.

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Author Topic: Budget Sat Navs (Read 183 times)