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.
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.
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.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
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.
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 :D
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.
Tomtom is readily available for XDA's :D
Although, iGo was much better imo.
Only problem with xda tom tom is a lack of updated maps. :(
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
So I solved this today.
I'd been making do with google navigation, which is great but my phone a Samsung galaxy s (not s2) is struggling nowadays and has often left me with it being crashed and frozen on a map screen miles away from where I actually am or just refusing to pick up satellites.
Bought a Tomtom GO 820 Live (with full european mapping) for £149.99 from Argos with free lifetime map updates which is a boon. Seems fantastic but given I've only tested it on a short drive back home from the shop, its not really been tested just yet.
The interface and features though seem to have come a long way from the Tomtom I used a long time ago, Tiz a very swish package.
Solved it with a sledgehammer I see ;D I'd never pay that much for a Satnav, not when I know my phone can do it pretty much just as well for free. I understand totally why you would want to go balls deep on TomTom though given all the trouble you've had.
I've always used Garmins and aside from the maps being out of date before you open the box they always work well enough, but I don't think I'd switch away from my phone now (Samsung Galaxy Ace 2/Android/NavFree app) because the GPS on it seems even more reliable than my old Garmin and the updates are free and regular.
i got tomtom on my ipad - nice big screen :oD
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on January 12, 2013, 10:20:36 AM
Solved it with a sledgehammer I see ;D I'd never pay that much for a Satnav, not when I know my phone can do it pretty much just as well for free. I understand totally why you would want to go balls deep on TomTom though given all the trouble you've had.
I've always used Garmins and aside from the maps being out of date before you open the box they always work well enough, but I don't think I'd switch away from my phone now (Samsung Galaxy Ace 2/Android/NavFree app) because the GPS on it seems even more reliable than my old Garmin and the updates are free and regular.
Aye well I was looking at sat navs that cost less than £100 but then they didn't come with lifetime map updates and I've seen the Tomtom hd traffic and been impressed so figured for £50 more I get 45 countries (planning on doing some riding in europe soon) map updates and the HD traffic (with iq routes and all the other goodies). At least this one should last a few years I hope.
If I had a decent phone I already have co-pilot on both iOS and android so I'd use that but at least now I can reach somewhere without my phone battery being half dead from getting me there :)
Quote from: Eggtastico on January 12, 2013, 10:21:42 AM
i got tomtom on my ipad - nice big screen :oD
But a bit useless unless you've rigged up something on your steering wheel to hold it.
Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on January 12, 2013, 01:39:08 AM
So I solved this today.
I'd been making do with google navigation, which is great but my phone a Samsung galaxy s (not s2) is struggling nowadays and has often left me with it being crashed and frozen on a map screen miles away from where I actually am or just refusing to pick up satellites.
Bought a Tomtom GO 820 Live (with full european mapping) for £149.99 from Argos with free lifetime map updates which is a boon. Seems fantastic but given I've only tested it on a short drive back home from the shop, its not really been tested just yet.
The interface and features though seem to have come a long way from the Tomtom I used a long time ago, Tiz a very swish package.
Make sure you stick to speed limits with Live, TomTom have a history of selling off Live data. :P
Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on January 12, 2013, 10:26:58 AM
Quote from: Eggtastico on January 12, 2013, 10:21:42 AM
i got tomtom on my ipad - nice big screen :oD
But a bit useless unless you've rigged up something on your steering wheel to hold it.
i got a good holder for it + a large windscreen - it sits on my right nr the door
Quote from: Bacon on January 12, 2013, 11:19:18 AM
Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on January 12, 2013, 01:39:08 AM
So I solved this today.
I'd been making do with google navigation, which is great but my phone a Samsung galaxy s (not s2) is struggling nowadays and has often left me with it being crashed and frozen on a map screen miles away from where I actually am or just refusing to pick up satellites.
Bought a Tomtom GO 820 Live (with full european mapping) for £149.99 from Argos with free lifetime map updates which is a boon. Seems fantastic but given I've only tested it on a short drive back home from the shop, its not really been tested just yet.
The interface and features though seem to have come a long way from the Tomtom I used a long time ago, Tiz a very swish package.
Make sure you stick to speed limits with Live, TomTom have a history of selling off Live data. :P
Not that bad tbh, as I can turn it on and off as I wish.
mine went missing last week... no-idea where it is...
got a tom tom from tescos through ebay, £75delivered with a 5inch screen, big screen = win tbh
I used Google navigation to get up to Yorkshire, and back home, instead of our aging TomTom at xmas.
This was on a Samsung Galaxy S3 mind, but it was amazing. Voice was a little hard to hear at times, but on the way back it pretty much got the arrival time 4 hours away, bang on. It said 9pm, we rocked up at 9. Usually I'd expect an hours drift. Traffic updates were useful, but often a bit dated. At the same time they're better than nothing when you don't want to fork out a subscription for them.
always liked the google navigator thingie... but it's just a front end to there website... non of the navigation stuff is done on your phone, it's all done back at google via your data connection... and I only get 200meg of free data so I'm afraid to use it !
no idea how much it uses tbh... might be naff all... you can pre-download the maps via wifi for set areas... I was going to download all of them to sd card until i found out the navigation bit still needs data :(
I like google nav too. It's brilliant but just the galaxy s is known for having crap GPS signal and now its a bit long in the tooth it's started crashing and locking up so time came that I just needed a decent GPS solution. Don't get me wrong i am comfy with maps, just its pissing annoying having to remember lefts and rights in a busy town/city centre.