I appreciate it is possible to use a smartphone as a satellite navigation device but I prefer to have a dedicated unit.
My present TomTom is very slow and is producing some routing surprises. I am thinking about a Garmin instead. I have seen mixed reports about Garmin's ability to interpret UK postcodes, including a suggestion that it only looks at five characters and is therefore less accurate. Any truth?
I'm also wondering which is better at choosing the best route? I assume they use the same clusters of satellites if they are both GPS based but does one have better hardware than the other?
I am interested in driving in the UK only with no requirement for US mapping.
Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
A few years back I had both - I hated the TomTom as it would doggedly try to keep you to its originally calculated route. The Garmin would adapt if you went "off-piste". However, they were both basic models and it was a few years ago. I think "recalculating" is really important.
Can you feed the audio through the car's system. Anything small is going to have piss-poor audio, just what you don't need given that driving environments are mostly noisy.
That was what an elderly, non-technical mate found with his.
Having had Gamin units since my first GPS II+ I've only had Garmin units and think they are very good.
Especially when I wanted something waterproof for use on a motorbike etc.
I think that was the case bit not any more (or not on all ours IFAIK).
Well, given the number or artics that end up down here (further access was only over a private road that was last open 20 years ago) and we have to help turn round at all hours and weathers, who often seem to have TomTom's, not them?
I think it's more the soft / firmware that makes for a better GPS (most have sufficiently sensitive GPS chips these days).
With most of the Garmin models you get UK at least and often EU and Eire with free mapping upgrades for the fist year etc.
We used my Nuvi 215W for a 100 mile round trip today and it took us straight to the door and the ETA was spot on.
If I lost or broke it I would go and buy a replacement tomorrow.
I can / do use my phone as a GPS, but I'd rather keep it for use as a phone (the 215W has Bluetooth and gives hands-free calling but it was 'better' (for the Mrs) to use my phone normally and that would have precluded me using it as a GPS at the same time).
Why? Smartphones can access real time traffic flow data. There might have been a point in dedicated satnavs a decade ago but not any more.
I have found Garmins a bit tetchy. Near me older ones of either sort tell you make an illegal manoeuvre if you go past the right turning. Google maps tends to have more accurate maps and live traffic jams.
I have not used Garmin, but TomTom is better than that now. They will recalculate as soon as the original route (after a hypothetical u-turn) becomes suboptimal. And, with a bit of fiddling, you can tell it a road it wants to use is blocked and hit recalculates on that basis. It also often picks up traffic problems, especially roads completely blocked.
But now that mobile data is cheap I can't see why anyone would bother to buy a dedicated satnav for their car. You may as well put the money towards a better smart phone than have a dedicated brick with outdated maps, inferior routing algorithms and limited traffic jam knowledge.
If you want accuracy in determining your destination don't use postcodes, use lat/long instead.
To find the lat/long use google maps. Locate your destination precisely by zooming in on the map, refining with satellite view and right click on your desired destination. A box will appear - click on "What's this?". Another box will appear giving (approx) address and precise lat/long. Put that lat/long in your satnav. Saves hunting around when you get there. Also use street view to have a scout round to become familiar with an unknown destination.
The mobile coverage in North Yorkshire isn't that great, but one of our two smartphones usually has signal even so. EE is about the best and Three the worst network (although at home there is no O2 at all).
They are on separate networks for precisely this reason.
Use a satnav app with offline maps. If you have mobile signal you can get traffic and realtime routing, if you don't it'll fall back to the offline map - which is all you get on a standalone satnav unit anyway. Bonus points is the offline maps can usually be updated for free with a few clicks, rather than paying for map updates.
TomTom does an app if you prefer the traditional satnav experience.
Personally I think you'd really have to dig deep to find reasons to have a decicated unit in 2020.
Even if you didn't want to use your own phone, you can still buy a cheapie *just* for sat nav.
I have an old MotoG from SWMBO that I use for media and navigation. Currently I use HERE maps (because they display the speed limit at all times. However I have been told Google Maps now offer this so might try (again - I've waited 5 years).
you can preload UK and Europe maps and navigation is pretty good. If you bung a SIM in you get traffic and live route advice.
It won't be that long before people start using old tablets for the same.
I have done that in the past (using lat/log all different ways) and find it quite 'interesting' (inc converting formats etc).
Good idea ... if you have the forethought to do so before you set off. ;-)
Yeah, I do that quite often and in spite of my memory being utterly useless for remembering even a short string of numbers or letters or even seconds, I can often memorise ('picture') a route by doing that, even if I only remember it's the second road on the left, third on the right, not the names of the roads (other than confirming they look right when I turn into them). AS you say, the Satellite view is also very good for getting an idea of the actual destination (especially industrial estates or housing estates where they have the same road name but side roads with 'Numbers 81 to 101'.
In the early days with my Gamin GPS II+ it came with the 'Mapsource' app and because the GPS itself didn't have autorouting, you would pre-plan your route (14 day motorcycle camping trip) with a series of waypoints (campsites) on the app and then 'upload' them to the GPS. Then you would select that route and follow the compass arrow on the GPS to your first destination etc. ;-)
If you needed to change anything, you either needed a portable computer (no so easy / cheap those days) or look at a real map, work out the coordinates and ender them into the GPS to follow.
Apart from simplifying those 'should we go left or right here' moments, it meant you could generally not waste that hour when you got within a mile of the campsite that was at the back of somewhere unexpected. ;-(
And it's not easy trying to handle a paper map on a motorcycle, it night, in the rain, with gloves on. ;-(
My last car had TomTom. excellent traffic jam knowledge. The curent car has manufacturer's own sat nav and get its traffic info from goodness knows where. Twice it's tried to direct me into jams which the overhead gantries have told me to avoid.
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