Sat Navs typically have say a 5 inch screen, but i can buy a *ten* inch Phablet (a tablet which can take a phone sim card) for 60 or 70 pounds on Amazon. Then get a free Navigation Android App. (like Sygic, or i dont yet know which of the many is the best one). Since HWMBO can manage the phablet from the passenger seat is there any disadvantage in doing it this way, rather than buy the purpose built sat nav with a much smaller Screen ?
It's the way I've done it for quite a while now. I've used both my Moto G phone and my cheap Argos/Bush 7" phablet. Both work well, the app I use is Here! (was Nokia, now someone else) which is free. A big advantage of the phone/phablet is that it recalculates much faster than any dedicated SatNav I've ever used.
Cost? I bought a 7in satnav for £40 with free map updates. No need for a sim payment.
Would a ten inch screen be a bit too big? Distracting, plus causing a blind spot.
Can the app download the entire UK map over wifi before you set off, or would you be using loads of data whilst on the move?
The advantage of having an "online" connection is that you can get real time routing and feedback. So for example I find I quite often use my phone when I want satnav these days - just with the built in google maps / navigation, and find the dynamic routing is quite nice - something I don't get with my "offline" tomtom. The data cost seems fairly low (although I only use it occasionally)
The app I use (Here!) works off-line, i.e. with no phone data required.
Are you proposing using it with a SIM card? If so, presumably the ongoing cost would be higher.
I can also see that it would only work if you had a passenger; you couldn't really mount something that size for driver-only use.
Personally, I love the basic TomTom I have; the lane guidance is especially useful when at a large, unfamiliar junction.
Chris
WifFi hotspot? Assuming your provider allows tethering or doesn't complain if you do
Yes, it is on the big side!!
Dynamic traffic updates can be very useful. There have been a few times when it has paid off, and also the occasions when I ignored the alternative route which I then regretted.
There are many that will download maps for offline use, but a major advantage of the "connected" apps is that they can get real time traffic data and reroute if necessary (before you reach the blockage).
Yes, it doesn?t work as well when you are the only person in the car because it isnt as easy to have it where you can use it yourself with such a large screen. If you have a mount that allows the driver to use it, it will inevitably obscure quite a bit of the dash in that situation.
But that?s all it can do and at £40 I bet the maps arent a patch on google.maps.
No need for a sim payment with the right sim, you pay for what you use.
Don?t really need the entire UK map.
google.maps doesn?t use loads of data if you don?t store the maps in the device.
Thanks to all. that should have been SHMBO not HHMBO (Freudian Slip ?) I only have a 'pay as you go' tariff , so need a program that downloads the map offline and then just uses the phone GPS to give a real time location on the map. Thanks.
Yeah, can be handy when you have to get somewhere by a specific time for an appointment or to leave on a flight or train etc. It did allow me to see we were cutting it very fine from a long way out so I could drive like a hoon while I could because of the congestion it knew about in the city proper.
Yeah, I havent used my for years now.
Yep, bugger all and I pay 7.2c/MB for data.
I use it weekly, mostly for the garage/yard sale run to get right to the door with the places which include a street number and with streets I can't quite remember where they are even tho I recognise the name.
I used it on a very long run in to catch a train and it was completely hopeless compared with google.maps we were running in parallel on a different phone predicting the arrival time due to congestion.
Not much tho. I pay 7.2c/MB for data and the cost is peanuts compared with the fuel and many have data included and so its effectively free.
It would work mounted centrally over the dash but would obscure a great chunk of the dash. No big deal if you use it instead of the radios etc but not ideal.
I havent used mine for years now.
That's there with maps.google now in many jurisdictions.
And allows you to hoon along while you can well before the congestion if you need to get there at a particular time too.
It will be my preferred solution for the next car. Inbuilt sat-navs and media systems are shit (certainly the Citroen one) and really just a vector to gouge you for ludicrous "updates" and the like.
£1,600 extra for something you can get for £100 which is far more useful (*and* can be carried from car to car).It's a no brainer.
It would be quicker to say that the FM radio works, than to list all the faults I have found with the inbuilt system.
I only got it because I wanted adaptive cruise control (which is very good). If I had paid for it in it's own right, the car would have gone back.
The big question is how well does the live traffic work? The tomtom live traffic is really good, google is mediocre.
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