Navigon Mobile Navigation app for iPhone

When it comes to buying things I have a strange way I go about choosing what it is I want. I go from one extreme to the other. I either go for the impulse buy - oh look, a flat screen tv, lets buy it. Wii fit, yeah cool. On the other hand, I can obsess with review after review on products I want, creating lists and blogs about my thoughts on what to get.

So when I knew I was getting an iPhone, I decided to ask around everywhere, watch video reviews and compare all the different tomotm apps available. I would never actually buy a tomtom standalone unit, it’s more the novelty of the iPhone app that appeals to me, even though I do think sat navs are really helpful and loads of fun.

I've only ever had one tomtom app before - Vodafone navigation on my Blackberry Storm. Now I don't know if it was just because it was on the Storm which is why I didn't like the app much but with all the other bugs with the phone (as documented in detail in my previous blog) the app did crash and freeze on me a lot, and often refuse to load. When the app did decide to load it worked pretty well. The routes were intuitive, if you took a wrong turn it would recalculate the route. I wasn’t really that impressed however with the bulky map view and trying to click screen the Storm was a pain in the bum.

iPhone has a number of sat nav applications, including the Vodafone app I had on the Blackberry Storm, however you have to pay monthly for the app. The main apps for the iPhone are:
Navigon
Co-Pilot
TomTom.

TomTom and Navigon come in at around £50 - £60 with co-pilot clocking in at around £20. I quickly dismissed co-pilot as from reviews it was clear it was a cheap and nasty alternative to Navigon and TomTom, full working sat nav apps.

When comparing products you very early on get a sense of which one grabs you, and often you tend to read reviews with a bias view. I very early took a shining to Navigon. It was clear they were both up to the task and ultimately it was a matter of opinion which one you went for. I think it was the look of the maps that grabbed me. It was confusing reading reviews because on one hand people would say that TomTom was really easy to use and that Navigon would take you on strange routs, but on the other hand people would say that TomTom would be difficult to use and that Navigon had cool points of interests integrated in Google. At the end of the day I got some iTunes vouchers for my birthday and bought Navigon.

After installing the app I decided to have a play, set up some favourite routs and see how it integrated with my contacts list. The home screen is really intuitive. You can Enter and Address, Search for POI (point of interest) including using built in Google, Take me home (navigates you home in one click) and Show Map. There are also some other buttons to press including your favourites list and contacts.
I had to buy a post code upgrade to allow me to search for addresses by post codes. Trying to route to a contacts was often quite strange. If I had an address of FE21 8UI then sometimes it would give me a list of destinations with the post code of FE23... which was nowhere near FE21. A little strange. Putting the post code into the address finder and saving it as a favourite was much more accurate. Searching for POI through the integrated Google option was quite cool although it didn’t always find exactly what you wanted it to find. There’s loads of options built into the app such as 2D / 3D view, show different POI on your route and many many more.

Once you’ve chosen your destination the app calculates your route. The app works both portrait and landscape. The app can be used with the TomTom car kit holder boosting GPS signal however I was just using a simple phone holder and car charger with my iPhone 3GS. If it can’t find a gps spot it will ask you if you want to simulate your route (show a demo of the route) or just wait until it finds a gps spot. Once it finds a gps spot the app launches into a 3D view with an arrow simulating your car and the route highlighted making it clear which way you are going. The app tells you your approximate time of arrival, displays either the road you are on or the next road to take, the next junction (such as left turn in 1 mile), the speed limit of the road you are on and how fast you are travelling – with an audio warning when you are speeding, road names, speed camera updates and POI. If you take a wrong turning the app automatically recalculates your route without making you turn around and go the way it initially wanted you to go.

I did a couple of short journeys around home and I did find it wanted to take me on a strange route but if I went a different way it would reroute me a more direct route. I then did a long journey around the A3 and the M25. The app did often lose GPS, but this was due to my iPhone 3GS losing signal at different points of my journey. The app would tell me in good time when the next turning was, which exit off the roundabout I would need to take, the name of the road or street name I needed to take, all in clear audio cues. One of my favourite things about the app is when you are on a motorway coming up to a junction the app displays a clear picture of the motorway with lane signs and clearly marks out which lanes you need to be in to continue on your journey. I was also impressed how it automatically went to night mode in the evening when it got dark, making the surrounding areas darker and the route nice and bright, so that it didn’t blind you as you drove home in the dark after a long days work.

I can’t comment on the TomTom app as I have never used it however I would definitely recommend Navigon to anyone wanting a sat nav app for their iPhone. I would probably recommend the TomTom cradle too as I can see it getting annoying constantly losing GPS. I have heard about twitter and facebook integration however have as yet not seen this function in the app. There is also a traffic upgrade for around £18 but I have heard it doesn’t work brilliantly so haven’t purchased it yet. Navigon is great, does exactly what you want from a sat nav app and is pretty to look at.