Satnavs - do people still use stand-alone?!

I used to use a Garmin and my wife Tomtom but now consider both of them redundant. Use iPhone in car and iPad mini in mh. Fast, reliable and continuous traffic updates. Also have a choice of mapping but usually use Google Maps.
 
wildebus said:
Absolutely do :)
I have a Garmin Camper 660 now - but it does also give me a Reversing Camera feature so saves a separate monitor for that (so standalone but multi-purpose). Also shows me the actual speed (the speedo underreads now with the bigger tyres) which is handy
I also have a Garmin 2595LM Standalone that I used previously in 3 different vans - I prefer the Garmin system to the others (Also still have a TomTom One XL that I got in Heathrow Duty Free back in 2007 and a Garmin Vista I bought in 2002! need to find a new home for the TomTom really! The Vista handheld is now totally outclassed by a smartphone though and is pretty pointless nowadays)

But back on topic.... my car has the Android Auto feature on the radio so I can plug the phone in and use the google sat nav system with the main radio screen which is handy.

Google via Andriod Auto vs Garmin dedicated .... not bothered either way, but I prefer both to using a phone screen.
Click to expand...
im looking for a tom tom,pj
 
snapster said:
I’ve tried using smartphones ( both android and iOS) as a satnav but find they are slow and clumsy. I much prefer a dedicated unit, we have a Garmin Dezl 770
In my last car I had a built in sat nav but even when it was updated, the mapping was still out of date and many new roads simply didn’t show up.
I also tried using a smartphone for gps navigation when walking but it was pretty useless just when it was needed most, so bought a dedicated hiking gps.
The phones great for making phone calls though.......
Click to expand...

Could this have anything to do with the age of your phone, I only ask as I use 2 phones, my Samsung S2 is a bit slow, but it is 7 years old, but the 3 year old S5 is lightning fast at re-routing me if I decide to go a different way, this is with CoPilot, it also is affected by how good your GPS chip is and which satellite systems it can lock on to.
 
Use an old iPad (with GPS) which we tie to the sat nav dash support. We have copilot for caravans which is pretty accurate in most countries. The large iPad screen means we have a really clear mapping device. And it keeps up with where we are faster than my very old Garmin. Took the Garmin to France last weekend to use in a hire car - it was so rubbish we ended up using maps.me on the phone.
 
I have built in satnav that came with the van. Apart from having a sexy voice it is poo. I use my Garmin camper and all the years has never let me down. I have all the poi from the other site loaded and find these invaluable when i want to free camp.
 
We have built in sat nav in car which is good but use Google maps on smart phone in camper which is useless too slow with directions
 
pj palance said:
im looking for a tom tom,pj
Click to expand...
I'll double-check if it still operates (I am sure it does but been in a drawer for years so battery is flat). If so, yours for a suitable donation. (if I can find it, I will throw in the US Maps from 2007 as well (I bought it in either June or Dec 2007 when wanted a Sat Nav to use in my Hire Car in the US))
 
My phone is "pay as you go". It's a phone. It rings, I answer it.
Today I topped it up by ten quid. Last time it was topped up was almost a year ago.

So yes.....I have a basic stand alone sat nav. It's not brilliant, but better than now't.

p.s.......I'm a Yorkshireman. :)
 
We have a built in TomTom which works well, but our planned replacement van doesn’t so I’d assumed we would need a stand alone unit, but it seems I need to look at using a phone instead!
 
One thing to mention, are the phone/tablet live sat nag programs mentioned using data? I ask this as I know one member whose phone contract only allows 1GB a month data and he used it on I think google maps as sat nav. Maps.me you can download maps and I know you can with some other so you can minimise data use but I don’t know about others, how much data do they use, what other add initial costs are there?

For someone with a limited budget a stand alone sat nav with map updates may be the way to go just on monetary terms.

Myself I use built in in car which also has mapping app linked to phone along with telling me where car is and allowing me to do various things remotely. In the van I have an Aguri motorhome sat nav which runs android. That is slower to start than car sat nav which is instant but once in the app no problems at all.

I also use maps.me, google maps, google earth and now thanks to Colin Here We Go, (hadn’t heard of that before) on phone and iPad. I generally use the stand alone or built in while travelling as screens are bigger and easier navigation while moving, (both take spoken commands I think if they can understand you). For older eyes and fingers when travelling phones just aren’t big enough yet to be easy to use on the go I don’t think. And how annoying is it when you get phone out in the dark but it keeps going off if you don’t touch screen because of power saving when not plugged in, a stand alone doesn’t do that :)

All these methods and devices are tools so use what works for you, no problem with mix and match
 
msb said:
We have a built in TomTom which works well, but our planned replacement van doesn’t so I’d assumed we would need a stand alone unit, but it seems I need to look at using a phone instead!
Click to expand...
With a smart phone or pad you get a choice of mapping software, most of it free. Many recent phones not only use GPS but can back up with GLONASS and data from phone masts. All you need is a phone mount so you can put the phone in a convenient position.
 
Not sure buying a standalone satnav saves money. You would have to use an enourmous amount of data to match the cost and as said some maps are downloadable at home. If you don’t have a suitable phone already there might be a case for this, it would be a matter of comparing the cost of a phone with that of a satnav. However you can’t keep in touch with MOTORHOMER.COM on a satnav.
 
Okta said:
Not sure buying a standalone satnav saves money. You would have to use an enourmous amount of data to match the cost and as said some maps are downloadable at home. If you don’t have a suitable phone already there might be a case for this, it would be a matter of comparing the cost of a phone with that of a satnav. However you can’t keep in touch with MOTORHOMER.COM on a satnav.
Click to expand...

You can get internet connection on some now there is a lot of cross over, I can get motorhomer from both my built in unit in the car and my Aguri in the van if I wanted to. You can buy a stand alone unit for less than £50 new but can pay over £300. That is still £900 cheaper than the latest iPhone so you have to compare like for like :)

I was asking the question on data, I suspect most won’t know the answer as they have a lot of data but Del ran out of his 1GB allowance a couple of months back and that was due to using his phone as a sat nav so it can be an issue for some.
 
Agree... Maps.me can be set for offline mapping. So is CoPilot. Both are faster at turning to show exactly where we are than our old Garmin. Maps.me is FREE!!!
 
msb said:
We have a built in TomTom which works well, but our planned replacement van doesn’t so I’d assumed we would need a stand alone unit, but it seems I need to look at using a phone instead!
Click to expand...

A lot of these apps are free to start with, most will work on more than one device, some if you want to be on android and apple require you to buy twice, and some (TomTom) require you to pay annually (beware of TomTom, it is nothing like the standalone) there are two leaders I think, CoPilot, which is more intuitive and just works, POIs are an issue so most will get maps.me for that, and Sygic, which I struggle with, but I'm told is as good as CP, but is also a pain supporting POIs, best thing to do is go look at some, come back and asks questions about them.

A further tip would be to insert the largest Micro SD card your phone will take and install it onto that rather than the phone itself, you can google what the max card size is for you device.

Also make sure your device is GPS enabled, not all are.
 
Google maps is a free app and you can now download maps, to save on your phone data.

You don’t need a top end £1,200 iPhone for navigation. My iPhone 6 works fine and can be bought new for £350. I am sure other makes work fine too but I have not tried them. The computing power of recent smart phones is immense and they can cope easily with navigation apps.
 
I have only recently started using Google maps, and it is very good, PITA to remember to re-upload maps every month, but it is free.

As for devices, my Samsung S2 and S5 run sat navs easily enough, and are fast, faster on the S5, I also have it on my iPad 4, and a couple of Samsung tab 4s 8 inch version, all work quite well, S5 is marginally faster, but only if you have them side by side.

I even have an old (90s) Garmin iQue 3600 which works quite well although the maps are out of date now.
 
I use a tablet as a SatNav due to the screen size, it also allows me to stream music via bluetooth over the media system. The tablet is connected via wifi to my phone.
My Iphone 7 is just not big enough screen when attached to the windscreen for me
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top