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Is tomtom really that much better than navigon??

B

brando06

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 5, 2007
202
0
so I have navigon and am thinking of getting tomtom since everyone is ranting and raving that it is better than navigon! If anyone could give direct comparisons or why they believe it is better please fill me in. Also could it just be people like to go with tomtom because of the name?? :)
 
brando06 said:
so I have navigon and am thinking of getting tomtom since everyone is ranting and raving that it is better than navigon! If anyone could give direct comparisons or why they believe it is better please fill me in. Also could it just be people like to go with tomtom because of the name?? :)
Click to expand...

It depends on what you like, the part I like is the trip can be looked at by instructions, and poi's are better.
 
P1. Navigon owns NAVTEQ.
P2. TomTom owns Tele Atlas.
P3. Tele Atlas is better then NAVTEQ.
C1. Therefore, TomTom is better.

TomTom have thier maps updated.
Navigon have their maps outdated of one year old.

But Navigon have a nice UI compared to TomTom.
 
I am very happy with my Navigon purchase. The price was right and it works great. I don't know why I keep seeing people stating that the Navigon maps are old. I live in a new development, and the maps show all the new streets.

I'm glad that Tom Tom is out as competition is good, and if Tom Tom has some features that Navigon doesn't, well that will put the pressure on Navigon to keep up, but at this point I can tell you that Navigon is not a second rate, or discount product. It's full featured and works well, not to mention a very nice user interface. Some times I wonder why some of the people here are buying every GPS app that comes out. They must have more discresionary income than me. :rolleyes:
 
I have both.

TomTom surprisingly wins hands down. I was in utter shock actually...

Everything about it is better.
 
The answer is it depends on what you want.

There is no one right answer. Evaluate the strengths/weaknesses of all then make a decision, but don't buy simply because someone on a bessage board told you 'it's better' or 'it wins.' You're plunking down close to $100 - make the right choice FOR YOU.
 
Pika said:
P1. Navigon owns NAVTEQ.
P2. TomTom owns Tele Atlas.
P3. Tele Atlas is better then NAVTEQ.
C1. Therefore, TomTom is better.

TomTom have thier maps updated.
Navigon have their maps outdated of one year old.

But Navigon have a nice UI compared to TomTom.
Click to expand...

What a load of bull*. This is such a simplistic and feeble attempt to voice an opinion re: two different applications that are quite wide ranging in features and price. Map coverage varies so widely around the world that if that were the single criterion to judge GPS devices, we would all be in big trouble!
 
I don't see the current feature set of TomTom enough to make me want to purchase it over Navigon. Watch the reviews, look at videos of it in use, judge for myself, yes.

Those who pay more for the TomTom app, especially those who purchase blindly without any research, IMHO, are obviously going to say it's better, 'just because they paid more', to justify the purchase to themselves.

My specific points of why I like Navigon..... Great pricing. No GPS signal issues (don't need an extra accessory). Navigon has never gotten a route wrong or sent me out of the way for any destination. POIs from Navigon are not a concern for me. The built in Maps app is perfect, and always up to date. And for everything else POI related, as the commercial says, "there's an app for that". The Navigon user interface is nicer to me (save for the darn white outline on the street names). They've announced on their website some more upgrades coming this year (no details as to what they will be, or what they will cost). But, if Navigon adds TTS to the app, even with an upgrade price, I still think it's going to be less $ than TomTom is currently (if you get in before the sale ends). I've also not found the maps in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississpi to be 'old'. Some places missing from a specific POI search, maybe. But, I add the POI as a contact from a Maps search, and poof, Navigon finds it.

Navigon just works like a horse, as advertised, looks good, without hype, and at a good price.
 
pooryou said:
Navigon is better. TomTom offers nothing but a higher price.
Click to expand...

Completely agree.

I own both, and I will be sticking with Navigon only for now to save some space on my 8 GB phone.

The RealityView Pro and Lane Assist functions of Navigon (as well as the nice $30 price differential) is absolutely enough to win me over.

If you do a Google search of TomTom and Navigon, there's a recent article somewhere (forgot by whom) with Navigon stating that text-to-speech is coming in their next update, and that they are definitely looking at eventually adding real-time traffic as well in the near future.

As it stands right now, Navigon has a much better feature set, price and, IMHO, I prefer the UI of Navigon's to TomTom's.

This bodes well for us consumers, as I fully expect them both to compete amongst each other until eventually, they are on par with each other in terms of price and performance. One thing I caution folks is not to take the 'TomTom' name too seriously when considering your purchase, as both Navigon and TomTom are well respected in the SATNAV industry, despite TomTom's edge in brand name popularity.

EDIT: currently, my biggest gripe with Navigon is its failure to list step-by-step route directions (a la Google Maps app). TomTom has this feature, and it's mind boggling why Navigon doesn't have it considering that they have far more sophisticated features implemented but left out such an integral aspect of a TBT app.

My biggest gripe with TomTom was, even in the middle of downtown San Francisco, the map would 'jump,' not accurately portraying where my current position was, as well as re-calculating the route unnecessarily. Extremely annoying, and I don't remember a single instance with which Navigon did that while I was driving. Also, there is an inherently noticeable lag with TomTom based on your relative position; Navigon actually maintains your current position fairly accurately, as I believe they may actually push your location slightly ahead of the map in accordance to your speed/heading, thus keeping your current position almost 100% accurate to where you actually are on the road....and, NO HIGHWAY VOICE PROMPTS! Navigon will say, "Keep to the left onto I-80 West" for instance, while TomTom just says, "Turn Left." Lame.

As an owner of both, in their current states, Navigon wins; TomTom came late to the party, relying primarily on their popularity to justify their price, instead of actually providing more feature sets than other satnav apps that are currently out. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt to greatly improve their app over time, but right now, it is extremely difficult for me to recommend TomTom over Navigon.
 
Funny

I saw a thread accusing Pika of being a tomtom hater. Today he makes a post supporting tomtom and now he get called out on that lol it's funny because this is a forum that's his opinion. all a forum really is mainly a series of opinions along with some knowledge & :D personal experiences thrown in.
 
jcde7ago said:
Also, there is an inherently noticeable lag with TomTom based on your relative position; Navigon actually maintains your current position fairly accurately, as I believe they may actually push your location slightly ahead of the map in accordance to your speed/heading, thus keeping your current position almost 100% accurate to where you actually are on the road....
Click to expand...

The lag is inherent to the iPhone GPS itself. I have the iGO app and it lags slightly behind your actual position, although not enough to make it unusable (but still annoying). It appears Navigon is the only software to actually compensate for this.
 
I have a physical Navigon GPS, and I couldn't be happier with the actual interface of the gps maps.
 
I would have to go with Navigon but in my opinion, I wish I would have not bought either one. I am leaning towards CoPilot.

I hate the way TomToms maps are displayed and that is why I never bought a stand alone GPS. I always owned Garmin because I liked Navteq maps better. TomTom isn't worth the $99. I'm probably going to remove it from my phone.
 
bbplayer5, jcde7ago, or someone else who has both...

If I sent you my address via PM, would you be willing to look it up on both Mobile Navigator and TomTom, and let me know what the results are?

I'm awfully curious. I live in a relatively new subdivision, and want to know if either/both can navigate me to my house. My stand-alone Garmin can not, but it's pretty old, and I haven't updated the maps.
 
converge said:
The lag is inherent to the iPhone GPS itself. I have the iGO app and it lags slightly behind your actual position, although not enough to make it unusable (but still annoying). It appears Navigon is the only software to actually compensate for this.
Click to expand...

I don't see G-Map lagging. It is always in sync with the turns coming up. I was really surprised at that.
 
I bought Navigon two days ago for a road trip I made today. I would have made the same decision based on the price even if Tom Tom had been out at the time I made the purchase.

I used Navigon for six hours today. I love the reality view and lane assist, it was very helpful when interstates merged and separated, easy to keep you on the right path.

My only wish is that Navigon would add the ability to review the step by step directions after entering a route. Its nice to be able to give it a quick review prior to leaving. Hopefully that will coming in an update.
 
I think the degree of difference between the two will vary from country to country as the Navteq map is better than Tele Atlas in some countries but worst in other countries.

I'm speaking from my experience in Australia only.

I first bought Sygic, and it is so good that I said in many forums I don't need TomTom anymore.

When Navigon was released, I looked at the reality view, the iPhone keyboard, the map zooming, and bought it right away, and declared that I'm dumping Sygic for Navigon. I was wrong. It Navigon turned out to be so bad that I had to return it. It has no speed limit for all the Sydney Metropolitan roads that I tested it on. No speed camera warning, No red light camera warning. No school zone warning. None of the intersection I travelled through had reality view. POI is very limited. GPS reception is weak compared to Sygic's. Terrible choice of text color and font size making the road names hard to read. You need to touch the top and bottom bar to rotate through the key navigation information, hence making using it more dangerous. Not able to simulate the entire trip.

I had since got a refund for Navigon, and have bought TomTom.
 
I have to say Navigon is better. Sure TomTom has a nice and classy UI which is easy to read and understand, multiple voices and lots of planning options, but Navigon has some very nice advanced features such as lane assist, smooth movement, etc.. Navigon just needs to make text clear. I did find an address which was only in TOMTOM and not in either Navigon or google maps, which suggests that TOMTOM has more updated maps and POIs. If TomTom could add the features of their high end models, I would say TOMTOM would be a killer app, but it has no special features at all. The 3D mode in navigon is so much nicer looking compared to TOMTOM, and how come TOMTOM doesn't show which lane you are in like Navigon. Overall, I think this is a bit of a dissapointment as I would have thought TOMTOM would have been amazing.
 
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