Been given a budget of £200 for a satnav of my choice for my bday

problem is i know little to sod all about them hahaha.

So, which are good whoich are bad, which are worth having etc?

Currently looking at the tomtom go live 825 as possibly the prefered one, anyone got one? any recomendations?

 

The one on your smartphone not good enough?

If you haven't got a smartphone, spend £200 on that

 

Tomtom everytime

 

Smartphone + Co-Pilot Live + Brodit Mount

 

dont want the signal hassel

 

I agree it would be a better use of £200

I cannot see the point of spending a fortune on a sat-nav these days when you can get them new for under £100 (inc Tomtom), it's all very well getting an all singing all dancing one but it's a complete waste if you don't actually make use of the extra features daily. One of the most recent bells-and-whistles is voice recognition of destination so you can tell it where to go, it sounds great as a concept, but in practice it struggles - go demo the extra features at somewhere like John Lewis.

 

Google maps :thumb; save your self some money, or you can download the TomTom software for a smartphone for 49.99 iirc so still save you £150

But if you are after a satnav and a phone won't do then TomTom everyday of the week for me used many different ones over the years being in friends cars and stuff and none of them tbh was as good as the TomTom IMO

 

What signal hassle? An app with 'offline maps' means it only relies on the phone's GPS. Something like NAV-FREE, Co-pilot and even the Tomtom app are good examples.

If your only experience of smart phone sat-nav is Google maps, then that relies on 3G for mapping, so try NAV-FREE

 

Agreed of the stand-alone machines I'd go for a Tomtom over it's competitors.

 

o also i have a windows phone so no nav free that i can find on it

 

Oh bum, out of interest, win phone 7, or 8?

see my post re: john lewis

 

Win7, i do like the operating system, market place is still abit limited though (same as early android days)

cheers, shall prob go to halfords for it and have a play there, they are cheaper than JL cos of offers they have on and already called customer services at JL and they wont match package offers.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_165685

thinking the bottom one with case and usb connector thing

 

Fair enough, but it doesn't stop you getting a demo at JL, just thinking that there may be less ambient noise there and the staff will take their time. Anyway of all the bells and whistles including voice control you should think about whether any of them are going to be truly useful, over a base model, the only things that will really truly give you a better experience for your money. The 5" screen you won't get on the base model, nor the hands free calling link to a bluetooth phone, but then may be you have an adequate hands-free setup already....

 

Basic model Tomtom £93 and haven't shopped around
TomTom XL Western Europe EU22 Classic Sat Nav Most recent map of West and Middle Europe


-------------

TomTom Via 130 4.3" Sat Nav £124
TomTom Via 130 4.3" Sat Nav with Full Europe Maps FREE Lifetime Maps Promotion


NEW TomTom Speak & Go allows you to control your device with just the sound of your voice.
Make calls on the go with Hands-free calling
Never miss your turning with Advanced Lane Guidance.
Plan your entire day and call friends and family without taking your hands off the wheel.

 

portable sat nav...............so 1990's

 

Back when after market plumbed in ones were selling well and these just entered the market, an installer at my preferred car audio shop used to call them "lick and stick" sat-navs in a disparaging tone.

 

Might be worth a looksie:
GPS Voice Navigation gets updated, adds offline maps and more


http://www.wpcentral.com/gps-voice-n...-maps-and-more


Looks to be available to you, £5.49 though.



http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/se...n&wpv=7.10.0.0

 

tbh its a present being bought for me so a bit rude to say, give me cash instead lol

 

I just don't like to see money wasted on stuff not ever being used to its full potential. You could have them spend the remainder on something useful, accessories perhaps, extra mounts TMC aerial, other maps.

The one at £124 comes with lifetime map updates, seems a good deal for a fairly nifty one.

 

You'll even have change to spare

 

I stopped using a dedicated satnav years ago and just use my phone, it always knows where you are and all you need to do is enter an end location.