Search Car Reviews



See all makes



Best iPhone Sat-Nav Apps

Sat-nav apps tested

We round up great route-finders for the Apple iPhone

Best iPhone Sat-Nav Apps

Text: Jamie Fretwell Date: May 2011

Skobbler UK/Ireland Lite
Rating:★★★★★
Price: Free
Contact: www.skobbler.co.uk
The best iPhone app is the one which is easiest app to use, with simple mapping. The free-to-download Skobbler took the fight to the paid-for apps, and won. Its maps were accurate on our test route (although as they’re user generated, this may vary in rural locations), but you can easily report errors. There’s music control built into the app, and rerouting took only 15 seconds. 

CoPilot Live 8
Rating:★★★★
Price: £19.99 (UK)
Contact: www.alk.eu.com
If you don't mind paying for your software, CoPilot Live 8 is excellent. It's due a refresh, but our Issue 1,110 runner-up is still great, and also comes on Android, Nokia and Windows smartphones. You can buy extras like live traffic (£9.99) and text-to-speech (£2.99). Routing is good, and the maps clear, crisp and accurate. There are Facebook and weather functions, too. The best paid-for app.

Navigon Mobile Navigator
Rating:★★★
Price: £34.99 (UK)
Contact: www.navigon.com
Crammed with clever features, including the ability to use the Apple device’s camera to find POIs nearby. Navigon charges £14.99 annually for traffic data, which is a lot considering that the app itself costs £35, plus you need to pay an extra £1.19 to navigate to a particular postcode. CoPilot is cheaper and just as feature packed, so the accurate Navigon couldn’t take top honours here.

TomTom UK & Ireland
Rating:★★★
Price: £49.99
Contact: www.tomtom.com
Latest version of TomTom app is slick and instantly recognisable to users of the firm’s portable sat-navs. It has simple menus, and a clean, uncluttered display, plus there’s in-app music control. Traffic costs £3.49 for one month, or £22.99 for a year, and is as accurate as the mapping. Rerouting could be faster, but our main gripe is the price – Navigon and CoPilot provide the same features for less.


< Previous   Next >

6 Comments

CoPilot's fine if you can live with its random routing

I've tried all these apps extensively on iPhone 4 in UK, also CoPilot and TomTom in USA. I find that CoPilot often produces really strange routes, longer AND slower than other available routes.

On Monday this week, it took me through a tunnel which involved a .50 toll to get to Boston airport when a shorter, faster route without tolls was available. It did something equally silly for Falmouth MA to Provincetown MA.

In the UK, try asking for the quickest route from Newbury to Devizes using the default profile or your own (sensible) alternative). It will send you a very long way round via the A303. Then force it to use the A4/A361 and it will show that route as both shorter AND quicker than the A303. It's been like that through several versions now. CoPilot support blame the mapping, but Navigon uses the same maps and yet correctly picks the A4 as the best way. I could give you MANY similar examples.

CoPilot would be comfortably at the bottom of my list, despite there being much to like about it. Choose TomTom if you don't mind paying (it's quite often reduced by £10), otherwise Navigon or Skobbler.

By DaveH on 25 May, 2011, 4:12pm

Addendum

.50 above should read .50 (three dollars 50 cents)

By DaveH on 25 May, 2011, 4:13pm

Interesting

The web page removed the dollar symbol and 3 that I typed (twice)!

By DaveH on 25 May, 2011, 4:14pm

CoPilot v Tom Tom Traffic

I have CoPilot 7 and the traffic is not the same as Tom Tom. The CoPilot traffic is just TMC that you get in your car. You get notified even if the incident is on the other carriageway. You can’t re-route unless you can pay attention to the details of the incident which isn’t easy or safe when driving. Unlike Tom Tom it doesn’t tell you how long the delay is likely to be. Again without that information how can you make the call to re-route? It does have an RV setting which is very useful when I’m towing. I'm not sure if the traffic has improved on v8.

By wsmurray on 26 May, 2011, 11:56am

PC Pro disagrees

PC Pro has a review of sat nav apps in the current issue. Of those available for iPhone, TomTom was rated top, followed by Navigon and finally Skobbler with just 2 stars out of 6.

By DaveH on 27 May, 2011, 12:14am

You forgot one

I have been using Navfree and it's one of the best apps available!

By gaztcli on 4 July, 2011, 2:28pm

You need to register to post comments. Existing members can log in below to comment, otherwise click here to join.



Sponsored Results

- Advertisement -

More Sat-nav apps tested