Sat-nav Supertest

It’s received wisdom these days that the standalone sat-nav is dead. With smartphone navigation now free across all Android phones and costing a few pounds on the iPhone, it’s hard not to get swept up in the hype about phones rendering sat-navs obsolete.

We’re not convinced, though, which is why we’ve set up this supertest. We’ve gathered eight standalone sat-navs and pitched them against eight smartphone apps to find out which works best, and we’ve left no stone unturned. From the most expensive connected TomToms to free options for Android and the iPhone, we’ve subjected each one to the same rigorous tests and chosen our favourites across a range of platforms.

Buying a sat-nav is no longer the simple task it once was, so read on and let us ease the job of choosing one.

Choosing a sat-nav is a complex task. As well as a wide range of standalone devices, there’s a whole rash of apps on a variety of platforms. You now have live, internet-based services and traffic to consider as well.

All sat-navs, however cheap or lacking in features, will eventually get you to your destination. There are huge differences in how efficiently they carry out that task, however, and in the costs involved in updating maps and subscribing to the services they provide.

The cost of a sat-nav isn’t only about the initial purchase: the price of updating the maps varies wildly. Most smartphone apps offer free lifetime updates, whereas with standalones you’re charged a fee. Garmin offers lifetime European map updates for £75; TomTom charges £20 per year; and Navigon charges £80 for two years of European updates unless you subscribe in the first 30 days, in which case you get 80% off.

It’s a similar story with traffic and live services. Some standalones include GPRS data connectivity, so they can use Google search, download traffic data, and look up other information such as airport arrivals and departures. This service is usually free for a certain period, after which you have to pay.

For smartphone apps, some live services are free, as you’re not paying for a separate data connection. Anything you do have to pay for is usually mentioned upfront.

You’d think route calculation would be standard, but this isn’t the case. Most sat-navs operate in a similar way, working out routes according to a given profile: the fastest, most ecologically efficient and shortest routes are usually among your options (we tested using the “fast” option). The optimal route is usually calculated using estimated speeds on different types of roads.

However, not all give the same weighting to the different road types, so different sat-navs deliver different route choices. The TomToms and Mios apply real-world historic road-speed data to improve decisions. The Navigons offer the user three different route choices so you can weed out any obviously bad ones at source. CoPilot 8, meanwhile, lets you tweak the weightings yourself.

Our performance ratings on each review take this into account, along with the quality and timing of voice instructions, the clarity of maps, and efficacy of traffic services to give you an overall appraisal of how well each sat-nav does its job.

We used each sat-nav for as much real-world driving as time allowed. We also carried out a number of set tests to see how they compared, and factored this into the Performance score.

The first test involved plotting two routes and judging the choices each satnav made. One route was from South Woodford in north-east London to Liverpool. We were looking here for a couple of key things: for the route to avoid the horrendous roadworks on the North Circular near Arnos Grove, and to be offered the choice of the M6 Toll road over the M6 through Birmingham, the latter of which is normally more congested. On our other route, from South Woodford to Wimbledon Park in south-west London, we were looking to be routed via the Limehouse Link tunnel.

The second test – our road test – involved driving four short segments between pre-selected locations in a suburb of north-east London, taking in motorways, A-roads, residential streets and country roads. We use this test to judge the quality of the routes once again, but also to evaluate each satnav’s traffic system, mapping, safety camera data, and the quality and timing of audio instructions.

The Overall score is an average of the Performance, Features & Design and Value for Money scores. 

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