Navigon 2.0 vs Tomtom vs Motion X - 2012 edition

[qwimjim]

hey everyone, i need a little help with my decision here, i've read lots of old threads but many are old and talking about old versions of the apps which have both been improved since then. i have a couple of questions

1. after the motion x 30 day trial is up, does it still provide text based turn by turn navigation for free, or is all guidance (text and voice) disabled until you pay?

motion x requires a data connection and doesn't preload maps on the phone, tomtom and navigon don't require data (unless for live traffic) and store all the maps on your phone. correct?

2. do navigon and tomtom have all of the following features?

- allow music to be played in the background and have ipod shortcut controls
- speaks street names
- shows street names on the map
- visual lane guidance
- in 2d map mode can easily scroll ahead on map and then hit compass button to return to current position

and finally does navigon or tomtom have features that the other doesn't? ie i know navigon has the option to only store state by state maps on your phone to save room.

thanks!

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm a navigon man hated tomtom when it was first out and still do.

Navigon does what your asking on all counts plus if you pay for the traffic updates it's not time limited. Well at least not on the u.k version.

 

[Outrigger]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm a navigon man hated tomtom when it was first out and still do.

Navigon does what your asking on all counts plus if you pay for the traffic updates it's not time limited. Well at least not on the u.k version.

I have both Navigon and TomTom. They pretty much are the same feature wise. it really comes down to personal preference with regards to the UI. They both will do what the OP wants. I personally prefer the UI of TomTom after having tried both. One thing I like about Navigon that TT lacks is scrolling within 3D mode without having to go to a separate view like on TT.

 

[takeshi74]

2. do navigon and tomtom have all of the following features?

- allow music to be played in the background and have ipod shortcut controls

No need to. Multitasking handles this.

I have both Navigon and TomTom. They pretty much are the same feature wise. it really comes down to personal preference with regards to the UI.

^ This. Read the prior threads. There are current threads. You can sort by last posting date in advanced search.

 

[Tinmania]

For always available onboard maps I would vote for Navigon. It lets you pick out only the maps you want to download without taking up gigabytes of storage for the whole enchilada. I live in NW Arizona and only keep AZ, CA, and NV loaded most of the time. If I am going on a trip I download the maps before I leave. But you can download maps anytime right within Navigon itself.

I like the speed limits in Navigon and the ability to get warnings. This is useful when the limit has changed and you didn't notice it (e.g., speed trap town).

I absolutely hate the basic input method that Navigon (and others) use when address is not in contacts: it's straight out of a dedicated GPS. Must go to state, then city, then street, then street number.

Another thing I dislike about Navigon is that when running in the background it sometimes just stops--gets pushed out of memory. I have missed a few turns because of this and now deliberately open the app just to be sure it stays running (you can see when it is not running because the location services indicator goes away).

MotionX is nice but generally needs an internet connection. For CDMA iPhones that can't do simultaneous voice and Internet keep that in my mind. A friend with a Sprint iPhone has to be careful about staying off the phone while using a nav app like MotionX. You can pre download a route with MotionX but it's not as clear as being able to download complete states like Navigon. (I never am certain the route is actually downloaded with MotionX).

Oh and if you let voice expire in MotionX you still get text directions. As I primarily just "listen" to nav apps I don't think MotionX is very useful without voice guidance.

The app that I have been using lately though is MapQuest 4 Mobile. It is free--including voice guidance--and seems to work very well in my latest testing. It doesn't seem to allow downloading of maps or routes but it seemed to continue when I lost all cellular signal on a long drive last weekend. It's definitely worth checking out.

I really like how MapQuest never forgets to wake up for a turn. I had 160 miles last weekend between turns, on Interstate 40 between AZ and CA. For sure Navigon would have long stopped running. But when I got into Barstow for my exit Mapquest woke right up and started prompting. This was after losing all Internet, and even cell signal completely, a few times along the way. Not sure how MotionX would fare but probably good too.




Michael

 

[qwimjim]

For always available onboard maps I would vote for Navigon. It lets you pick out only the maps you want to download without taking up gigabytes of storage for the whole enchilada. I live in NW Arizona and only keep AZ, CA, and NV loaded most of the time. If I am going on a trip I download the maps before I leave. But you can download maps anytime right within Navigon itself.

I like the speed limits in Navigon and the ability to get warnings. This is useful when the limit has changed and you didn't notice it (e.g., speed trap town).

I absolutely hate the basic input method that Navigon (and others) use when address is not in contacts: it's straight out of a dedicated GPS. Must go to state, then city, then street, then street number.

Another thing I dislike about Navigon is that when running in the background it sometimes just stops--gets pushed out of memory. I have missed a few turns because of this and now deliberately open the app just to be sure it stays running (you can see when it is not running because the location services indicator goes away).

MotionX is nice but generally needs an internet connection. For CDMA iPhones that can't do simultaneous voice and Internet keep that in my mind. A friend with a Sprint iPhone has to be careful about staying off the phone while using a nav app like MotionX. You can pre download a route with MotionX but it's not as clear as being able to download complete states like Navigon. (I never am certain the route is actually downloaded with MotionX).

Oh and if you let voice expire in MotionX you still get text directions. As I primarily just "listen" to nav apps I don't think MotionX is very useful without voice guidance.

The app that I have been using lately though is MapQuest 4 Mobile. It is free--including voice guidance--and seems to work very well in my latest testing. It doesn't seem to allow downloading of maps or routes but it seemed to continue when I lost all cellular signal on a long drive last weekend. It's definitely worth checking out.

I really like how MapQuest never forgets to wake up for a turn. I had 160 miles last weekend between turns, on Interstate 40 between AZ and CA. For sure Navigon would have long stopped running. But when I got into Barstow for my exit Mapquest woke right up and started prompting. This was after losing all Internet, and even cell signal completely, a few times along the way. Not sure how MotionX would fare but probably good too.




Michael

oh wow, i didn't realize address input was so antiquated. is tomtom the same as navigon, ie state first, then city, then street, etc..? also the app not waking up is a problem.. i'm all for saving space on my phone but that seems like a big trade off assuming it isn't an issue on the tomtom app.

i tried mapquest, i'm in canada, it doesn't work well up here. the reason i'm looking at getting tomtom or navigon is because we travel to ny/vt a lot and something like motion x won't work in the states for us because we can't data roam.

for those of you with tomtom or navigon, can you tough and drag the map around while in navigation mode? on my tomtom standalone device i can't, if i touch the map it opens the menu.. drives me crazy when sometimes i would just like to look ahead a little, at least in 2D mode.

 

[qwimjim]

i contacted motion x, they said after the 30 day trial you lose automated turn by turn navigation altogether, it reverts to the manual navigation like the maps app. you have to press the forward button for the next step, etc..

that said i tried motion x and it's got a pretty cheesy and cluttered interface. i also downloaded waze and it's quite nice, and 100% free. frankly every single person that uses maps on their iphone should have waze, it's a no brainer if you don't need offline maps or features like traffic that the $40 apps like tomtom and navigon offer.

 

[FirePak]

I like Navigon but Telenav's GPS is pretty good also. I don't mind paying 10$ a year for voice guidance.