Thread: Mobile phones with gps

Evening all, my mobile is due an upgrade and i have been thinking of getting one with some sort of sat nav built in.

Question is are they any good? would it ever be as good as my nuvi?

The phones i have been looking at are the nokia 5800 (never had a nokia before) samsumg s5600 or an lg gt505.

Any advice appreciated

Dave

Although having GPS on a phone is useful, I wouldn't use it as my primary source of navigation. Small screen and a battery that isn't really designed for long periods of high drain apps

better off having a purpose built nav device IMO, and having GPS on the phone as a backup. I have the new N97 - cant fault it

I use Navigon on the iPhone, I've only used it about once or twice but it gets the job done.

The only problem I have with it, is that you can't type in the exact post code, but as long as you know the street name and house number then your fine.

I've had a few phones with GPS and found them all to be pretty useless compared to a proper satnav.
Found it took a lifetime to log on to satelites, recalculation when going off route took ages, and gps signal kept dropping. Was the same on all blackberrys and nokias I had.

Also, depending on which satnav application you use on the phone, a lot don't actually have the maps stored on the phone's memory, so your phone has to download maps when it requires them i.e. every minute or so when on a journey.
So unless you have some sort of mobile internet allowance on your tariff you will find your phone bills increasing as you'll be paying for extra data transfer.

If you are going to be an infrequent user of satnav then I guess a mobile solution would be tolerable, but anything more than that I would only use a proper satnav.

Bit like using a mobile as a camera. Yeah there might be execptions where it's as good as a proper camera, but generally speaking it's not going to the job "properly" or beat the machine that is made specifically for the purpose.

Apparently the N97 is supposed to be really good for this, might be worth looking into this.

It's all down to aerial size and receiver power. A dedicated Sat Nav (not to be confused with GPS which is just for position and not navigation) uses a bigger aerial and can send more power to the receiver as it has more power supplied to it.

I have a C905 and the GPS is fairly accurate outside and the sat nav function CAN be up to about 500m out. The refresh rate is slow too. I would assume bigger phones like the iPhone and N models are a lot better but they will never be as good as a modern Sat Nav. Plus you'd really need to have them plugged in all the time.

Sat Navs are mega cheap nowadays and come with all manner of other functions your phone may not do.

My n97 has a great sat nav on it. The maps are pre loaded so you can use it off line etc.

Great phone, 32 gig hard drive, good camera etc.

Worth a look.......internets good too...posting from it now!

ive got nokia E 71 id always use the tom tom to my phone. Not a bad phone but battery lasts about 3 days very max.

I have a N95 8GB and use tomtom on it also. I also have a dedicated tomtom (which is better) however its very handy to always have sat nav capabilities on you wherever you go.

Thanks for the replies guys, i wanted the N97 but for whatever unknown reason orange arent doing it! In the end i opted for the nokia 5800 which comes with nokia maps pre loaded. Should be here on tuesday so i'll have to see how i get on with it.

Originally Posted by wibble111

Thanks for the replies guys, i wanted the N97 but for whatever unknown reason orange arent doing it! In the end i opted for the nokia 5800 which comes with nokia maps pre loaded. Should be here on tuesday so i'll have to see how i get on with it.

Good phone mate, my other half has one. Not as 'fussy' as the N97 (less stuff on it, but still got everything you'll ever need) and the speakers on it are great.

Nice big screen etc, really nice.

T

you can download tomtom for the iphone now for 59.99, much cheaper than a sat nav and much more useful too.
I wouldn't say battery life is a worry as most cars have a cigarette lighter to power any unit, and you can buy USB batteries for when you're out of the car.
I use my iphone to plot my track when out mountain biking, I sling it in my hydropak and set off, when I get back my exact route is plotted out!

What sat nav does that!

Also if you use a phone, you dont leave it in the car for some scrote to nick.

Check this out.... http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=244427
its a test trail I did, when I take pictures the iPhone geotags them and they drop into the exact position I took them..

What software do you use to log the data, and the geotagging?

Cheers,

trails, check the appstore, its £2.39.
or
http://trails.lamouroux.de/

The pictures are automatically geotagged by the phone, everytime if location services are on.

Originally Posted by A4Quattro

Check this out.... http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=244427
its a test trail I did, when I take pictures the iPhone geotags them and they drop into the exact position I took them..

Wow! Thats awesome

TomTom have released an app for the Iphone, so this is true turn by turn navigation. Not sure if the other phones are also turn by turn, but this app looks as close to true navigation as you will get in a phone.

samsung tocco ultra gps/satnav is awkward to use ok once set but my tom tom or gf's nuvi200 is far better