sat nav vs. smartphone

cjmc11

Hey all
Going to be renting a car for a couple of weeks while in France, wondering is it better to buy a sat nav or use the one on my phone.
The one on my phone is very good but will it use up a lot of data while its on?

Fr Tod Umptious

There are apps that you can download that have the map data stored on the phone or its SD card, so you would not incur data charges.

Don't know the names but I'm sure someone does.

theteal

I used navmii app when in the South of Spain and Ronda mountains . Worked a treat.

edeldonlon

Here is an app you can download and use without data

Have used it in France and it was great

cjmc11

Thanks for the replies, I've a Lumia phone with here drive installed, so if I set it offline it shouldn't use any data, right?

spuddy01

I have used Sygic in the past you can download maps and it uses GPS so no data charges.

munchkin_utd

cjmc11 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I've a Lumia phone with here drive installed, so if I set it offline it shouldn't use any data, right?

yep. That should work.

Just dont forget to get some class of a bracket for the phone to attach to the air vent or windscreen.

Dedicated sat navs are better for proper long distance driving with better re-routing and more info on facilites on route (eg toilets, which is a useful bit of info if driving for a dozen hours straight with kids or a pregnant wife) but if you are just pottering about a small-ish area then you wouldnt notice that drawback.

maximum12

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Dedicated sat navs are better for proper long distance driving with better re-routing and more info on facilites on route

I used to think that and paid for a Tomtom subscription but now I think Google maps is better. The search is brilliant on google maps, as you'd expect from a company built on search and information seems to be more up to date.


@OP Google maps now allows you to download map areas to your phone to avoid data charges. The downloaded areas remain on your device for 30 days.

Very important to have a cigarette lighter adapter for your smartphone as navigation is heavy on phone battery.

munchkin_utd

maximum12 wrote: »

I used to think that and paid for a Tomtom subscription but now I think Google maps is better. The search is brilliant on google maps, as you'd expect from a company built on search and information seems to be more up to date.

<snip>

google maps does not have splitscreen with useful info on the side, nor can you put in intermediate destinations easily, nor can you run it without data, nor does it show a full set of journey information (speed, speed limits etc). I could go on.

Yea, its great for spins about town and I use it rather than the sat nav for that.
BUT, for actual proper continental road trips of 100s of km on the motorway at a time, the failings of google maps (even with my wifes unlimted europewide data pack) are a pain.

its also a bitch that your phone is then THE satnav, so should you (or the co-pilot doing it for you) have to text or ring someone on the way its a bit of a pain.

cjmc11

Well there will be quite a bit of driving involved, Paris to Bordeaux to Lille and will hopefully be seeing a good bit of the countryside as opposed to just motorways. I've only used the Here Drive on the phone in Ireland in around cities and it was excellent, dunno will it be good enough for that amount of driving though?

fletch

munchkin_utd wrote: »

google maps ..., nor can you run it without data,

You can download offline maps while on a wifi connection and they recently added the ability to search within the offline map, while offline

ger664

Goolge maps download is massive in comparison with here plus here gives the option on speed limits as well

cjmc11

ger664 wrote: »

Goolge maps download is massive in comparison with here plus here gives the option on speed limits as well

Eh, so which one are you saying is better?

ger664

cjmc11 wrote: »

Eh, so which one are you saying is better?

Here would be better for driving

CarFan100

maximum12 wrote: »

I used to think that and paid for a Tomtom subscription but now I think Google maps is better. The search is brilliant on google maps, as you'd expect from a company built on search and information seems to be more up to date.


@OP Google maps now allows you to download map areas to your phone to avoid data charges. The downloaded areas remain on your device for 30 days.

Very important to have a cigarette lighter adapter for your smartphone as navigation is heavy on phone battery.

Can you download the same area again for another 30 days, or how does it work after the initial 30days

mav79

cjmc11 wrote: »

Well there will be quite a bit of driving involved, Paris to Bordeaux to Lille and will hopefully be seeing a good bit of the countryside as opposed to just motorways. I've only used the Here Drive on the phone in Ireland in around cities and it was excellent, dunno will it be good enough for that amount of driving though?

I've used Nokia Drive on a Lumia around France for the last four or five summers and found it excellent. Just make sure you download all maps of France before you head off.

munchkin_utd

fletch wrote: »

You can download offline maps while on a wifi connection and they recently added the ability to search within the offline map, while offline

I saw that and did it for a city but never did it for a country just under ten times the size of Ireland.

The speed limit feature on "Here" maps is very useful in cities where limits can go up and down fairly erraticly, or say on urban dualcarraigeways where similarily the limit can yo-yo up and down and its hard to keep a track of whilst also trying to navigate to your destination.

munchkin_utd

fletch wrote: »

You can download offline maps while on a wifi connection and they recently added the ability to search within the offline map, while offline

From google maps help:
"The biggest size for an offline area is 120,000 square kilometers. If you try to save a bigger area, you'll be asked to zoom in to a smaller area."
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?hl=en
So thats larger than Ireland, but from experience I was prevented from saving an area barely bigger than the size of a small city (similar to Belfast) so I'd severly question that 120000 sq km figure.

so assuming the 120000 figure is correct, for France which is 643,801 sq km (nearly 10 times that of Ireland) you'd need to do 5 separate downloads. Whether you can navigate from one area to another is a good question too. I amnt going to even attempt doing that, but that would require them to somehow link or join the 5 datasets which knowing Google they would not bother to do seeing as they always go for the easy (simplified and robust) option.

anyhow, "here" maps does work even when you download a series of adjacent regions / countries.

Mantis Toboggan

Google maps is a much better app but when in a different country I'd go with here maps, it's better for offline use.

Dedicated sat navs are a thing of the past, overpriced, not constantly updated.

Antar Bolaeisk

cjmc11 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I've a Lumia phone with here drive installed, so if I set it offline it shouldn't use any data, right?

Yep, just go in to the offline maps in the settings and download whatever maps you want. It's all free of charge and the maps are completely offline. They work perfectly.