Installed Navigon...First Impressions...

[ewingr]

There are features I like about this, and in my basic test tonight, I have not been able to test some of the 'fancy' features it has. Here are some initial thoughts:

The Good

• Much more pleasant voice
• I loved the fact that it put up a speed limit sign in upper right, showing the speed limit of the street I am on. Updated immediately when SL changed
• As others have said, it seems to definitely handle the funky Captivate GPS better
• Seemed to get directions faster, and update faster when not following directions, than Google Nav
• It does have a Google Search for POIs, although I found it did not bring up a complete list. For example I searched for Walmart. There are 2 in my town, and it brought up only the one closest to me, which is a much smaller one than the other

The Ugly

• It did not consistently say street names. In fact most of the time it didn't
• If you moved to another app, or if my music player came in front, the NAV stopped working. When I switched back to it, it had to re-load or something (had a wait type message) and then had to reroute
• When playing through my Motorola 505 through to radio, the voice played on both the phone and BT, and this phone (maybe all Android phones, I don't know) has a delay at the bluetooth (often do not hear the first 1 to 3 words), so it sounded like an echo
• The map had almost none of the streets named as you drove. It just listed the next turn street listed. It didn't even indicate what street you are driving on.

My comparison software would be Google Nav, of course, and also TomTom on Winmo, which I used over the past 3 years. There are features in Navigon that are not in either of those, but for the basics, it doesn't, IMO, come close to Google, nor my OLD TomTom.

My need for this would really be only to have a backup solution should I go somewhere that I cannot receive data for Google. I am undecided whether to keep it or return and hope TomTom is better, whenever it comes out.

I must admit though, one thing that this product, I belive like others, may not put me on wrong streets like happens with the Google Nav. But then, I haven't tested it that much yet.

Very short time with it, and overall review may be biased away from it, but this is first impressions.

 

[mnemonicj]

Thanks for this. I am still considering getting this or just spending the money on a good portable NAV. I like having the maps stored locally, since no matter who your provider is there are a lot of gaps. Also, one of the things I don't like about Google Maps Navigation is that since it is not made strictly for driving and GPS isn't perfect, it puts you in places besides roads and has you jumping around in places that would be physically impossible for you to move that fast. I think that portable NAVs are programmed to be good at understanding what is physically possible and use the accelerometer to gauge where you are and what you are doing. If Google Maps uses the accelerometer, it does a horrible job.

 

[fattire]

The #1 reason I use Navigon is it handles the funky Captivate GPS very well.



It does have a number of drawbacks that I hope will be addressed in future releases.

Namely:
1. As you said POI searching could be better
2. Audio is over phone speakers even if I plug in the line out jack
3. Crashing under certain avoidable conditions such as switching apps.
4. (Will never be addressed) Doesn't integrate as well with Google maps, android as a whole, etc.

#1 reason I don't use Google Navigator anymore: If the GPS unlocks then it really messes with turn by turn navigation.

 

[ewingr]

I'm hearing ya, flattire, uh, I mean fattire. (Sorry, I couldn't resist. I doubt that was very original)

 

[timlitw]

Much more pleasant voice
really? it was really bad scratchy voice on my 'droid 1


It did not consistently say street names. In fact most of the time it didn't

it may be a map issue - because it says all of the street I've drive on so far - even way out in the country

When playing through my Motorola 505 through to radio, the voice played on both the phone and BT, and this phone (maybe all Android phones, I don't know) has a delay at the bluetooth (often do not hear the first 1 to 3 words), so it sounded like an echo



on my 'droid 1 the voice didn't go over the BT at all

The map had almost none of the streets named as you drove. It just listed the next turn street listed. It didn't even indicate what street you are driving on.
touch the next turn street name on the display and it should switch to the street you are driving on.