NAVIGON - Review

NAVIGON hit the Windows Phone Marketplace a few days ago with mixed reactions. Some felt the navigational app was a really nice improver to the Market while others were hesitant on the toll. Some felt that having an option to download specific maps might help take the bite out of the hefty price tag.

Speaking of which, allow me break the news to you correct out of the gate in case you've missed it. The $29.99 price tag for the U.S. version of NAVIGON is an introductory toll. After Nov 15, 2022 the price jumps upward to $49.99. European introductory pricing is set at 59.49 Euros until November 15th and then the cost jumps to 84.99 Euros.

With the price being amongst the highest for a Windows Telephone app, it's natural to ask "Is information technology worth it?". Especially when lower priced alternatives are out at that place that can navigate you around town pretty darn well in their own right.

Over the by few days, we took NAVIGON out for a test bulldoze and ease on past the break to meet how things measured up. See if that $29.99 (soon to exist $49.99) is a deal or a steal.

Layout

NAVIGON is laid out nicely with one page of options to set your destination, a scattering of tiles to find Points of Interest and More than Page.

The Destination Folio has options to search for travel destinations past address, from your My Destinations page (contempo points and favorites), by GPS coordinates, from your People Hub (contacts), and a Take Me Dwelling choice that routes you to any address you save as dwelling.

I nice feature on entering the destination address is that the entry is broken downwards in sections. You lot first choose the State, and then the Metropolis, so the Street, and so the number or intersection. I like this ameliorate than one long entry because it seems easier to navigate around plus you have predictive text to aid yous along as well. The just thing missing is voice entry (hint, hint).

The Points of Interest tiles offers y'all eight ways to search for a POI. You can search by what's nearby, what'south in your urban center, what's available Statewide, search by Google, and then by iii types of points of interest (gas station, parking, and eatery). These 3 tiles are customizable (more on this in a second). You also have a neat picayune feature called the Reality Scanner.

The Reality Scanner uses your Windows Phone camera and GPS coordinates to give you lot a existent world view of  your environment and provide an instant identification of what points of interest are in your immediate area.  Difficult to comment on this characteristic because I could never get information technology to work.  I kept getting "No POI's in the surface area".  Which leads me to one missing feature, a Assistance Department.

Your More Page offers you lot options to view the map, get your GPS information and view the Points of Interest settings. The POI settings allows y'all to customize the 3 POI Search tiles.

From the "iii-dot" menu on the primary pages you tin can find data about NAVIGON (merely no assistance section) and a DirectHelp feature.  DirectHelp pulls up gas, police enforcement, hospital and chemist's services in your firsthand expanse.  Tap on the type of service you need and a list of what'due south available is pulled up for mapping as well as contact numbers.  DirectHelp likewise provides your electric current GPS Coordinates equally reference.

Too down below you will find buttons to access settings, your route contour, and traffic information. You'll have other buttons appear here and there throughout NAVIGON but these three are the more consistently present control.

Settings

Settings encompass a wide range of topics that are spread out on a multi-page hub. You have,

Full general options: These cover language, voice styles, distant units, etc..

Navigation options:  These deal with how the map is displayed and speed limit settings.

Red Calorie-free Camera Warnings or Safety Camera: More and more than municipalities are installing Ruby Light Cameras. These are the cameras that are triggered when someone runs a red light. Such a Polaroid moment results in a costly traffic citation being issued. The Cherry Calorie-free Camera Alert, when turned on, volition warning yous (the lovely female voice says "circumspection") of known intersections that accept such cameras.

Traffic Options: Basically two options on how you want traffic data used and how you want traffic events appear based on travel time loss.

Optimize Traffic Option: NAVIGON uses Floating Car Data to aid determine traffic flows. Basically, when turned on, your Windows Phone sends anonymous information to the NAVIGON servers well-nigh your travels. The computers then disect this information to decide areas of congestion, smoothen travels, and other information that can be used to create culling routes.

Your Route Profile button takes you lot to another group of settings used to make up one's mind your route calculations. These settings include how you are traveling (auto, truck, foot, etc.), what type of route y'all prefer (fastest, shortest, scenic, etc.), and avoidance settings for highways, cost roads, and ferries.

The Traffic Information button will pull up whatsoever traffic menstruation issues (congestion, construction, accidents) that are in your expanse. The information besides includes events that are well out of your area that will be used to calculate long distance routes.

The Map

I was a piffling underwhelmed with the map view for NAVIGON. Yous have the option to view things 3D or 2D just the colors are a niggling on the drab side. Information technology may be a case that I've grown accustom to the brighter BING maps that NAVIGON looks a little on the gloomy side. The map is touch navigable and points of interest icon are scattered about, bringing a little colour to things.

In that location isn't a satellite view but the map does support mural viewing both in the navigation and open map view.

From the map view, you volition come across a compass arrow in the lower left mitt corner, push button controls to access settings and your route profile. The "three-dot" menu pulls up options to view your GPS information and access the Reality Scanner.

Upwards height you'll run into your speed and direction of travel displayed and below you will meet the name of the route you're on displayed.  When you lot choose your destination, NAVIGON volition generate three possible routes.  A map will be displayed with 3 options below it.  The first is the route NAVIGON recommends and the others are alternates.  In one case you tap on one of the three boxes, your route is generated and displayed.

Once y'all set your route, up top will show your speed, distance to your destination, and estimated time of arrival.

A box will appear in the lower left to indicate the distance to your next turn and a button control for book will exist added to the push control bar. Your three-dot bill of fare will give yous options to view the GPS info, Points of Interest on the route, a block display (not sure what this does) and skip adjacent destination for multiple destination routes.

At that place is no "end route" command with NAVIGON.  Simply striking the dorsum button to render to the Primary Pages and the routing is cancelled.

Live Tile Back up

I really dainty feature with NAVIGON is the ability to pin Live Tile shortcuts for your destinations on your Starting time Screen. When you find a POI that interests you, the screen will display the accost data that includes a phone number and website (when available) plus a thumbnail map of the location.

On this screen you will accept four button controls. 1 to cancel the option, 1 to save it as a favorite, 1 to access your Route Profile, and i to initiate navigation. From the "iii-dot" menu you will discover options to save and pivot the POI to your Start Screen and send the destination via text or email.

When you pin the POI to your Outset Screen, you get a Live Tile that displays a customized proper noun of the destination on one side and a thumbnail map on the other. In tapping the Live Tile, you are sent directly to the POI Screen.

NAVIGON on the open road

One of the cardinal features of NAVIGON is that all your maps are downloaded to your Windows Phones. Fifty-fifty those maps y'all'll never, always use.

This eliminates the need for a data connection to load maps or create routes. In theory this is a tremendous advantage over other navigation apps when you hit weak data bespeak areas in your travels. The downside of all this is that it takes upwards a tremendous corporeality of space on your Windows Phone.

The U.South. version requires 1.6GB of storage while the European version requires two.3GB of storage. I take to agree with some of the early comments about NAVIGON in that it would have been prissy to have the option to purchase or install certain maps to minimize storage infinite needs and perchance reduce costs.

The odds of me traveling outside the Southeastern United states isn't expert and it would take been nice have had the option to purchase only that region of maps. In Europe, if your travels are similarly restricted why do yous need to download all 2.3GB of maps?

I think NAVIGON hitting the smash on the head by having the maps downloaded to your Windows Phone but missed the boat by not having any flexibility in which maps are loaded.

With regards to performance, having the maps on lath helps tremendously. Routes were calculated and re-calculated quickly and maps kept up with your travels nicely.  In this respect, NAVIGON performed on par with my stand up alone TomTom unit.

Vocalism directions were articulate and understandable and the map transitioned from the map view to exit details nicely. The plough by plow directions includes directional references (when bachelor) for exits. For example, when told to accept the get out to United states of america 280 East the direction included the town of Sylacauga as a reference. Sometimes it's easier to pick upwardly on a city name on the exit sign than the route number plus this confirms you are headed in the right direction.

Mango features

Someone asked about how well NAVIGON ran in the background. It runs very nicely.

NAVIGON takes a few seconds to resume but picks upwards your travels nicely.  I would plough the Windows Phone off, drive a few hundred yards, wake the telephone upwardly and my position adjusted to my travels when NAVIGON resumed.  At first I was concerned that when y'all resume NAVIGON through the job manager or turn the phone dorsum on at that place was almost a 2 second filibuster. Not sure what this filibuster is simply my judge information technology is the GPS confirming your current position.

So how does information technology compare?

There are plenty of navigation apps on the Marketplace merely I am mostly familiar with ii, Garmin Streetpilot and Turn by Turn Navigation. I could spend all solar day comparing NAVIGON to others just I'll stick to these ii apps considering of familiarity.

NAVIGON'due south on board maps is a major advantage. Garmin Streetpilot does download a big portion of the map to minimize your data use and Turn by Plow likewise has a similar feature. Turn by Plow too has the selection to download portions of maps to further minimize data dependency.  I liked Plow past Turn's download feature only information technology felt cumbersome.

Even with Garmin's ability to download larger portions of the map and Plough by Turn's user defined downloadable maps, road calculation and re-adding was noticeably quicker on NAVIGON.  I don't know if it's meliorate software or having to tap into the off-site maps to create routes but NAVIGON calculated the three routing options faster and re-calculated routes near the second you strayed from your original grade.

Ane more reward of having the maps installed on your Windows Phone is power consumption. NAVIGON was noticeably more friendly to my battery than the other navigation apps because information technology wasn't constantly downloading maps. You'll even so need a travel charger for longer trips just for the shorter (within an hour) trips, you can survive without.

I have to acknowledge I like the overall appearance of Streetpilot better and the map layout of Plow by Turn better. But that's really a subjective measure and your views may vary.  I did find the layout and appearance of NAVIGON begin to grow on me the more than I used the app.

Garmin StreetPilot seems to spread things out more on the main pages than NAVIGON which results in less drilling down. Garmin too has flight condition information and seems to keep the traffic information more localized.

Plough past Plow is more of a "down and dirty" navigation app that lacks the multi-folio hub StreetPilot and NAVIGON offers. Turn by Turn lays everything out from the map view and does so rather nicely. I am inclined to give Plow by Plow the nod for the better map view. NAVIGON's data is a lilliputian on the minor side while Plow past Turn uses a larger display for Speed, ETA, and Altitude.

So which is better? It's actually difficult to say one is amend than the other (all are rather good navigation apps) simply rather each fits a particular ready of need.  If you find yourself in demand of a GPS app on occasion, expect at ane of the lower priced GPS apps such as Turn by Turn. If y'all have the need for a GPS app on a daily basis and rarely detect yourself in a weak reception area, Garmin StreetPilot will do rather nicely. If yous do frequent poor reception areas or don't take the patience for data to update maps or routes, NAVIGON volition be difficult to vanquish.

We'll keep an eye on Plow by Plough'south update to run across how that app's new download feature changes things.  If the new version gives users more flexibility in which maps are downloaded and the app performs just equally dainty as NAVIGON, the choice will exist harder to make.

It will be interesting to see how the new offline map feature will change things with Turn by Turn.  The new version sound as if information technology could hold its own confronting NAVIGON but I call up the key will be how the installed maps impacts road calculation.  Nosotros'll keep an eye out for the new version of Turn by Plow and let you know how it shakes out.

Overall Impression

In that location'due south little doubt in my mind that NAVIGON is a quality navigation app for your Windows Telephone. It is the first navigation app that has me seriously considering getting rid of my TomTom unit.

NAVIGON is laid out nicely, has a healthy amount of features, and you can't ignore the benefit of having all your maps loaded on to your phone. I recall where NAVIGON falls short is the toll and inability to allow users to choose their maps.  How far of a autumn is going to be up to y'all guys.

The introductory price of NAVIGON is competitive and for what you are getting, it may be a steal. Notwithstanding, once November 15th rolls effectually and the toll explodes to $49.99 the choice becomes more than hard to make.

But consider this. A stand-alone GPS unit like my TomTom will run well over $100 (sure yous tin probably buy last years model for a lilliputian less). NAVIGON performs close enough to these devices that many will contend it'south merely as good. Then for almost $50 less, you tin can accept the functionality of a stand solitary GPS unit with one less device to plug into your cigarette lighter.

One more thought on the pricing betoken. The iOS and Android versions of NAVIGON are running $59.99 so the Windows Phone version is a bit less in toll. The iOS version does have a regional map version for the U.S. that runs $29.99 and so it is entirely possible we may see that on down the line. Regardless, if you rely on GPS navigation, for what you get and how well NAVIGON performs, $49.99 isn't a bad price. Could it exist better? Sure.  But what out in that location doesn't take room for improvement?

NAVIGON really needs to re-evaluate how it markets this app. Especially with regards to how it offers the maps. Not everyone will need every map in the U.S. or European versions and not anybody volition accept the storage space for the full compliment of maps.  Some may opt for Garmin to avert deleting/reducing their gaming or music library simply to brand room for maps they will never use.  If the new version of Turn past Turn Navigation has options for which maps you download, that may turn some heads abroad from NAVIGON as well.

I call back NAVIGON would have been ameliorate received if the shell was sold for $3.99 and maps were available for private or regional downloads at a corresponding price.  Heck, if they can offer regional versions over at iOS, why tin't they do it here?

If pricing and map flexibility isn't an upshot, you will be very pleased with NAVIGON.  Information technology joins a growing pick of GPS navigation apps that are available for your Windows Phone making the choice a little more than difficult to make.

If you are going to get with NAVIGON, I'd strongly recommend doing and then earlier the introductory toll expires. For me, I see NAVIGON performing merely as expert as the TomTom unit of measurement sitting on my dash lath. I'one thousand not prepare to surrender my TomTom but I practise see myself using information technology less.

Unfortunately, there isn't a trial version available for NAVIGON. Hopefully that might alter (think StreetPilot was initially released without a trial version) and for now the U.South. Version of NAVIGON is running $29.99 (goes up to $49.99 afterward 11/15) and the European Version is running 59.49 Euros (goes upwardly to 84.99 Euros later 11/15).

You can find the U.S. version hither at the Windows Telephone Market and the European version here.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/navigon-review

Posted by: rosariosurnoted.blogspot.com

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