I’m currently 37,000 feet above the ground, flying over the Philippine Sea en route to Tokyo, which is a good thing because it means that I have time to finally complete this review on
Navigon’s Mobile Navigator GPS app for the
iPhone.
It’s also my first review using my new 13” Apple MacBook Pro! More of this later.
For those who follow my blog, you would have read that I’ve also reviewed two other GPS apps for the iPhone: TomTom and CoPilot Live. Out of those two, I found that CoPilot was the better because of incorporation of zoom-pinch functionality on the 3D map as well as better response/performance of maps compared to TomTom’s which at times (time of writing) was annoyingly flakey.
So the question is, how does Navigon fare amongst these two?
Well in summary, I think that it sits in between TomTom and CoPilot in terms of overall value, performance and functionality. Let’s walk through some of the screen shots that I took and I’ll explain why.
Minimalist UI Design
One of the first things I noticed about the Navigon screens were how minimalist they were. As you can see from this screenshot, the default drive screens don’t overload you with information. Despite the fact that this ultimately means faster screen redraws, it does leave one wanting, especially if you have been used to seeing things like estimated arrival times, travel speed and distance to destination. The user can easily add these options on the screen, I just thought it was an interesting choice to omit these by default.
Below is an example screen to show how it looks with more drive options turned on such as street names, current speed, estimated arrival time and distance to location.
There were some nice touches in the app like this screen that actually had a graphic for the instide of the Burnley Tunnel here in Melbourne. Most other GPS applications just go opaque due to lack of signal, but the guys at Navigon seem to use GPS calculations to predict when you’ll reach the end to provide you with this light-at-the-end-of-the–tunnel image. I wonder if they did this for all?
Here’s another screen that I initially liked – it’s the night time drive screen showing a backdrop of the city skyline. It even looks similar to Melbourne’s. I thought there was some intelligent backdrop selection used here as I was actually facing the city at night when I took this, however it also showed the same city skyline when I was 40km away, headed in the opposite direction. Could confuse some drivers.
One of the things that have plagued GPS spp users in the past, has been when to actually turn in multi-lane highway /freeway situations. Navigon addresses this with their Turn-Assist screens which show very succinct images of where exactly to turnoff. They even use the same color scheme and lettering used on Melbourne road signs to help. Excellent feature!
The voice-to-text GPS navigation was also easier to follow as it gave clear commands on when and where to turn.
Highly Recommended
In conclusion, I’d say that Navigon is an excellent value iPhone GPS app. I liked its non-cluttered screens, turn-assist display, performance and neat ‘exiting tunnel’ images. Menus and options are accessed easily and voice navigation is clear. Thumbs up from me!
No this is not my car, nor what I used to test Navigon. I just thought I’d include it for anyone still not sure what they wanted to get me for Christmas… 
Mr.Gadget's Next Car?
More NAVIGON news! NAVIGON, who have just announced 24 months of free map updates for new GPS owners (limited time only) have released their update 1.5.0 of the NAVIGON iPhone App. The update will include a host of new features and is complemented by a reduction in price to $69.99 (usually $99.99) until April 12 and is available through the iTunes App Store.
