My experience of Sygic on a USA holiday

[MalB]

I was on holiday in the US recently (Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming areas) and chose Sygic sat nav (android) for my Samsung Galaxy Note mobile as I would be in areas without 3G or even basic mobile coverage.

My feelings about Sygic are mixed. The GUI is good looking and clear, much better than Google Maps or Waze for example. The basic navigation works well and the list of POI is quite comprehensive. Entering your destination can sometimes take a while and needs patience. I had to resort to setting a point on a map on several occasions when it could not find the destination in it's database. This is done through the 'Set Viapoint' option, not very obvious. Some voices are clear e.g. the UK male voice, the UK female voices seemed to make street names garbled.

The biggest issue that I have with Sygic is inaccuracy. It tried to direct me down non existent roads more than once, failed to acknowledge the existence of a major three lane highway that has been around for a while and POIs were often a distance from the stated location. It also has a thing for railway tracks crossing the road. More often than not they don't exist.

The worst occasion was when I was directed down a paved state highway that turned into graded gravel, that then turned into a bumpy rock strewn dirt road and finally descended a mountain side in tight dusty switchbacks. Lucky I was in a 4x4.

It's difficult to predict what the best choice of sat nav would be before going somewhere and Sygic looked decent on my local Lancashire roads. The need for offline use restricted choice to Sygic, Co-Pilot and Navigon among the major players. Navigon don't do a trial and the Co-Pilot trial is severely functionally restricted and didn't look quite as good. I think that TOMTOM would be a solid choice but their android software was not available.

[M8TJT]

[MalB]

Thanks for the tip.

Now that I am back in the UK, I will use my TomTom standalone sat nav when necessary but I will be going solely to the mobile in future as the screen of my Galaxy Note is so much better as is the performance of the GPS unit. I see that TomTom's android package is due in November, so that will be looked at. Anyway, I don't do much long distance and don't need it locally as Camera Alert can handle the safety camera warnings.

[peterc10]

M8TJT. Thanks for that tip. I have been using Sygic for 3 years and never noticed it. I suspect it may be a relatively recent addition, but a very useful one nevertheless.

MalB - I suspect it may be a little unfair to blame Sygic for the condition of a State Highway. I have used many in many states and have never found them that bad! Having said that, for historical reasons, I use Sygic only in Europe and use copilot when I am in the USA. I have never had many problems with either of them. They always get me to where I have asked them to, which may be not where I wanted to be, but that is not their fault! And they are so much better than the alternative of a map on the steering wheel.
_________________
Peter
HTC Sensation
Sygic GPS for Europe (No more TT "support"!)
Copilot for USA
Bury CC9060 bluetooth car kit & Brodit mount

[MalB]

I'm not upset with Sygic, it was just part of the experience and I was equipped to handle it. I was just making a cold, critical assessment of my experience with this software. However the number of map inaccuracies were significant.

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