iPhone vs TomTom Live XL

JLee · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:57 am Post subject: iPhone vs TomTom Live XL

I curently have TomTom Live XL with a quarterly map update subscription, yearly live services sibscription and of course the PGPS Speed Camera subscription. Everything works well and I'm pretty happy.

The thing is my daughter has just got her first car and will need a SatNav so one thing I thought of doing is to use my iPhone and let her have my TomTom (to avoid the expense of another TomTom).

I've never used TomTom on iPhone so it would be great if someone could give me some feedback on the following:

1. How is the user experience compared with usign a standalone unit.
2. Can you get live services with HD traffic on iPhone?
3. Do the PGPS speed camera alerts work the same on iPhone and can you use custom alert OGG files like you can with a TomTom?
4. How does it compare on cost for live services and map updates?

Thanks in advance.

DennisN · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 12:52 pm Post subject:

Partial reply only, relating to your item 3.

Get from the App Store CamerAlert by PGPSW - free and actually much better even than the version for TomTom. You've already got a subscription and the updating makes the weekly update process which you currently use look like from the Ark.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

JLee · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:22 pm Post subject:

Thanks Denis for taking the time to reply.

I've done more research myself and have found out the following:

1. Largely positive reviews about the iPhone app but not detailed enough for me to know how it compares to a standalone TomTom so if anyone can offer more info I'd appreciate it. E.g. Does it show all the status bar info such as Your speed, Speed limit, ETA, Distance to destination etc.

2. Sounds like it's an in app purchase and cheaper than the £47.50 I just paid on my TomTom. might be a slim chance of getting it transferred if I phone customer service and grovel.

3. As per Denis reply above.

4. Loads cheaper as map updates are free (think I paid about £50 for a quarterly update) and HD Traffic is £18.99 instead of £47.50. Makes me feel like I've just been ripped off actually! If I hadn't renewed my Live Services last month all of that could have bought me the app and a year of HD Traffic.

walkerx · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:45 pm Post subject:

Have you actually looked at Sygic on the iPhone?

On the Android version it uses TomTom maps in 3D (but don't think as up to date as TT) - You can buy HD Traffic inside the app for around £10 for UK and with CameraAlert you have speed camera updates downloaded directly to the app

M8TJT · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 7:58 am Post subject:

You can put PGPSW database into Sygic, but it's a bit of a pain and are non directional as opposed to directional in CA with an easy peasy weekly update.

IanS100 · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:03 am Post subject:

I can't comment on the iPhone version but don't imagine it's much different from TomTom Android, which I have on a Galaxy Note 3, and personally I find it a right pita and certainly wouldn't buy it again.

Routing is as you would expect from TomTom, but visually it's terrible, the highlighted route is very little different from the surrounding road colours and all but impossible to see whilst driving. Last week I was sat in traffic at the end of the M58 and all the surrounding roads were marked as congested (on TomTom) with the little dotted line, but they totally obliterated the highlighted route. Meanwhile, the direction arrow pointed vaguely somewhere between straight on & turn right so I had to guess at the route, which is not what I expect from a Sat Nav.

I believe that a new map should be due for release and I really hope there's a vast improvement over the current one.
_________________
Galaxy Note 4 / TomTom GO : CamerAlert : CoPilot

irev · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 11, 2012 Posts: 1

I wondered if you took the plunge with iPhone. I currently have tomtom one iq but no live traffic. The yearly subscription for maps is 49.50 whereas the app including lifetime maps is 34.99 but is the phone as clear as stand alone tt? I travel in Europe once a year and wondered if anybody knew how data charges apply if using tt with live traffic on iPhone?

adobbing · Lifetime Member Joined: 08/04/2003 12:55:05 Posts: 213

@irev

In terms of whether the iPhone app is as clear as stand alone tomtom, my experience is that it is much clearer!
The display on an iPhone is far superior to that on a stand alone tomtom unit
It depends on which iPhone you have though, as to how big and clear the display is.

As for data usage, my data usage counters were last reset in December 2013, since then I have driven 13,400 miles, probably using the tomtom app for about 70% of that with live traffic running constantly
So lets say 9,000 miles over 10 months.

My data usage by the tomtom app is shown as 47.2 MB, so about 4MB per month.

Data charges when roaming will vary but consider the various options available before travelling, for example Three UK now offer "like at home" which lets you use your UK data allowance in several countries in Europe.

Hope this helps!

JLee · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 12:59 pm Post subject:

I haven't taken the plunge yet as I only just paid for live services on 2 Sept. However I just got my last map update from my XL Live map subscription so come the spring I'll probably give it a try on my iPhone 5s.

Regarding data usage is it possible to stop the iPhone trying to download a 400MB map update via mobile data whilst still enabling the use of live services traffic?

adobbing · Lifetime Member Joined: 08/04/2003 12:55:05 Posts: 213

JLee · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 6:30 pm Post subject:

[quote="adobbing"]

M8TJT · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 7:05 pm Post subject:

Well, what did you ask then?
Are the maps not an app update and live services ordinary data? Surely the mechanism for both is different.
If the previous answer does not answer the question that you asked, perhaps you could re-word your question in order to elicit the correct answer.

	PocketGPS
	Web