Sygic - 1 week free trial (premium traffic and navigation) and heavy discount

mrk said:

We've been through this many times

This simply does not beat Google Nav or Waze.

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As above.

You simply aren't going to get as up-to-date information as users reporting the incidents whilst at the scene. Normally the other apps rely on traffic incident reports which normally take a while to surface, or algorithms using the congestion mapping, but again this can be quite hit or miss.

Yes, we've been through this before. But most people don't actually try out different apps. I regularly use most of them - and Google doesn't handle routing around traffic incidents well enough for me (although both the info and the routing have vastly improved in recent years - the actual info is very close to Tomtom these days). For lot's of other stuff (search, POIs, OS integration, map updates etc etc), Google works better than the Tomtom derivatives.

Sygic, like Waze, does include user reports at the scene. But yeah - based on my usage so far I wouldn't choose it over Google Maps.

Waze is very reliant on a critical mass of users where you are. If you've got them it's very good indeed. If not - it's crap. But occasionally the routing is sometimes utterly bonkers and I just don't trust it a lot of the time. For traffic flow info it uses a very similar system to Tomtom , who just have a lot more probes (AKA floating car data) than Waze so jams are detected faster and disappear quicker once they've cleared. From my own usage, most of the time Tomtom's traffic more closely resembles the situation on the ground than Waze's

An advantage for me in the offline mapping apps is I'm on PAYG. Even on 3's penny a megabyte costs that makes one of the offline apps that just uses data for traffic cheaper than Google or Waze for me. Google's cache system helps keep the costs down there though compared to a few years ago. With magic earth pro - data usage is very low if you use the standard maps. If you use topo maps it uses additional data that puts it about on par with Google maps.

To be honest - a very high proportion of the time Google and Tomtom give identical routes, even with traffic. Google will be utterly fine for most people's journeys. Waze is a bit more prone to random meandering.

In terms of where Google and Tomtom Go differ - tomtom is more likely to go 'off piste' to route around traffic indicents, where as Google prefers main roads. Tomtom 'spots' potential routes around traffic that Google doesn't detect (which is the big attraction for me). Both are crap when it comes to early selection of routes to avoid distant incidents (Magic Earth Pro is your friend here).

People can decide for themselves however. You can try all of them for free. Tomtom Go is free for 50 miles per month. Magic Earth Pro has a 30 day free trial. Sygic has a week's free trial. None of them are perfect though - and at the current rate of improvment I think Google Maps is most likely to end up being the best at everything.

Update: Given the week's trial - Sygic isn't going to displace any of my regular navigation apps any time soon.

There's a lot to like about it with some great features that I would love to see on other apps (love being able to set your own TTS warnings for things like cameras and the speed limit). However the big let-downs for me are still routing, ETA calculation and lack of ability to reroute around traffic that's detected during the journey without button presses. Those things are all key features in a nav app for me - and areas where Sygic isn't as good as free options like Google Maps and Waze.

Given I've been doing a lot of vs testing of the apps over the past week, I'm revising my recommendations on best nav app.

Best all rounder - Google Maps. It's just competent at everything. The voice directions including lane guidance, consistently up-to date mapping and visually showing you alternative routes with time calculation during driving are all very good features.

Best for short journeys: Google Maps.
This is mainly down to a bug in Tomtom Go that means it currently misses a small proportion of traffic events from it's own traffic service. Once the bug's fixed I'm switching back to Tomtom - but for someone that doesn't own it I'm not sure it's worth subscribing for those extra few minutes it may occasionally save you. If you're on PAYG and want to keep Data down, Tomtom or Magic Earth Pro are easier recommendations. The latter just isn't as versatile as Google maps or as slick as Tomtom. Google also has the big advantage that its maps are usually the most up-to date

Best for long journeys: Magic Earth Pro. Magic Earth Pro and Sygic both benefit from route planning including traffic for the full length of any realistic journey. Tomtom, and Google ignore closures more than about an hour or so away, leaving you a nasty surprise part way through your journey. Magic Earth Pro takes it over Sygic because of the more realistic ETA calculations and driver friendly hands-free rerouting around traffic. Also - if you are aware of a road closure that's missed by the traffic service, avoiding part of your route couldn't be easier. Just tap the point of your route you want to avoid in map view and Magic Earth Pro will find another way around.

Co-Pilot and Navigon still lose out because the traffic information is just not good enough. It's far less detailed and covers fewer roads than what you get free with Google or Waze. Waze still sends me on a pointless magical mystery tour too often to be trustworthy - and it also often fails to detect closures that Tomtom picks up (frequently just giving you a pointless text warning and not routing around them - or getting the info much later than Tomtom).

Edit: I'm going to caveat the Google Maps recommendation with a mention that it has crashed on my phone or had issues with delayed positioning a couple of times. In my experience Google usually resolve such issues quickly though.

Did Manchester to Bedford last week using Sygic

instantly loved the Speed Camera and Live Speed status on screen.

the app however seemed to give very unrealistic times, 45 mins quicker then Google Maps

Sygic also crashed a few times and had to restart it

i chose to go a quicker router due to traffic on the M6, Sygic took me down one lane farm lanes in and around Jodrell Bank, this was at 8pm, pitch black. wasnt best pleased

Moved over to Google Maps but was too late by then and went home on farm roads

Will be sticking to Google Maps, tried and tested, if only it had instant speed and speed cameras.

also noticed the speed camera POI were not very accurate either..

hey ho

lmfy2k said:

Will be sticking to Google Maps, tried and tested, if only it had instant speed and speed cameras.

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There are a few free speed camera apps out there. Tomtom do one (probably same camera database as sygic). It uses a fair bit of data but will run in the background alongside other apps.

You can also set Waze running in the background not in navigation mode and it can give voice alerts for stuff (but Waze being Waze, it's a bit random).

So - despite the above - I ended up buying it.

I still won't be using it as my primary nav app. However - if you have a Samsung phone (I have a Galaxy Alpha) it will run in multi-window.

That means I'll be running it alongside Magic Earth Pro or Google Maps (both also work with multi-window) as an alerts app. Just plan the route, set voice to alerts only (without directions) and it can provide alerts for speeding, speed cameras, traffic on route, faster routes detected, tight bends and level crossings - with all set to whatever text to speech phrase or random sounds you might fancy.

It clearly displays the speed limit, and a route bar at the base with traffic incidents indicated as red or yellow bars for the full journey. Upcoming speed limit changes are shown very clearly.

I just wish you could turn off ETA. Ran it today on my commute with Magic Earth Pro. It's about a 10 mile journey - and it predicted 5 minutes faster than Magic Earth Pro. I arrived within a minute of the predicted Magic Earth Pro time.

Running both together - it was clear that Magic Earth Pro had realistic turn time penalties at junctions and Sygic didn't . Sygic has suggested a couple of detours around traffic onto minor roads that Magic Earth Pro didnt' - but given the lack of turn penalties I doubt they would save much time. Magic Earth Pro has managed one more significant detour around traffic - a longer route on main roads - that Sygic missed.

If you don't want to run two sets of nav apps on screen you can adjust the multi-window sizes - or Sygic can be set to run in HUD mode and it will just show the speed limit, your current speed, the next turn and an ETA - on a black background.

If anyone has been wondering how I've informed my opinions of these Nav apps over the last few years - that's it. Head to head testing at the same time, on the same route, usually on the same phone. Google Maps, Magic Earth Pro (and Magic Earth, which uses Openstreetmap istead of Tomtom maps but does still use Tomtom traffic data) and Sygic are the only ones I've found that will run in Samsung multi-window though. Other testing (with Tomtom Go, Waze, Navigon, Co-Pilot etc) has been done with one app in the foreground and the other set to voice directions and alerts in the background.

lmfy2k said:

also noticed the speed camera POI were not very accurate either..

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From the cameras I've driven past so far I'd say that they have the sides of the road switched. Probably a localisation issue with us driving on the left. I've put in an email to Sygic support to mention it.

Sygic on offer at the moment

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sy...lifetime-license-1274-with-code-sygic-2941687

Shame you can't use Sygic or Magic Earth via Android Auto on vehicle head unit. Google maps works of course but so does Waze. Waze is quite good but on local rural routes it is quite bonkers at times and not to be relied on.