$79.99 in the App Store
I’ve been using Sygic’s Mobile Maps navigation app for the past couple of weeks now, really putting it to the test as I took visiting family around the New England area for various sight-seeing exploits, and I’ve been pretty pleased with it overall. This is my detailed review of it – nearly 6,000 words of app review geekery for your enjoyment. ;) You are more than welcome to read straight through, but if you’re impatient and want to jump to a specific section, use these links:
Getting started and first trips
Navigation guidance and accuracy
Interface
Routing options and adjustments
Integration with iPhone functions
POI quantity and quality
Stability
Map data
Extras
Conclusion
Getting started and first trips
Getting the app set-up was a piece of cake, as I mentioned in my blog a little while ago. To recap, it took a fair amount of time to load it onto my iPhone given the size of the app (just over 1.6GB). The first time I opened the app on my iPhone, I was presented with set-up options, similar to what I saw when I first used my TomTom Go 720. I was asked to choose the primary language for the app itself, with the option to choose from 28 languages. Next up was selecting the language for the voice guidance, where I also had 28 options. There are 2 voices that speak English – Simon, who speaks UK English, and Lucien, who speaks U.S. English. I found Lucien's voice to be a bit too adamant. I know – it's weird, but that's the best word for it in my mind, so I chose Simon instead. Unlike my TomTom Go 720, there are no "computer" voices that will be able to read street names aloud to you on the fly.
The language and voice guidance selection menus
After this initial set-up is done, you are presented with a number of quick guides that will give you an overview of the various menu options and general operation of the app. You can skip these, which is nice since I hate being forced to view user guide information, but I did go through all of them and found them to be brief yet helpful to get to the know the app better from the start. These quick guides can also be accessed later if you want to get started using the app right away.
The available Quick Guides
On my first trip out with the Sygic app loaded on my iPhone 3GS, I asked it to route me to our veterinarian’s office to take our dog to an appointment. First, I could not search my contacts within the app itself and choose the vet’s office as the destination. I had to go to my contacts list, memorize the address, and then go back to Mobile Maps to enter it. Copying and pasting is not an option since there are no fields within the Mobile Maps app that can take pasted text. It was a bit disappointing to see this lack of integration with the iPhone’s contacts list, but when asked, Sygic’s PR contact did state that contacts integration is coming in a future update, and I look forward to this.
Second, it routed me differently than my TomTom Go 720 does for this same trip, taking me through the downtown area of my city to get to the freeway. The directions overall were correct, but there is a shorter way to get there. I have Mobile Maps set to find me the fastest route, not shortest, so this may be a factor.
Starting out on this first trip, I ignored the directions to see how quickly it would re-route me. After realizing I wasn’t going to head through the city as it had directed me, it only took a few seconds for it to find another route that worked with the way I was heading. No complaints here at all about the route recalculation speed.
I found the graphics to be quite good, showing smooth movement most of the time, except when it was acquiring a signal to locate me when I started it up, causing the map to jump around just a little as it oriented itself. I had assumed that Mobile Maps would make use of the internal compass of the 3GS, but Sygic’s PR contact told me that it does not. The good news is that you’ll see no difference in how it works between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS models, but the bad news is that it will take a moment to get you oriented on the map without it as you start out.
Landscape view of navigation guidance
At first, the voice guidance was not nearly loud enough, and I found that even turning the volume all the way up made it just loud enough for me to hear as long as I kept the music off and no one was talking in the car. However, I learned of two tips from readers to address this problem. The first was an observation that the voice guidance volume seemed to be tied to the volume of sound in the iPod application, and that increasing the volume there would result in a louder voice while in Mobile Maps, which did work successfully for me. The second tip was to increase the volume using the volume up button while the voice was speaking since attempts to increase the volume at other times only increased the ringer volume, not the voice’s volume. Both tips worked for me, but since then, Sygic has released an update to the app to version 7.71.2 and the volume of the voice guidance has been increased. I can now listen to the radio at a moderate volume and hear the navigation guidance at the same time.
Unlike my TomTom Go 720, there are no computerized voices that can read street names aloud to me, but it does have some capability in this area. I found that it will spell out highway and route numbers aloud for me, so if I need to get on route 133, it announces “turn right on M-A one hundred and thirty-three.” Not perfect, but better than nothing at all.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mobile Maps tells you what side of the street your destination is on, unlike every TomTom unit and app I’ve owned before. However, it won’t tell you until you are very close to your destination – at about 300 yards away at the most from my experiences, which was often the last warning I’d get before reaching the destination. If you’re on a busy multi-lane road, this may not be enough time to get to the correct lane to make the turn. Fortunately, directions to exit the freeway are handled differently, giving you more than enough time to get to the correct lane, and there’s even a graphic shown on the screen to let you know which lane you should be in.
To see how easy it is to navigate to a POI that came with the app, I looked for the library in my town. At first, I couldn’t find it, then I noticed that the list of POI categories you see at first isn’t the entire list – you must select Show All at the top first to see all categories, of which Libraries is one. You can also search through all POIs, though I had missed this at first, thinking you had to drill down through a specific POI category at first. All you need to do is select Any at the top of the POI Type list and start your search using the keyboard.
POI groups
Searching through POI using the keyboard
The one POI function I love about my TomTom is the ability to upload your own custom POIs to it. I have uploaded the addresses of all Starbucks locations in the U.S. to my TomTom and it’s set to announce that I’m near a Starbucks when I’m within 1/2 mile of one. It sounds annoying but it’s not – it’s nifty and actually quite useful. To be honest, however, I don’t expect this level of customizability in a navigation app on cell phone where navigation is not the device’s primary purpose, so I dock no points from Mobile Maps for not having this feature.
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Interface
Mobile Maps looks exactly like what I expect to find on a stand-alone GPS unit with the requisite menu options, map view options, etc. However, it’s not completely adapted to the iPhone, lacking the capability to use standard iPhone swiping and pinching gestures to help you view the map and navigate through screens and lists. Instead, you must use virtual arrow buttons to tap through lists and sequential screens. Additionally, Mobile Maps does not use the standard iPhone keyboard, using a custom one that matches the color scheme of the rest of the app. It’s useable, but I’d prefer the standard iPhone keyboard that offers better spacing between the letters.
The first page of the main menu (note arrow buttons at the bottom)
The second page of the main menu
Once you’re used to the Mobile Maps interface, it’s not a big deal, but the first few times using it can be a little challenging relative to other 3rd-party apps that do use the iPhone touch gestures we’ve come to know and love. I’d personally love to see Sygic more fully adapt the Mobile Maps interface to match what you see when using the standard iPhone apps and other 3rd-party apps in future versions.
Mobile Maps does use the iPhone’s accelerometer and will change orientation to match the iPhone’s position. Orientation changes happen quickly, even during active navigation guidance on my iPhone 3GS, though they go a little more slowly on my iPhone 3G.
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Navigation guidance and accuracy
In my first impressions, I noted that the GPS signal indicator showed me 2 out of 4 bars even while I was indoors, presumably using the iPhone’s assisted GPS quite well. However, I found that the initial version of the app always shows me 2 out of 4 bars, no matter what the conditions were or where I was. This has been fixed in version 7.71.2 and the signal meter varies appropriately now.
Aside from shying away from back roads that I know of because I’m familiar with an area, I have had no concerns whatsoever about the route guidance provided by Mobile Maps in the Boston area. I’ve “double-checked” its routes by using Google Maps and getting printed directions, and Mobile Maps has given me identical, or near-identical, results every time and has not failed to get me to my destination in any situation.
In terms of pinpointing my actual location, I have seen no errors at all in this, aside from a little bit of time to get oriented after exiting a multi-level parking garage. Other than this, Mobile Maps always shows me to be exactly where it should based on my surroundings. The one thing I have not yet tested with it yet is how it performs in a long tunnel. Heading through the Big Dig in downtown Boston, my TomTom Go 720 simply shuts down navigation guidance and shows me a grayed-out screen, providing no useful information until it acquires a GPS signal again, which usually means a missed exit or turn in the meantime. I would hope that a navigation app on the iPhone could make use of the accelerometer to determine that I’m still moving despite the loss of the GPS signal and attempt to extrapolate my approximate position and continue to give route guidance (much like the built-in GPS systems in some cars that use a gyroscope to sense motion in the absence of a GPS signal).
As you travel, guidance about upcoming turns are announced and shown in a box at the top of the screen, which fades in and out in an attractive manner. In the settings menu, you can choose different Signpost settings that will determine how much signage information is shown to you. I tried out the All Directions option just for kicks to see the difference from the default Preferred Direction option and saw that every single highway exit sign is shown in this mode. If the exit sign is not the one you should take, it is shown as slightly transparent with a red X through it to note that you shouldn’t follow it, which is a cute effect that adds some eye candy.
Signpost guidance - note the near-transparent signs with red X’s through them
You can also customize what is shown at the bottom of the screen with the ability to choose among 10 options to fill 4 available spaces. I chose distance to destination, remaining time to destination, length of route, and the GPS signal indicator, in this order. Other options are average speed, current speed, elevation, distance since start, time of day, and time of arrival.
I’ve found Mobile Maps to acquire a signal quickly when starting it up, finding it to be faster overall than my TomTom Go 720 on average. I attribute this to the iPhone’s aGPS capability. I only had one experience where it appeared to be confused enough to give me incorrect guidance when starting out and that was after exiting the aforementioned multi-level parking garage making turn after turn to get down to the level where the exit was. After a couple of minutes and missing a turn once outside, I was able to just make a u-turn to get back on track.
You can also plan an itinerary if you have multiple stops to make. This is very easy to do, and you can choose from favorites, POI entries, previous destinations, or enter a specific address to create the stops on your itinerary. You can also choose to save a created itinerary, but you must do this right after you create it before clicking “Done.”
An itinerary with 3 stops
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Routing options and adjustments
Mobile Maps can be used to calculate routes for pedestrians and cyclists as well – these can be selected in the Planning Preferences settings, where the default is the fastest route by automobile. I have not yet tested the pedestrian or cycling directions – the guidance I need most often is while driving.
Planning preferences
When you have a route planned, the Route menu in the Main Menu allows you to view the route in multiple ways, including a list of written instructions, a series of images, a high-level map summary, or a demo. The Cancel Route command is also here, putting it only 2 screen taps away from the main navigation view, a nice departure from my TomTom Go 720 where this option is a bit more buried in the 3rd page of the menu.
Route viewing options
As I’ve mentioned, re-routing goes very quickly, taking only a few seconds for it to realize that I’ve ignored its guidance (or made a mistake) and find an alternate way to compensate. I have seen it it try to get me to make a u-turn a few times to try to get me back on track, but this stops shortly, presumably once I’ve passed a “point of no return” when going back would take more time than continuing forward on a different route. Other times, it goes with the flow easily and takes me on an alternate route without suggesting a u-turn at all.
You can also choose to change your current route using the Alternate Route menu. Here, you can choose to simply calculate a different route, avoid a specific part of the current route, use a specific road, or avoid traffic delays. The traffic delays probably caught your eye in that list, didn’t it? Oddly, neither Sygic’s website nor the Mobile Maps description in iTunes highlights this feature. It’s also not mentioned in the user guide. When trying to re-calculate routes using this feature, I saw no changes made to the original route, making me think this is possibly a placeholder for a future feature, or a hold-over from a port of this app for other platforms. I have submitted this question to Sygic’s PR contact and will update this review when I have received a response.
Alternate route menu
Mobile Maps can also show you the speed limit of the road on which you’re currently traveling, displayed in a European-style graphic, and you can set it to play an alert if you’re exceeding the speed limit by a set amount. I’ve found the speed limits to be surprisingly accurate, matching posted speed limit signs in most areas and sometimes showing a difference of only a few yards as I travel down a road where the speed limit changes between different sections.
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Integration with iPhone functions
If you want to make a call while navigating, the easiest way to do this while driving (and using an iPhone 3GS) is to use the voice control feature by pressing and holding the home button. During the call, Mobile Maps will be hidden by the normal active call screen. After a call is complete, Mobile Maps will open again, but will go first to the splash screen and then to the legal advisory where you must tap to agree to continue. After this, it will resume your previous route and instructions. While I’m happy that Mobile Maps opens again on its own after a call, I’d much rather that it go right back to the navigation view instead of through the splash screen and legal advisory, though this could be intentional if the legal advisory is required by law to be shown each time the app is opened.
My car has a built-in Bluetooth system through which I can prompt voice dialing using controls on the steering wheel, and incoming and outgoing calls concluded using this system return me to the app’s splash screen, legal advisory, and then back to navigation guidance, just as the iPhone’s built-in voice command system does. Of course, if you exit Mobile Maps to go to the Phone app to make a call, you’ll need to go back to it manually afterward.
The list of features for Mobile Maps states that it will automatically change the view between the day and night settings, which made me believe that it would make use of the iPhone’s ambient light sensor, but this does not appear to be the case since the color scheme does not automatically switch to the night mode when I’m in a tunnel or in my garage or cover up the ambient light sensor with my hand, even when I have selected Set Automatic Colors in the settings menu. I have only seen it change to night mode after it’s completely dark outside, making me think it’s based on the time of day in combination with ambient light.
In the Power Management settings menu, there are three options for the screen’s backlight: Always On, Use Device Default Settings, and Smart Backlight. The second option doesn’t work for me since I have my iPhone set to auto-lock after 5 minutes without input, so I tried the Smart Backlight option to see what it did. Unfortunately, my iPhone’s screen would shut off after a few minutes and it would not wake up to provide further guidance, so this option doesn’t seem to do anything differently than the Use Device Default Settings option. So, I have set the app to keep the backlight on at all times during navigation. While this is obviously bad for battery life if you’re not using a car charger at the same time, I’d much rather be able to continue to get navigation guidance all the time without worrying that the iPhone will sleep on its own after a few minutes.
The power management menu
The app operates in both landscape and portrait mode. While I prefer landscape mode, I actually find myself using portrait mode a lot while in the car, realizing that I still get enough visual information to navigate easily by. I have a ProClip swivel & tilt iPhone mount in my car, and combined with a Griffin PowerJolt car charger, I have a great set-up for navigation in my car without having to resort to a suction cup window mount (which never fails to fall off during a critical point during navigation, no matter how carefully I affix it to the windshield).
One thing that is missing is a constant battery life indicator. If I were not charging my iPhone with my car charger as I used the app, and therefore assured that my iPhone was not going to die on me unexpectedly, I would be very worried about using this app for a long period of time without some indication of the battery level. Mobile Maps now includes a low battery warning that was no present in the first version of the app, but there is no constant battery meter indicator to show you the charge level before the battery gets low. Again, this should not be an issue if you use this app with your iPhone connected to a car charger the entire time, but may be less than ideal if you don’t, though you will at least get some warning that you need to plug it in before the battery dies completely, which is better than nothing at all.
You can also listen to music from the built-in iPod app as you get navigation guidance. Music will pause while voice guidance is given and then resume automatically afterward. I don’t usually do this since I have an old iPod connected to my car’s stereo already, but I’m looking into options to connect it to my iPhone as I drive so I can play music from it instead, and this capability will make it a very useable set-up.
One feature that is probably more wish-list worthy than anything would be the ability to output audio via Bluetooth. My car has a built-in Bluetooth system that works very well with my iPhone for calls, and is well-integrated with the radio functions to fade music in and out before and after calls and voicemails. I would love it if Mobile Maps could output audio to a paired Bluetooth device so I could hear the instructions over my car’s speakers. That would be just about ideal integration for me.
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POI quantity and quality
I don’t usually navigate to POIs, having a specific address as a destination most of the time. Occasionally, I will search for the nearest coffee shop or restaurant if I’m in an unfamiliar area. In the first version of the app, I could not find any restaurant/food listings whatsoever, though this has been addressed in the latest version, 7.71.2, which has a claimed 12 million additional points of interest, making the POI database quite robust.
POI groups
In the first version of Mobile Maps, phone numbers were available for some POIs, though there was no way to call them directly from the app, nor was it possible to copy and paste the number for use outside of the app. In 7.71.2, there is a Call button that now appears when viewing a POI detail screen, enabling you to initiate the call from directly within the Mobile Maps app. However, every POI I’ve viewed so far has the Call button grayed out so that it can’t be used, including POI that I know used to have a phone number associated with it in the first version of the app. The screenshots below give an example of this. I fully expect Sygic to address this in their next update.
The first version of Mobile Maps with phone number data for a POI entry
The second version of Mobile Maps with the call button but no more phone number for the same POI entry
When viewing the details for a POI, a Parking button will show you the nearest parking facilities, which can be handy. Note that the parking facilities shown can be any open parking area, including Park and Ride lots off of the freeway and rest areas, so don’t expect to see only paid parking garages and lots in these lists.
You can designate any new or past destination as a favorite, making it easier to find and navigate to them at a later date without needing to re-enter the address. You can also mark your current location as a favorite, which is handy if you need to mark a place to get back to quickly.
There is one POI/interface quirk that bothers me. Say I want to navigate to find a restaurant nearby and navigate there – I choose Navigate to... --> Point of Interest --> Near my position in the menu and then choose the Food POI group. I then scroll through the list and select a restaurant. If I change my mind and want to view another restaurant and hit Cancel (the only other option to get out of this menu is “Route Me!”), it takes me all the way back to the map! So I have to go through the entire process again to go through the list of nearby restaurants once more. This is a pain – the Back button in the POI detail view should do exactly what it implies: take me back one level to the list of POI I viewed just before that screen. This is how my TomTom Go 720 works, making it much easier to browse through a group of POIs and even make calls to them, which was handy when trying to find a hotel with a vacancy once on short notice while on vacation.
Choosing a destination
As is typical with most GPS systems, you can designate a home location to make getting back there even easier. Here’s a random safety tip: instead of setting your exact home address as Home, choose the closest main intersection instead. This way, in case you ever lose your iPhone or GPS unit, the finder or thief doesn’t literally have a map to your house while you’re away. This tip makes more sense for those with standalone GPS units traveling on vacation since an iPhone is likely to have much more sensitive and private information on it anyway, but it could still be a useful one for many.
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Stability
While the iPhone is one of the most stable smartphone platforms I’ve ever used (well, aside from some 2.X firmware shenanigans, that is), I think I’ve still encountered at least one instance of every app I’ve ever used crashing at some point or another. Mobile Maps has crashed on me a handful of times, bringing me back to the home screen abruptly. The best that I can pinpoint is that this happened when I was using it for a long route (an hour or more) and I was on a stretch of road well in between guidance points (e.g., on a highway for a period of 20 minutes or more with no exits or turns coming up soon). When this happened, I simply opened the app back up again, tapped through the legal warning screen, and was brought right back to navigation guidance starting from on my location at the time, just as you’d expect. I did have one slightly alarming time when the app shut down repeatedly and I finally re-booted my iPhone in an attempt to clear whatever memory I needed to in order to have it stay open, which seemed to help.
In comparison, I have experienced similar issues with the stand-alone GPS units I’ve owned where they simply freeze, lose the GPS signal for no reason, or some other random problem with no known cause. I would caution anyone to never rely on any GPS software or device 100% – you should always have a paper map or written directions on hand and generally know where you need to go. While many electronic devices are very stable, it’s still worth your while to be prepared to navigate on your own if your iPhone or GPS device conks out on you inexplicably.
Map data
Sygic gets its map data from TeleAtlas, which is also the map data source for Navigon who now has a competing navigation app for North America – MobileNavigator North America – in the App Store. I have not yet encountered an error on the map and it’s updated enough to show the street where I live, which is relatively new though I would expect no less at this point in time. Sygic has not described how map updates will be handled in the future and I presume that newer maps will be included with free app updates for a period of time, after which it may be necessary to buy a new version of the app to get the most up-to-date maps. I could live with this if it happens every 2 or more years. If it’s an annual occurrence, you can be assured I will not pay $80 every year to get new maps and will just make do with the app that I have.
Browsing the map – note the zoom bar on the right
As with stand-alone GPS units, you can browse the map without getting navigation guidance. Here, the lack of standard iPhone interface gestures stand out the most since the only way to zoom in and out is to use a zoom bar on the right side of the map, though you can pan around easily with your finger. The options here allow you to find a specific address or POI location, show your current position on the map, or show a city. You can also choose to view POI on the map as you browse it, making it easy to find gas stations, restaurants, or whatever else you’d like to see as you pan around. Tapping once on a POI icon will give you a pop-up with the POI’s name while tapping twice will bring you to the POI detail screen.
Map browsing options
This kind of map browsing ability – using the maps saved to your iPhone that don’t require a cellular data connection – can be very handy when you’re traveling in an unfamiliar location and simply want to get an idea of the lay of the land while you’re in your hotel room or if you’re abroad and want to avoid data roaming charges.
Viewing POI on the map while browsing
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Extras
Mobile Maps comes with a few handy features in the Extras section of the main menu. There is a World Clock, Calculator, Unit Converter, and Country Info viewer. While you won’t find more functionality in the World Clock and Calculator mini-apps here than you will in the iPhone’s built-in apps, it’s nice to not have to leave Mobile Apps if you just want to quickly view the time in another location or do a quick calculation. The Unit Converter is nice, but it’s a bit confusing to figure out, with no obvious place to find or input exchange rates. The Country Info viewer will show you speed limit information for the selected country on various road types, as well as the emergency phone number (the 911 equivalent for that country).
The Extras menu
The calculator
The unit converter
The world clock
Country info for Albania
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Conclusion
I am really, really happy to finally have a true turn-by-turn navigation app on my iPhone. With my ProClip mount and Griffin car charger, I have a great set-up to use Mobile Maps in my car, and my dream set-up would only require the addition of Bluetooth audio output of the voice guidance to my car’s speakers. While it’s not perfect, Mobile Maps is good enough and reliable enough for me to retire my TomTom Go 720 GPS unit in favor of having turn-by-turn navigation guidance available right on my iPhone 3GS, which I carry with me everywhere as it is. At $69.99 for offline maps of all of North America with good guidance and many features you’d expect in a stand-alone unit, I think this app is a pretty good buy.
I don’t usually do a pros and cons list, but I think the multiple features of a complex app like this make it useful to compile one:
Pros:
- Good smooth graphics
- Reliable and accurate route guidance
- Quick re-routing
- Freeway lane guidance
- Tells you what side of the street your destination is on, albeit a little late
- Doesn’t make my iPhone hot
- Battery usage more reasonable than expected
- Map browsing doesn’t require data connection
- Handy extras built-in
Cons:
- Can’t choose destinations from existing contacts
- Call button in POI detail screen usually grayed out
- No battery level indicator aside from low battery warning
- Backing out of POI detail screen takes you back to map, not previous POI list
- Does not use standard iPhone keyboard
- Does not use standard iPhone touch gestures
- Like other iPhone apps, not 100% stable
Here are links (these open iTunes) to the Sygic navigation apps available at the time of this review:
Mobile Maps North America (the app reviewed here) - $79.99
Mobile Maps U.S. (U.S. only, no Canada or Mexico) - $59.99
Mobile Maps Europe - $99.99
Mobile Maps Australia & New Zealand - $64.99
Mobile Maps SE Asia - $79.99
Mobile Maps Russia - $99.99
Mobile Maps Brazil - $99.99
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Related reviews:
Navigon's MobileNavigator turn-by-turn navigation app
TomTom's turn-by-turn navigation app (on MacRumors.com)