Best Navigation – Phones vs GPS

In recent years the GPS (Global Positioning System) has been the preferred choice to the standard Road Atlas. The GPS or Sat Nav as it’s also called has not been challenged by anything as its reliable and easy getting you from A to B, is there any need for change? Well one competitor has come out of the blue in the last few months and that’s the mobile phone, but which is better?

Mobile Phones

*I’m going to particularly focus on Androids and Iphones, although the windows phone is increasing in popularity it’s not quite there yet in terms of mapping apps.

In recent months phones have become an increasingly popular choice for getting you from A to B in your travels this is due to the new advanced apps that are now available on both the Iphone and Android app stores, there was always mapping available it just simply wasn’t good enough or fast enough to keep up with driving. As the speed of mobile networks so has the mobiles use for being a GPS.

There are several apps available at great prices such as androids GPS Essential or Iphones Magellan Roadmate but what are the positives and negatives of using a phone for navigation?

Pros

-Most people already have a phone capable of doing this and the apps are much cheaper than buying a GPs, or at least most of them.

-Most people carry their phone everywhere anyways so it can be used in emergency situations if needed, like if you get lost.

-It’s very quick to set up and find your destination, no need to fiddle with the little keypad on the GPS

Cons

-You need to buy something to hold it to the windscreen which is different for every phone, most people change phones often such as myself so this isn’t ideal.

-If you do decide to hold it in your hand be prepared to get 3 points for being on a mobile.

-Despite getting faster speeds in general signal can still drop causing it to load when you may need to make a turn.

-It uses MB, costing money

GPS (Sat Nav)

Sat Navs replaced the ordinary road map and rightfully so, they are far superior as they get you from A to B without you having to stop and look at a map every few minutes or rely on someone in the car to give you directions, just like everything else there is slightly better GPS’s than others but the pros and cons are just a generalisation of Sat Navs on a whole, they also sometimes come built in which is useful as for example some hired cars have them in without you having to worry about getting one.

Pros

-You tend to always keep them in your car so they are there for when you need them.

-Once you have bought it that is all you have to pay, unless you want to buy extra maps such as if you have a UK Sat Nav buying US maps.

-There are regular map updates available adding new roads.

Cons

-They can be slow to find satellites at the start of your journey causing you a little bit of a delay

-Typing out destinations can be awkward and hard as the screen is small and touch screen often isn’t great.

-Updating can be awkward as you have to update via your PC, so if there are new routes they don’t show up on the map.

Conclusion

At the current moment GPS is still in front as it’s slightly easier to use than a phone, however I believe that the phone will take over as everyone has one and it’s a more cost effective method. All the phone needs to improve is the apps need to get slightly better and become more developed.