Smart Phone vs Garmin navigation

Congratulations on your 2018 Hyundai.You are right the technology now between the car and the smart phone is something else. I just purchased the Ford Explorer and after finding out all it can do between the car and smart phone I was completely amazed.It had been a while since my last purchase of a vehicle so have a lot of catching up to do.

I just got a Kia Optima with Android Auto, and have to admit it is fun to play with. But as far as Google navigation, so far I have found it lacking compared to my nuvi 3597. There is not nearly as much info on the screen ... no speed limit, the lane guidance is dismal compared to the nuvi, no alerts. It has also given me some funky routes compared to the nuvi. Maybe it can do multi point routes, but I have not figured out how to do it. The voice control is OK for addresses, etc., but don't try to just select a menu item ... it doesn't understand. For example I say "Go to MacDonalds and it will promptly give me the 4 nearest locations labeled A through D. I say "B" and it refuses to acknowledge. I have to press the choice on the screen to select it. The navigation prompting isn't anywhere near as useful as Garmin's Real Directions. And of course I can't use POI Factory's camera alerts. The traffic alerts are similar to Garmin's Smartphone Link, but in general, I have found Smartphone Link traffic to be better.

Now if Android Auto ever opens up for other better apps than Google navigation, I might be interested. But for now I am sticking with my 3597.

And SeriusXM ... they are nothing but a predatory marketing company that hounds you continuously with texts, emails, phone calls and mailings. I have blocked them wherever I can and when my 3 month free trial runs out ... I am done with them.

+1

We go places with our Jeep Wrangler that cell phones don't work. We will stick with Garmin thank you. When the Serius/XM subscription that came with the Wrangler ran out it was not renewed. Never liked dealing with them.

Since getting a Smartphone, I have not even turned on my Garmin except to update my map, and add some custom POIs. In the future I will probably not even bother to update the map because my smartphone is always current. I used to say I would always love and keep my Garmin, but that was before I experienced smartphone navigation.

One of the great features offered here at POI Factory is access to thousands of POI files created and shared by other members. If you're willing to spend the time to find an app and try to load them, put up with the small screen, buy a separate vehicle mount and maybe get lost when you have no cell service, then navigate with a smartphone.

Then there is the issue of trying to explain to a cop that you were just navigating with your smartphone. Laws vary from state to state and some are quite confusing.

I think I'll keep my Garmin.

I use my garmin on long trips especially when going thru mountains over passes and the smart phone in towns both have their good and bad areas and keeping up with traffic and gas prices and alerts ! but I can see that soon the garmin will be obsolete the smart phone will have a gps chip built in so cell service wont be needed to navigate. what will be a hard choice will be screen size , but I suppose the dash screen will be of sufficient size for the road, and the smart phone screen for walking around .now if the car can use the phone for the gps and display info on the dash screen and not having to charge outrages prices for map updates that would be nice,

I must say that I like the ability to use either Garmin or Google Maps. My wife and I are in opposite camps on this one, however. She has pretty much written off Garmin and prefers Google Maps. I generally prefer Garmin, but I get the advantages of Google Maps. On a long road trip, we will use both when they have a conflict, we will dig deeper to try and determine why there are discrepancies.

I would encourage Garmin to continue to improve their internet connected features, too. I do use Garmin Smartphone Link. If I am looking for a new business near me, I have to find it one my smartphone and then send it to my Garmin. It might be nice to look for it natively on the Garmin.

Even though I never had a Garmin nüLink! 1695 LIVE, I always thought that some of the features on their looked pretty nice. I think that the fuel prices, flight status, and White Pages would all be handy.

I rarely use phone maps for navigation since I am in big city like Toronto. Garmin Nuvi gives excellent lane guidance which I think I wont get on phone. My Nuvicam has big screen and shows me lots of information on the screen. I don't think I can easily Garmin with a smart phone yet.

Ummm. That's already the case. Smartphones...and all cell phones for that matter, have been required to have GPS receivers built in for the FCC's E-911 rules... The smartphone hitch in the get along has been apps... if the app you're using doesn't store full maps on the device, it would need cellular network service to function... But if you're using an app with map and poi data on the device, no cell service is needed for navigation functionality.

Just get an app with lane guidance...they exist...

I don't see the level of lane guidance, multi-point routing, diversity of POIs, with a smartphone and Google yet.

I don't need to add more apps to my phone just to get what I already have on the Nuvi.

Count me out. Not worth the data usage to me, and of course giving Google more data about where and how I travel. I'll stick with the Garmin Nuvi for the near future.

If you are looking for maps that can be stored in smartphone and use off-line try Here. There is version for both Android and iPhone. Here has options to store maps on card instead in phone memory as maps are rather large. Garmin gets its maps from Here so coverage is as good if not better.

It has traffic also if you got internet connection. And it's free.

As Charlie said in another thread, it could be great if the Here navigation app was enabled for Android Auto and Apple AutoPlay. I suspect Google and Apple will never allow that though.

...a couple of weeks ago and compared the in-car navigation with my 3597. Interesting results! I took a trip to Tennessee over the weekend and compared the routing between the built-in unit and the 3597. They followed the exact same route routing with the exception of a slight route deviation about 5 miles from our destination. The 3597 tried to route us over a small country road where the in-dash unit kept us on the main highway. (We would have reached our destination using the 3597 route but my brother stated that the road was very narrow and winding.) On the way back home, the in-car nav tried to keep us on the main road while the 3597 sent us through town. So, the routing was quite similar on both units. The 3597 had more detail than the in-car unit, but the in-car unit provided great directions. But, the thing that amazed me was the fact that the 3597 would link with the SmartLink app on my iPhone and also pick up bluetooth in the car. I figured it would either pick up the Smartlink or the bluetooth, but not both. I could receive a phone call and then go the 3597 and it would show the traffic provider as being Smartlink. From everything that I have read, either Smartlink would work or bluetooth connectivity would work. Not both. That was a pleasant surprise. All in all, I think I would put my faith in both units, but I still like the 3597. (I will say the 3597 had a whole lot more detail and the topographical map is way more interesting to look at.) The unit in my Azera does have the speed limit listed on the nav screen but it is not as accurate as the one on the 3597. Also, with a price tag of $169.00 a year to update, the 3597 with free updates is, well; more economical. I did read somewhere that Hyundai was offering free map updates for 5 years but I believe that is only for the European market.

I too was surprised in my new Kia Optima that I could use blue tooth Smartphone Link traffic on my 3597 and Android Auto Google Maps with Traffic at the same time. Android Auto uses the direct USB connect instead of blue tooth for navigation, so maybe that is the reason.

I only have received one phone call while driving with both navigation systems active and the Android Auto took the call without a complaint from the 3597. I also have played MP3 music from my phone through Android Auto (which I think does use blue tooth) at the same time that Smartphone Link was sending traffic to the 3597. I don't have enough experience with all this yet to know how reliable/dependable these multiple connections to the phone are, but it is a pleasant surprise to see them all working at the same time.

I am testing all of this with a cheapo ($60) LG Tracfone!

Just want others to know that WAZE works with Android Auto in place of Google Maps. Just in case you prefer that.

There are other Apps that you can find to use with Android Auto too.

Here is a Link to see them...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/promotion_3001...

Or just go to Play Store and Search for Android Auto apps

Smart Phone are an excellent backup.

Cell service not needed for smartphone navigation.

Why would you have to explain anything to a cop. The phone will be in your pocket or laying in the console with the screen off. As the OP explained. The map appears on the car's screen. I would assume the voice navigation instructions come through the car's speakers.

I have learned a lot from all the comments.

I will check out HERE MAPS. Would HERE MAPS still use data minutes on my cell phone service like Google maps does?

I will also look into Android auto apps like WAZE.

Again, Many thanks for all the comments

-jgracey

Great comments from all. I believe that all the technology will soon come together and the results will be fantastic.

You can store offline, and thus you can use HERE Maps without using data minutes (I've actually used HERE Maps before in travel on a cruise ship where I didn't want to pay international roaming or what the cruise line charged for wifi, and it served me quite well).

My recommendation would be to download the maps to store offline somewhere you have wifi, but after that, you should be OK.

If you are OK with apps with free versions where traffic guidance is the "premium" feature--CoPilot is also excellent, and (additionally) allows the use of POIs from sites like POI Factory (I actually use CoPilot USA for EXACTLY this--and yes, it comes with lane guidance, I can import POIs in TomTom or (with some minor tweaks) even the raw CSVs from POI Factory, and can store maps offline (and I do find the maps are updated at least as often as Garmin). Usually I forego the POIs that are bundled in and add the POI Factory POIs for rest areas, truck stops, and various mom-and-pop places ). I can verify that CoPilot USA, at least, works happily in areas with little to no functional cell signal (used to be on T-Mo and Sprint which are almost useless in most of KY and CoPilot worked fine, there's parts that NO cell provider covers in KY and CoPilot worked fine then too).

The one downside to HERE Maps is the lack of POI import (or at least easy POI import).

I honestly don't bother with the traffic package as a) that does need data and b) quite frankly anywhere where traffic is going to be a CONCERN is going to have sufficient cell signal that you can use Waze (which I pretty much find superior to even Google Maps for actually navigating around traffic jams in cities). In areas with a low enough population that you don't have cell signal from AT&T or Verizon, you can safely get by with an app like HERE Maps or CoPilot that allows offline routing and stores maps offline (even Garmin traffic guidance is probably not so helpful in this case as Garmin traffic guidance relies on either a smartphone or an HD radio signal, and the areas lacking cell traffic...also tend to lack HD radio signals).

Also--if the screen size is an issue (and frankly that's about the ONLY real objection--seeing as most smartphones can actually happily use GPS even in full "airplane" mode including Google/Motorola, Google/Huawei, Samsung and HTC kit--when using a good GPS app) the good news is that it's possible to run these on tablets too (Pretty much all the iPhone GPS apps can run on a modern iPad or iPad Mini, and you can still find Android tablets and "convertibles" with GPS capability and wifi (that don't even have cellular capability!) that still happily run CoPilot and HERE Maps in offline mode). Now mounting the tablet is probably another thing

(Seriously, I've been on this site close to seven years, and literally the same objections that have been Not Entirely True for smartphone GPS apps versus Garmin dedicated GPS's have been hashed, rehashed, sliced, diced, covered, smothered and chunked almost the entire time. Smartphones don't need cell signal to use GPS and havene't for almost a decade (and if anything, smartphones actually have better satnav capability than comparable Garmin units anymore, both on sensitivity and being able to use multiple satnav constellations including GLONASS/Galileo/etc. in addition to GPS). Smartphone apps have been able to accept POIs literally since the days of Windows CE based PocketPCs (iGO was the first, and CoPilot has been able to accept POIs in at least TomTom format for the past decade; Sygic, which is more Euro-friendly, also has had POI capability for at least the past four or five years). Smartphone apps do have offline lane guidance (and have for at least the past six or seven years). Smartphone apps have had offline maps that were provided by the exact same providers making maps for GPS devices literally since the days of the Palm Pilot (in fact, many of the map companies are actually OWNED by smartphone OS manufacturers nowadays!). Nowadays, a good smartphone app (increasingly FREE, and at its peak an app that cost $20-40 AT MOST and usually closer to $9.99 on Your Favourite App Market and almost ALWAYS subject to sales around the holidays!) actually has comparable functionality in every way to a Garmin GPS (even the newer Garmin kit relies on smartphone apps to provide data to avoid traffic jams because...surprise, surprise...the actual data provider for the HD Traffic is HERE Maps!) Even screen size is comparable (as the smartphone apps also work with tablets and "phablets"). If you like your Garmin, all good; different strokes for different folks (and some folks really do like a dedicated GPS for whatever reasons). Do realise that smartphones have had equivalent capability for quite some time, though, and those of us who choose to use a smartphone as our "daily driver" for GPS nav aren't necessarily getting an inferior experience--please don't spread misinformation!)

Well said kusuriurikun. A very good report. I have used Here Maps off line on many occasions. When out and about in our travels always something coming up we need to find. The smartphone is always with us so very easy to pull up Here Maps. Still use the 2597 for the big trips.

I'm using Google Maps on my phone more and more, but I appreciate having my Garmin at the same time, because it gives me a wider view of my surroundings. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I can locate myself on the map better with the Garmin.

I use my smartphone for navigation generally. It has some shortcomings but is more convenient and generally more up to date than my Garmin.

I use both. Each has there own shining features that are useful

Kusuriurikun has covered the subject very well.

My 2 cents: I have only used an Android app on a tablet (and smartphone) for navigating in my car after retiring my paper maps. I guess it depends on the app, but they have similar functionality as a standalone gps unit. Once all the data has been downloaded to the app, it needs no further connection to the Internet to function, except if you want real time info such as traffic and safety cameras.

First off, even though I have a smartphone, I basically only use the phone for the occasional calls.
Therefore I do not have DATA. I was burned a few years ago when I used my then Nokia phone to try the map feature. When I got my next phone bill it was just over $ 200.00 because using the maps required a Data plan.
I can travel all over North America including Mexico using my Garmin and never have to worry about any charges or being out of cell coverage, which I frequently am. I also do not have to worry about roaming charges using my Garmin.
I have yet to encounter some road not in the Garmin, though to have a new toll road shown in Mexico may be a couple of updates behind. I know of one for instance which opened in the middle of November and it is only partially shown on Google maps or Google Earth. It still shows it under construction.On another forum website of which I am a member of, that information is quickly discussed giving access to and from where etc.

I also use both devices. Not at the same time though. It depends on the trip length and if I will need my POI files.

Yes. This is the setup and compromise I need.

Don't have complete cell coverage between Colorado and California.

I use car GPS for convenience.(Built into car) The problem is having to update it at the dealership. (Gets expensive) If I use the GPS on my phone I use one that downloads a set of maps so I am not reliant on Data/Internet connection. (Sygic) I just get tired of having to hide the Garmin GPS every time I leave the car. (Theft)

The Garmin app does not NEED cell service. It has onboard maps. My iPhone 6 with the Gamin North America app is just like my Garmin (64S and Montana) as far as features and functionality. The addition of cell service connectivity is nice, but not necessary. I sold the Montana and use the Garmin app on the iPhone instead.

How is the data usage using smartphones?

Thanks for posting. There are interesting arguments on both sides of this issue.

Coming to android any time soon?

I enjoy commercial free music on XM. With the relatively cheap cost of XM, I enjoy it more than commercial radio or having to use CD's.

I have the HERE app installed on my Android phone. Gives decent routing in a pinch.

Every now and then I'll get a free couple months of SiriusXM Radio when I get my Jeep serviced at the dealer. There's only one station I listen to for the most part, "Bluesville" and they had a playlist that repeated a lot through the week, $175 a year currently, certainly not worth the money for me, it's not really cheap, unless you get the low price offers in the mail and keep quitting after the trial period. As for commercial free the DJ's tend to talk a lot between tunes, might as well be a commercial.

My Jeep has a 28GB user hard drive, have over 3000 tunes on it, no talking ever, plus I can use a USB stick filled with even more tunes, I can listen to music for a few months and not hear the same tune twice.

I am with soberbyker when it comes to Serius XM. Their marketing practices are annoying and border-line predatory IMO. Once you subscribe, you can't just let your subscription expire. There is no way to cancel on-line or via mail. They keep charging your credit card forever. To cancel the subscription, you have to call them and listen to their spiel trying to convince you to keep the service. And if you change credit cards, or if your old card expires, they start sending you invoices, and if you don't pay, they turn it over to a collecton agency.

Until they are willing to offer it as a no-subscription, pay as you go service, I refuse to use Serius XM. I even declined the 3 month free subscription when I bought my last car. Unfortunately, the car salesman set up the subscription anyway, and they have been hounding me ever since.

I have that too, but what I'd really like is something with the garmin UI, that can handle routes/tripplanner functions.

Android Battery goes fast enough with normal use, let alone as GPS

That's for sure, forgot that point.

They count on you losing the number or forgetting. Even a pay as you go plan would not appeal to me, I have a hard time paying for something I pretty much would only listen to the hour or so a day I am in my car. As mentioned, with the built in hard drive and use of a USB stick I can tailor my music to my liking with no talking in between songs.

When the free 6 month subscription expired on my new pickup, I decided not to continue the service since I rarely use the radio. Xm kept billing me anyway and just ignored my phone calls to cancel. I finally had to threaten them with legal action before they backed off.

I still get 3 emails a week offering some deal or other. I have them on my email block list but somehow, they get around it.

I'm surprised the government hasn't forced them to change their agressive and quasi legal marketing practices.

On a recent trip I used google maps for traffic data across 4 states. It was plugged into a usb port in the left side of the dash.

I replaced one of the switches there (sonar audio on/off iirc) with one of these - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-USB-Charger-Audio-Input-Port-I... . Provided enough current to keep a moto g4 play (xt1607) fully charged with the screen on and navigating.

Total data used over 650 miles was around 50 or 60 MB. The car itself also has xm traffic capability but I've long let that expire/end because it only showed interstates and maybe a few major arterial streets. Useless IMO.

Wow, that is scary. Has there been class action lawsuit filed against Sirius XM regarding their predatory service?

Wife asked if I grabbed the garmin. Since i remembered what cell service was like over there and in deep east TX, I told her to look on the dash of the car. That being said, we used the cell phone whenever we had service and the GPS for breadcrumb trails or when not enough cellphone data coverage. Also, we made sure to do searches when we had coverage so we hardly used the garmin.
2000 mile round trip was less than 130MB data.

I don't think the Android Auto works as well as my Garmin 3597. My car seems more geared for an IPhone. in order to use the Android Auto, I need to plug it into the USB port and cant use the port for anything else.

Yes, it works the same way on the Kia. The advantage of plugging it in is that it keeps the smartphone battery charged. Also, I keep some music on my phone SD card, so I can play that through the Android Auto (Google Play or several other apps). I have found the music play to be much more reliable through the USB than through Bluetooth.

On the Kia, Apple CarPlay (which is similar to Android Auto) also requires the direct USB connection. I don't know if this is true on other brands, but on the Kia, both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connect through USB.