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Today’s fight card: Garmin, the “old man” of the GPS world vs youngster TeleNav.  Garmin’s renown for having tons (literally) of products in aviation, marine and just about everywhere else imaginable.  TeleNav focuses on just cell phone navigation and focuses their efforts there.  Which will win out on our testing?

Garmin XT $99 (for cellphones with internal GPS) or $199 (for cell phones without). 
Pros: Great maps, a more logical layout of maps made understanding the road ahead a little easier than TeleNav.
Cons: No spoken streets just a “make left ahead”; leaves me guessing which street I need to turn on.  Menus were difficult to navigate.  Maps are dated.  Traffic not updated regularly for me.
Overall:

TeleNav $9.99 per month (may require $100 GPS receiver if your phone lacks one)
Pros: Voice directions, great menus, traffic checked every 15 min., maps always fresh
Cons: you must be in cell phone coverage at the start of trip or at any point you go off course.  $9.99/month can make it the costlier choice.
Overall:

It seems like such a simple task, designing a GPS system.  I thought I would be ace at it.  Simply say, “turn right” every once in a while and whammo, I am GPS provider.  Not so much.  How often do you need to tell someone they are on the right road?  Do they need to know they should merge onto the highway?  How do you verbally describe a roundabout and where they should get off?  There is a lot to it and as you’ll see, both units have their issues.

Garmin XT

The Garmin comes loaded on a SD chip which contains all the maps and love you’ll need for the software.  The start up is relatively quick and satellites are acquired rather quickly.  You learn quickly the menu system isn’t as slick as their stand alone units.  I had the most frustrating time trying to find the “end” button for navigation.  Seems Garmin doesn’t believe you need one.  After some harsh words with the device and it downright begging me to make a u-turn once I was parked at my destination I discovered I had to use the phone’s (a Samsung Blackjack) go-back button.  Really?  Go back?  Garmin says this is phone dependent.

The maps served up by Garmin were fantastic.  I was able to make out the road ahead with accuracy based on the images Garmin presented.  The screen layout was well done, all the pertinent data was there and easy to see.  This facet was clearly helped by their vast experience.

Next, lets say you are navigating in Rhode Island and want to find a place to eat in Providence.  Imagine the tears of frustration you reap when discovering that Providence is not neatly tucked into it’s alphabetical spot on the list of towns.  No, for some odd reason, Providence earns a spot at the back of the bus, the very end of the list.  Why?  No idea.  I discovered it was there when I got back home.

The biggest gripe I have for the Garmin is the units choice not to speak street names.  Now, no GPS unit I’ve every used gets them all 100% right, but that shouldn’t stop Garmin from trying.  When you navigate on a cell phone, you are already sacrificing screen space.  Having to look at the screen to see the name of the left you are supposed to make is frustrating and really defined the experience for me.  I am driving too fast, in a crowded city, and Garmin demands I take my eyes off the road to confirm the street I am turning onto is the right one?  It just doesn’t work for me.

On to TeleNav

I’ve been using TeleNav regularly for a while now.  In fairness, I know their menu tree real well and their latest version is quite impressive.  I use TeleNav as the bar to beat.  The directions are very good and the voice prompts are excellent.  I found in comparing the too, TeleNav errs on the side of being over comforting to drivers telling us to merge onto the highway in 1/4 mile when we are on the highway ramp and really have no other option (funny how little things can bug you after a while). 

My other gripe is on the new moving map screen, your ETA and distance are in very small type and alternate being on the screen.  I would love to see this bigger and maybe customizable so I don’t have to wait for the next one to come up.  It is like when you drive by a bank, when you want to see the time on the bank sign, invariably you’ll get the temperature for a good minute and vice versa.

TeleNav’s maps were good and its POI is excellent.  One addition that I would love to see is the inclusion of parks, sports fields and others that parents, like me, are forced to drive to.  The businesses are all in there but these non business points are lacking.

Working through the menus is very simple and the GUI is attractive.  One problem I’ve had from the earlier version is the software will freeze up once in a while.  Whether this is a WinMo issue, TeleNav or Samsungs deal, I’ve no idea.  But a restart isn’t super uncommon when using TeleNav for me.  Having the option to key in an address, speak it or go online and plan it (it gets sync’d to your device) is really cool and I’ve used all the options in different scenarios and they work quite well.

And finally, TeleNav needs a cell connection to pull down your maps.  If you are out of coverage, no dice.  If you start in coverage and drive through no coverage you are OK provided you don’t go off track.  If you do, you’ll not be getting help from TeleNav.  This can be fun in the Green Mountains of Vermont where some guy named Bud is drinking out of a jug and watching you drive by his house a couple of times before realizing there is not a guy like Bud on every street: you are driving in circles.

I’ve said it before, using your cell phone for navigation is the future.  Not having a device to stay in your car and possible get stolen is key.  I am done with a gadget for this, a gadget for that; the era of convergence is here and this is one great facet.  Overall, I just couldn’t get around Garmin’s shortcomings and declare TeleNav the winner.  If you find yourself out of range, have concerns about paying for one more thing on a monthly basis or want to be able to transfer the service, strongly consider the Garmin.