Nob ody likes removing lost, as well as nobody likes profitable too most for the reheated lunch at the authorization grill when there’s the mouthwatering family joint stealing just around the dilemma. Wouldn’t we know it, there’s an app which solves those problems — utterly the couple of of the things, as it turns out. We took the look during a tip iPhone navigation choices in the App Store and narrowed it down to the 5 below, afterwards threw in the no assign opt ion for kicks, covering the operation of prices from giveaway to to upwards of $120 per year. As it turns out there’s the really tangible disproportion between a bonus and a “reward” options here, but is which additional unequivocally value it? Read upon to find out.

The contenders Return to Top

Mapquest
4 Mobile Gokivo
Navigator AT&T
Navigator CoPilot
Live Navigon
MobileNavigator TomTom

Cost Free $4.99 monthly
$39.99 annually $10 monthly
$69.99 annually $29.99
$19.99 annually for traffic $79.99 for North America
$24.99 for East, West, or Central
$24.99 one-time for traffic $59.99
$19.99 annually for traffic

Works Offline No No No Yes Yes Yes

Full Voice (w/ Street Names) No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Time to Launch (seconds) 3 7 10 5 12 10

Plays Music No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Multi-Point Routes Yes No No Yes Yes No

Displays Speed Limits No No Yes Yes Yes Yes

MapQuest 4 Mobile

We’ll begin with the cheapest — and in this box, cheap is giveaway with MapQuest 4 Mobile. (Quick disclaimer: MapQuest is owned by AOL, that owns the primogenitor company.) There’s the reward MapQuest app accessible, MapQuest Navigator, though given 4 Mobile was recently lengthened with voice navigation ( and Navigator doesn’t do anything aswell special compared to a rest of a crew here) you threw it into a brew as well as, whilst we never have the doubt which this is a cheapest choice, it is the ideally able navigation solution.

The app loads by display we where we have been as well as from there we can journey around the map, see circuitously points of seductiveness, and of march get directions. MapQuest 4 Mobile syncs with your online MapQuest account (what, you don’t have one?) enabling we to share single addresses as well as multi-point routes between the browser as well as the app. You do have to exit a app to force it to sync, though it’s great if you’re planning the highway outing during your desktop prior to hopping in the car.
iPhone Navigation – MapQuest 4 Mobile

The app loads really fast and, whilst it doesn ‘t have the dedicated “take me home” button, you can emanate the home residence underneath your My Places online, as well as it’s usually dual taps to launch which. The app is rstherthan delayed to workout directions, as well as once distributed you’re stranded with usually a overhead perspective. Stray off-course as well as you’ll need to daub a shade to get a app to re-route we, that is irritating. Finally, the voice is rstherthan… matter of actuality (to put it mildly) as well as is incompetent to review travel names as well as a similarto, though hey, it’s free even with trade updates, as well as it never got us lost.

Gokivo Navigator

Navigator from Gokivo is a subsequent many affordable choice, clocking in at $.99 to download and $4.99 per month after that (after the free 30 day hearing, or $39.99 annually. For that you get an interface which, during initial glow, looks like the really somewhat reskinned version of Google Maps. Tap upon a search club and up comes the row offering POI searches, new destinations, as well as Yahoo! Local searches. Sadly there’s no home button and no approach to appropriate the home, so you’ll have to makeuseof up asingle of your favorites — or try clicking your heels together.

Destinations have been identified upon which familiar 2D Google Maps interface and any asingle has the lovely “Go!” symbol upon it that, with asingle daub, starts a navigation. That positively minimizes communication though Gokivo was asingle of the slowest to essentially offer up the track. Along a approach no POIs have been displayed, as well as it is a fairly no-flare display, though the Yahoo! Local Search does assistance whatever we competence be lookin g for, as well as this is a initial navigation app amongst this organisation which will let we foolaround music whilst driving. (MapQuest is a only choice which doesn’t.)
iPhone Navigation – Gokivo Navigator

Traffic updates have been automatically achieved as well as, should blockages get out of palm, a app will re-route you around them. You can additionally select to arbitrarily retard any highway along a route which you don’t similarto (we never unequivocally did similarto boulevards) and, of a entirely organic voices here, Gokivo’s is a slightest aurally pleasing, but is still easy to assimilate.

AT&T Navigator

Next up is AT&T’s home charity, AT&T Navigator, starting off as the giveaway download but fast removing costly — $10 per month, or $69.99 for a year. That’s the small tough to swallow given basically the same TeleNav-backed use on Sprint is giveaway, though for that you do during least get entrance to everything: traffic and the ultimate maps as well as POIs, without any additional charges. Load the app as well as we get a clean and elementary interface; only dual taps to get directions home.

AT&T Navigator is a usually choice in a test which allows entrance of an residence by voice, which upon a surface sounds similarto the great underline though is unfortunately awkward in being. Hit “Speak it” insideof a app and it dials we off to centralized voice approval complement. Convey what you’re seeking for, clingto up as well as… we get forsaken behind to a home screen. (No multitasking nonetheless, fol ks.) From here you need to launch the app again as well as find a address we only spoke combined to a Recent Place s list. The process positively works though it’s not probable to do whilst driving as well as is distant slower than just typing in whatever we wish. In alternative difference, it’s more or reduction useless.
iPhone Navigation – AT&T Navigator

The map display is elementary, a 3D perspective that you can draw towards to move around — solemnly. Interactions here have been not just well-spoken compared to a other options. POIs are not shown as we expostulate but a app does suggest the very accessible “Search Along” underline identifying anything you like along your track, even the discerning inventory of gas stations sorted by cost. You can pick the restaurant by sort, as well as even identify that ones have WiFi. En route AT&T Navigator will display your speed as well as, if you’re on the mainroad or other major throughway, can optionally display a speed limit and foolaround the carillon when you’re starting aswell quick. It’s a use the couple of of these apps offer (MobileNavigator, CoPilot, as well as TomTom as good as well as is both hugely irritating and massively beneficial. We only wish it were available upon each street, not only a large ones.

CoPilot Live

Slowly getting some-more costly we move up to CoPilot Live, that is giveaway for 30 days though is $29.99 after which, and an one more $19.99 per year for trade as well as live updates. As we move up a cost scale CoPilot is a first to indeed feel “reward,” with really tasteful graphics as well as well-spoken opening. It’s also discerning to lo ad, quick to track, as well as will not only display POIs of your choosing as we expostulate thoug h can fast re-route we to any of them with the tap.

Buttons have been vast as well as responsiveness is discerning, it’s just three taps to get directions to your designated home address, and a on-screen perspective of those directions (either 2D or 3D) is hugely customizable. You can tweak how mostly as well as how you wish a voice to remind you that approach to go and even discussit it only how lax you have been with speed boundary, assisting to progress a correctness of attainment estimates.
iPhone Navigation – CoPilot Live

The app supports multi-point routes, will automatically send we around trade as well as, in general, gets you on your way fast as well as but any bitch.

Navigon MobileNavigator

MobileNavigator is either some-more or reduction costly than CoPilot Live, depending on how most of a big spender we have been. The full app is $79.99, though Navigon notlongago ripped the republic into 3 chunks, offering up your preference or east, west, or executive navigation for $24.99 any. Traffic updates will set we back an additional $24.99, though this is the one-time price, which over a long-term could make this by far a many affordable preference. So, we could have lifetime navigation with trade for as little as $51 — or as most as $105.

MobileNavigator aswell starts out with the elementary interface as well as the purify address entrance sorceress, presenting nearby towns for discerning preference or, ofcourse, vouchsafing we sort in whatever we similarto. From here it filters streets as well as, e ventually, travel number, with a keyboard delinquent over to numbers, creation typing it all in quick as well as easy. There is the dedicated “Take Me Home” symbol right there on a begin, so it’s only a single daub to get routed behind to your lounge, as well as the DirectHelp use makes it easy to find a closest roadside benefit, sanatorium, military, or pharmacy.
iPhone Navigation – Navigon MobileNavigator

This app is one of dual to suggest Google Local Search, that augments a inner POI database massively. Routing is comparatively discerning, multiple destinations have been supported, a presentation is purify as well as smooth to modernise, and voice superintendence is easy to assimilate.

TomTom

Finally, the many costly up- front price is a TomTom offering, that starts during $59.99 for the entirety of North America as well as will set you behind the serve $19.99 any year for trade. But, for which annual hit we do get a many advanced perspective of trade in this group, a rarely minute glance of stream conditions and real-time popups of situation alerts. If trade is the outrageous concern for we, larger than your regard for preservation, this is expected your most appropriate choice.

The latest version of the TomTom app adds Google Local Search, relating MobileNavigator, and whilst it aswell has the home button, it’s one menu deeper, definition it’s the whole 3 taps to find your way behind. (Gosh.) Like Navigon’s choice there’s the way to fast find a nearest help in an puncture, and multi-destination routes have been upheld. It must be pronounced which a default voice here is substantially a bossiest, though there are dozens to select from as well as this was a usually navigation choice which not usually told us when the spin was entrance though also told us when to stay in a left or right line.
iPhone Navigation – TomTom

Of march, TomTom would adore we to makeuseof the app with a Car Kit. We’ve already reviewed that sold accessory rstherthan comprehensively, so we won’t contend much about it here, solely that having the additional speaker upon the back positively done it easier to listento a voice of any as well as all of these navigation options — though golly if it isn’t pricey.

Testing highlights

We ran all of these apps through weeks of contrast, travelling everyday with any one to see that asingle got us where you were going many fast as well as did a most appropriate during anticipating things along a way. The initial thing you’ll notice about any of these is opening, both in loading as well as in altogether interactions, and MapQuest 4 Mobile installed quickest, in only 3 seconds, with CoPilot Live entrance in the close second during five. Copilot as well as TomTom were both quickest to track us to a internal Amtrak hire, getting us starting in usually 3 seconds, though MapQuest 4 Mobile struggled here, taking the whopping 15. The others were all done insideof seven seconds.

But anything can get we to a train hire. How about something the small trickier? We punched in a name of the new grill that opened just two months progressing, the locally owned place that took over a outworn scale of a former Applebee’s. Alas, notwithstanding betrothed live updates upon most of these options, nothing of a apps had the restaurant in their POI databases. Only MobileNavigator as well as TomTom could find a grill, pleasantness of Google Local Search, as good as CoPilot Live pleasantness of the Live Search (subscription compulsory, and only those 3 were wakeful which a previous franchise ancient was no more. The other three would have resulted in the vi tal downer if you were anticipating to get the Ultimate Trio upon.

All of these options suggest trade info, even MapQuest, as well as all provide varying ways to get during which report. TomTom’s presentation is a cl earest, with the club running up a right side displaying incidents along a track, as well as a highlighted perspective of a map display a expect place of accidents as well as their goods. All a apps provide a easier or some-more formidable approach of removing during this, from an beyond view in MapQuest or usually revelation we about trouble spots upon your track for Gokivo, though again you liked TomTo m’s a most appropriate, with MobileNavigator as well as CoPilot Live not far behind.

Wrap-up

Beyond a highlights referredto on top of there overtly isn’t an a wful lot between these options, though there is a clear feeling of mending quality in a higher-priced ones — except for AT&T Navigator. We didn’t find anything fantastic about it to aver its $120 $69.99 annual price. If it were free like Sprint’s TeleNav-based choice it’ d be the leader hands-down, though it’s not worth the reward here. MapQuest 4 Mobile is free, however, as well as to be honest you could see ourselves relying upon that for day-to-day directions — though you could additionally see ourselves looking longingly during the alternative options whilst you do so.

At $5 per month Gokivo’s Navigator is a most delectable if we only need occasional navigation on the month-to-month basement, though for creation a longer-term commitment we’d go with asingle of a alternative 3, all offering a graphic value of working both offline and online — beneficial when navigating out of those heavy AT&T black holes. And, honestly, any of these 3 performed really good. If your tip priority is trade correctness as well as warnings we feel which TomTom does a most appropriate job of revelation we what’s starting upon and how to get around it as well as, beyond that, offers the top-shelf navigation experience. Meanwhile, if your travels are inall limited to asingle seashore or a other (or a middle bit), a $25 Navigon MobileNavigator packages suggest good worth in again what is a very extensive navigation suite.

But, for the income, CoPilot Live provides a most appropriate mix of facilities, opening, as well as price. It loads the quickest, throws together routes in seconds, re-routes scarcely now, provides a plain as well as easy to parse interface, as w ell as happily diverts we around trouble-spots. And, a most appropriate partial is we don’t have to take the word for it. There’s the 30 day giveaway hearing of most of these accessible, so have with a downloading and see which we puncture the many. Just be warned: alittle of these suckers have a heck of the footprint, so you goal we sprung for the few additional gigabytes prior to you sealed your holdup divided for dual years.

Update: AT&T wrote to let us know there’s additionally a $69.99 annual choice if you’re so inclined!

Update 2: CoPilot doesn’t suggest Google Local Search, though there is the “Live Search” duty which you get entrance to if we allow. Running the poke by there did turn up which hip new internal joint you were seeking for. The essay content on top of has been updated.