The Best GPS App

The Best GPS App

Garmin streetpilot onboard sG/MY

“The app comes preloaded wiTh maps for boTh singapore and peninsular malaysia.”


It is hard to talk about GPS navigation apps and not mention Garmin. After all, the North American company is one of the biggest names around when it comes to GPS navigation, having recently relaunched their iOS offering with the new Garmin StreetPilot Onboard SG/MY app. As the name applies, the app comes preloaded with maps for both Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.  Anyone who has used a standalone Garmin device before will find the interface instantly familiar. The main menu is classic Garmin, presenting users with only two main options: “Where To?” and “View Map”. The first option brings the user to the usual selection of options such as “Points of Interest”, “Favorites” and “Address” that are also found on Garmin’s standalone devices.  The “Points of Interest” option is probably going to be the one that users are going to use most frequently; we certainly found it to be pretty intelligent in terms of providing relevant search results. It managed to find tourist hotspots, popular shopping malls, restaurants and food centers, and even some of the more well-known auto workshops. Some of the listings even come with phone numbers. We did notice that the app would sometimes take a fair bit of time to generate results. However, this was intermittent as there were also times where  Design & Features the app would give us results quickly.  Handily, you can look up addresses in StreetPilot by either entering them manually, or using postal codes. Alternatively, you  can also look up addresses saved in your Contacts. Lastly, there’s also a Trip Planner option that lets you key in multiple destinations should you  have multiple places to go.  Actual navigation performance is everything you’d expect from Garmin. The app works in both portrait and landscape mode, and has the familiar color scheme that is unique to Garmin. Crucially, it is easy to make out details on the screen while on the move - this is true even when we were testing the app with an iPhone 4S, which has a modest 3.5-inch display.  Moving on, the Street Pilot app possesses all the navigational aids you’d expect such as lane assist, junction view and 3D maps. We found these aids to very useful, especially when approaching more complex junctions. The app also features voice navigation, and we found the instructions to be clear and easy to understand. Unfortunately, language support is limited to only English and Chinese.  Like the TomTom app, StreetPilot’s maps are preloaded, which also explains why this app takes up a massive 1.3GB of storage space. This means that you do not need a live data connection to be able to use the app. This is great if you drive to Singapore often, as you’ll be able to ulitize the mapping  functions fully in Singapore without worrying about incurring exorbitant data roaming charges.  Once again and true to the company’s tradition of creating easy-to-use navigators, Garmin has created a fuss-free GPS app that does the job of getting the user from A to B in the quickest, most efficient route possible.
  
Navigation performance was one of the best, thanks to its clear and succinct onscreen and voice instructions, while its choice of routes were the most logical and sensible. On the flip side, the app does takes up lots of storage space and it is not as feature-packed as others. That said, as an app to find the best route to get you quickly and efficiently from one point to another, it is hard to beat the Garmin StreetPilot app’s overall functionality and ease of use.


Overall Analysis 

 With so much bad press surrounding Apple Maps, we approached the app  with a bit of apprehension. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the app worked well enough. It managed to find addresses and places of interests with ease and routing was also logical.   Google Maps is easily one of the most refined free-to-download GPS apps for both iOS and Android. We like that it could also look up places of interest and offer reviews and provide contact numbers. However, both Apple and Google’s GPS solutions require a live data connection to work. This restricts their usefulness especially if you are abroad or if your data connection is poor.  In that sense, Nokia’s Drive+ is much more useful as it lets users download complete maps of countries and regions and can be used entirely offline. It is a competent navigator, but unfortunately, apart from  offering routes from one point to another, Nokia Drive+ does little else.  Waze is an interesting GPS app with lots of potential. The best thing about Waze is its ability to provide real-time traffic updates from other Waze users on the roads. However, this feature requires a critical mass of users to truly shine, and in Malaysia at least, Waze has yet to reach that magic number.  Finally we come to the TomTom SEA app. Although pricey, the app is packed with loads of features, integration with popular social media services, maps of surrounding countries and offers TomTom’s unique IQ Routes technology. While all of this sounds good on paper, the app was disappointing in practice mainly because it doesn’t let one search using postal codes. Furthermore, routing at times was a bit illogical.

 developer : garmin
version : 2.1
size : 1.33gb
plaTform :  ios
price :  s$38.98 (rm97)