TomTom Navigator for iPhone

TomTom Navigator for iPhone - Europe £70 TomTom Navigator for iPhone - UK&IE £40

As a leading manufacturer of stand-alone stanavs, the Dutch firm TomTom couldn't really ignore the growing success of the iPhone. The TomTom iPhone app hit the App Store last summer, with regular updates and the optional TomTom Car Kit following suit. The app's functions are now very close to those found in the brand's higher-end satnav units.

A choice of versions

Several local versions of TomTom for iPhone are available. The UK and Ireland version is priced at £49.99, a full Europe version sells for £69.99 and a Western Europe edition is available for £52.99. Editions are also available for the US, Canada and more.

The last update (1.4.1), released in July, allowed users to update their maps free of charge, something not often seen in stand-alone GPS units!

We used the updated version of the app in our test (1.4.1), which is compatible with iOS 4. For the moment, we've only been able to test the application on an iPhone 3G (and a brief play around in the two more recent models). We'll update this test as soon as we're able to carry out more comprehensive tests on a newer iPhone

This latest update takes full advantage of the multitasking capability brought to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 by iOS 4. This means you won't have to close the navigation application each time you make or receive a call, look up a website, check e-mails, send text messages etc. You'll be able to carry on hearing the voice guidance instructions and you won't lose the route you're currently following, which is very, very practical. Just don't forget to close the app each time you've finished using it to stop it running down your battery!

Design & handling: a well-designed interface for the iPhone

As is usually the way with TomTom products, the interface is both clear and pleasant to use. In other words, you won't need to worry about reading the instructions! To adapt it to the iPhone, the menus now scroll up and down with a simple slide of the finger. The touchscreen controls feel similar to using other iPhone functions, making the app feel well integrated into the phone.
In portrait mode, six of the menu options are displayed, whereas in landscape mode you can only see four. It's a shame you have to scroll though the menu just the access these few options, and a menu with six icons per page, like on the TomTom's stand-alone satnavs, would have been more practical in this format. Your best bet is to keep your iPhone in portrait mode then flip it round to landscape as and when necessary.



Readability is obviously affected by the fact that the iPhone only has a 3.5-inch (9 cm) screen, compared with the 4.3-inch (or even 5-inch) screens found in most stand-alone units. You'll therefore need decent eyesight to follow what's going on, as well as a windscreen that's not too far away from the driver. The screen size and its (very sensitive) capacitive touchscreen controls also make the system quite difficult to use while driving (when in a traffic jam, for example).

The app takes a while to start up in the iPhone 3G. You'll have to wait a good 20 seconds to access the main menu, compared with just 8 seconds for one of the brand's stand-alone devices. Plus, you'll soon realise that it hasn't finished fully loading when the menu is first displayed, as it can be very slow during the first few seconds of use. Once it's finished loading, you can scroll and through menus smoothly and with no real problem. This slowness is much less likely to be an issue in newer models of iPhone (3GS or 4).

The navigation interface is just as clear as in the brand's other products. There are no major developments to report, and anyone familiar with TomTom products will find their way around straight away. New users will get the hang of things very quickly too. We do, however, hope that an update will soon modernise the interface in a similar way to the TomTom GO LIVE 1000 (out later this year).
 
Route guidance: effective, plenty of functions, but reliability depends on the handset

Apart from problems with the GPS chip and slow operation in early models of iPhone, route guidance is still a star feature for this app.

Voice guidance is as good as in the brands regular satnavs, with clear text-to-speech instructions and voices that can be user-configured. You can also choose to deactivate certain instructions or sounds.

The destination search is comprehensive and can be used in conjunction with the POI database or Google to find a specific site, attraction or service. You'll soon realise that the POI are pretty limited, and we didn't find the Google search particularly practical or reliable either.

TomTom's IQ Routes function is on hand to calculate routes based on actual road-speed data for the day and time of travel. Advanced Lane Guidance will help you negotiate complicated junctions and stretches of road with confidence. Plus, route recalculation is relatively quick, even in the iPhone 3G.


Real-time traffic information and updates on accidents, diversions etc. are available via the LIVE HD Traffic service. It's a subscription-based service that you do have to pay for (and keep paying), but it's bother reliable and fast, which isn't always the case with TMC traffic info. Subscription to HD Traffic costs £1.19 for one day, £4.99 for one month or £22.99 for a year. The varyious subscriptions can prove practical for busy holiday periods, for example, when a month-long subscription can be perfectly adequate.


Mobile speed camera warnings aren't included, and you can't add cameras to a map or warn other users of their presence like with the Coyote system found in TomTom GO LIVE satnavs. Let's hope an update will put that right soon.

Other functions: Eco Routes and route sharing

TomTom has equipped its iPhone app with the new green feature found in its newer satnavs. This means that as well as saving you the hassle of buying a stand-alone GPS, those kind people at TomTom will even show you the most fuel-efficient route to your destination. This function calculates routes that avoid roads where you'll be likely to slow down and speed up often (crossroads, town centre, etc). Unfortunately, it doesn't take into account the type or size of car, even though smaller cars can be more efficient for city centre than on the motorway (and vice-versa).

Finally, you can change the icon used to represent your car (it's a gimmick, but a nice one nonetheless), as well as share routes with contacts.