Navmii for iPhone / iPod Touch review

The iPhone GPS software market is getting crowded these days with all of the big names looking to dominate. Navmii is the latest name to enter the market and has immediately thrown down the gauntlet by offering the UK & Ireland version for just £19.99. Also available are a range of titles which cover specific states in the US which is a clever marketing technique for those travelling to a particular area and at £7.49 you are not risking a lot. Here is a quick rundown of the features included in the app-

Easy-to-use complete satellite navigation for your iPhone & iPod touch
Clear, easy to read maps for all devices (iPhone 2G & iPod Touch 2G also supported)
Complete Onboard solution – No Monthly fees & No Data charges
Option of viewing the map in either 2D, 3D or a safety screen
Fast route calculation and automatic re-routing should you miss a turn
Voice and visual turn-by-turn route guidance
Constantly update information about your journey: Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) and distance to destination
Speed limit warnings both on safety screen and map
Day/Night mode
1000’s of POI included

As you can see, all of the basics are covered that we expect to see in a GPS app in 2010. Those who require traffic may be dismissive, but the reliability of such features is often brought into question so it makes more sense to look at what navmii does, and more importantly how well it does it.

For those that need a basic navigation solution, Navmii will serve them perfectly well, but for those who want something more sophisticated it passes that line as well. It is rare to find a navigation solution that manages to fill the budget market and the more lucrative high-end market yet still keep the price nearer the budget side.

The interface is easy to view and works well in busy and sparse areas, but does lack the professionalism of TomTom and Co-Pilot. This may be a bias on my part because I am so used to the more expensive solutions and when I thought long about this I realised that it displays the roads around me very well indeed and thus I am most likely being far too harsh. The seed camera pop ups are clear and pushed off to allow the main view space and the way in which the data you need is ordered on screen feels natural after your first couple of trips. The various route views are useful, but I must admit to rarely moving away from the traditional 3D view on any system.

The menus are easy to use with large buttons that are a snip to tap in a hurry, but again the overuse of colours gives the impression of a solution that is less professional than it actually is. The fact is that Navmii includes a huge variety of options and the interface could be simplified to demonstrate that fact the first time you look at it.

The main focus of a navigation app should of course be navigation though and this is where Navmii really surprised me. I drove from Crawley to Manchester using Co-Pilot and was taken on my usual route which means a lot of hassle as I reach Manchester city centre. The next week I had to take the same journey again, but this time used Navmii. Everything was the same until I reached the outskirts of Manchester and 15 minutes was chopped off my journey. I am not good with locations and roads, hence my dire need for GPS, but in a number of tests Navmii has taken me on different routes which on the whole involved much less hassle.

The spoken directions are timely, but not as clearly spoken as some other solutions and the speed of calculation for long journeys is super quick. Points of interest are easy to find and they seem to be comparable to competing solutions. All in all I have struggled to find any major issues with Navmii GPS so far.

It claims to work with the iPod Touch using G-Fi which is currently on sale at $99, but this appears to be a US only product at the time. I must say that the way the app is displayed on iTunes could do with some re-wording to make it ‘very’ clear that you need to buy G-Fi to use an iPod Touch with Navmii.

When I consider the options available in Navmii and the performance it is up there with some of the best. When I consider the price, it heralds a new dawn for navigation software. It is a huge bargain at under £20 and should suit the needs of most iPhone owning drivers.

More details at www.navmii.com