The GPS/Maps Discussion Thread (Dedicated Satnav, Smartphones, Tablets, etc)

bigman · 2nd July 2009, 22:39

Garmin maps for India have been around for a while. I was running them on my hacked satnav box and WM smartphone. Never tested them in India but form recall I know that they were not a patch on the MMI maps in terms of getting to small villages in Punjab. For cities the Garmin coverage looked good.

NetfreakBombay · 3rd July 2009, 00:20

Garmin maps are now released by Microsoft for free(Your web browser and the Maps site are incompatible).

Garmin, Microsoft (and Nokia) use maps from Navteq. So quality and coverage is going to be same across these three.

With this link its easy to see which areas are covered by navteq and the quality of coverage.

onesomeone · 8th July 2009, 16:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

AERIAL SERVICES PVT. LTD. - Home

This comapny sells Navteq maps for India. This is in Garmin format. Costs 3k.

MapMyIndia also sells Garmin maps. They cover more cities then navteq but for each city maps are not that good.

Yesterday I called them and they were quoting Rs.7000/- plus tax for the map in an externally purchased Garmin device.

sdmn · 15th July 2009, 13:43

Mapmyindia is now selling Garmin Nuvi 215 and 715 with Mapmyindia maps, along with the other existing devices. The Nuvi 215 was looking like an attractive buy, though my psychological price barrier is 10k. It is selling at 15k right now.

Has anyone tried it yet? Was looking to read first hand experience review on it.

hvkumar · 15th July 2009, 14:09

Quote:

MapMyIndia is terrible, to say the least

That comment was based on my actual use of MapMyIndia map product across 30 cities, 12 States and 12,000 kms.

NetfreakBombay · 15th July 2009, 14:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdmn

Mapmyindia is now selling Garmin Nuvi 215 and 715 with Mapmyindia maps

MapmyIndia's Garmin Maps are terrible for Bombay and Pune, not sure about other cities. It would be better to get a Garmin unit from US / EU and buy India maps (Navteq maps in place of MapmyIndia)

hvkumar · 15th July 2009, 15:55

Here is my review of the MapMyIndia Navigator (earlier version):

Display

 Very user-Unfriendly interface, features not easy to learn or operate

 Impossible to see the display during daytime if mounted on dashboard, too small by night, you can see only if you hold it in your hand.

Maps

 No maps of Arunachal

 No map of Bhutan (which of course is not India)

 Many roads are not mapped

Navigation

 If you do not get spelling right, in many instances it cannot plot

 You have to select Place Name and State, the device does not find place if State is not mentioned

 Database does not have several towns.

 If you ignore its prompt to take a particular route, recalculation is messed up and the device becomes disoriented, with garbled instructions.

 Do away with Optimal/ Fastest route features, it is irrelevant for the highways

 It is unable to calculate routes in some sectors (nowhere in Arunachal, for instance) – e.g. It could not calculate route from Shilapather to Dibrugarh, even on the land route, and definitely not river ferries.

 Has no river ferry information.

 Route Overview is the worst feature, which does not mention towns en route in detail and is unintelligible for it to be of any help.

 Display should have name of Next town en route

 Navigator refuses to work without satellite connectivity. The least feature that could have been given is to calculate from the last known position recorded in the device.

City

 City Maps are very bad. Tried to use it in the following cities:

MH – Thane, Mumbai, Nasik, Akola, Nagpur
CG – Raj Nandgaon, Raipur
WB – Farakka, Haora, Islampur, Jalpaiguri, Koch Bihar, Kolkata, Siliguri
SK – Gangtok, Jortehang, Nayabazar, Rangpo, Singtam
AS – Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Guwahati, Nagaon
UP – Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow
RJ – Kota, Udaipur
GJ - Ahmedabad

 Map is hopelessly out of date for:
- Double roads
- U-Turns
- Flyovers
- One-way roads

 It could not choose the optimal route in the town – selection of routes was bad

 It could not navigate on roads, which had flyovers – e.g. it asked to turn off flyovers

 If it gets disoriented, it directs through roads, which are not navigable either because they are too narrow, congested, 1-ways, etc.

Highway

 Whenever you do not listen to the directions, you get weird alerts asking you to make U-turns 20 kms ahead!

 It is erratic in reciting road turnings – i.e. indications that the road is turning either right or left – and the audio alert comes on sometimes, but most of the time does not.

 Road alignments are wrong in many places, even in National Highways.

 Points of Interest – very poor database, has limited directory of petrol stations. Did not find it useful at all. Feature not easy to use.

 The map does not mark several large towns en route

Others

 The casing is too flimsy. Can get damaged. The LCD frame needs to be thicker so that even if it falls down, the edges will protect the LCD screen.

 The suction cup holder stalk broke even as I was fitting it on the windscreen. There is no other option and I had to clumsily put the broken stalk together.

 The cigarette lighter adapter did not work. Luckily, since I have a power inverter in my car, I could use the regular plug-type adapter.

 Some keys in the LCD screen keyboard do not work unless you press repeatedly or press hard. Overall, a poor quality device.

mukeshgoel · 21st July 2009, 13:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by rishi_kapoor

Well technically I am the first user of LX130 device (confirmed by MapMyIndia), I got it delivered about a week before launch. I am doing a xomparison of Garmin and LX130 and shall post a detailed review soon.

Hi Rishi,

I am planning to buy one LX130 as this is the most reasonably priced on Mapmyindia.com/satguide.in.

Can you please post the review.

Thanks.

sdmn · 21st July 2009, 14:19

All hardware issues can be forgotten if you're going in for a Garmin device. Whether to buy it from Mapmyindia or from the Garmin dealer is the decision to be made. Apparently, the Garmin dealership sells it with Navteq maps that are not at all detailed and have only 18 cities or so mapped so far in India.

As for me, I'm still waiting for the prices to drop. I bought a brand new Magellan in the US for $180 and sold it for $100 after 6 months of use when I returned to India. Prices in India should come down to the $200 levels at least - for the Garmin devices.

hvkumar · 21st July 2009, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdmn

All hardware issues can be forgotten if you're going in for a Garmin device. Whether to buy it from Mapmyindia or from the Garmin dealer is the decision to be made. Apparently, the Garmin dealership sells it with Navteq maps that are not at all detailed and have only 18 cities or so mapped so far in India.

Better to buy reliable maps of 18 cities than unreliable maps of 600 cities!

NetfreakBombay · 21st July 2009, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdmn

Apparently, the Garmin dealership sells it with Navteq maps that are not at all detailed and have only 18 cities or so mapped so far in India.

Garmin has a unique feature that is integration with Google.

If a POI is not in local Map, it would be searched in Google maps online. This way I was able to use it in even small cities in MP which are not covered by Navteq / TeleAtlas or MMI. This would not give you turn by turn navigation, but would help in locating a POI and saving it to "My Locations".

rishi_kapoor · 21st July 2009, 16:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by mukeshgoel

Hi Rishi,

I am planning to buy one LX130 as this is the most reasonably priced on Mapmyindia.com/satguide.in.

Can you please post the review.

Thanks.

My apology for not putting a detailed review since I am hard pressed on time these days. On a quick note, the device is useless and not worth investing at all. If you want to buy it as a toy then its a different issue.

I have tested two devices, Garmin with free OpenCloud map and one mapmyindia lx130 and believe me, Garmin is much better with free maps, the only downside is that navigation is not possible with free maps.

Having said this abot LX130, their map content is good and if you can get Garmin maps from them and buy device from US, I think that is the best combination.

I am trying to get Navteq's India map for Garmin, I shall post review of the same as soon as I receive it. Thanks.

Sportsmind · 5th August 2009, 16:05

Can we have a poll included on this thread, for the best GPS, do include garmin. It should make this thread more intresting.

jassi · 5th August 2009, 16:27

have been meaning to post this - google maps just recently updated their database to allow routing between locations. It now gives nice step by step directions on my car phone (htc diamond)

achinthg · 9th August 2009, 13:24

Planning to buy a GPS device for within city drive in Bangalore and inter city drive in South India. Can anyone please let me know which is the best GPS device for Bangalore and surrounding cities?

2nd July 2009, 22:39	#166
bigman Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: NA Posts: 1,225 Thanked: 94 Times	Garmin maps for India have been around for a while. I was running them on my hacked satnav box and WM smartphone. Never tested them in India but form recall I know that they were not a patch on the MMI maps in terms of getting to small villages in Punjab. For cities the Garmin coverage looked good.
	() Thanks

3rd July 2009, 00:20	#167
NetfreakBombay Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Bombay Posts: 1,481 Thanked: 1,128 Times	Garmin maps are now released by Microsoft for free(Your web browser and the Maps site are incompatible). Garmin, Microsoft (and Nokia) use maps from Navteq. So quality and coverage is going to be same across these three. With this link its easy to see which areas are covered by navteq and the quality of coverage.
	() Thanks

15th July 2009, 13:43	#169
sdmn BANNED Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 135 Thanked: 39 Times	Mapmyindia is now selling Garmin Nuvi 215 and 715 with Mapmyindia maps, along with the other existing devices. The Nuvi 215 was looking like an attractive buy, though my psychological price barrier is 10k. It is selling at 15k right now. Has anyone tried it yet? Was looking to read first hand experience review on it.
	() Thanks

15th July 2009, 15:55	#172
hvkumar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Mumbai Posts: 7,369 Thanked: 3,466 Times	Here is my review of the MapMyIndia Navigator (earlier version): Display  Very user-Unfriendly interface, features not easy to learn or operate  Impossible to see the display during daytime if mounted on dashboard, too small by night, you can see only if you hold it in your hand. Maps  No maps of Arunachal  No map of Bhutan (which of course is not India)  Many roads are not mapped Navigation  If you do not get spelling right, in many instances it cannot plot  You have to select Place Name and State, the device does not find place if State is not mentioned  Database does not have several towns.  If you ignore its prompt to take a particular route, recalculation is messed up and the device becomes disoriented, with garbled instructions.  Do away with Optimal/ Fastest route features, it is irrelevant for the highways  It is unable to calculate routes in some sectors (nowhere in Arunachal, for instance) – e.g. It could not calculate route from Shilapather to Dibrugarh, even on the land route, and definitely not river ferries.  Has no river ferry information.  Route Overview is the worst feature, which does not mention towns en route in detail and is unintelligible for it to be of any help.  Display should have name of Next town en route  Navigator refuses to work without satellite connectivity. The least feature that could have been given is to calculate from the last known position recorded in the device. City  City Maps are very bad. Tried to use it in the following cities: MH – Thane, Mumbai, Nasik, Akola, Nagpur CG – Raj Nandgaon, Raipur WB – Farakka, Haora, Islampur, Jalpaiguri, Koch Bihar, Kolkata, Siliguri SK – Gangtok, Jortehang, Nayabazar, Rangpo, Singtam AS – Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Guwahati, Nagaon UP – Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow RJ – Kota, Udaipur GJ - Ahmedabad  Map is hopelessly out of date for: - Double roads - U-Turns - Flyovers - One-way roads  It could not choose the optimal route in the town – selection of routes was bad  It could not navigate on roads, which had flyovers – e.g. it asked to turn off flyovers  If it gets disoriented, it directs through roads, which are not navigable either because they are too narrow, congested, 1-ways, etc. Highway  Whenever you do not listen to the directions, you get weird alerts asking you to make U-turns 20 kms ahead!  It is erratic in reciting road turnings – i.e. indications that the road is turning either right or left – and the audio alert comes on sometimes, but most of the time does not.  Road alignments are wrong in many places, even in National Highways.  Points of Interest – very poor database, has limited directory of petrol stations. Did not find it useful at all. Feature not easy to use.  The map does not mark several large towns en route Others  The casing is too flimsy. Can get damaged. The LCD frame needs to be thicker so that even if it falls down, the edges will protect the LCD screen.  The suction cup holder stalk broke even as I was fitting it on the windscreen. There is no other option and I had to clumsily put the broken stalk together.  The cigarette lighter adapter did not work. Luckily, since I have a power inverter in my car, I could use the regular plug-type adapter.  Some keys in the LCD screen keyboard do not work unless you press repeatedly or press hard. Overall, a poor quality device.
	() Thanks

21st July 2009, 14:19	#174
sdmn BANNED Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 135 Thanked: 39 Times	All hardware issues can be forgotten if you're going in for a Garmin device. Whether to buy it from Mapmyindia or from the Garmin dealer is the decision to be made. Apparently, the Garmin dealership sells it with Navteq maps that are not at all detailed and have only 18 cities or so mapped so far in India. As for me, I'm still waiting for the prices to drop. I bought a brand new Magellan in the US for $180 and sold it for $100 after 6 months of use when I returned to India. Prices in India should come down to the $200 levels at least - for the Garmin devices.
	() Thanks

5th August 2009, 16:05	#178
Sportsmind BHPian Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 399 Thanked: 32 Times View My Garage	Can we have a poll included on this thread, for the best GPS, do include garmin. It should make this thread more intresting.
	() Thanks

5th August 2009, 16:27	#179
jassi BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Melbourne Posts: 980 Thanked: 12 Times View My Garage	have been meaning to post this - google maps just recently updated their database to allow routing between locations. It now gives nice step by step directions on my car phone (htc diamond)
	() Thanks

9th August 2009, 13:24	#180
achinthg BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 201 Thanked: Once View My Garage	Planning to buy a GPS device for within city drive in Bangalore and inter city drive in South India. Can anyone please let me know which is the best GPS device for Bangalore and surrounding cities?
	() Thanks