Problem is it eats through your data. Heaven forbid you want to use it abroad. As for actual satnavs, any old one will do. My Garmin cost £70 about 3 years ago, it was the cheapest one in the Currys I went past when I was lost in Birmingham, and it still does me fine today. Most worthwhile impulse buy I've ever made.
Really though, it's 2015, they're one of those gadgets that if you manage to buy a bad one of, it's because you're a moron who bought a Chinese knock off on eBay for £30 or something. Smartphones have made them pretty much redundant in the same way as standalone MP3 players and cameras, so there's a pretty uniform level of functionality across the board.
Your most serious purchasing decision should probably be whether you prefer the interface on a Gartmin or a TomTom. You can pay extra for gimmicks like live traffic information and whatnot, and I think most of them already have stuff like speed camera warnings built in as standard by now. I can't actually think of a single feature I really desire in a satnav beyond telling me where the fuck to go, though, so if you're anything like me the basic model should be fine.
There are loads of apps that provide offline mapping. Google Maps can pre-cache the data you need over wifi, or you can download the TomTom app. Ten quid gets you a decent in-car charger and a dashboard mount.
>>24900 +1 for TomTom app - I think its the most expensive app I own (27 quid I think for the UK version) but worth its weight in gold. The original TomTom devices always had the easiest to use software and the modern apps are really good.
>>24900 I would still use a decent dedicated unit if I had one, though. I generally don't like having my phone doing long-running operations for hours and hours sitting on the dash. Obviously if it's just nipping across to the next town somewhere unfamiliar a phone will suffice but if you're putting in serious mileage at the wheel (e.g. doing the Mongol rally or something) then I'd definitely spend the dough on a dedicated unit.
>>24905 Mate, it just sounds like you are hiding something. Why are you beating around the bush? Come out and say whatever it is you want to say. Do you have a shit phone? Is that it?
The main reason I like having a separate unit is because my phone is already acting as my media player via bluetooth, and usually streaming Spotify (unlimited data).
Yes, I could run Google Maps navigation along with that, but I don't really like the nav blasting out of my car speakers, and it feels like a bit more of a hassle to change albums and shit on the go.
If you don't use your phone as part of your ICE then it's certainly better.
