GPS Review – SEMIFINAL: TomTom vs Copilot

Yeaaah, that’s right… another bright day, yet another review… this blog is called GPSreviewer, so you should have expected it!

I was thinking that I have 3 reviews until now and only one other software at may disposal… soooo, I’ve decided to look at these first reviews like at a pyramid contest, meaning that the winners of the first 3 reviews are going to battle the 4th software I was telling you about. Battle for what? For the title of “GPSreviewer’s best GPS software” I guess! If I’ll think of some other, more glamorous title, I’ll change it in the meanwhile…

After this short presentation, today I have for you the first semifinal: TomTom, winner of my first review and Copilot, winner of the second one.

Let’s see who’s going through to the FINAL?!

1. Computer graphics / Display performance

	TomTom	Copilot
In 524Mhz processor – Frames per second in routing and non routing	4 FPS	4 FPS
Support of Anti-aliasing on routing	No	Yes
Support of LandMark	No	No
3D free camera view on routing and map	No	No
In navigation get street or POI names by pick in LCD	No	Yes
Configurable map design based on templates	Yes	Yes
Uses real 3D aerial navigation photos	No	No

2. Search efficiency

	TomTom	Copilot
Search concepts accepted	City center, Street name, House number, Postal codes, Crossings, coordinates, POI names, POI proximity	City center, Street name, House number, Postal codes, Crossings, coordinates, POI names, POI proximity
Search for 10, Gran Via – Madrid – No. of clicks needed	10	25
Search for POI: Tourism: Puerta del Sol – Madrid -  No. of clicks needed	14	30 no feedback; takes more than 20 seconds in search
Search for Barcelona, Gran via de los cortes catalanes / Carrer de bac de roda – No. of clicks needed	20	30
Accepts Initials for search	No	No
Recognizes finger movements	No	No
Uses POI category and subcategories	No	No

3. Routing

	TomTom	Copilot
(Madrid / Toledo) – 90KM – seconds to calculate*	7	5
(Madrid / Toledo) – 90KM – No. of clicks needed*	10	21
(Barcelona / Vigo) – 1150km – seconds to calculate*	15	7
(Barcelona / Vigo) – 1150km – No. of clicks needed*	16	20
Quality of calculation	can use IC re-routes	not optimal
Velocity of re-routing*	3	3
Routing options accepted	fast, short, tolls, pedestrian	faster, shorter, pedestrian, line, tools, type of vehicle
Routing block possibilities	distance, roads, alternative, and calculation	roads, alternative, calculation, distance
Safety camera support	Yes	Yes
Info Lane assistance	Yes	Yes
Add favourite while routing	Yes	No
Multiple routing	Yes	Yes
Save, import, export routes	Yes	No, but can save and load
* In a 524mhz processor PDA

4. Favourites

	TomTom	Copilot
Number of different categories of favourites accepted	1	1
Information accepted	Name	Name
Customization possibilities	None	None
Search possibilities	Name	None
Import / Export	None	None

5. Reality view technology

TomTom:

On motorways artificial exits simulate lane assistance

On 50 European cities 2D city blocks

Copilot:

Not available.

6. Conclusions:

• Computer graphics / Display performance

TomTom and Copilot’s navigation frame rates are poor, making the navigation far from smooth, but I have to say that the 4FPS rate is better than on other software I’ve reviewed.

• Search efficiency

The search engine efficiency has been proven to be satisfactory using any of the software, regarding the capability of search by concepts like: City centre, Street name, House number, Postal codes, Crossings, Coordinates, POI names, POI proximity.

• Routing

Under this section I’ve analyzed two different routes by car, a medium one: 90km and a long one: 1150km, using a 524Mhz processor.

Both Copilot and TomTom support Info lane assistance and multiple routing but only TomTom can Import/Export routes. Copilot on the other hand has the most complete routing options, while TomTom only has a few: faster, shorter, pedestrian, tolls. But then again, TomTom is the only with the IC re-routes capability.

• Favourites

Although TomTom and Copilot are both quite behind in this matter and their favourites can only store the names of favourite locations, TomTom has a small advantage on the fact that it also allows users to search their favourites by name.

• Reality view technology

TomTom has a limited capability to show the real world and Copilot has none.

Stay tuned! SECOND SEMIFINAL soon!

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