I know this thread is getting pretty old but I thought I would pop in my personal observations from a short trip I took a couple days ago. It was about 100km each way.
For background, I use a handheld (Garmin iQue 3600) in a dash mount for in-car navigation. I've had this setup for about five years and I'm really happy with it. The only thing I could wish for is the nice bright screens that the newer handhelds have for easier daytime viewing. I especially like this setup because I have no place to put a laptop in my mini-SUV (2007 Honda CR-V).
On Wednesday I was going over to Moose Jaw to visit a friend. I was travelling solo and I was taking my laptop along to share pictures of a recent vacation. So I decided to play with my laptop's nav software which I've mostly "driven" in my office and short trips around the block.
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- I used the i.Trek M7 combo Bluetooth/USB receiver up on the dash in Bluetooth mode. After this trip, if I was going to use my laptop for in-car navigation I wouldn't even consider using a USB receiver. With the
Bluetooth GPS receiver there are no cables to restrict where you can place the receiver and the laptop.
- I'm still dazzled with Mobile PC's gorgeous map display on the big laptop screen every time I use it. As you drive, the display updates smoothly and the vehicle icon is perfectly positioned all the time. For simple in-car navigation it's the choice, no contest.
- If you want more data on the screen while driving, and easy function key access to the various data tabs, it's also no contest. nroute makes that stuff much easier to get at. With Mobile PC you can't get most of that data onscreen simultaneously with the map view and it's always a nuisance to get at it through the menu system.
I ran the same route simultaneously on my handheld to see if there were any differences in the routing or the voice directions.
- I didn't really notice any great benefit to having the street names spoken in the direction prompts (text-to-speech) but I know the route and I'm used to sneaking a peek at the top line on my handheld to see the street or exit name for the next maneuvre. It's possible that in a strange location and heavier traffic I would find the text to speech more useful.
- I was able to crank enough volume out of the laptop's internal speakers to hear both Mobile PC and nroute over the road noise at highway speeds.
- I found it easier to hear and understand the natural voice prompts from nroute than the synthesized voice from Mobile PC, but it wasn't a huge difference.
- I wasn't crazy about the voice prompt sequence from Mobile PC, especially on roads that are higher speeds. At highway speeds my handheld and nroute give an early warning a couple of kilometres before a maneuver. Mobile PC didn't do that. All give a warning at about half a kilometre and another around 200 metres. My handheld and nroute give the last warning at 100 metres. Mobile PC does not give a close warning like that. But it strangely gives a final instruction to "Turn right onto X Street" a few seconds
after you make the turn. At exactly that same point my handheld and nroute are giving a prompt of how far to the next maneuver. I thought that was a lot more useful.
- Mobile PC noticed the off-route situation and forced a recalculation a little sooner than the handheld and nroute. In some situations this could be annoying ... the handheld and nroute are more tolerant of small differences between the map data versus reality and won't usually trigger a recalculation unless you really are off route.
- Mobile PC and nroute did the recalculations much quicker than the handheld - almost instantaneously. No surprise when you consider the horsepower difference between a relatively new laptop processor versus a relatively older Palm PDA.
Overall, I found the same thing most have found. Mobile PC is a lovely program for in-car navigation. It's about the same as using one of Garmin's Nuvi handhelds except with a lot more map on the screen at any zoom level. If I could find a way to mount my laptop, or if I can figure out how to build a car-puter with touchscreen, Mobile PC is my choice for the on-road nav stuff. I would continue to use MapSource/nroute for everything else, eg. trip planning and map/waypoint/route/track management.
...ken...
