TomTom for iPhone with car kit review
By Benny Har-Even,
Rating: 
Price as reviewed:£99 inc.VAT plus £59.99 for UK and Ireland maps
When the iPhone 3GS was released, one of the few hardware features that gave it an edge over the standard 3G was its built-in physical compass. This gave it the potential to be used for turn-by-turn navigation, a feature that iPhone users had long been waiting for. Eventually, at Apple’s WWDC in June 2009, GPS leader TomTom demoed its software running on the iPhone and by mid-August you could actually buy the app itself from the App store.
Even better, TomTom said that it would be releasing a custom car kit designed for the iPhone, making what would surely be the ultimate navigation solution on the market. Oddly there was some confusion over the release of the TomTom car kit, which appeared on the Apple online store in September but was soon pulled. However, it was finally made available in October.
The TomTom app does not come bundled with the car kit though, and has to be purchased separately from the App Store. The price of £59.99 inc. VAT for the UK and Ireland maps raised eyebrows, especially as CoPilot Live is available for just £26.99.
If you want maps for all of Europe it costs £79.99, while other individual regions will cost an extra £34.99 to £52.99, depending on the area, so those costs can soon really mount up. And if you want to ‘mount-up’ your iPhone – using the long awaited car-kit, that will cost you an extra £99.95 inc VAT.
Therefore if you’re considering the TomTom car kit and the UK maps you’re looking at just under £160 – which comes in over the price of a dedicated TomTom unit such as the TomTom One, which Amazon UK will send you for just £113.94. The iPhone TomTom combination then really has to justify itself to be worth the extra cost. But does it?
The official car kit offers several benefits, such as an integrated GPS module based on a SirfStar III chipset - the same chip you’ll find in most standalone satnav devices. When connected, this supplants the one in the iPhone and should deliver a much stronger signal.
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So where's the benefit?
Let's say I have an iPhone and a bluetooth hands-free kit; now I need Sat-Nav. My options - £158 for a solution that runs on my iPhone or a dedicated Tom-tom for less. I've had an integrated solution before and the observation that the map disappears for an incoming call reminds me of the time that happened approaching a complex junction on the edge of Leeds - several miles and many minutes later I was eventually back going the right direction! Sorry - not convinced!
By CoxJul on Friday Nov 27
Correction
Your first paragraph must be incorrect because both TomTom and CoPilot work on the 3G as well as the 3GS. A compass is most useful when walking or stationary, but is not essential for turn-by-turn navigation and is often not a feature of stand-alone units. Apple's ban on turn-by-turn must have either been commercial, or perhaps the realisation that it would just highlight the shortcomings of the built-in GPS.
By JohnHind on Friday Nov 27