We were gifted a Garmin GPS for Christmas this year. It’s quite nice. Here are a few short notes about it in comparison with the GPS of the iPhone 3G…
Accuracy
The Garmin GPS unit has greater accuracy than the iPhone by about 5 feet from what I can tell. That’s not too big of a deal but the other noticeable thing was that it updates significantly faster that the iPhone GPS. It has no problem locating you while you are on the move, even at highway speeds. This is my biggest complaint with the iPhone GPS which I wrote about previously. I imagine this is because the Garmin unit provides more power to it’s GPS chip.
Connectivity
The Garmin doesn’t require internet connection for the maps. They are already on the device. This is good and bad. It’s good because it doesn’t matter if you are in range of a cell phone tower. You can still view the maps. It’s bad because you only get what’s on the device and it will eventually get outdated. Garmin charges for the map updates so that’s a big bummer. In contrast, the iPhone is always up to date and you’ll never pay for the maps since they are pulled from google.
Usability/Interactivity
The user experience on the Garmin is designed to be very simple but it uses some out-of-the-ordinary conventions. The biggest issue I have experienced is the data entry. The keyboard layout is a big alphabetic block. It’s very different from a traditional keyboard. I find it clunky because it is so much different than the qwerty keyboards that I’m used to on other mobile devices. The iPhone keyboard is smooth and natural. It’s offers a much faster method for data entry.
The Garmin defaults to a 3D view of your car on the road. It speaks to you and tells you when you are about to come up on a turn. It also automatically recalculates directions if you miss a turn. The iPhone follows you but if you miss a turn it doesn’t take any corrective action.
Conclusion
The the Garmin is built specifically as a navigation device and it performs it’s primary functions very well. It appears that the GPS features were kind of an after thought on the iPhone. It’s level of design is not up to par with other Apple products I’ve used. If you are looking for a GPS unit, don’t expect the iPhone to compare with the Garmin devices out there… at least, not yet. The beauty of the iPhone however, is that it recieves free periodic updates that improve features and user experience.
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