Technology Thailand

Sygic SEA: Finally an iPhone GPS solution for Thailand!

Sep 19, 2009 00:21

It's been a while since the 3.0 software for the iPhone has been released and with it the promise of allowing third-party developers to make turn-by-turn navigation a reality on the platform. Tom Tom has a solution for the US, but it's not available for the Thailand App Store. Those hoping to use Google Maps may be a bit disappointed as most of the country is covered by EDGE or GPRS, which does not allow you to stream map updates in a timely manner.

Don't even think about driving with it on 3G here, it's just not good enough yet.

Before finally giving in to getting a standalone Garmin, I stumbled across an app called Sygic SEA (Southeast Asia). Doing a bit more research, I found out that there are versions of this app for Windows Mobile and Symbian, as well as an Android version of this app called Sygic Mobile Maps, which now comes standard on the HTC Magic which is sold in Singapore. Can something which is bundled with a handset be that good? I had to find out.

But ouch, US$79.99 for an app, whoa! But wait, no worries, this seems to be standard with standalone GPS units as well as the Tom Tom app in the App Store. A definite plus is that this app costs about US$20 less than a comparable Tom Tom app for the same region. A purchase and a few minutes' loading time later, I had the US$79.99 app on my iPhone. I know what you're thinking, for that amount of money, you can get a standalone GPS unit, though it may be an older unit.

But for the sake of not having to carry around another device and its charger and cables, I think this is a rather good compromise. 

Loading up the app for the first time, you're taken through an initial setup process. First you select a language, then a voice prompt. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this had Thai voice prompts as well, but I chose US English. Next is the unit you prefer for measuring distance. Once that is done, you are taken to a quick guide screen.

Selecting one brings up flash card-style tutorials, no voiceovers here. Accepting its warning of not using the unit while driving, yadda, yadda, yadda, you then have to allow the app to use your GPS.

   

  

I ran into problems after that as it was unable to get a fix on my location. After getting a fix, it would intermittently lose the lock, or else the icon representing my position would seem to wander in a different direction from where I was heading. It turned out that my GPS chip was defective and I needed a new iPhone.



Moving forward in time to one week, I have my new iPhone in hand with the app reinstalled. This time, the app was able to get a fix despite my being inside a house!

Jumping into the passenger side of the car with the iPhone affixed on the windshield holder, I fired up the app and started to set the destination to a predefined place.


(Sorry about all to smudges on the screen) 

Let me tell you now that this app appears to have ALL districts (Ampurs) that are in Thailand in its directory. Quite impressive! With what appeared to be hundreds of entries, scrolling down to look for one was out of the question. If I wanted to get to my destination, I would be better off using the keypad to attempt to key in the spelling of the district where my destination is located in. This was a bit tricky as there seemed to be many deviations to the English spelling of places (even provinces) and locations in Thailand. Finding the right district, I was met with another extensive list of street names. I was unable to find a matching street name, so that was a bit of a bummer.

Cutting a long story short, as with any GPS software for Thailand, knowing landmarks in the vicinity of your destination is a must. Because Thailand is still developing many of its provinces, new roads and housing projects are constantly popping up. This makes finding a specific address a bit taxing sometimes. Sygic seems to have anticipated this and cleverly added a comprehensive list of points of interest and a very useful feature which lets you look up locations by inputting the postal code. This helps to narrow down your search for specific streets considering that there could be dozens of streets and POIs with the same name in any given province. 

After finding a nearby mall through the point of interest feature, I was able to find my intended destination. On the plus side, it seems there are several non-English keyboard settings you can select from, including Thai, so they may have plans for local language versions of the app in the works.



Now, I don't have much to say about this app while navigating, other than it was spot-on. From pinpointing my position to the calculations. By default, the list of POIs comes turned off except for a few essentials like gas stations, restaurants, etc. You'll have to enable the ones you prefer to view or all if you like information overload. Not paying attention to the the "Enable All" button on the bottom of the screen, I went through and manually enabled all the POIs. The map lit up like a moderately decorated Christmas tree.

 

As with standalone GPS devices, this app had features that let you locate near by POIs, add POIs, set routes, avoid certain roads and browse the map to set destinations which have not yet been identified and tagged by the software.

 

The quality of the roads and landmarks on the map is much better than Google Maps, but appear to lack the "flare" of maps that come with more modern GPS units. Rerouting after missed turns is done quickly. The app rotates the display into landscape or portrait almost as quickly as you do with the iPhone. The HUD is completely customizable with four indicators that you can set to display different values, from signal strength, current speed, remaining time to destination, distance to destination, distance traveled, current time, average speed, elevation and total length of travel.

 

Route planning is very flexible and goes beyond what lower-end dedicated GPS units like the Garmin Nuvi 200 series offer. This includes settings for fastest route, economic route, shortest route, pedestrian route, bicycle route. You can also set routes with multiple waypoints under the itinerary feature. You can save multiple itineraries which come in handy for presetting a list of routes for a trip or just saving everyday routes just in case you find yourself disoriented for some reason. 

Bottom line: This is a very good app. Precise tracking, extensive list of locations and landmarks. More importantly, with the help of the iPhone's screen, it is no harder to use than a dedicated GPS device, something which a phone with integrated GPS needs to address. Have you tried to input a location, while at a red light, on a Nokia phone? If so, you get my point.

With the good comes the bad, so here we go, no sugar coating here.

1. GPS kills the iPhone battery in a very short period of time. Unless you're doing some quick trips or walking to a destination, I'd suggest you invest in a car charger and windshield/dash mount for your iPhone. You drain the battery, you lose the whole shebang, i.e. your phone, organizer, PMP and portable gaming "console".


2. Because the iPhone still does not do background processes, each time you get a call, you lose navigation. But luckily, the software brings you back after the call and continues your route.

Depending on your needs, having an all-in-one solution or separate devices has its benefits, but if you have an iPhone and are looking for a Tom Tom alternative, you don't have too many choices for Thailand maps. Luckily, Sygic has made a damn good app for the iPhone, which fills this gap.

Recent Comments

 

Most Discussed

 

Browse Archive