CoPilot Live 8 Mobile Navigation for Android phones

CoPilot Live 8 Mobile Navigation for Android phones with speed camera warnings, lane guidance and live traffic service.

UK price: £22.60 (one region).

Pros: Functional, great value alternative to a SatNav.
Cons: You’ll need a smart phone.

Verdict: I’ll not be needing that sat nav then, CoPilot is cheaper, neater and does the job.

Rating:

Available from: alk.com

Product Review

For some time now I’ve been thinking about upgrading my unreliable WifeNav for a newer model but I’ve been put off by the prices, mass of wires stuck to the screen with suckers more reminiscent of cheap tea towel hooks and the need to carry yet another gadget.

So when I recently upgraded my phone to an HTC Magic, it got me thinking: GPS plus smart new phone surely equals SatNav. One gadget that would be neat, tidy and good value. The only problem was finding an “App” (that’s what those young people call a piece of software) to install on my phone that actually worked.

I’ve tried free, low cost ($2.99) and Google so-called navigation apps but they’re generally clunky, speak like Stephen Hawking and require Internet access from your phone. That’s okay when you’re in town - but when you’re in the sticks, lost and in need it’s absolutely useless. So I was sceptical when I was offered a chance to trial CoPilot Live 8.

CoPilot Live 8 is far more expensive than other apps available for download, at £22.60 for one country. But CoPilot Live differs in one very significant way. When you download the app you get to choose the country of use and so a complete set of maps are also downloaded to your phone. What this means is that you can download everything over your cheap home wireless Internet before you leave the house and you’ll never need Internet access again. This clearly has an advantage when you get lost in the sticks next time.

My first impressions weren’t great but CoPilot has grown on me since our first outing and I’ve learnt which buttons to press and changed the configuration (a bit). Operating the CoPilot on an HTC Magic can be a little frustrating because the on screen buttons seem slow to respond and entering destination addresses can be a real fiddle with the small non-QWERTY keypad. But the navigation is right on the mark. In fact, it’s so accurate it’s frightening. There’s no need for surveillance. Big Brother will know where I am to within a couple of yards!

Having entered an address CoPilot Live is very quick to calculate routes, more so than some other SatNavs I’ve used and even faster at recalculating routes when you take a wrong turn or ignore the instructions as I frequently do. I tested CoPilot Live around my local area, which I recognise is a challenge for any navigation system and it performed admirably. I was taken on a few magical mystery tours which I wouldn’t normally use but I always arrived without problems. 

At first CoPilot did struggle with negotiating turns in quick succession and was telling me to take the next left or right only yards from the actual turn but then I found speed merchants could opt for earlier warnings. The only problem then was that on some occasions CoPilot told me to stay in the left lane when approaching a roundabout only to be told to take the third exit i.e. turn right!

CoPilot Live comes with a bunch of nifty features comparable with other SatNavs on the market like speed camera warnings, speed limit warnings, and local points of interest e.g. petrol stations, ATMs, hotels and restaurants as well as live services (meaning they require mobile internet access) such as weather and traffic conditions. I did notice that the POI database was a bit out of date - it located a few restaurants in my area which had gone out of business 2 years ago.

All-in-all, sold to man with the smart new phone. In fact, I’ve decided to ditch my maps and retire WifeNav to the back seat to watch videos with my children, when I go on my 2,000 mile trip around France next month. I’ll let you know if I ended up buying a map when I return.