All about GPS and navigation systems

I was telling you the other days that a new, “shocking” review is close. Well, the wait is over, and today I have for you a comparison between the navigation software of NDrive and that of Route66.

Why did I say “shocking”? Because the results are a little bit unexpected: NDrive is one of the best nav software that I’ve reviewed until now (I have to compare it to the big boys also, to see what’s it really capable of) and, on the other hand, Route66 which, sad to say, is one of the less performing software here at GPSreviewer.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

1. Computer graphics / Display performance

	NDrive	Route66
In 524Mhz processor – Frames per second in routing and non routing	10 FPS	1 FPS
Support of Anti-aliasing on routing	Yes	Yes
Support of LandMark	Yes, with dynamic view on touch	No
3D free camera view on routing and map	Yes	No
In navigation get street or POI names by pics in LCD	Yes	No
Configurable map design based on templates	Yes	Yes
Uses real 3D aerial navigation photos	Yes	No

2. Search efficiency

	NDrive	Route66
Search concepts accepted	City center, Street name, House number, Postal codes, Crossings, coordinates, POI names, POI proximity	City center, Street name, House number, Postal codes, coordinates, POI names, POI proximity
Search for 10, Gran Via – Madrid – No. of clicks needed	9	23, fuzzy takes more then 5 seconds searching
Search for POI: Tourism: Puerta del Sol – Madrid –  No. of clicks needed	12	19, fuzzy takes more then 5 seconds searching
Search for Barcelona, Gran via de los cortes catalanes / Carrer de bac de roda – No. of clicks needed	15	Not available
Accepts Initials for search	Yes	No
Recognizes finger movements	Yes	No
Uses POI category and subcategories	Yes	No

3. Routing

	NDrive	Route66
(Madrid / Toledo) – 90KM – seconds to calculate*	5	9
(Madrid / Toledo) – 90KM – No. of clicks needed*	9	26
(Barcelona / Vigo) – 1150km – seconds to calculate*	9	22
(Barcelona / Vigo) – 1150km – No. of clicks needed*	14	28
Quality of calculation	***	normal
Velocity of re-routing*	2	5
Routing options accepted	faster, shorter, pedestrian, tolls	faster, shorter, pedestrian
Routing block possibilities	distance, roads, alternative and calculation	roads, distance
Safety camera support	Yes	Yes
Info Lane assistance	No	No
Add favourite while routing	Yes	No
Multiple routing	No	Yes
Save, import, export routes	No	No
* In a 524mhz processor PDA

4. Favourites

	NDrive	Route66
Number of different categories of favorites accepted	Unlimited	1
Information accepted	Name, address, web, email, phones, fax, description	Name
Customization possibilities	Visibility, Scale of visualization, icon	None
Search possibilities	Name, Category, Distance	None
Import / Export	Compatible with Google format – KML	None

5. Reality view technology

NDrive:

On 900 European cities, 3D Aerial photography view on 4 angles + top view and 4 zoom factors, giving perfect view of buildings, gardens, streets…

ROUTE66:

Not available.

6. Conclusions:

Computer graphics / Display performance

By far, NDrive surpasses Route66 in the analyzed parameters. The aerial photo is an very nice feature that makes navigation in major cities much easier and intuitive. Video-like smooth navigation, clean graphics, very intuitive commands and great interactivity even during navigation are characteristics that make NDrive stand out.

Search efficiency

The search engine efficiency has been proven to be satisfactory using any of the software, regarding the capability of search by concepts like: City centre, Street name, House number, Postal codes, Crossings, Coordinates, POI names, POI proximity. However, ROUTE66 can’t search for crossings.

On the other hand, with NDrive and it’s differentiation factor of search by initials, the user can save a lot of taps in the touch screen, and the correct search result comes out much faster in the majority of searches.

Routing

Under this section, I analyzed two different routes by car, a medium one: 90km and a long one: 1150km, using a 524Mhz processor. The results for both of these calculations were in majority better using NDrive. Despite of this fact only ROUTE66 supports multiple routing.

Both NDrive and ROUTE66 have the most common routing options.

Favourites

NDrive is the clear winner. With the capability of store unlimited number of categories, possibility of search by name, category, distance and the compatibility with Google’s .KML file format. ROUTE66 (like the other 4 software I’ve reviewed until now, I might add) is quite behind in this aspect.

Reality view technology

While ROUTE66 wasn’t capable to reproduce the real world, the capability of change the view from 2D only to 2D with 3D landmarks to Aerial photos with different perspectives makes NDrive the better option if one is seeking for a navigation solution that is capable to accurately reproduce the real world.

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That’s it for now…

…you’ll be hearing (or reading) from me soon!

Laterz!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under NDrive, Route66. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.