andyclift
Registered user
Although both my wife's and my bike have Garmin Zumos fitted I was tempted by the Co-Pilot software for my new, shiny iPhone. Less than £40.00 for coverage of Western AND Eastern Europe seemed a deal too good to miss.
With a RAM iPhone bracket on the bars of the bike or the iPhone propped on the car dash I have been trying out the CoPilot for a couple of weeks and am most impressed.
Positive
- Very quick to get fix and accurate in use.
- Easy to read display.
- So far the routings seem very logical and its very fast in calculating.
- Recalculation when going off route is blindingly fast. Much quicker than my Zumo.
- It has separate car and motorcycle options - and comes up with different routes for each. it seems to accept that smaller roads can be faster when on a motorcycle.
- Good up to date POI database with phone numbers and option to place call, speed cam database and speed limits shown for main roads.
- Destinations can be taken directly from the iPhone contacts database.
- Lots of other options such as auto night mode, personal routing profiles, turn list, track playback and more.
Negative
- Small display can make some of the smaller icons hard to see.
- Although it works in Landscape or Portrait, on a bike it must be locked in Portrait or it keeps changing as the bike leans. Portrait is probably better anyway.
- Needs to be bike powered or it kills the iPhone battery,
- Can't be used with gloves on. The icons are too small for gloved use and the iPhone display won't work with gloves anyway
- On my setup it's only useable in the dry.
- Can't hear voice commands on bike but OK in car.
Although I don't think CoPilot will replace my Zumo for a small price it provides me with a good backup system and it has already proved useful to find locations when in someone else's car. Good value for money and possibly much better than the Tomtom iPhone offering. Incidentally, I understand this works with the Tomtom iPhone car bracket as well.
With a RAM iPhone bracket on the bars of the bike or the iPhone propped on the car dash I have been trying out the CoPilot for a couple of weeks and am most impressed.
Positive
- Very quick to get fix and accurate in use.
- Easy to read display.
- So far the routings seem very logical and its very fast in calculating.
- Recalculation when going off route is blindingly fast. Much quicker than my Zumo.
- It has separate car and motorcycle options - and comes up with different routes for each. it seems to accept that smaller roads can be faster when on a motorcycle.
- Good up to date POI database with phone numbers and option to place call, speed cam database and speed limits shown for main roads.
- Destinations can be taken directly from the iPhone contacts database.
- Lots of other options such as auto night mode, personal routing profiles, turn list, track playback and more.
Negative
- Small display can make some of the smaller icons hard to see.
- Although it works in Landscape or Portrait, on a bike it must be locked in Portrait or it keeps changing as the bike leans. Portrait is probably better anyway.
- Needs to be bike powered or it kills the iPhone battery,
- Can't be used with gloves on. The icons are too small for gloved use and the iPhone display won't work with gloves anyway
- On my setup it's only useable in the dry.
- Can't hear voice commands on bike but OK in car.
Although I don't think CoPilot will replace my Zumo for a small price it provides me with a good backup system and it has already proved useful to find locations when in someone else's car. Good value for money and possibly much better than the Tomtom iPhone offering. Incidentally, I understand this works with the Tomtom iPhone car bracket as well.
