Why Sygic GPS navigation isn’t my choice

I love to drive away from jammed roads. Even if I have a good orientation and know how to check old maps on paper or ask a local people, I’m an IT guy who likes to drive with GPS navigations. It is very handy and I don’t have to stop on every crossroad.
After almost a year from last testing a Sygic navigation, yesterday I take the plunge and went to trip on narrow roads in Slovenia and Austria.
After checking Sygic’s website, I really like how they offer their application. It is available for many countries, for different devices and platforms, the price is fair, they have often discounts for available packages. The support was good last year, so there is everything ok.
After I installed the application on my phone (tablet), I have found user interface quite likable. Especially settings are good and working with an application is very fast (zooming maps!). It also looks that Sygic on my Android isn’t battery gulper.
So far, so good. But why Sygic isn’t my first (second, even third) choice for navigation?
The answer is pretty simple – navigation itself and working with a search field.
I don’t know, how many swearwords did I pronounce, but I have problem every time when I want to find something or insert an address. I simply don’t understand the logic of searching. Sometimes I don’t know if I searching for address or POI. Hard to describe, but I really don’t like it. When you are on crossroad or half of your car is on the road, you don’t have time to deal with clumsy user interface.
When you start driving and follow the screen, I often noticed that roads (and terrain) are askew. It is interesting that I didn’t read about that, but it isn’t rare. And displaying terrain askew is a big minus for GPS navigation application and looks ugly.

Askew terrain – why?

The navigation itself works, but it isn’t rare, that route choices aren’t the best. Sygic displays roads on the countryside with the same color and size. You can’t drive with an eye on screen, because you simply can’t see (assess) the different road. Beside that, if you miss and take a wrong road, Sygic will start to turn screen like a mad dog and when you driving you really can’t deal with this.
If you take a decision and choose a different road (for which you know it is alternative), Sygic insists on his route really long time. IGO, for example, tries sometimes, but then it calculate alternatives in background and lead the driver on road he take. It is really annoying if navigation insists on its’ route.
Some people says that arrow sign for car position is too big. I agree with them, but there is one more thing which make me angry with Sygic. It is “next action”, where driver should get an information how long it will take to next change direction. For example – let’s say, that I have to turn right after 1000 meters. I don’t understand why Sygic don’t display that. Instead of that, Sygic display that I should drive 1000 meters without any action. It isn’t the same! IGO, for example, shows immediately that next action will be “turn right after 1000 meters”. So driver knows that and can follow the road, traffic and traffic signs. With Sygic, drivers have to wait until the “next action” is quite close. Not good.
To be honest, I have to write, that after some hours, I close Sygic and take IGO. It is a big difference in transparency and user experience is much better. Yesterday I also run Google Maps. Google Maps is super if you search for POI. Its connection with Google helps a lot and you find information quick.
This post shouldn’t discourage you from trying a Sygic. Go and try, maybe you will get a better experience. As I said before, Sygic has some good points and it navigation application with many downloads. So many people can’t be wrong – are they?
Update (February 2017): Latest version of Sygic gets many new features and better route guide. If I will get some time, I will prepare a review, but I can now say, that new version is much better. Try.