TomTom for Android drives onto Google Play - but will it work with your phone?
The TomTom Android app has finally rolled onto the Google Play store, more than three years after its iPhone counterpart first debuted. It brings with it all the usual satnav skills you could hope for, but a catch too: many new phones don’t support it yet. Read on for the full details.
Head on over to the Google Play store and you’ll find that TomTom for Android is available now, priced at £39.99 for Western Europe (A complete Europe app will cost you £49.99, and there are apps available for other regions of the globe too). It’s a 2.7GB download, so make sure you’ve got enough space in your phone’s memory or on an SD card: though once you’ve got it, you can use it freely without racking up data charges, particularly handy when travelling on the continent.
How to get the new Android update now
TomTom for Android offers HD Traffic, which calculates the route based on average road speeds in realtime, day and night mode, voice directions, multi-point route planning and lots more. But there’s a catch: right now, it only supports phones running Android 2.2 or up with an 854×480 or 800×480 resolution screen.
Now, that means most flagship phones from last year should run just fine, but right now top tier Android smarties like the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Nexus are all left out in the cold due to their HD screens. TomTom says it’s working on solving this, but be sure to check before you buy.
Will you be using TomTom for Android, or sticking with Google Maps Navigation? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below.
User comments (7)
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Malcolm04 October 2012
is there a reason to spend £40 on this, when Maps and CoPilot are free? would also rather spend £40 on a standalone SatNav and save my phone for calls etc too
Report as inappropriateRichAndo04 October 2012
google maps is useless anyway, i can usually get to a destination by guessing before it knows where i am to start with. as for adding TomTom for £40 odd quid, i too would rather buy a TomTom with a bigger screen to see. Phone shave come a long way in tech but still not practical to drive and view without taking your eyes off the road to see the screen closer. if you just rely on the voice direction then that is also floored because most of them do not go as loud as the TomTom itself. you need your phone linked to your car speakers to hear it.
Report as inappropriatenexus604 October 2012
Maps and Google navigation have never let me down, I find it fast and accurate enough (considering it's free) but the voice it bobbins! Only recently I was wondering what was stopping them porting over to Android and wondered how much Apple had paid for their exclusivity and how long it'd last.
Report as inappropriateChris Cyster04 October 2012
I have used TomTom in the past but now use CoPilot which has free updates and is cheaper and I think better
Report as inappropriatePeter05 October 2012
I always assumed the reason TomTom wasn't on Android was due to the high level of piracy for the expensive apps. I know exactly where I could get this for free if I wanted. If Google Nav would let me pre-cache some places overseas that I want, then I'd have no need for anything else.
Report as inappropriateDan05 October 2012
I use the tomtom app on my iphone and have for quite a while, the fact that the the app can be used offline and doesn't eat data is a major bonus as if you have bad reception or signal then you are going to get lost. I used mine a lot in Europe and it actually worked better than the actual tomtom I had now I only use the app very reliable. I hope that the app does get sorted for android as this really is one of the things keeping me with apple at the minute!! Also i hope that tomtom keep issuing the free updates for the app!!
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