Co-Pilot Live is a name that is respected heavily within the navigation world and as a result previous versions have won countless awards. So it was with great excitement that we delved into the latest offering to see if it could keep up the same standard.
From the off Co-Pilot Live Premium provides solid navigation, with the benefit of having the maps held on your device (instead of being streamed to the device like a few of the free alternatives do).
However we were still not 100% satisfied with all aspects of the software (we will cover most of these later). The biggest issue we had was that there were no real upgrade paths for existing users, so as a result you had to ditch your old copy in order to install the latest version at full price.
Interface
Compared to previous versions the interface looks a lot more polished and has lost its large/cartoon like appearance.
We found it easy to navigate through the various options, but we did start to note a strong emphasis on social networking (for sharing your location via Facebook/Twitter) and bing POI support at the expense of more useful options such as Traffic. The latter is available via an in-app purchase.
Additional in-app purchases consist of 3D Advanced (which gives you lane assist, sign post info and parking/navigate to contacts) at £14.99. Fuel price search (for finding the nearest and cheapest fuel prices) at £7.99 a year. And finally Active Traffic at £8.99 a year.
So as you can see the initial £20 or so starts to add up. However you still get a safety camera database as standard and your usual array of options such as route planners, step-by-step directional lists and weather reports.
In use
When plotting a route we found Initial route calculations were quick and there’s a nice option to see how much fuel your journey is likely to cost before setting out. Whilst we sometimes questioned its choice of route, there is another great option that allows you to draw your own route on the map using your finger.
Out on the road, map detail was good, with plenty of visual aids such as POI icons, motorway guidance and safety cameras.
Voice directions also supported text-to-speech but we found the voice was harsh and our Samsung Galaxy S II's speaker seemed to shrill under protest.
Route-recalculations – when we went off course - were some of the fastest we have seen, in fact they were lightening fast and more importantly it could track our position accurately.
However when we originally ran our tests we found the software was a little buggy at times, with a few safety camera sometimes displaying the wrong countdown yardage, the route demos would also freeze the device and then there was the odd crash during searches.
Luckily the safety camera updates are available OTA (Over The Air) and it seems that ALK have been updating the app recently. Even though we have not updated the software yet to test the results, its good to see the developer continuing support for the software.
Of course each device is different, so you may not witness any issues with the software, but for the most purposes the navigation experience was pleasant and if you don’t need all the add-ons then you are getting a good piece of software at a respectable price.
