When comparing Sygic: GPS Navigation & Maps vs Avenza Maps, the Slant community recommends Sygic: GPS Navigation & Maps for most people. In the question“What are the best offline GPS navigation apps for Android?” Sygic: GPS Navigation & Maps is ranked 6th while Avenza Maps is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Sygic: GPS Navigation & Maps is:
GPS Navigation & Maps Sygic offers an in app purchase to add on a Heads Up Display for the app. This works for nighttime driving by placing ones device up by the windshield and the device will reflect all information in the windshield for a convenient hands free experience that is on the level of where ones eyes already are.
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Pros
Pro Safe projection like hands free heads up display
GPS Navigation & Maps Sygic offers an in app purchase to add on a Heads Up Display for the app. This works for nighttime driving by placing ones device up by the windshield and the device will reflect all information in the windshield for a convenient hands free experience that is on the level of where ones eyes already are.
Pro Useful lane guidance
GPS Navigation & Maps Sygic provides lane guidance as a feature for safe lane maneuvering while driving which is great especially when on a highway of unknown locations being one never knows exactly what lanes to be in when merging or taking exits.
Pro Highly precise address data
GPS Navigation & Maps Sygic is powered by Tom Tom map data, which is often used by governments as well as emergency services.
Pro Local language guidance
Pro Easily assess location with 3D Navigation
GPS Navigation & Maps Sygic provides a very detailed 3D world during navigation, with elevated hills and even city buildings which makes for a more realistic view of where one is in comparison to their surroundings.
Pro Commercial Map Data
Utilizes commercial data for its maps that are supplied by TomTom Maps. While not strictly better it can have more up-to-date map data than OSM. This is also the reason for the the good address data.
Pro Very detailed official local maps
Supports official maps published by park services, etc, which often have more details than any other map available.
Pro Save placemarks
Pro Records GPS tracks
Cons
Con Poor map viewing
Sygic's interface is tailored to navigation. While viewing maps in 2D is possible, it populates the map with a bunch of POI icons which detract from street names. The biggest issue is how easy it is to select something or start navigation when zooming in/out.
Still usable for map viewing though.
Con Bad map accuracy
Even the newest maps seem outdated and have many mistakes or inaccuracies. Entire ranges of house numbers are absent in some streets, 3d buildings are only present in some segments.
Con Bad routing
Con Pricey Android Auto
TomTom is more than 2x cheaper.
Con Updates require running app
After a Play Store update it is important to run the app once to download all the offline data again, otherwise it will not be usable when no external data is available. This is not only time consuming but inconvenient for those that may be in a hurry.
Con No voice controls
Seems a bit pointless having no voice alerts in the free one unless someone is sitting next to you.
Con Cannot use SD card
Even though the maps are free of charge and some of them are official park maps without copyright issues, the app still refuses to store them on the SD card, so the map storage tends to take up far more internal flash memory than any other app.
Con Map search is awful
Searching for map files is very frustrating as the map search only shows the center point of each map as a pin, so you can't see whether the map includes a point you're interested in, and since there are usually many historical maps of the same location, they produce many pins appearing on top of each other. You have to download each one and open it in order to see what it will look like, rather than previewing them in the live display. Good overview maps will appear as pins in random locations, while there will be tons of topo map tiles everywhere else
Con Only shows one map at a time
It supports USGS topo maps, for instance, but if you walk off the edge of one, you have to manually load the adjacent map, which is a hassle. It would be nice if, like other apps, you could select "USGS topo" as the map source, and it would automatically show whichever specific map your location is currently near the middle of (since the USGS maps have margins and legends, etc.)
Con Only supports local maps
You need to plan ahead and download a map for each park or region you're going to visit before you go offline.
