Ok, i've tried Garmin, TomTom, and iGuidance. Here's what I think:
Tested on ROM built with ppckitchen.org on the Bell network:
iGuidance:
- seemed outdated, didn't like the display of street names.
- voice guidance (tts) was choppy but accurate.
- biggest problem, slow position updates usually didn't work at all (iGuidance v4)
GarminXT:
I owned a Nuvi 350 so this was my natural choice. The interface and display are nice. Features are good, recent maps, and I don't need to prime the GPS to use it. However, I had some major beefs:
- slow position updates and sluggish interface. I'm sure that if I were driving downtown (Toronto) I'd miss turns.
- phone and app interaction. For some reason XT just doesn't seem to like to operate with other apps. New e-mail notifications (visual) would take over the screen requiring me to confirm before XT would come back to life. Another issue (didn't seem to bother TomTom) is MS-Voice command refused to launch. I hope that's somehow related to my ROM, but it launches normally without XT running.
TomTom:
The maps in TomTom are a little outdated, but for the most part it runs great. I do have to prime the GPS before it'll work but there are launchers, GPStoday, and whatnot to solve that problem. The position updates in comparison to XT and iGuidance are night and day.... much faster. The phone and app interaction are much more seamless.
Conclusion:
So my current vote is for TomTom. I really really want to use XT but the slow position updates and MSVC problem are holding me back. I've never noticed any time problems with XT as others are finding... so maybe I'm lucky on that front.
That's my 2 cents... take it for what it's worth. I hope it saves someone a bit of time in comparing the 3.
i'm addicted to rom updating.