2 months ago a friend of mine was going to the US for a holiday and wanted to borrow my Navman GPS pda. Instead of buying the US maps from Navman at their ridiculously high prices, my friend bought a copy of TomTom Navigator 5 and installed it on my Navman instead. Of course, I did not object.

For those who are interested, TomTom doesn’t make their Australian maps available for purchase. The TomTom software sold here comes with US and EU maps only.

TomTom does work with my Navman PiN 300, which is actually a rebadged Mitac Mio 168. I found it used to crash whenever I left the software running, then powered the Navman off and on again. I had to do a hard reset on the pda to get things working again. There’s a 5.21 update that’s supposed to fix that. After installing it, it helped the problem slightly. The software still crashes, but doesn’t bring the whole PocketPc down with it.

So how does TomTom compare to Navman? The Navman software I’m using is Smartst v3.0, not the latest and greatest. TomTom’s cool because you can customise alot of things, including map colors and celebrity voices. However, my friend complained that it lags often, frequently giving directions a few seconds too late. SmartSt updates quicker, maps are a bit clearer, but it’s so B-O-R-I-N-G compared to the TomTom.

All in all, I’d say SmartSt’s better in terms of usability, and at least it doesn’t crash often on the Navman. TomTom’s way cooler and good for impressing your friends. TomTom also works with a wide array of hardware. Other people I know have got it working with cheapish Bluetooth and Irda (infra-red) units bought from eBay. What better way to add value to your PocketPc?

If you’re in the market for a GPS, should you get a PocketPC based unit or a standalone one? I have no experience with the standalone units, but I believe they should work better. However, if you buy a pda unit like the Navman PiN, and you live in Australia, you can also claim the unit as a tax deduction, so it’s worth considering.