Nav N Go iGo 8 sat-nav software

The iGo 8 is exclusively available for Windows Mobile and has an extremely impressive display, with fairly accurate 3D-rendering of landmarks livening up the view.

We tested it on a Samsung Omnia touchscreen phone; set-up was simple and straightforward, though you do have to page through a long and tedious agreement.

By default, the software installs in ‘Basic’ mode, which hides the advanced options; a couple of taps on the screen will switch advanced mode on. We found it extremely easy to use in both modes, with a good, clear display that even showed a little diagram at the bottom of the screen with lane information for junctions – though we’d have liked that to be a bit bigger. You can even have a spoken warning when you exceed the speed limit.

It’s easy to find points of interest or browse the map, and the software detected the phone’s built-in GPS without any difficulty. We’re not totally convinced of the need for those 3D-rendered landmarks, though.

Traffic information requires additional TMC hardware, but there’s a much more significant omission for UK users – the lack of postcode support. Instead you need to pick a city, and then a street. It’s quick, but ignored the existence of our test house number, claiming it didn’t exist, and routing to number 244 instead of allowing 240.

The other annoyance, which might be the fault of Windows Mobile itself, is that we couldn’t persuade spoken directions to come through our hands-free system, which to us removes one of the great reasons for having sat nav on your mobile.

There’s a lot of potential in iGo 8, but the reliance on Windows Mobile and lack of support for UK postcodes are probably enough to rule it out for most UK-based users.