ALK has jumped into the iPhone navigation sector with a bang, and priced its Co-Pilot Live 8 solution very aggressively. You could be mistaken for thinking that £25.99 for the UK version is a printing error, but it is indeed completely real and this will put some serious pressure on the competition.

The danger is that customers who have not heard of Co-Pilot may expect a budget solution, but they would be a long way from the facts with such an assumption.

There is nothing budget minded about the iPhone version of Co-Pilot and indeed it offers an experience which equals, if not betters, versions on other platforms.

The large screen on the iPhone helps a lot and the software has passed out performance tests with flying colours so far. At no point did we suffer slow-downs and the software worked flawlessly throughout.

The iPhone version bears many similarities to the Symbian, Android and Windows Mobile versions, but manages to organise a huge number of features into a consistent and user friendly menu system which takes only a minute or two to learn. The large finger-friendly buttons are at the core of the system and this makes the experience safer when driving, as well as easier to use.

There are a number of voices to choose from and these offer natural sounding instructions which time the audible turning notifications well and coupled with the simplistic interface, bring a driving experience which is as close to the real thing as you could hope for.

The data on screen is clearly laid out and of particular handiness is the two turn panel at the bottom left; this shows you the next turn plus the one after which is something that you will soon find to be extremely useful. This allows you to predict which lane you need to be in as you leave a roundabout and can save the embarrassment of constantly changing lanes in new places.

On the subject of lanes, lane guidance is included which comes into its own on busy motorway intersections and this makes the process of deciding when to leave the motorway child’s play. Many people will not see the benefit of this particular feature, but it worth having.

Re-routing was efficient and super quick which new routes offered in a couple of seconds. It did not always choose what we consider to be the most efficient routes on trips we know well, but this is a common problem with most GPS software – maybe this is one area that TomTom has the advantage in with its IQ Routes solution.

The number of settings available is staggering and you can change everything from the point at which audible alerts are voiced to settings the exact speed at which speed alert warnings are notified. It is worth spending some time with Co-Pilot to set it up for your exact needs because that will pay dividends in the end.

POIs are rendered well on screen and tapping one will bring up relevant details such as telephone number and address and the database appears to be quite complete. As with all POI databases, they will never be 100% complete and this is where the save current location feature comes in handy- just tap the button and you have it stored for re-visiting at a later date.

The number of features included in Co-Pilot is impressive and it would take us too long to list them all here. With Live Services, a variety of modes such as walking, driving and cycling, POIs and many, many more it is hard to see where ALK has cut down the iPhone offering. In fact, it has not been cut down at all and is a fully fledged navigation tool which includes most of what users will need.

The initial pricing takes Co-Pilot to a new level for value and the ball is now in its competitor’s courts as to how to react. Simply superb.

Map coverage: UK & Ireland / Europe
Price (as reviewed): £25.99 (UK & Ireland) / £59.99 (Europe)
Web: www.alk.com

Performance: 8
Design: 9
Features: 9
Value: 10
Overall verdict: 9

Popularity: 21% [?]