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I also prefer a standalone satnav compared to using my phone, but do use the phone on occasion. The standalone device is always there (if you are hopping in and out of a car, its a right pain having to connect/disconnect the phone each time, perhaps put it in a charger etc, whereas the satnav is just there all the time), has a bigger display, and is just slightly better designed for the purpose of in car use. But I do agree that a phone can make a very good subsitute.
Regarding brands, I have both (one each in 2 cars), both reasonably good mid-range models, though the TomTom is a couple of years newer than the Garmin. I greatly prefer the Garmin's menu layout, and the mapping display, but the TomTom is definitely better at route selection. Both have lifetime map updates, and I do think that is worth getting if you plan to keep the device for more than a year or 2. Both get traffic updates, but via different methods. The Garmin gets what it calls "digital traffic", which comes over the air. The TomTom gets its traffic updates through my mobile phone's 4G network. Again, the TomTom is much better when it comes to traffic updates. I am constantly blown away by how accurate its traffic reports are - generally it tells you where the start and finish of a delay is accurate to 50m or less, even when there is a rapidly growing delay. I have often compared its traffic accuracy to waze or google maps, and it is without doubt better. At the end of the day I would therefor go for another TomTom, despite its sometime counterintuitive menu layout, simply for its astonishing traffic accuracy and generally better routing - though it might well be that a newer Garmin can also compete. And I would still invest in a standalone device rather than relying only on my phone, just because I find it more convenient to have it permanently mounted in my car.
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