Would you know a bottom if you saw one? - Kevin Delaney, WSJ
Product: Nokia Maps 2.0
Web:
Here
Maker:
Nokia
Price: From £6 for 30 days: £60 per annum
NOKIA MAPS is best appreciated as a combination. Try it on the original version of the Nokia N95 and you'll yawn. Borrow an E66 from Nokia and it is an entirely different beast. It has quirks but it works. Well, just.
The INQ was actually trying to review the E66 handset by itself. It's pretty much a me-too handset ? until you switch on the GPS functionality. It then transforms itself into a half decent PND (Personal Navigation Device).
So if you're skint, then your Nokia phone can replace a Tomtom navigator and an MP3 player. The crucial point here is that with version 2.0 of Nokia's Maps application, you can now ask for directions to walk to a destination as well as driving to it.
The set-up with Nokia Maps is somewhat confusing. If you purchase a handset which has GPS built-in ? like the E66 or N95 - then the Maps app is already installed.
But if you want to get from A to B, then you'd want Maps to calculate the route for you. This is achieved by purchasing a module which Nokia calls Drive & Walk. Prices start from £6 for 30 days up to £59.99 for a year.
Curiously, if you download Drive & Walk via the handset itself, you're stuck with the male voice barking out the driving instructions. Download it via PC and you can select a female voice should you prefer to do so.
Why does the E66 work so much better? Well, for starters it has proper A-GPS (Assisted GPS). The handset logs onto Nokia's positioning server and obtains (from cell site information) a good idea of where you are.
That then tells the GPS chip which satellites it should be able to see. Net result? The E66 could find itself in seconds ? and do so inside a room - whereas the N95 needed to be in open air and minutes. And that's with the A-GPS software fix for the N95.
Nokia Maps v 2.0 has a UI which the INQ could get on with easily. If you want to find your destination, going to the Search function was easy. Select 'address'; type in a postcode; and - hey presto - the handset searches online and comes up with the answer.
Well, it finds the answer most of the time. The INQ had a couple of occasions where Maps just couldn't come up with a fix. Which is strange because it uses proven database technology which Nokia actually possesses now that it owns Navteq.
Anyway, the instructions given when driving from A to B were very easy to follow. It might be worth capturing the map of your final destination, though.
The INQ had almost arrived at a final destination when the handset lost its data connexion. That meant sitting in a car park until the connexion re-appeared. But, hey, that can happen with any PND.
The major annoyance came when trying to download the traffic information module. This costs extra ? starting at £3 for 30 days. For some reason, paying for the module via premium rate SMS (text) didn't work initially. (See later INQ story).
Then suddenly, after the INQ purchased another module ? this time Xcities guide to London, the licence for traffic suddenly appeared. Minus the 18 days from its original purchase date. Nokia are looking into this for us.
Overall, the INQ would recommend Nokia Maps to those on a tightish budget. You save on the initial hardware cost but the cost of the modules themselves soon starts to mount. ?
The Good
Easy to understand UI
The Bad
Occasional failure to identify given destination address
The Ugly
Cost of adding modules soon mounts up
Bartender's verdict
If you install the latest firmware (V30 on the original N95, don't know about the 8g), you get maps 2.0. Or if you don't want to install the firmware, just go get maps 2 from the Nokia site and install that.
All that you've mentioned is available on the N95 too, you just need to update the software on it.
Regarding "Cost of adding modules soon mounts up", please do not forget to consider the cost of updating maps on PNDs. Map update is available for the cost of transfering the data to the mobile with Nokia Maps. With PNDs it might be nearly as expensive as a new PND. As a response, some makers of PNDs now include map updates at no further costs for two years. BR
I use Garmin, Nokia maps and Google maps on my N95, Google is by far the fastest although Garmin is better for driving.
My N95 seems to find it's location in ~8seconds after latest firmware update. I need to be outside for it to operate, but after I go outside it finds location in <10 seconds 95% of the time.