The advertisements for N82 in India have a surprise item: Free voice guided Navigation for 3 months with preinstalled map for 8 cities. (which includes Bangalore). I have used Nokia Maps in the past and have been disappointed by it. Though I never tried navigation, I used the find location feature to find the current location and it never gave satisfactory results. For example, important places in Bangalore like Electronics city are not available in the map! So I never really bothered to test the voice guided navigation.
The advertisements for N82 made me wonder how good the navigation is. So on my N95 8GB, I opened Nokia Maps, got a position fix and searched for CV Raman Nagar(where I was headed for the day). Once it located the place, I selected Options -> ‘Navigate to’, which started the Navigation client. Surprisingly, the route selected by the client from Bannerghatta Rd to CV Raman Nagar was one of the shortest. The voice guidance was clear and loud enough.
On the way back, I took a different route using the Outer Ring Rd and the directions given by the Map were off the mark. The maps also seem to be pretty dated - there were several instances of non existent roads and roads which are not marked on the map.
GPS Navigation on the mobile phone is a highly battery consuming activity. So make sure you keep it charged using the Cigarette lighter on your car. Also, don’t just trust the Nokia Maps. It has a long way to go before becoming a useful tool in a city like Bangalore.
(On a side note, I am just wondering if these are the same maps that Nokia preinstalls on the N82. I will be surprised if Nokia gives such poor quality maps and then advertises loud and bold. Can any N82 owner in India confirm?)
Related: India Maps on the Nokia Map Loader
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I have a nokia n95(the old one).i was able to download india map from nokia’s website(11MB),which is highly undetailed not like those in n82 or navigator(6110).could u pls tell me how i can get a detailed map of bangalore?
Leave a Comment