So, anyone that has read my posts knows that I am looking for a suitable replacement for TomTom in anticipation of that app going the way of the Dodo.
I decided to try Maps 2.0 out, given that the beta seemed pretty impressive, so I purchased a 30 day licence. Since last week, I've been giving it a minor workout on my trips to the office, which are hardly taxing, so today's trip to Coventry was an ideal time.
By the way, all my comparisons are against TomTom, my main app of choice for the last 4 years.
Firstly, I can't seem to fault it's routing. On one or two occasions it tried to send me a slightly different route to the office, but it was, technically, the optimum route, and it only took a few seconds to recalculate, and it didn't keep berating me to "do a U turn" ! 😊
The animation is quick, the autozoom unintrusive and it does indeed look pretty.
However, I have had some issues.
Let's start with the menus. Maps, like every other S60 app, uses an S60 menu structure (except once in Navigation mode) and I find that a hindrance when driving. It requires to much refocusing between watching traffic and looking at the screen. TomTom's simple, large icon & number driven menu system is perfect for "at a glance" navigation of all the options. Maps menu structure is too messy and is not clear in it's nomenclature. Using search is also clunky. It uses the phones predictive text and therefore is not rapid at finding place names, unlike TomTom's system which whittles down your possible options based on what you have inputted.
Next we have the voice instructions. Whilst clear and plentiful, the wording is a tad strange. Firstly, it will tell you to make a turn in so many yards, then, just as you are about to reach the turn, it will say, "Next possibility turn right". Next possibility ?? Quite strange. One other bugbear is that if you are on a motorway, instead of telling you to "Take the exit", it simply tells you to "keep left". To me, that indicates staying in the left hand lane, not that I need to leave the motorway.
And finally, my biggest issue.
I use my N95 as a multifunction device in my car. I have a Bluetooth head unit and this pairs up nicely to the N95. I then use it for Sat Nav, phone calls and the Music Player. At any one time, the device will be performing two of those aforementioned tasks. And so far, it does it bloody well 😊 I plan my route in TomTom, then start some "choons" and will make and take phone calls throughout my journey. TomTom mutes itself for calls and always reverts back to the navigation screen during the call, gives instructions over the music and the Music Player chugs through the tunes superbly.
But not with Maps running I'm afraid 😞
If I try and make or take a call, Maps just shuts down. I have to restart it and rekey my destination.
And when I play tunes with Maps running, the audio drops out big time. I'm talking 20 or more dropouts in a single track !!
The only thing I can think of is that running Maps, Music Player and running the internal GPS is just too much, because as soon as I turn Maps off, Music Player reverts to normal behaviour, and if I start TomTom up, it retains normal behaviour.
I will try using Maps with the external GPS on the way home and see what happens, but this for me is a big issue. It's doubly disappointing seeing as all of these apps are Nokia S60 apps, so in theory, should all work together seamlessly. I've always preferred my external GPS as it is much better at getting quick locks in tough areas than the internal unit, but was prepared to give the internal unit a chance. I'm not 100% certain that it's the issue, but I'm struggling to see what else it could be.
I'm not put off Maps 2.0 yet, but the jury is still out.