Dueling Navigators

Driving out of Seattle on July 3 I used both the N95-3 and the N810 to locate a local gas station with the lowest priced gas (courtesy of Gas Buddy), Target, Pike Place Fish Market for some fresh seafood before heading to Northern Idaho for the 4th of July holiday.

Scoring: Minor +/-1 Major +/-5 Failure -10 points. Each will start with 100 and receive no points for doing their job correctly for routing the fastest route to the given destinations.

Stop 1 - AM PM for gas: Both devices routed to the station correctly. The NIT (Nokia Internet Tablet a.k.a. N810) couldn't locate the station by name but had no trouble with the address. Nokia Maps on the N95-3 (Maps) located the station when online but the offline search came up empty. -5 NIT for failing locating the destination by name, -1 Maps for needing online search.

NIT 95 Maps 99

Stop 2 - Target: Neither device located the nearest Target that happened to be on our way to the market (Stop 3), I'd seen the previous day driving back to the hotel. Maps wanted to route to a Target much further away than the NIT. Once I found the same Target the NIT found on Maps, both devices routed correctly to the destination. Interestingly enough Maps routed to one entrance and NIT to another. This particular Target was attached to a mall, so Maps routed to the mall main entrance and NIT to the main exterior Target entrance. -5 NIT/Maps: Not locating the nearest Target, -5 Maps: Only locating much further store, even with online search.

NIT 90 Maps 89

Stop 3 - Pike Place Fish Market: NIT directed me to take a left on a road no left was available upon leaving Target. As happened yesterday, Maps and NIT didn't agree on how to route to the market. Maps as it turns out had the better route but I'd already left from the parking lot going the opposite way. Both devices re-routed me accordingly. Further along the route I discovered NIT was guiding me not towards my desired destination but towards Idaho, my end destination. I attempted to delete and re-add stop 3 without success. I could have stopped the navigation and started over but felt as though it should have routed correctly and therefore was a failure. Maps did route me correctly to the market all the while NIT tried re-routing me to Idaho (yes the market was in the proper order.). -10 NIT: Failing to route to the market.

NIT 80 Maps 89

Stop 4 - North Idaho: Trying to get back to the freeway Maps needlessly directed me to do a circle more than once along with directing me to make a left on a one way street the wrong way. Maps also directed me to a freeway entrance much further away, which would have required much longer driving across downtown Seattle. Once on the freeway both device were in sync again. Maps recognized I took the express lane of the freeway, which has much fewer exits, NIT made no such distinction. Both devices quite annoyingly and repeatedly kept stating "Keep left," whenever approaching a series or group of exits. Both systems re-routed whenever we stopped for breaks to keep us on course. -5 Maps directing a wrong way turn on a one-way street. +1 Maps distinguishing Expressway Lanes -1 NIT: Not distinguishing Expressway Lanes -1 Maps: Longer/indirect routing to freeway -1 Both: Annoying saying "Keep left" for 300 miles.

NIT 79 Maps 83

General: Maps was usually slower at re-calculating,meaning it was frequently late with directions. Maps was so late on many occasions, both on this leg and others it became almost untrustworthy. Maps only reads on one direction at a time, which means in those instances where a second, third or more directions takes place in short order of the first, you can miss the subsequent directions. One such example was a right on a 5 lane one-way road to make a left at the following intersection, one block away. By the time I had made the right and the second direction was given it wasn't possible to change lanes due to traffic conditions. On several occasions Maps would lose GPS lock and start re-routing in a circle what it thought was a missed turn. Additionally Maps would lose GPS lock thinking we were on a street to the left, right or on a cross street. Several times Maps would inexplicably start saying "Turn Right," then "Go straight ahead." NIT has a much larger selection of voices to download which all are warmer and have more personable directions and human-like feel than Maps. -5 Maps: Slow directions -5 Maps: Losing GPS lock -5 Maps: Odd behavior +1 NIT: Larger Voice selection +1 NIT: Warmer & more personable voices

NIT 81 Maps 73

Thus far NIT has felt more trust worthy and more consistent in its navigation. Next I will try using the LD-3W with the N95-3 to see it improves its navigation, hopefully correcting the issues that have come up while allowing NIT to use its internal GPS. After testing with the Bluetooth GPS paired with the N95-3, I'll use the N95-3's GPS through NIT to definitively determine whether it is a software or hardware problem causing some of the navigation glitches.

Comments

[Dee]

I haven't had a chance to try the navigation on the tablet. Basically not in the mood to fork up another fee for something I already have. Although I have to say that I'm suddenly not happy with the navigation/routing of Maps2 on my n95-3. I've tried playing with the settings (fastest/shortest: still do not know the difference, toll, freeways) but I'm still not as satisfied as before.

Before the update, I matched the route that Maps planned for me with Google and it would give me the same and very reasonable route to follow. After the update, its been taking us around which I think added 30 minutes to one of our trips. Actually passed by a freeway that lead to a much faster and shorter ride home.

Again I tried it yesterday to go shopping and it was giving me the same crappy scenario.

I have to say that because of this, I'm having second thoughts using my n95 for navigation if a situation calls for it.