Spending time back home (N95-3 vs. N810 GPS Part 3)

Having spent the a few days back in my home town it's interesting: to see how things have changed and how somethings never do. All of this is quite similar to the comparison between the N810 and N95-3. As it started out Nokia Maps navigation has become increasingly unreliable, regardless how its setup to use GPS. Using the built-in GPS the N810, while slow is almost always spot on and has yet to give random and obscure directions. Furthermore the navigation of Waypoint is far more personable and warmer. The directions of the Waypoint navigation does better over all in the fact it follows up one direction with another when a second or third quickly follow the first. For example, if driving down a freeway and directed to exit which will also require a left/right turn, the navigation will state exactly that. If there is a 3rd or perhaps a 4th, such a move to the left lane and immediately turn left it would say all of this in total and repeat it as each was completed.

The only real fault with the N810's navigation is the slow GPS acquisition, which is greatly improved with a Bluetooth GPS unit, such as the Nokia LD-3W. I've heard from others the LD-4W is ever better but would have no trouble recommending the LD-3W to.anyone, an added benefit is the shifting of battery usage to a seperate unit. The LD-3W uses the same battery Nokia has used in many models, such as the Nokia 6263, the BL-5C. Battery life is substaintially improved in both the N810 and N95-3. As an added bonus while driving the LD-3W can be placed on the dash, backpack, pants pocket or wherever it can recieve a GPS signal. The LD-3W is so quick (relative to either the N95-3 or N810) and capable, I'm frequently able to acheive GPS lock indoors (homes, hotels and business a like). I've never been an avid user of GPS aided applications however, this trial may very well change my usage. I've always been conscience of the battery drain GPS has been on the N95-3, which is sharply increased by shifting to Bluetooth.

Other nuances that wieght in Waypoint's favor include the ability to easily edit a route and change nealy all settings without exiting the existing route. Nokia Maps 2.0 only allows additons, changes or deletions of a planned route before commencing actual navigation; once navigation has begun the route is locked in and can't be altered without stopping and re-creating the route, more than a little annoying.

Both Nokia Maps and Waypoint do lack in POIs (Points of Interests) look-up. Maps is quite limited in offline searching, even online searches are exceedingly challenging for people unfamilair with destination spellings. Maps will frequently be unable to locate POIs if even the spacing is incorrect, e.g. Spaceneedle vs. Space Needle. Maps becomes even less effective searching for near matches e.g. Pike Market vs. Pike Place Market. In my mind both searches should return a result for Pike Place Market while the former would also include other locations rather than no results at all. Even entering addresses has to be entered just right or there are not any results with Nokia Maps 2.0.

Waypoint has its own nuances that have a small learning curve such as learning how it finds locations. The search is far more user friendly however, I must warn against searching for anything without first changing the general search area to any previous location. Leaving the search area as everywhere can make a simple search take substaintially longer or seemingly "lockup" the application due to the length of time it takes for the search to complete.

Near the end of the trip I noticed a beta A-GPS release on Nokia Beta Labs, I must have missed it in the days preceding the trip nevertheless, I'm happy to report the beta update is a big improvement for the N810. Since loading the update I can frequently obtain a lock with one or two satellites indoors and acquisition outdoors is noticeably quicker, although not as quick as the LD-3W.

Whether using Nokia Maps 2.0 or Waypoint I'd still recommend bookmarking Google on either device. Google via SMS is equally valuable for those in the US. Google throughout the trip remained invaluable in locating addresses, business and other information without skipping a beat. Next time around I might consider renting or buying a stand-alone GPS unit for 3-way head-to-head.

Comments

[Mitsugst4eva]

One more piece of advice for you maps 2.0 users. If you do a search for an address and it has a dr, rd, highway, etc.; try adding or deleting the extension and see if it yeilds results. Meaning if I search for Chesire Dr, I may just enter "Chesire" alone if the extension dr did not work. I have found 99% of all my address searches by doing so. One last attempt as well is to switch between the zip code and actual city name. This has yielded differences as well. Give it a try! It's a pain buy typically finds the destination!