Nokia Maps 2.0 is utterly usless - so should i go for Copilot 7 or Garmin XT Mobile?

[autopilot]

Right, first off a rant about the truly terrible Nokia Map's 2.0; I had my first chance to properly test Nokia Maps 2.0 (3 months free navigation subscription with my new Nokia 6220 Classic) this weekend with a camping trip in the Snowdonian mountains. It's better than the previous version, but its still rubbish.

Firstly, the voices - could they make them sound any worse? It's like a 10kbps MP3 recording of a chain smoker with Tuberculosis. I thought phone's speaker was at fault, but have since ruled this out. And whats with stuff like "next possibility right turn"? whats wrong with good old English "take the next right"?

Secondly, searching - to search for a location (to navigate to) it needs access to the internet. Great when you have no signal in the mountains. Which went down really well with the other half while the baby screamed in the back.

Thirdly, it's very buggy - on three occasions, on one day, the screen froze and would not update. It was still working, and the terrible voice navigation was still kicking in at the right time and the menus all worked.

Fourthly(?) no custom POI's (i.e. Speed Cameras) - what's up when every other GPS product worth its salt allows you to set up your own POI's, Nokia still cant be bothered?

Finally, the UI - The most confusing, needlessly complicated and just weirdly illogical menu system and UI I have yet seen on a Sat Nav application (make that any Mobile software). Then you are not even completely sure its been set up properly to do what you want and you need complete confidence in a Sat Nav when you are driving your family through unknown area on dodgy (albeit A) roads.

I have tried a lot of GPS software over the years (admittedly mostly on the much better and mature Windows Mobile platform, IMO) and i can hand on heart say you should NOT hand over any of your hard earned cash for Nokia Maps 2.0 chaps. Its so bad i'm not even prepared to put up with the free 3 month navigation subscription. In fact, not even the the free version is worth using much when the excellent Google Maps is available for free too, which i found more useful this weekend (when i had a net connection). What i dont understand is why, when i search the net and read magazines, Maps 2.0 seems to have had such a warm reception? Are they Nokia fanboys that have never tried anything else? It's bizarre, i only had to use it for a few hours to find fault after fault.

So, with that said, and in context of what i said above, has any one tried Copilot AND Garmin XT who can tell me which is best and why? I have tried Copliot 7 a little and it's immeasurably better than Nokia effort. But what's this Garmin XT like?

Of course i would prefer TomTom over all. But they have abandoned Symbian and it won't work with the 6220c internal GPS (not even the N95 hack works, i tried). Although they cant wait to get a version out for the iPhone 3G (out yet?), and despite the success of the iPhone i'm sure there are more GPS capable Symbian handsets out there, but thats another story!

Anyway, it's Garmin Vs Copilot - who deservers my dwindling cash the most ? Cheers

[Lee @ SCAN]

Garmin get's my vote but that's only because I got that and used it quite a lot

The garmin has a weird menu which puts some people off, but bear with it as I found this was okay to use once your used to it. A plus side of the garmin is that it found a route home from the east coast back to Manchester which cut over 30 minutes off the trip and about 20 miles as well.

[sp3n]

garmin xt gets my vote - i have it on my n95 and it was very useful this weekend !

[pritsey]

I also have Garmin XT on my N95 but it's not nearly as good as TomTom IMO. Of course, TomTom needs the external GPS thingy though.

There's a free app which will allow you to get POI's (ie speed cameras) working stand alone or as an overlay on Nokia Maps. You can also download the maps on your PC and put them on your phone meaning no need to use GPRS on the move.

http://mcbiskits1.googlepages.com/
http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps

[JimmyBoy]

u can get tomtom working on the n95 without an external reciever, theres an app u can use that tells tomtom your using bluetooth but its going through the n95's gps reciever. garmin is pretty good aswell though just im not as big of a fan of the interface as tomtoms

[pritsey]

Have you tried the hack to get it working? Link?

[autopilot]

Originally Posted by pritsey

I also have Garmin XT on my N95 but it's not nearly as good as TomTom IMO. Of course, TomTom needs the external GPS thingy though.

There's a free app which will allow you to get POI's (ie speed cameras) working stand alone or as an overlay on Nokia Maps. You can also download the maps on your PC and put them on your phone meaning no need to use GPRS on the move.

http://mcbiskits1.googlepages.com/
http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps

Cheers for the link, im going to try that camera app out in the next couple of days.

BTW, i have the maps on a my card, but it still insists on searching via internet when searching for places. So you still need a net connection for naviagtion

[Ferral]

I have TomTom on my N95, must admit don't mind Nokia maps but TomTom seems to be a bit more accurate.

Route66 is really good, comes with the 6110 Navigator and is really reliable

[pritsey]

I don't mind Nokia Maps at all really, but then I've not used it for navigation, just used it to find places. I've also not used Route 66 either, will have a look on the net.

After watching 'Long Way Round' & 'Long Way Down' I wondered what the 6110 Navigators woudl be like, seemed like they had their maps preloaded and whatever they were using was pretty quick.

[autopilot]

Originally Posted by pritsey

There's a free app which will allow you to get POI's (ie speed cameras) working stand alone or as an overlay on Nokia Maps....
http://mcbiskits1.googlepages.com/.

Got it working, many thanks. Just need an up to date camera CSV database from PocketGPSworld now

[JimmyBoy]

Originally Posted by pritsey

Have you tried the hack to get it working? Link?

I have tried it yes,

but im not sure i can post links on here mate

[pritsey]

Originally Posted by JimmyBoy

I have tried it yes,

but im not sure i can post links on here mate

Not a problem, found a link to a couple of files - bt.sisx and gpsd I think - still couldn't get it working - never mind!

[mylaura99]

Route66 gets my vote

[tsj]

Garmin or TomTom(I guess you don't want a seperate GPS though) all the way mate... I've tried them both...