Why Lumia 720 & 520 do not come with Here Drive +

[powersquad]

I emailed Nokia as to why the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720 do not come with Here Drive + but Lumia 620 does which is cheaper than Lumia 720 and received a reply from the head of Here maps and Here Drive.

thank you very much for the mail you recently sent to (removed).

My name is (removed), and at Nokia I?m responsible for our Windows Phone location applications like HERE Maps and HERE Drive.

I?m very happy to hear that you?re interested in the Lumia 720 ? a device that is also among my personal favorites within our Lumia range with its combination of great design and powerful features and capabilities.

When it comes to the navigation experience on it, you?re right: The Lumia 720 comes with HERE Drive which means that is offering a free navigation experience with full offline turn-by-turn guidance in one selected country or region ? dependent on the SIM-card you?re inserting into the device before first-time use. So if you?d buy a Lumia 720 overseas and insert your SIM-card from New Zealand, you will get a license for free turn-by-turn navigation in New Zealand.

As you may have noticed, both HERE Drive and HERE Drive+ are currently still in beta. Once we will promote them from beta to commercial status, it will be possible to upgrade from HERE Drive to HERE Drive+ which is offering a global navigation license for around 100 countries.

So far we haven?t announced any details about timing and pricing yet, but we?re planning this step for the coming months. And even though you will have to pay for the upgrade from Drive to Drive+, you will save more money on roaming costs and data charges when travelling abroad thanks to our leading true offline capabilities than you will have to invest for the worldwide navigation license. This is unmatched by any ?free? mobile navigation solution on the market today.

At the same time, the Lumia 720 also already comes with HERE Maps pre-installed. With that you have the opportunity to download all available country maps to your phone and use all the features of HERE Maps, including walk navigation, drive and transit routes.

The reason why we?ve decided to include HERE Drive on the Lumia 720 and 520 while the Lumia 620 comes with HERE Drive+ is the following:

Each phone is a unique combination of experiences to target a distinct price point and market opportunity. To reach the targeted price point for the Lumia 520, our most affordable Lumia to date, we?ve decided to include HERE Drive, while with the Lumia 620 we felt that we had the freedom to include HERE Drive+ and still be able to reach its targeted price point. The Lumia 720 then comes with a lot of innovation in areas like imaging and wireless charging, and including a local navigation experience instead of a global one allowed us to meet its targeted price point while still providing a great location experience.

Kind regards,

 

[HeyCori]

A better explanation

HERE Drive & HERE Drive+ Differences Explained (Updated 3/12) : My Nokia Blog

 

[lomax_hjs]

I think it's stupid, Liked the L720 a lot, but maybe now I get the almost100 euro cheaper L620 instead of the L720. :shocked:

 

[Mirtas]

If only Nokia would communicate the maps per country and region that you get!

If you live in Luxembourg. Will je only get the tiny map of Luxembourg? Will you get Benelux? Or will you get West-Europe?

 

[Huime]

they are priced low for a reason. 720 is basically a 820 spec and 620 priced. Grow up.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

they are priced low for a reason. 720 is basically a 820 spec and 620 priced. Grow up.

You got it wrong.Price closer to 820, specs closer to 620.

 

[Huime]

You got it wrong.Price closer to 820, specs closer to 620.

nokia website is the best place for you. take a look and come back to me. Other than half of the ram, which spec did 720 fall behind? Even the camera is a debatable when you try to say 820 is better.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

nokia website is the best place for you. take a look and come back to me. Other than half of the ram, which spec did 720 fall behind? Even the camera is a debatable when you try to say 820 is better.

Aside from the fact that the 620 and 720 have the same chipset and RAM, they both have LCD screens, and are both limited to 3.5G. Though, those are the only similarities I can name without looking at the specs page.
Features-wise, I'd say the 720 is closer to the 820, as well as its design.

 

[AngryNil]

Here's my problem with this - The 520 actually loses a tonne of functionality for the $75 cheaper it is than the 620.

• ClearBlack - worse contrast
• Front facing camera
• Camera flash
• NFC
• Compass - no City Lens, might worsen Maps experience

The 520 came out months later than the 620, which of course is already great value, but I don't see the value proposition of the 520 apart from a mental barrier at the $200 mark. And how much is this Drive+ upgrade going to cost? It seems that gap is going to be even closer. I've said before that I would love to see Nokia's lineup cleaned up. I'd love to see a 520+620 device that is as attractive as the 520 but without as many concessions, a 720+820 device that keeps the superior profile of the 720 while bumping internals to 1GB of RAM and MSM8960, then the flagship (920).

The only reason I'm still considering the 520 is because the 620 is really rather ugly.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Why don't Lumia 720, Lumia 520 Windows Phones support HERE Drive+? Nokia explains. | Windows Phone Central

 

[Manuel Amaral]

Sou cliente Nokia e queria mudar para o Lumia 720, mas com esta restri??o do "Aqui Drive", n?o sei se compro.
Acho a explica??o est?pida, porque n?o p?r o pre?o da licen?a global no pre?o e esquecer o "Aqui drive" e mudar para "Aqui drive +"
Costumo passar f?rias fora do meu pa?s, depois como fa?o?
Cumprimentos

Manuel Amaral

 

[maverick786us]

nokia website is the best place for you. take a look and come back to me. Other than half of the ram, which spec did 720 fall behind? Even the camera is a debatable when you try to say 820 is better.

Except for less RAM, slightly slow processor (1.1GHz compared to 1.5GHz of Lumia 920 & 820) and small camera (6.7 MP compared to 8MP of 820) 720 seems to have better build quality as it is unibody, better night time view as more MP is not everything and bigger battery.

 

[Maverick5j]

Also ask him why Nokia has released Lumia 720 with 512 MB RAM, which makes it the lamest set ever, lamest because of its one flaw, 512MB RAM which disappoints a lot and casts shadow on other awesome features.

 

[donoester]

Except for less RAM, slightly slow processor (1.1GHz compared to 1.5GHz of Lumia 920 & 820) and small camera (6.7 MP compared to 8MP of 820) 720 seems to have better build quality as it is unibody, better night time view as more MP is not everything and bigger battery.

Even for daylight photos I'd prefer the 720 over 820. Colors look much more true and the video quality at 720p is actually quite excellent it seems. See Photo Compare Tool - GSMArena.com and Video Compare Tool - GSMArena.com

But maybe they were just unlucky with their 820 sample.