Confession from a diehard Android junkie: WP7 is brilliant!!!

[armedtank]

I'm sure this forum gets alot of these threads, but I've lived with a Focus S for the last week or so. I had a free upgrade for my corp phone and I had a choice between yet another iPhone and a WP7 phone. I have a personal Android phone on VZW. I took what I thought was a chance on WP7 and I am seriously impressed.

The most impressive part of the OS is the performance on hardware that would slow Android to a crawl, great programming to say the least. But the thing that stands out the most is the People Hub, a concept that makes both iOS & Android look completely dated. I've got several groups that have just about invalidated my need to use the twitter, fb and linkedin clients.

While the OS could use a few more features like good turn by turn navigation, plus skype and lync support I can see that MS is making a strong bid for driving the direction of mobile computing. I can't wait to compare WP7 to ICS when I get my Nexus in a few weeks (I still drink a little Android koolaid )

 

[jeremyshaw]

Yeah, I wish for all three in the last paragraph you have Well, not the GN, I think I'll let my TF101 be the judge of ICS

Welcome to WPCentral forums!

And yes, I'm, too, a former iOS-->Android diehard. Though I still keep an iPod touch and Atrix+TF101 around for a few things (turn by turn navigation is key; skype secondard; too much money in Apple account is tertiary).

 

[armedtank]

Well my 32 gb iPhone 3GS is now my music player and since I travel pretty much weekly for my job, turn by turn navi is invaluable to me and major reason I can't give up Android. I hear Nokia has a killer version so I hope it makes it's way to WP7 or 8 sooner than later. Another reason I love this OS is OneNote, which I cannot live without..lol I think I have 1/2 my life documented in that app.

Great forum btw!!!

 

[jfa1]

There is a Nokia app called drive which has been hacked out of a Lumia and if you can find the XAP file it can be downloaded and works on the Titan and should work on the Nokia S. See the thread somewhere at WPCentral in articles.

 

[stueyboy1]

I've got a Lumia 800 and the Nokia Drive is pretty good. Not as good as the android navigator but good nevertheless. Also you download the maps so no risk of mental data charges.

Loving WP7 so far having also been a bit of an android fan

 

[braindoc]

I'm sure you all mean free turn-by-turn navigation but if you are interested in purchasing an app I would suggest Navigon. It works flawlessly and because it loads the maps on your phone it doesn't require a data connection to use, which means that the map loads fast. It beats my stand alone Garmin Nuvi GPS hands down.

 

[power5]

Is navigon turn by turn? Or do you have to advance with a button press at each turn? How much space does the entire USA take up on the phones internal memory?

 

[richu75]

Navigon is a complete offline turn by turn nav program. It does not need any user interaction while navigating. Only drawback is it's not free.

And to quote the navigon Q&A:

NAVIGON 4.0 for Windows Phone 7 has the following download size:

? App: 5 MB
? App and EU maps: 2393 MB
? App and USA maps: 1628 MB

 

[power5]

Wow, 1.5gb is huge. Will it not work without the downloaded maps? Can it be used as a typical nav that needs to download the map constantly like most?

 

[braindoc]

Navigon has to download the maps, this is what sets it apart from other turn-by-turn nav programs. If you don't want to take up that much space on your phone then there are alternative choices such as Garmin and Turn-by-Turn. Turn-by-Turn also downloads maps to the phone but you can choose your area so you're not downloading the entire country.

 

[naplesbill]

I bought the app called Navigation (published by GPS Tuner LLC.) for 4.99. This app works great and doesn't need to download maps. You can download (actually just cache) a route to prevent any data interruptions. It has voice prompted turn by turn. It doesn't seem to read actual street names though. This is not an issue for me.

My favorite feature is that there is a visible speed reading at all times. I have used many GPS systems, both dedicated and app based, and this is the most left out feature there is. This may seem unimportant to some people, but I like my steering wheel tilted all the way down, this blocks the top portion of my speedometer in my truck. Also, I have oversized tires and the GPS speedo is more accurate than my truck is.

I highly recommend this app, the price is great also.

 

[cckgz4]

I actually don't mind Bing Maps navigation. Even though you have to manually go to the next direction, it lets you know when you need to go to it so you're not looking away from the road long or at all