I like Nokia Drive but it's terrible

[CommonBlob]

I find it doesn't take into consideration the time it takes to turn a corner at a junction. It might be the shortest but when it takes me 30secondsto pull out of a junction its not the quickest route

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

Personally speaking, I'm deeply concerned by the lack of street names for turning. "In 0.1 miles, turn right" doesn't help me when I can't see the map and don't get a street names. I have to rest my phone in my center cupholders, so looking down isn't an option. I know a lot of areas like mine where streets can run real close together, so distance isn't a very good indicator of when to turn.

I really hope that's an improvement in WP8's version. Given the choice, I'd love to use Bing Maps as-is in WP7.5 without the "tap" nonsense. If they just got rid of that, I'd already have the best map solution for my needs.

@GoodThings2Life

Yeah I know what you mean with the street names. I'm sure it will come, that is actually a complicated thing to program in, so It's probably coming soon. Hopefully, it'll be part of WP8.

The fix for your cupholder problem could be to just grab a 20 dollar suction cup mount. I grabbed a basic one at Canadian Tire (maybe Walmart or Target for the US'ers) and it works great. Only problem is it likes to lose grip in the winter due to temp increases and decreases when running and not running the heat in the car.

I can see that being a problem though if you are in a state that has laws against window suction cup mounts.

Another great thing about it is when you have bluetooth in the vehicle. I picked up an aftermarket deck with one and it gives audio directions seamlessly while playing music. Nice touch.

You could also use Aux for that as well.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

I find it doesn't take into consideration the time it takes to turn a corner at a junction. It might be the shortest but when it takes me 30secondsto pull out of a junction its not the quickest route

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

Well there is a difference between shortest distance, and quickest route. That's why I want customization choices for routing.

 

[mindfrost82]

I've used Nokia Drive, Bing Maps, Garmin StreetPilot, and Navigon on my Lumia 900.

Lack of street names does suck with Nokia Drive. One time I was trying to get to my wife's work from a different route. I was on a major interstate, and I could take the interstate and one street to get there, which is the fastest way to go, but Nokia Drive had me exit the interstate and drive through some not-so-good Chicago neighborhoods with a bunch of stop lights. It might have been "shortest" route, but definitely not the "quickest". Unfortunately, there's no setting to change this either.

Garmin worked pretty well most of the time, but it requires an active cell phone signal and uses data, just like Bing Maps does. It speaks street names and has some nice features. One time it throught I already passed up a road when I was stopped at a light, so it told me to go straight instead of turn and took me around a couple of blocks to get back on the original road I could have turned on. That could have been more with my GPS signal than Garmin though.

I haven't really used Navigon much on WP yet, but I had it on Android and iPhone. I like that it has Google Local Search built-in. I wish it was integrated with Bing Maps though. You can browse your contact's addresses too. The interface can be a little slow to navigate. It has offline maps, so no worry about your cell phone service or data usage. I also like how it gives you 3 routes after you put in your destination so you can pick which one you want to use. At least then you'll know if it looks like the one you want or not before it starts telling you where to turn.