On w10, is maps as accurate as here drive for nav?

[Steve Adams]

We are taking our annual hockey pilgrimage to Montreal, is the new maps gps app as accurate as Here drive is?

 

[nmercy]

Personally, if you still have access to Here Drive, I would use it.

That being said, if you don't have access to Here Drive anymore it will work for you, it's just not as good because:
1) You can't decide what type of pathing you want to use (Shortest time, Shortest distance, somewhere in between)
2) The navigation pane is crowded, the current next direction takes up too much space and when the next next direction pops up it blocks the screen even more leaving you with a little over half the screen to see what's going on. If you put the phone in portrait as opposed to landscape this alleviates the problem somewhat.
3) The longer the trip or the more deviations you take from the defined course, the more laggy it gets. I was on my way to work and about halfway on my 35 minute drive, I found out the hard way as I passed the street I was supposed to turn on that the app was about 5 seconds late. This applies to speed too, so if you're using it as your speedometer, it will lag you as well so be careful when changing speeds.
4) There is no driving mode. I use Here Drive when I'm not navigating just to keep track of speed, where I'm at, how long I've been driving, but this mode is nearly non-existent in the new maps app. You can get to it once you've reached your destination, but it will only show you the map, your current speed, and the speed limit if it exists.

Other than these annoyances, you should be fine... I would recommend downloading the maps before you go though so you don't use your data plan.

 

[Steve Adams]

Cool. hmmmm that's a lot to think about now. There's no way to get here drive is there? It worked flawlessly. And I have a massive mobile plan so I am not so worried about that. Unless that makes it react faster.

 

[nmercy]

The only way to get the Here apps is to have them installed in WP 8.1 and then upgrade to W10... from there you can not restore factory settings otherwise you'll lose it.

Once they get the maps actually working it will be a good replacement, but until then Here is much better.

 

[michail71]

So far the new maps app is terrible. The UI was designed for Continuum and not a mobile device. I'm not understanding why people seem to like it, lol. Well, it's not that bad but but it's quite a mess for a 2015 navigation app when we should be getting a seasoned update.

 

[ajj3085]

As far as the maps themselves go, I think the maps app and Here actually use the same map data files. If you go to settings and download one for offline it says the source is Here. So I think just the apps are different.

 

[Steve Adams]

Ok, what I mean to be asking is, is the new app just as good for travelling?

 

[michail71]

It depends on who you ask. I'd take there HERE Maps/Drive over the new one. It just has a poorly designed UI that is not optimized for mobile.

Sometimes I feel like Microsoft's design guidelines call for making things more complicated by burying them in random menus located the top or bottom, making items so small they are hard to touch or see, devoting large areas of screen real-estate to nothing and by removing useful functionality.

 

[ROBBIE HALL]

I actually uninstalled HERE from my device in preference of MAPS. I live in the Caribbean and was fairly ticked off because:
Islands which were smaller with less than our (Barbados) tourist arrivals had downloadable offline voice navigation.
2. No voice navigation.
3. Voice navigation works ironically still on my SYMBIAN phone with most street names. It couldn't have been that hard to port it to WP could it?
4. Maps is fairly accurate even on my non supported WP. ( most countryside streets are missing)
5. I STILL get turn by turn voice navigation.
6. I still get offline navigation
7. The layout is ok to me one you hit directions and start moving with auto zoom and the map turning to suit.
Just my personal experience for a daily 1 hour trip.