Nokia Maps Work Just Fine...

[Baryex86]

As a newly converted Nokia Lumia 920/Windows Phone I can say that Nokia Maps has been very good to me, even before the update. Today I had an interesting situation where a gentleman and his child asked me for direction for a restaurant. I said "I don't know, but let me check on my phone". He automatically says that he isn't able to find it on his phone (shows it to me and its an iPhone 5). I asked him the name of the restaurant, I typed it in the Nokia Map search engine (with gloves mind you, it was snowing) and in less than 3 seconds I had the restaurant location/direction. I showed the gentleman my phone and the map with the directions he said thanks and left. I haven't had any serious issue with the Map app. Sure, while being inside a 1940's ex-fallout research building it does tend to have a slight deviation on pinpointing my exact location, but once I am out of the building it does detect me in the correct position. ****, I've even used it while being on the bus and it's neat the way the green icon keeps moving at the bus pace.

In the end, I haven't had any serious issue with the app. I believe it is very well done and works excellent with Nokia Transport and Nokia Drive. IMO I think people need to invest more time in learning how to use the app properly (in combination with other apps).

 

[rider2040]

Let me give you three experiences from this week that make me disagree with you:

1. I arrive at the Denver airport with 4 coworkers. We pick up our rental car and head toward Boulder. I put it into maps and get directions. Of course the directions follow the most common route, which happens to have a major accident on it. Two of my coworkers (one iPhone 4 and one Android) are able to look at alternate routes, overlay traffic, and find an route that saved us an hour of travel time.

2. The next night we were supposed to meet at the office of our hosts. I typed the name of the company into maps, and got directions for the only result that came up. When we got to the supposed destination, the business wasn't there. One of my coworkers punched the business in his iPhone and found that it was on the other side of town. When we finally arrived at our true destination, I found out that the business had moved more than four years ago. The new address was nowhere to be found in Nokia maps.

3. We had some time to do some skiing before we left Colorado. We were headed to Loveland pass, and I punched it into Nokia maps but was not able to find it. Fortunately, I knew approximately where we were going, bit there's no way to just drop a pin on the map to be able to get some idea of how long it would take to get there.

Before I got my 920, I heard that Nokia maps was great. To say that I have been disappointed would be an understatement. For someone that travels about 150 days a year for work, this is a significant problem. I can only hope that Nokia is working on improvements to both their database and their software.

 

[lordofthereef]

Right now, for someone traveling as much as you, android is the best option. I have had many issues, even in the big city, with apple maps as well ad Nokia maps. Honestly never an issue as sever on google maps.

 

[socialcarpet]

I've never had any problems with Nokia Maps in the past, though I have to admit I don't travel 150 days out of the year. I've used it all across Florida and in New England though and no trouble yet.

As much as I loathe to admit though, Google is king when it comes to this, they have a huge head start on everyone, especially Apple. But I have faith that we will see Nokia Maps improve. It's already an excellent product and it was the gold standard really before Google came along. The fact that Nokia is already developing it for other phone platforms aside from Windows Phone and Symbian show give you some indication of how serious they are about it.

 

[rider2040]

Thanks for your comments. I find it hard to believe that anyone could say that Nokia maps is anywhere near competitive with google maps in the US at this time.

 

[MacDaMachine]

Google maps shows the street names in my apartment complex

Nokia maps shows the streets, no names at all. And I hate how Nokia maps looks barren as ****.

 

[sluffmo]

I live in Austin and Nokia Maps can't find half the restaurants I go to around here. Even finding an AT&T store was a pain. It's far better than Apple's solution, but Google maps blows it away in my opinion. Hopefully that will change since I do like a lot about it interface wise.

 

[dawindbag]

Nokia Maps has been terrible. Today it couldn't find the Carmax I was heading to. There are about 6 in the Chicago area, it found all but the Hillside location which of course what the one I was looking for. I pulled up Bing search and searched for Carmax and Bing maps nailed it immediately complete with comprehensive traffic data. Of course this only makes it doubly infuriating that my 920 has a better maps app than Nokia Maps yet I can't use it normally.

This situation blows, like so much else about this WP8 experience.

 

[rider2040]

Is there a way to get rid of Nokia maps and get Bing as the default? Bing on my wife's Trophy is better than Nokia maps on my 920.

 

[chris41336]

Nokia Maps has been terrible. Today it couldn't find the Carmax I was heading to. There are about 6 in the Chicago area, it found all but the Hillside location which of course what the one I was looking for. I pulled up Bing search and searched for Carmax and Bing maps nailed it immediately complete with comprehensive traffic data. Of course this only makes it doubly infuriating that my 920 has a better maps app than Nokia Maps yet I can't use it normally.

This situation blows, like so much else about this WP8 experience.

Nokia and MS are working to combine all of their resources into the Nokia maps. There won't be a "Bing Maps" soon, only Nokia, and all of the data from Bing Maps will be compiled into there. So it is coming.

I have had nothing but good experiences so far with Nokia Maps. Maybe it is just the area I live, but it finds everything I need and gets me there quickly. I think the newest update helped alot with starting the Bing info additions.

But what really, REALLY stands out to me...is the GPS. My Nokia Lumia 810 INSTANTLY knows where I am, indoor or out, and never loses me. My old android phone, from day 1, had a god awful GPS and always did. I had been with android since day 1 (Even had a G1 back in the day), and that was something that always irked me, how they had such an excellent mapping software with terrible (imo) nav capabilities.

But again, these are just my experiences. I don't think that the Nokia Maps hate is all that warranted, but it is a very important aspect considering how vital maps are for alot of people on their phone so it needs to be the best experience possible.

 

[dainla]

I've traveled to Chicago, San Francisco and and currently flying back from NY. Used Nokia maps and drive exclusively on all three trips with zero problems. Am especially impressed with Drive.

Edit: And saying iPhone maps is better than Nokia Maps right now is nothing short of ridiculous. iPhone maps is in horrifying shape and three heads of the department have been fired because of it. My friends with iPhones are screaming mad at what they have to deal with trying to get around.

 

[rdubmu]

I use Bing to search for local when I find the location I want then I go to then press drive. (Bing is great in the us)

The only bad experience was in Maui when the restaurant moved a year ago and it wasn't updated on Bing (this was with my titan 2)

 

[anon(5370748)]

I've found three major problems with Nokia Maps so far (San Francisco Bay Area)
1. Points of Interest aren't anywhere approaching up-to-date. Not sure where that information comes from, but they need to figure out where Google gets their data and get the same thing going. I'm finding maybe a 10% success rate in locating current locations of stores using Maps, Drive or City Lens.
2. Roads aren't up to date. Always a lot of construction in this area, and new bypasses are created/re-routed every day. Google is usually a few weeks behind, Nokia is months or even years behind.
3. Nokia Maps doesn't understand what's happening when a road changes names. In this area, Hwy 101 is called 137 different things in any given two-mile stretch, and very often two or more major freeways will combine for awhile and then split off. Google had a very hard time with this two years ago, but has since figured out how to fix it. There are still a few areas that confuse Google, but it's rare. Nokia Maps is completely lost most of the time in these situations, and when I plot the same route on Android vs. Nokia, Nokia ends up having 20x the waypoints and directions, some of which are dead wrong (now, keep left... crap, sorry, I meant right - you can get over 6 lanes quickly in rush hour traffic, right?).

Nokia will get there if they really keep working hard on it the way Google did, but it'll probably take a few years before it's viable in most areas. I wonder if it's worth it... why not just license Google Maps?

 

[anon(5370748)]

Current state of Nokia Maps:

 

[lordofthereef]

By the way, for those that wants the Bing Maps app back, download Maps from the store. You don't get turn by turn, you still use Drive for that, but you get what was Bing maps before Nokia "disabled" it. Really, all I think Nokia did is remove the icon from the apps list, because this looks like classic Bing maps. That said, I didn't use them too much so maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[Pwnisher]

Let me give you three experiences from this week that make me disagree with you:

1. I arrive at the Denver airport with 4 coworkers. We pick up our rental car and head toward Boulder. I put it into maps and get directions. Of course the directions follow the most common route, which happens to have a major accident on it. Two of my coworkers (one iPhone 4 and one Android) are able to look at alternate routes, overlay traffic, and find an route that saved us an hour of travel time.

2. The next night we were supposed to meet at the office of our hosts. I typed the name of the company into maps, and got directions for the only result that came up. When we got to the supposed destination, the business wasn't there. One of my coworkers punched the business in his iPhone and found that it was on the other side of town. When we finally arrived at our true destination, I found out that the business had moved more than four years ago. The new address was nowhere to be found in Nokia maps.

3. We had some time to do some skiing before we left Colorado. We were headed to Loveland pass, and I punched it into Nokia maps but was not able to find it. Fortunately, I knew approximately where we were going, bit there's no way to just drop a pin on the map to be able to get some idea of how long it would take to get there.

Before I got my 920, I heard that Nokia maps was great. To say that I have been disappointed would be an understatement. For someone that travels about 150 days a year for work, this is a significant problem. I can only hope that Nokia is working on improvements to both their database and their software.

You know you can use Nokia Drive, as opposed to Nokia maps =).

 

[rider2040]

OK, so I uninstalled Nokia Maps and reinstalled Bing Maps. Looks much better at first glance. I'll see how it goes this week.

 

[chris41336]

OK, so I uninstalled Nokia Maps and reinstalled Bing Maps. Looks much better at first glance. I'll see how it goes this week.

Nokia Maps and Bing Maps are going to be one and the same very, very soon, if I remember correctly....

 

[mechashen]

Coming from Android, I became spoiled with google maps. Nokia maps have been extremely disappointing to me. Lack of reliable traffic data as well as lack of current business data really hinders it. Many people have claimed Bing maps and Nokia maps are one and the same, but I have found Bing maps to be far more user friendly and reliable. I have used gmaps but it is a bit clunky. Bing maps comes very close to google maps and has been the best map option for me on my 920.

 

[chris41336]

Coming from Android, I became spoiled with google maps. Nokia maps have been extremely disappointing to me. Lack of reliable traffic data as well as lack of current business data really hinders it. Many people have claimed Bing maps and Nokia maps are one and the same, but I have found Bing maps to be far more user friendly and reliable. I have used gmaps but it is a bit clunky. Bing maps comes very close to google maps and has been the best map option for me on my 920.

They aren't the same yet. They will be merged soon, I think is what I've heard, and the process has already begun.