Moving from Symbian to Android: Where Am I (GPS Navigation)?

One redeeming feature of the Nokia ecosystem is the turn-by-turn, spoken street name, FREE navigation. Later Nokia Maps versions running on Symbian 3 continue to offer class-leading navigation, that give some dedicated GPS devices a run for their money. Nokia's venture into Windows Phone is showing those users what Symbian users have been enjoying for years now.

Let me say from the outset, you will not find a free app like Nokia Maps in the Android ecosystem.

Android uses Google Maps (not even going to hyperlink this) by default. And that's great, if you have a consistent 3G connection, and a fat data allowance. Yes, you can download "offline" map data now, but it is only for a 10 mile (16 km) radius. What happens if you want to do an interstate road trip and not get slammed for data? Not good enough as a Nokia Maps replacement.

Waze is an interesting free solution that relies on other Waze users to provide mapping telemetry. If you live in the US or Europe with lot of other Waze users, you will likely love this app. If you live in Australia, you're probably not going to like it. Not good enough as a reliable mapping solution.


Android Solution:  Sygic


The closest I've come to decent mapping for Android users is Sygic. Sygic provides accurate, offline maps for Australia and New Zealand.

Turn-by-turn, spoken street name navigation is also provided.

Sygic's interface is lovely. Simple, but also incredibly powerful when you need it. Add Points of Interest (POI) from within the application. Or import POI from any compatible source as an overlay to the offline maps.

The only downside of Sygic is the maps for Australia and New Zealand cost about $30. Once you buy the maps, you continue to receive updates forever (perpetual license). That's a lot cheaper than purchasing a dedicated GPS and having to update maps every three years. From what I can tell, if you change or upgrade your Android device, the licence is transferable as well.

But you need to plan ahead and check that points of interest (POI) are present on the map. If not, you can add them, and they are persistent in subsequent searches. You'll probably find that some other Sygic users have uploaded photos of POIs in the area you need, so if you have been there before and know the basic map geography, the photographs help you pick the right location to navigate to with or without a POI entry.

The 7 Day trial of this app is not really long enough: it needs to be a full month. If Sygic offered a month trial on this product, I would not have installed a cracked version because I could test it over multiple trips in the month and see how incredibly worth the $30 it is. Hope you read this Sygic (and I will be making a purchase shortly for the record).

You also have to pay extra for live traffic alerts, per year (ouch). But as one of my colleagues suggested, just fire up google maps when you hit a traffic jam and take a look at the way ahead on the free traffic alert system built-in to Google Maps.


Dishonourable Mention:  Navigon

I only stumbled across this solution by accident, after heading to the SGS2 product site and glancing at the Australia product features of the SGS2. It listed Navigon as being offered as the navigation solution, but the app was nowhere to be found on the device. You would think it should have been at least already installed when you set up the phone or something?

Turns out that you can get completely free Australian and New Zealand Navigon maps for being a Samsung customer. The paid version of Navigon for non-Samsung customers costs upwards of $60, so I see this as a real advantage of being a Samsung customer.

At least that is what I thought...

It all started when I attempted to download the maps initially.

WARNING: When you are downloading the maps initially, do not navigate away from the download screen. Your download will be abandoned, because Navigon in their wisdom do not allow the download to continue in the background, or provide any "WARNING: You are about to stop your download" PEBKAC prevention.

So I managed to download the maps the second time, and start the app. The GPS lock took ages, in direct line of sight of the cloudless blue sky. After 5 minutes, I just closed the app. When I opened the map view, it was like something from GPS units of 4 years ago. Blocky maps, with horrible map panning that would re-draw as you drag the map around.

Navigon and the maps are free. The add-ons are not. There are three to choose from, which give you the same turn by turn guidance and dashboard stuff as Sygic does, and one for Traffic (which is an extra, yearly subscription service in Sygic). The real sour point here is that to purchase all four will cost you more than purchasing an Australian/New Zealand license of Sygic (at current exchange rates).

T O T A L   F A I L

If you need offline maps for Australia and New Zealand, and own a Samsung device, do not even bother with Navigon. Utter rubbish. I'm removing it as I write this blog.

You have read this article android / GPS Navigation / Symbian S3 with the title Moving from Symbian to Android: Where Am I (GPS Navigation)?. You can bookmark this page URL http://azaquery.blogspot.com/2012/01/moving-from-symbian-to-android-where-am.html. Thanks!