Video: Nokia Maps on Lumia Windows Phone (+ Nokia Drive and Mirror Link for Symbian)

One of the missing features in Windows Phone is a decent sat nav. Lets get this clear, it’s pants.

Navigation and location has become something of a requirement for me. Going to new places, it’s always useful to know that I don’t have to get lost. Even though this is approaching my second year in Manchester, this is still a huge city. It would be nice to have Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive to get around Manchester (visiting friends who now live in various regions, going to hospital placements, finding specialist shops etc).

Ovi, now Nokia Maps is something Nokia has been doing right since the N97. With the N8 maps was extremely reliable and oh so useful. That is now coming to your Nokia Windows Phone. Rumours were rife that we might not see such things until next year with Apollo as Nokia may have jumped on too late.

I’ve played around with Nokia Drive for Windows Phone (not yet with Nokia maps) and it works really well. In fact, you might see a  ‘special’ Nokia Drive hands on some time from Nokia soon. Anywhoo, let’s take a look at the Nokia Maps for Nokia Lumia (Windows Phone Mango) 800 and 710.

Whilst we’re here, check out Mirror Link for Symbian Nokia Drive.

Videos by NokiaConversations

BTW, not completely slagging off BING Maps, apart from the annoying navigation, the interface is really slick and fast, with pretty cool animations. When both are eventually combined, I hope to see the features, and practicality from Nokia Maps with the elegance (and at times easier usability) of Bing Maps.

Here’s Nokia Drive that Vaibhav recorded. I actually got to try this out on the road and when you’re not locked away with dead WiFi but decent 2G/3G, the search works much faster.  The voice turn by turn does work. You can download maps for offline navigation or download them on the fly.

Video by TheHandheldBlog

Category: Applications, Nokia, Windows Phone