Video: Nokia Drive demoed on the Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia Maps then Ovi Maps back to Nokia Maps is fantastic. There’s a spin off separate app called Nokia Drive specifically for driving mode.

Navigation on Nokias has come a long way from being a gimmick on devices like the N95 to being incredibly useful on the N97 and so much more so from the N8 onwards. Other windows phones out of the box have pretty awful navigation. Early last year, we weren’t sure that Nokia Windows Phones would come with Nokia Maps. That sucked. With my Omnia, I was often lost when going to new areas of Manchester because the navigation mode had no turn by turn voice. Also the satellite lock was slow and patchy.  But now my Lumia 800 (and of course the Nokia Lumia 900) has it too I can go anywhere without the worry of getting lost. Only when I ignore Nokia Drive on the assumption that I know this area do I get it wrong (such as knocking on the wrong house because I was sure Nokia Drive got it wrong…no it was right. Luckily no one was home).

It’s pretty much the same Nokia Drive experience on the 800 but with a much larger 4.3″ screen. BTW, when you are driving, the bar on the side does go away and give you a full screen view. It comes back just about when you need to make a turn or if you stop, pretty intuitive.

My only qualms is perhaps it is no where near as smooth as Bing Maps, though it does take on board smoother zooming and panning.  There’s something weird about their Lumia 900 because it’s navigating the menus much slower than my Lumia 800. Is this why they mentioned the software on 900 wasn’t quite ready? (Disappointed. Why not?)

Video  by Smartphoneenvy

Category: Applications, Lumia, Nokia