Apr 11, 2007 gps navigation, nokia, phones, reviews
The intranets is starting to fill with Nokia N95 reviews. We’ll try to collect all GPS related tips and tricks in one place. We will update this post as we go along – so bookmark it perhaps.
Gizmodo thinks GPS is one of the features that rock.
The GPS is really GPS, not some assisted-GPS that Sprint and Verizon have in their phones. That means you can really navigate with it, like I did, to streets around SF I wasn’t too familiar with. (Specifically, the corner of Washington and Cherry, close to where the Zodiac killer blew away a Cabbie so many years ago.) The point of interest database is sizable and you can search for things by proximity (the nearest ATM or liquor store), and then get the phone dialing right up. Turn by turn is a subscription that’ll cost you about $10 a month, and the voice nav won’t read street names, but that, and the phone’s persistant Lag aside, it rocks.
PCW reports that it usually takes upto 5 minutes to get a position fix.
The GPS feature was something I was eager to test out – previously I’ve had to carry around a separate Bluetooth receiver to facilitate sat nav on my N70.
The GPS antenna is housed within the numeric keypad, so the screen must be slid up during use. It took a while to pinpoint my location – often over five minutes – but it’s an incredibly useful feature to have on a phone.
Due to the small screen size, fiddly operation and battery drain, you shouldn’t throw away your TomTom/Mio/Navman just yet though.
DigitalUrban seems to be impressed with GPS features and talks about how to use your Nokia N95 with Google Earth.
The ability to create tracks for Google Earth/Maps in a small portable portable phone is impressive. On our first test run we used the Sports Tracker application on a drive across Berkshire (its meant to be used for running or cycling but it does the same job in a car). The N95 performed well considering it was placed well inside the car, rather than on the windscreen as with most in-car GPS systems. After you have reached your destination you can simply choose to ‘Save as Google Earth’ and then transfer to your PC.
Some reader’s comments about preloading maps to save battery life.
The biggest tip I have though, get the Map Loader software off either the smart2go website or the nokia website and then load up GPS maps that way. By doing this is prevents the phone from constantly using your network connection to get the maps for your area. This saves battery life and your data charges. Only problem is, its PC only, so OSX users will have to fire up parallels or Boot Camp.
bonus interactive video
AllAboutSymbian has a long review of GPS feature on the Nokia N95 with lots of pics.
It’s worth noting that we’re not talking SiRF III performance here. In my experience, lock-on can be up to (in absolute worst case) two minutes even when the N95 hasn’t moved from the spot where you last used its GPS, with satellite lock being disrupted more easily by buildings than with my two year old TomTom SiRF II GPS. Having said that, the extra convenience that comes with an integrated GPS may outweigh the performance differences, and in any case it’s easy to supplement the built-in GPS with a Bluetooth GPS (’GPS Data | Positioning settings’) in areas where you know there are going to be problems seeing GPS satellites. Maps/Smart2go automatically uses this extra GPS data if available and then goes back to its internal attempts at a fix when the Bluetooth GPS is unavailable.
We’ll update when we find more Nokia N95 GPS sources.
UPDATES:
Engadget seems to be somewhat pleased. TTFF seems to be an issue that everyone has.
The time required to lock satellites would be considered unacceptable if this were a dedicated nav unit, but once they were locked, we were pleased with its ability to hold the signal. Update times were also good, with our position being redrawn on the display several times per second. Map redraws were often painfully slow due in part to the fact that the device downloads detail maps on the fly over its data connection, though that data connection is also one of the nav app’s strong points. Not only can maps be kept up to date, but you get goodies like city guides (for a fee) and points of interest (sadly, no traffic conditions right now). Point to point routing seemed effective enough; the phone was rarely able to calculate a route by itself, but there’s an option to “search” for a route online which seems to work. In action, directions are belted out in a soothing English accent.
NYCFlagship answers a lot of questions including the difference between routing (free) and navigation ($$).
Routing means that the application draws a route from A to B. Navigation means that the route is voice guided meaning it tells you how to get from A to B (in 300 meters turn left etc). Navigation also automatically re-calculates the route if you take a wrong turn. Navigation is a purchasable feature.
EdParsons suggests to adjust your standard network settings tool if your N95 is suffering from really slow satellite fix times.
My default network setting was set to use the standard contract settings, in the past I have had problems with these with other applications, so I updated them using the neat Nokia Settings tool – and all of a sudden I started to get a fix in less than a minute.
As you may have already heard Nokia started shipping its first GPS integrated Nseries phone N95. We’re not sure if the N95 will fly off the shelves with its 550€ ($730) price tag but it may well be worth the price if it does a decent job at all (or most) of its features. 
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