DannyT wrote:
> I'm very interested in Nokia's new 'smart2go' satnav system which I believe
> is pre-installed on the N95. It seems to be a very simple and cost effective
> solution to satnav and I like the idea of only paying for what you need when
> you need it. Have you tried this system?

Sat Nav works pretty well - the maps are pretty detailed and you can
download on the fly (so you need a good data price plan) or you can use
a PC to download maps for the whole country in advance and then it works
as a completely stand-alone unit.

Route planning works well enough but sometimes chooses routes that I
wouldn't. :-( I suppose that is true of all sat navs.

You can track a route as you drive - which is free - but it doesn't tell
you where and when to turn. It also doesn't re-orient the screen to have
ahead facing up - which can require a bit of spatial gymnastics to work
out which way you need to turn.

Alternatively, you can pay for Navigation (as mentioned elsewhere in
this thread) and it then tells you where and when to turn, plus orients
the screen so ahead is always at the top of the screen; rescales
according to your speed so that what is coming up is also the same time
away even if not the same distance, if that makes sense.

It all works pretty well. If you miss a turn it auto-replans the route -
which may mean turning round or it may find another.

The only slightly odd thing I found was on the M3 heading into London it
displayed a "turn right in 16.5 miles" sign. It might have waited until
I was a little nearer the junction. :-)

> Also, do you have any comments on the N95's integration with Outlook? I'd
> want this phone as a work tool, so the business performance is important to
> me. Being able to easily compose emails 'on the road' would be very useful
> too so another option is to go for the Nokia E61i along with an external GPS
> receiver.

It only integrates with Outlook for contacts, notes and calendar, not
email. It supports IMAP4 and POP3 so you you would have to get your
Exchange administrator to set those up for you if you wanted access in
both Outlook and the N95.

HTH

--
Bruce Horrocks
Surrey
England
(bruce at scorecrow dot com)