9. Searching And Navigating With Nokia Maps, Continued

Landmarks are also stored as LMX files, so you can save places and transfer them from your phone in bulk.

You can plan a route to or from an address or a business that you’ve already found as well as from your GPS position. However, the destination has to be an address, a recent search, a saved landmark, an entry in the pay-for city guide or a point on the map. This can force you to find the far end of a route before you get the beginning; it’s more streamlined than the previous version but also less flexible.

The new version gives you the directions first and you have to click right to see the summary (this is overview of the route giving the distance and travel time and reminding you whether the mode of transport is set to Car or Walking, although you can’t change this from here if it’s not what you want). The numbered step-by-step directions tell you how far to go, which way to turn and what road you’re looking for.

One welcome option is that you can save a turn as a location from the Options menu - which is handy if there is a good rest stop or if you want to experiment with different routes manually (there is no option to avoid a road or area and you can only get alternative routes if you pay for navigation). Most routes we tried were reasonable but some took a long way round and others spent too much time on surface streets instead of using freeways.

Click on a direction to see the turn drawn on the map, again with the distance and next road but with much clearer turn arrows, a compass and a progress bar and distances showing how far through the route you are. You can use the up and down keys to navigate to the next turn but the animation makes the map zoom out and then in again. It also often rotates, making it confusing to see what the route does before you get to the turn. The simulation is clearer, with spoken commands, distance, ETA and clear animation. If you have problems getting this to work, you may need to upgrade the firmware on the N95.

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