Last time I investigated driving navigation on a Samsung Galaxy, I was comparing the Google-powered app on the Galaxy SIII with the very slick Nokia Drive on the Windows-based Lumias.
I gave the honours to the Nokia phones simply because their app worked offline, whereas the Google one didn't. Well... it SORT of worked offline, but not really, and certainly not as well as the Nokia version.
Enter the Galaxy S4 and its promise of a whole new navigation option. It's called Navigon and it just about does the job.
Somewhat confusingly, the original Google navigation app is still installed as well, so you need to choose which will be your default.
The Navigon app comes with the whole of New Zealand pre-installed, and I could also choose to download Australia for free. This is still not as comprehensive as Nokia Drive, which seems to offer a whole world of downloadable maps at no charge, but it's certainly a massive improvement on Google, which would only allow you to store 5 relatively small regions for offline use and even then, you'd have to go online to plan your route.
The S4's new navigation option works very quickly, asking you first for the city you're travelling to, then the street address. You then usually have a choice of routes along which you can decide to either drive or walk.
I used the app on a few of my regular routes, just to make sure it really knew what it was talking about. The only fault I could detect was at roundabouts, when the voice guidance would tell me to take the 1st exit when it meant the 2nd or 3rd. Very odd, given the map itself showed the correct route without fail. I'm sure this is a small glitch the designers will remedy in a future update and bearing it in mind, I set off on a real test of the might Navigon's abilities; Middlemore Hospital.
For any non-Aucklanders reading this blog, Middlemore is not what you'd call a central, easy-to-get to destination. Especially given I live at the opposite end of the country's only super-city and I'd never been there before.
My sister had decided to cut her wedding anniversary trip to Fiji short, by having an argument with a kayak in rough sea conditions. She lost the argument in spectacular fashion, smashing her knee up so badly it required urgent surgery back in New Zealand.
This is how she wound up stranded in Middlemore Hospital, still some distance from her usual network of friends, family and helpers in her home town of Palmerston North.
Being the doting younger brother I am, spending some time with her while she was waiting to be shipped back to the Manawatu seemed the decent thing to do, and the perfect excuse to put the Galaxy S4 to the test.
If you're online, you can simply speak your destination into the phone - this is true of any of the navigation apps I have used. It drives me nuts that you can't do this offline. When is offline speech recognition going to be a standard feature on our phones so we can do things like dictate text messages safely while driving? It's just stupid.
Anyway, even though I had to type it, I only got as far as "Middle..." before the S4 had suggested Middlemore Hospital as a probable destination and set me on my way.
I found the voice guidance less robotic than some others I've used, and less intrusive - only giving me directions when I needed them instead of hassling me with the same direction 15 times before I got to each intersection. The really cool thing this app does is when you have to do something tricky on the motorway. The display then changes from showing where you are on the road to a graphic of the motorway on or offramp in question. The lane or lanes you need to use are clearly highlighted taking any doubt out of your maneuver - even the signs on the screen match the real ones exactly.
The estimated time of arrival was as accurate as any other GPS I have used and the display was very clear and uncluttered.
In short, I got to the hospital with no problems whatsoever. The parking charges were exorbitant, but sadly, no phone is smart enough to get around that. Yet.
So the S4 has truly delivered an offline navigation solution, and a powerful, user-friendly one at that. Now if I could just figure out how to get off this roundabout...
Somewhat confusingly, the original Google navigation app is still installed as well, so you need to choose which will be your default.
The Navigon app comes with the whole of New Zealand pre-installed, and I could also choose to download Australia for free. This is still not as comprehensive as Nokia Drive, which seems to offer a whole world of downloadable maps at no charge, but it's certainly a massive improvement on Google, which would only allow you to store 5 relatively small regions for offline use and even then, you'd have to go online to plan your route.
The S4's new navigation option works very quickly, asking you first for the city you're travelling to, then the street address. You then usually have a choice of routes along which you can decide to either drive or walk.
I used the app on a few of my regular routes, just to make sure it really knew what it was talking about. The only fault I could detect was at roundabouts, when the voice guidance would tell me to take the 1st exit when it meant the 2nd or 3rd. Very odd, given the map itself showed the correct route without fail. I'm sure this is a small glitch the designers will remedy in a future update and bearing it in mind, I set off on a real test of the might Navigon's abilities; Middlemore Hospital.
For any non-Aucklanders reading this blog, Middlemore is not what you'd call a central, easy-to-get to destination. Especially given I live at the opposite end of the country's only super-city and I'd never been there before.
My sister had decided to cut her wedding anniversary trip to Fiji short, by having an argument with a kayak in rough sea conditions. She lost the argument in spectacular fashion, smashing her knee up so badly it required urgent surgery back in New Zealand.
This is how she wound up stranded in Middlemore Hospital, still some distance from her usual network of friends, family and helpers in her home town of Palmerston North.
Being the doting younger brother I am, spending some time with her while she was waiting to be shipped back to the Manawatu seemed the decent thing to do, and the perfect excuse to put the Galaxy S4 to the test.
If you're online, you can simply speak your destination into the phone - this is true of any of the navigation apps I have used. It drives me nuts that you can't do this offline. When is offline speech recognition going to be a standard feature on our phones so we can do things like dictate text messages safely while driving? It's just stupid.
Anyway, even though I had to type it, I only got as far as "Middle..." before the S4 had suggested Middlemore Hospital as a probable destination and set me on my way.
I found the voice guidance less robotic than some others I've used, and less intrusive - only giving me directions when I needed them instead of hassling me with the same direction 15 times before I got to each intersection. The really cool thing this app does is when you have to do something tricky on the motorway. The display then changes from showing where you are on the road to a graphic of the motorway on or offramp in question. The lane or lanes you need to use are clearly highlighted taking any doubt out of your maneuver - even the signs on the screen match the real ones exactly.
The estimated time of arrival was as accurate as any other GPS I have used and the display was very clear and uncluttered.
In short, I got to the hospital with no problems whatsoever. The parking charges were exorbitant, but sadly, no phone is smart enough to get around that. Yet.
So the S4 has truly delivered an offline navigation solution, and a powerful, user-friendly one at that. Now if I could just figure out how to get off this roundabout...
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