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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

According to Ars, it's not, and Bing Maps seems to be the worst of the bunch:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/10/replacing-ios-6-maps-ha...

Uhm, they only say that they couldn’t really see any difference between Nokia Maps and Google Maps. To me that’s a ringing endorsement.

Oh, and they were focusing on features, not the accuracy of the map data – which they also did not test in any particularly systematic way.

This article doesn’t tell you at all whether or not Nokia's map data is better or worse than Google’s. It can’t because it doesn’t want to.

Not really. Nokia Maps is more than Nokia Maps on iOS. Downloadable/Offline maps is killer feature in Nokia Symbian/Meego phones (at least for travelling person from Europe). I guess the same solution is used in Lumia phones as well.

Since I don't want to buy Lumia phone when there will be no Symbians anymore I hope Android will have proper offline maps or EU will force reasonable price for data connection across Europe (what it actually does gradually).

I'm not familiar with Nokia Maps at all. How is its offline feature better than Google Maps On Android's offline feature? (You call it "proper" suggesting to me that you consider better than the way Google Maps on Android does it.) I don't have a smart phone, just a WiFi only Android tablet and I've fund the offline maps features in Google Maps perfectly adequate.

OK. I don't have any modern Android. I believe offline maps for Android is pretty new function. Right? I think in offline maps for Android you can download only selected region. Meanwhile with Nokia maps I can download map for individual country or state (in case of US).

Yes, it is pretty new, or at least I hadn't noticed it until a few months ago. And, as far as I know, you are right that to specify what to download you pick a rectangle on a map view, making it awkward to pick a whole country without getting plenty of extra stuff.

For Android the regions you can select to save offline are severely restricted. In my recent vicinity I could select as much ocean as I desired, but no land.

The regions it is available in are undocumented.

Better than GM because: Download maps on country basis (multiple countries at a time if required). Search works offline (not as good as google IMHO). Turn by turn nav works offline. Voice guidance works offline. GPS fix times are better when offline than android (with no AGPS assistance or WLAN/cellID based positioning available)

I was a Nokia user for years. Got have a Nexus7 and an android phone now. Still use an old Nokia in the car for nav as it's better! No setting off on a route, hitting a detour in a place with no signal and finding GM can't navigate anymore.

I have travelled around the world with my trusted Nokia mapson Nokia N8 and now the Lumia 800. It's a lifesaver especially when you consider you dont have network when you are travelling and offline maps is of great help. Until I tried maps on an Android, I didn't realize how awesome nokia maps really is. iOS maps was even worse.

+1. Last time I went to Europe I took my olde Nokia E71. The maps function was GREAT - I didn't have data there but I could still navigate the cities I visited without any trouble.

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