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Comment by gebe | Hacker News Reader

Nokia Maps is _amazing_ and has been since the Symbian days, even more so by the fact that you can download maps beforehand (whole countries) and use them offline. Utterly unparalleled might be a bit harsh.

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I can vouch for this, Nokia Maps is just amazing. The ability to download maps offline is extremely convenient, not just when you are out of the country and don't have a data connection, but also when you are running low on battery.

However, I am still surprised how we got here, we went from having offline maps on all GPS devices in the beginning of last decade to online only maps by the end of it! Now we have to tout the ability of having offline maps as a feature?

Well yeah, google wanted it in the cloud. How are they going to track and thus monetize you if you're not phoning home for the map?

Last time I tried Nokia Maps (on a WP7 device probably a year ago, admittedly) I tried searching for a nearby location by entering a partial address. It failed. I tried searching for a cross street without using name suffixes. It failed.

Point is, everyone has different needs from a Maps app. I don't drive, so don't need navigation. I just need to enter an address quickly and find out where it is, so offline downloads don't really do anything for me.

I don't drive either, so walking/public transit directions are INTEGRAL to my survival. I haven't played with a Windows Phone in almost two years, though.

Nokia maps has all of those plus handy apps like onebusaway

POI data used to be notoriously bad for Nokia maps. They have been working hard to address it, and now it is up to "mediocre" ;)

> Point is, everyone has different needs from a Maps app.

Exactly. For instance Nokia Maps don't cover Japan, so they're a complete non-starter for me.

Google Maps can download maps beforehand, but for some reason it won't let you plan a route without an internet connection. Probably because their route-finding algorithm would crush a phone or something :)

That is definitely a thing that you don't appreciate until you have to use it. We were on road over the long weekend and were lost with no network connection. Thanks to offline maps on my Lumia 920 I was able to find the nearest road offline and get back on road to our destination.

I recently returned back to the UK from a 2 week long US road trip, covering 2000 miles. We downloaded the Nokia Drive data for the states we were visiting in advance onto my girlfriend's cheap Lumia 710, as we wouldn't have any data connection (not wanting to incur roaming charges). We were utterly dependent on the Nokia Drive app, and it performed exceptionally. Definitely recommended in place of a dedicated satnav.

I don't ever post here but figured I'd add my two cents to this. I got a Nokia Lumia 928 about 40 days ago (just passed time for insurance). This past weekend I went on a trip from Seattle to Yellowstone. We had four people in the car and in most of Idaho and most of Montana there was very sparse 3G or LTE connection. My phone was the only one capable of doing offline GPS navigation. I've been quite surprised with how much I've enjoyed my Windows 8 phone and only become angry with the lack of games when I'm on the toilet.

Not to be glib, but it sounds like your Nokia saved you from adventure :)

adventure that I didn't anticipate. Yes. and I am thankful for that :)

Hard to imagine how anyone ever got anywhere before smartphones.

In the latest update, 7.0, there's quite a bit of conversation that this is no longer possible. It's recently come out that it can be done with a gimmick, typing 'okay maps' I believe, but it remains unintuitive as a primary task let alone worthwhile feature.

it usually just says "offline map not available for this region", or something like that.

Their routes are mostly useless anyway. Just look at the map and figure it out.

I agree. In fact, I'm still using a Symbian phone, and the maps still work. (Offline maps are essentially the only smartphone-esque feature that I make use of on a regular basis, so I feel no need to upgrade.)

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