Nokia Drive’s offline maps going places with Engadget

One of the many great features about Nokia Drive is the ability to have a complete offline experience – so you can get to where you want, even without a data connection.
Offline functionality has always been very important for Nokia Drive on several of our platforms and it is something we love.

In our opinion, it is superior to others because it offers a great experience such as search and route planning all completely offline. And, it seems, we are not the only ones who love it.

A comprehensive review and hands on test in Engadget has concluded that:

Nokia Drive is the best purely offline navigational tool on the market, on any mobile platform.

Driving cross country

Engadget’s Darren Murph used Nokia Drive, on a Lumia 900, in its offline mode for a trip of 1,800 miles across the United States and says he was ‘downright shocked at just how fast everything operated.’

“Nokia Drive is a beautiful app to look at. The icons are big, bold and polished, with fonts that are pleasing and easy to view from afar. You aren’t inundated with useless information, and in my humble opinion, Nokia provides the perfect amount of data – it’s just enough to take advantage of at a glance.”

In an effusive review, Darren praised Nokia Drive’s simplicity, comprehensive mapping and even the nice voice of the navigational assistant.

He also shared a useful tip about the ability to set up a speed alert (go to Settings), so that you know you are always driving on the right side of the law.

As someone with an ‘unnatural adoration of travel’ it seems that Darren has used his fair share of navigational devices, so it makes his enthusiasm for Nokia Drive all the sweeter.

“If you’re an avid traveller, and you haven’t given Windows Phone a chance, you should. Nokia Drive is honestly reason enough to consider switching if you use your phone for navigating as much as you do texting or calling, and I’ve reason to believe that it’ll only get better with age.”

Offline Maps on Nokia Drive

Download your maps by going to Settings > Manage Maps > Add New Maps within Nokia Drive. As well guiding you to your destination, the offline experience will also let you search for known places of interest and even reroute during your journey.

Nokia Drive and the full offline experience is available for all Lumia devices, the Nokia N9 and Nokia Belle smartphones.

Have you had a chance to use Nokia Drive with an offline map yet? Let us know how you got on.