At 150 metres, turn right.........

As we're going to Seremban (again), I decided to play with the GPS functions. Because Nokia included a 7-day free trial on their GPS guidance software(read voice navigation), I had no choice but to activate it instead of scrolling the GPS map when the red dot goes out of the screen. And so, yes, after a few minutes, I was impressed. Here, we have a map which rotates as you turn so as to make it easier for you to orientate yourself, a nice young British Gentleman voice telling you when and where to turn and lastly, drains the Nokia's batteries faster than you expect.

Which is quiet nice for a while but it sort of gets irritating if you have a long drive and it keeps telling you where and when to turn, etc. The voice guidance, can be set to a few languages but I have not tried Malay (Indonesian) or even French. Following the voice guidance is quite hilarious at some point, for example, where it tells you to turn right on the highway. This is because on the left is a Highway exit. It should have told you to "Keep to the right" instead. But if you ignore the voice, the map is quite accurate.

The main problem now is, after the seven day trial expires, if I want to continue, it would cost me. From some of the website, the costs are either RM42 per month or RM328 for one year. And if I did pay for it, in less than three years, taking in consideration of the Nokia's depreciation, it would have cost too much. So, right now, I am looking for alternatives such as Garmin, Mapking, etc. I am not sure what would happen after the trial runs out. Maybe I can still use the "DRIVE" mode without the voice but its too optimistic. Already, in some forums, there are complains about the charges being too high. I do not mind if the Mobile Phone costs me RM12,000 as this would be pittance but for a RM1,500 phone, this is too expensive. I would be willing to pay RM5.00 because after a few weeks of GPS fun, no one would use the voice function much.

One single charge was enough to last me for about 2 hours of GPS use.
The trip to Seremban was quite accurate but on the way back, there
was not enough power for the phone and so, it shut down. I guess I'll
have to get the Hyundai's cigarette lighter socket fixed. And the
battery's quite hot which means the GPS is sucking it dry because
when the battery is dead, you can still switch it on and it will come
to life for a few seconds before going off. But not the Nokia 5800
When its battery is dead, its dead.