The new Nokia 330: sneak preview

Last October we were the first to announce that Nokia would enter the PND market with the 330. This was big news because it’s the first attempt of the mobile phone giant to take a piece of the action in the Portable Navigation market.

Now, almost two months later, the Nokia 330 is actually here, and we were sent a review sample by GPSshop.nl. Of course we immediately went to work and by now the first few paragraphs of our in-depth review have been written.

Dedicated

The combination of Nokia and navigation is not completely new of course. The company’s (smart)phones, using software supplied by others eg. TomTom or Route 66 have been capable of providing a navigational experience for quite some time now. The Nokia 330 Auto Navigation, as the device is actually called, is the first truly dedicated GPS device from the Finns. And to prove that Nokia is only aiming for the navigational market, they seem to have left out the option for (hands free) phoning. Surprising, to say the least!

Specifications

The specifications of the Nokia 330 are very basic. Things like a 3.5 inch touch screen, (320x240), 64 MB of internal memory, a 400 MHz CPU by Samsung and a SiRF Star III chipset can hardly be called revolutionary.

The 330 also (optionally) supports TMC, the displaying of photos and the playing of MP3 files and videos (WMV, AVI, MPEG4, ASF, MPG). The device is shipped with a 'gooseneck' car mount, a car charger, a USB cable and a 2 GB SD card with version 7 of Route 66’s navigational software and the complete map of Europe pre-installed. The digital map is provided by NAVTEQ.

The Nokia 330 Auto Navigation is already on sale for a retail price of around €450.

We’ll post a complete review of the device very soon, but until then, here’s a brief introduction to the new device by means of an exclusive yourNAV video presentation! Click on the video windows below in order to play the video! (Microsoft Internet Explorer users need to click twice!)