I’m a big Nokia fan. Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Siemens, are all fine; but for me, a mobile phone isn’t a true mobile phone until it carries the Nokia logo. It seems I’m not the only one with that opinion either; with a market share of more then 30% world wide, the Finnish company is still the ‘Number 1’ by far, in mobile phone sales.Big news
When a company like Nokia decides to enter the portable navigation market, that’s big news. So when, at the end of October, the official announcement was made that Nokia was about to introduce their first PND, the company certainly could not complain about the amount of press coverage it received!Now, less than three months later, the ‘Nokia 330 Auto Navigation’ has started to appear in the shops. Being naturally curious, I had immediately requested a review sample from Nokia last November. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be possible to send me one at such short notice; but, by a stroke of good luck, our main supplier in Holland, GPSshop.nl asked if we wanted to try out a unit from them. Of course we did! So I accepted,
and can now share my findings with you all.Unpacking
Unpacking the 330’s box is not a huge task. Besides the device itself and a few manuals, we also found: the suction cup car mount, a PND holder, a 12/24 Volt cigarette-lighter adapter/charger, a USB cable and a 2 GB SD card. This has the Route 66 navigational software pre-installed as well as the complete European map, supplied by NAVTEQ. The software and map is also provided on a DVD disc.The thing I noticed first was the lack of a ‘mains’ home charger; and that is a pity, because this Nokia cannot be charged via USB. So apart from plugging it into my car, I have no way of charging this unit. To be fair, many other makers don’t supply these either, but that doesn’t make it any less irritating. The power connector on the unit is also incompatible with the connector that is used on almost all Nokia phones - again, a real shame, because I still have a few of those lying around…
First impressions
I have to say, that when I hold the Nokia 330 in my hand it feels very sturdy, and the dimensions (109 x 81 x 30 mm) and weight (205 grams) are on a par with what may be expected from a portable SatNav.On the front there are two LEDs (1): the one on the left is the power indicator, and the other shows the GPS status. To the right of the 3.5-inch touch screen, there are five control buttons: main menu (2), navigate-to-menu (3), stand-by (4), volume up (5) and volume down (6). On top, there’s a light sensor which allows the unit to switch automatically between day and night modes, and on the right hand side there’s a connector for the optional external antenna (8).
If I turn the 330 around, on the back I see: a reset hole (9), the foldout GPS antenna (10), the loudspeaker grille (11) and the on/off switch (12). On the bottom there’s the charger connector (13) and a ‘hold’ switch (14) for locking the buttons and screen. Lastly, on the left hand side there’s the SD card slot (15), a headphones connector (16) and the mini-USB 1.1 port (17).
Main menu
Once switched on, and after setting the language and time, the main menu appears, showing options such as: Navigation, MP3, Movies, Photos and Settings. Here we see one of the major differences between Nokia’s machine and those from other PND suppliers: Nokia has chosen to completely separate the navigation ability from all of the other functions. Not being able to show photos and videos while navigating might seem a pretty good idea, but not being able to play MP3s while navigating seems like a very bad decision to me. The device doesn’t even start to look for the GPS satellites until you actually select the ‘Navigation’ option. A big limitation, if you ask me…After tapping the Navigation icon, finding the first satellite proves little effort for the SiRF Star III chipset. In the open air there’s a solid fix within 20 seconds and the first destination can then be entered. This destination
can be anywhere in the entire European continent, because the 330 is shipped with a full, seamless European map, provided by NAVTEQ. This map includes Ireland and large parts of Eastern Europe too, and is almost 1.8 GB in size. Combined with the navigational software itself, this almost completely fills up the SD card: only 60 MB of free space is left.Route 66
As already stated, the Nokia 330 uses navigational software (Navigate 7) from the Dutch company Route 66, which we got familiar with during our recent review of the Chicago 9000. And so we found the same complaints popping up here as well: the somewhat irritating voices, the lack of a QWERTY/AZERTY keyboard and the unresponsiveness of the screen at times.Of course there are several positives too: the non-standard (but handy) fuzzy logic method of seeking destinations, the well-ordered indications on the screen, and the choice of putting the information bar on the bottom or to the right of the map are all things I like very much.
The Nokia’s 400 MHz CPU is also nice and fast: the route to our standard test destination, the San Marco Square in Rome, is calculated in little more than 42 seconds. Short routes are produced almost instantly and re-calculations when deviating from the plotted route also happen very swiftly.
In action!
A while ago, we made a short First Look video impression of the Nokia 330 Auto Navigation; and because an image says more than a thousand words, I hereby refer you to this exclusive movie. Click on the video screen below to start the playback. (Microsoft Internet Explorer users need to double click…)Mount
As you can see from the beginning of the movie, the car mount consists of two parts: a suction cup with a (very rigid) flexible gooseneck and the holder into which the device clicks. These two parts need to be fitted together, and can also be moved independently thanks to the plastic ball hinge.This setup seems to work OK, but it all looks a bit cheap and fragile to me, especially the clip at the top of the device, which clicks the unit into place. I wouldn’t be surprised if this starts to have problems when this unit is used on a daily basis.
Phone?
Finally, a word about something which has surprised everybody since this device was first launched: there is NO hands-free phone feature on the Nokia 330 Auto Navigation! I must admit that I too find this very curious!Okay, so maybe Nokia wanted to market a true, dedicated, navigational device, and thought phone features didn’t fit in there somehow. Possibly true, but if so, why have support for MP3s and movie playback? Admittedly the current version of Route 66 Navigator doesn’t support Bluetooth, so phoning with this software is actually out of the question anyway. But still… it’s a Nokia!
And you have to be honest… a Nokia that can’t phone??? That’s like a pub without beer!
