Smart2Go - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Most of my driving is on roads that I know well and I don't yet feel I can justify the cost of a full-blown SatNav solution. So, when I got a new phone with a reasonable size screen in September 2007, I though it was worth the cost of a bluetooth GPS device and some SatNav software to run on my phone.

I explored various options and settled on the iBlue 737 bluetooth GPS device and Nokia's smart2go SatNav application.

The Good

iBlue 737

The iBlue 737 bluetooth GPS device has worked flawlessly. It has

an automatic power save mode

finds satelites quickly (at least relative to how long I believe other devices take)

can position me on the map reliably (within the limits of GPS).

There are a couple of good reviews of this device here and here.

Smart2go

Smart2go is a wonderful free application:

for telling you where you are

for telling you the name of the street that you are on (though I have noticed occassional discrepancies)

for route planning (ie giving you static directions that will not update automatically as you follow the route).

you can buy a navigation licence (which will provide turn by turn directions and automatically re-calculate your route if required) for as little as a week; this is very cost effective (but do keep reading).

there are good options for 3D/2D maps, day/night mode, map always up or North up, routing options

clear voice commands (if you buy a navigation licence)

with the Nokia Map Loader program on your PC, you can download maps in advance and thereby avoid expensive mobile data charges

there is no need for data connection while using the application, unless you don't have the relevant maps already installed or if you need to buy a navigation licence

you can navigate from A to B via C and D

when the software is installed, it comes with a free 3 days navigation licence; I used this to navigate through the centre of Dublin (which I hardly know) and was very impressed

The Bad

Smart2go does have a few issues:

the phone sometimes hangs on exit from navigation

the keyboard input is a little tricky (seems to be designed for a phone with a touch screen which mine doesn't have)

a toggle of satellite data would be useful so that it does not always cover part of the map

it does not always restore the phone's power saving options on application exit (during operation, it overrides the power save options so that the screen is always lit up)

it will not display route waypoints in night time mode (and though the application looks like it has hung, it hasn't)

in order to use the maploader, you need to mount your phone in mass storage mode - I can't do this with my phone so I had to copy the relevant data directories off my phone onto a memory stick and then copy them back after the update

I could live with all of these issues ... but I can't live with what follows.

The Ugly

I took a trip to Holland with my family at the end of October. I have never been there before and decided it was worth paying £4.38 to avoid getting lost for the 5 days that we would be driving on strange roads.

Before leaving gome, I purchased a 7 days licence for the Benelux countries at the quoted price of £4.38. The first problem was that they actually charged me €6.29 which my credit card company converted to £4.41 - it's not a lot of money, but you can't legally quote one price and then charge a higher one. I have a credit card that doesn't load the exchange rate, so most purchasers would have a larger discrepancy than this.

When we arrived in Holland, I tried to use smart2go and discovered that I would have to leave the car park and the car hire area before I could get a signal. Only after leaving the area (by which time it was too late to go back and hire a SatNav from the car hire company), did I discover that although I had bought a licence, it wasn't recognised by smart2go. I decided to buy another licence (as I was otherwise a bit stuck), but when I tried to do so, the licence manager wouldn't let me because I had already bought a licence!

I ended up getting the software to calculate a route (as this is free functionality) and following the directions as best we could. This was a long way short of the navigation experience I had been looking forward to.

Not surprisingly, we got lost a few times and wasted a lot of time and petrol over the few days that we were there.

On return home, I contacted Nokia Customer Support to ask for a refund. They refused. They claimed that their terms do not allow refunds. When I pointed out that their terms did allow refunds for faults, they simply started to ignore my emails. This is not the level of customer service I would have expected from a well known international company.

It is not the amount of money that is the issue here. It is the principle that I was sold something that didn't work and that I am legally entitled to a refund (and under European law, I would be even if they had tried to exclude this in their terms).

At the time of writing, I have not yet decided whether or not to take them to court. I'm certain I would win and that I would get my costs too, probably also consequential losses. The question is whether or not it is worth the time and the effort...

This review is based on my personal experiences. It started out very well, but went badly downhill. Even then, my feelings towards this product could have been salvaged by a good response from customer service. If you decide to try out smart2go, I hope you fare better than I did, but you have been warned!

If you would like to send me any comments on this review, please complete the form below.

David
4 January 2008

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