Yesterday, a Saturday, was a hectic day for me. As the unofficial family driver (my wife drives too), it was my honourable task to haul us all around Lagos, from Ilupeju to Surulere to Gbagada to Omole. It looked like a promising day.

It also looked like a good opportunity to try out the popular mobile navigation application, Garmap for Mobile.

Did it deliver? Impressively! While I was familiar with most of the places we went to yesterday, that familiarity also helped evaluate how detailed and accurate Garmap is. Believe me when I say that Garmap provides accurate directions.

Even better, I observed that Garmap calculates the most direct routes possible, keeping you on major roads as much as possible. This way, it is difficult to get lost. If you make a wrong turn, Garmap re-calculates your route and gives you a fresh set of instructions to get you to your destination.

In addition, the voice guidance was so good that I had no need to look at the display of the phone. Garmap is so accurate that it gives directions to exit or enter service lanes on point! We had a taste of this a couple of times along Ikorodu road.

There was one location I didn’t have a good grasp of at Surulere, but Garmap proved effective, effortlessly piloting us through roundabouts and side streets. All I had to do was type in the street address and search. Garmap got us to our destination nicely.

My wife, who is not exactly a mobile phone person, is excited. She’s been telling everyone how wonderful this application is. As someone involved in marketing for her employers she thinks Garmap for Mobile is a must-have for those who are constantly on the move. I agree. Oh, and she’s already looking to replace her dumbphone with an S60 smartphone so she can use Garmap.

By the way, Alireta is giving away a free Garmap for Mobile application (full licence) if you purchase an S60 or Windows Mobile smartphone from them. Call 08084391076 if interested. Alireta Mobile is a delivery service and will deliver your order to your home or office same day or within 24 hours, depending on the time you place your order.

Finding points of interests works well too. Whether its a food outlet, fuel station, educational institution, or religious organisation, the application presents you with a list of such points near you – and that can include even those that are 500 km way from you.

If you need to find your way around Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria regularly, it is my informed opinion that you cannot go wrong with Garmap for Mobile.

It was raining cats and dogs this morning when I decided to get out and give Garmap and Nokia Maps a spin. I needed to pickup a desk diary at the office. In the last few days, I had bookmarked both my office and residence on both applications.

So this test run was more-or-less to see how accurate either applications are in terms of route planning.

Nokia Maps

Nokia Maps was up first. Getting into my car, I launched the application, located my office premises on it and instructed it to guide me there. Nokia maps did a fine job, presenting me with a route to follow.

The voice instructions were on spot with directions such as: “Turn right and then the next right turn“, “Turn right after 355 metres“, “Take the next turn left and you have arrived at your destination“, and as I pulled up in the car park, the soothing female British voice clipped, “You have arrived at your destination“. Yes; that felt good.

In the course of the trip, I decided to play pranks on the application and deliberately disobeyed some turn instructions. Nokia Maps wasn’t fazed. My guide’s voice would simply pip, “Recalculating route”, then re-draw the visual guide and give me another set of instructions.

I know those streets, and can testify that Nokia Maps was very accurate leading me through.

Garmap for Mobile

On completing my task at the office, I launched Garmap for Mobile for the return trip home. It drew up a return route – the exact route Nokia Maps had originally drawn on my way from home earlier.

This time, I headed in the opposite direction. A few seconds later, Garmap told me, “Re-calculating route“, re-drew the on-screen route, and gave me the next turn instruction. The instruction was spot on (I know every street in that area and where they terminate). I disobeyed and kept going.

Another re-calculation and corresponding voice direction. Correct once again. I ignored it and kept going. Every now and then, I would obey one direction, but disobey the next two or three. Each time, Garmap re-calculated correctly and gave accurate voice directions.

I noticed that Garmap got one or two street names wrong (the name of the street you are on is displayed on-screen), but it got all routes and turn instructions correct all the way home.

As I drove up in front of the house, Garmap’s voice direction finally said, “Turn left and you are at your destination“. Well, yes, the entrance to my residence stood to my left!

Conclusions

In this test, I rate both applications equally. Yes; it was a short test, but any navigation system that can acccurately guide anyone through the streets of Ojodu (not VI, Ikoyi, Surulere or Ikeja), where my office is located, deserves a fair score.

Though the weather was cloudy, GPS reception by both applications was good.

If you have any ideas you’d like for me to try out in my series of tests on these two applications, let me know.