I bought a new phone recently. My old phone was just a phone, you could make calls and send texts and that was it, no camera, no bluetooth and definitely no Internet. I decided it was time to get a smart phone and so started researching what was available. I finally decided on a Nokia 6220, I want go into why here as that's not the reason for my post. I will say however that one of the main reasons for choosing that phone was its a built in GPS receiver. I wanted something that I could use when I was out on the bike and out camping to a) work out exactly where I was, b) find useful/interesting places nearby. We have a sat nav for the car and it's great for getting us from A to B but not so hot at finding a nearby supermarket and no use when I am out on my MTB.

So I started to investigate the mapping options that were possible on my new phone. As I said it has a built in GPS receiver and it runs Symbian S60 3rd Edition OS. The first option is the Nokia Maps application that comes bundled with the phone. I upgraded to version 3 after I got the phone (it came with version 2). It works well with the GPS receiver (as you'd expect) and doesn't require an Internet connection to work as all the data is loaded onto the phone. The maps scroll beautifully and are detailed down to the smallest roads. However they are road maps, there are no footpaths or other rights of way shown. The data includes points of interest (POI) information which is split into categories. From your current location you can find the nearest petrol station, cinema, etc. Some categories are well covered, it showed all of the petrol stations in my area for example, but other categories, notably shopping, were very patchy. As a free, simple mapping application it works well but it didn't do everything I wanted. It'll be useful for navigating a strange town or city especially when I am on foot. As it doesn't use an Internet connection and additional maps are free to download it would useful for navigating when abroad, where an Internet connection is very expensive.

The next option I tried was Google maps. When you visit the Google maps website with your phone it gives you a link to download the free Google maps application. Once installed this gives a dedicated application on the phone rather than opening the Google maps website in the phone's browser. The big disadvantage to Google maps is that it requires an Internet connection to work. So if you're in a location where you can't get bars on your phone it's no use at all. That means that if you're off the beaten track you might lose your ability to use your map, kind of ironic that. Anyway when there is a connection you get all the functionality of Google maps. Which includes searching for whatever you want based on the map you are currently viewing. This works really well, I was able to find several soft play areas near to the campsite we're going to stay at next week. For camping this is probably the better solution as it gives you all the power of Google and makes it location based. Like Nokia maps it uses the built-in GPS to show you exactly where you are. In fact from my brief anecdotal testing Google maps was better at pinpointing my location than Nokia maps, but only by a few metres.

These two mapping options are good but neither gives one thing I would find really useful. I like to get out on my bike from time to time and for that I use an OS LandRanger 1:50,000 map. It shows all of the smaller lanes that I ride on when out on my road bike and the off-road routes that I use when I go out on my MTB. What I'd really like is this OS map on my phone. Well it turns out that I can have just that from ViewRanger (I was only interested in the OS 1:50,000 maps of the UK but ViewRanger supplies other maps notably 1:25,000 maps of the UK and maps for other countries too inc. the US, Finland and Germany see their website for more details) . The downside it that the maps are not free. You can buy pre-selected areas for example the 1:50,000 map of the National Parks costs £25 and the whole of the UK costs around £150.

The more interesting option though is the custom maps. You download and install their Map chooser application onto your PC (WIndows only). This shows a map of the UK split into squares of 100 sq km. You can then choose which squares you want. The first 8,000 sq. km costs £20 then it seems to cost around £5 for each additional 3,000 sq. km. To give an idea of what the means you can buy more or less the whole of East Anglia for £25. What's great about this is that you can buy whichever squares you want, they don't have to be next to each other or related to the area covered by the paper LandRanger maps. No more having a map where you're house is at the edge! Apart from the maps you can also get POIs and panoramas, but I've not looked at those so can't comment on how well they work. I have downloaded the trial version that lets you download one square for free. Like the Nokia maps all the data is on the phone so there is no need to have an Internet connection to use the maps. When you can get a connection you it appears you can download additional information (not for free as far as I can tell) like POIs directly onto the phone (I've not tried this yet).

All three applications use the phone's GPS receiver to display the map for your current location, they can all also show in which direction you are headed. They also rotate the maps so they point in your direction of travel. You only have to take a few steps to get the direction of travel, it's a very neat feature.

In summary, Nokia maps is free and doesn't need an Internet connection to work, it gives similar functionality to a sat nav, good for finding your way around a unfamiliar place, especially abroad. Google maps is free but requires an Internet connection to do anything. It gives all the functionality of Google maps with the addition of being 'location aware' because it has access to the GPS receiver on the phone. Good for finding places of interest or even just the nearest supermarket. ViewRanger isn't free and doesn't require an Internet connection to work. It can use an Internet connection when available to download additional information. It gives you an OS map on your phone. Good for walking or biking off the beaten track.