Offline maps on Android: comparing HERE and Google Maps

Nokia is generally regarded as the best maker of Windows-powered phones on the market, which is probably why Microsoft snatched them up. While most of that attention is focused on the Finnish company's solid hardware, Nokia's custom HERE mapping platform has also received rave reviews, with many saying it outperforms Microsoft's own maps. Now Nokia is bringing a beta version of HERE Maps to Android... but strangely, only on Samsung hardware.

The announcement was made on the official HERE website, highlighting the app's capability of turn-by-turn navigation without the need for an Internet connection. It achieves this by downloading cached maps for entire countries and regions for use offline. Other advanced features include basic 3D rendering for some cities, live traffic reporting, and public transit routes in some locations. 

 

So why Samsung? Nokia's news post includes a mention of a licensing agreement (read: Samsung paid for it), but they're also expanding functionality to the new Tizen-based Gear S smartwatch. If I had to guess, I'd say that Samsung is once again looking for a differentiator against the larger Android world, not only for its phones, but also for its own Tizen-based wearables, to try and give them a specific advantage against Android Wear. The Samsung edition of HERE will also support the location-sharing service Glympse. Nokia has probably already invested at least some effort into an Android version of HERE for its own X series of budget Android-powered phones.

 

Nokia HERE maps currently support "almost 200 countries," with navigation in "almost 100," live traffic in more than 40, and public transit information in over 750 cities. The Samsung rollout will begin via the proprietary Samsung Galaxy Apps store when the Gear S watch launches in October.

Last month Nokia announced that it would release a version of its highly-regarded HERE mapping and navigation app for Android, but only to licensed partners, starting with Samsung. Late last week an APK for a beta version of HERE, labeled as 1.0, was posted to MediaFire and spotted by Spanish language Android enthusiast site El Android Libre. The app appears to work with any Android device running 4.0 or higher.

  

After testing it out, I can say that it looks like all the basic mapping and navigation functions are here, including turn-by-turn directions and a satellite map layer. HERE's primary advantage is the ability to download cached maps of full cities and regions for use offline, and this is also included. You'll need to sign up for a Nokia HERE account (or simply link your Facebook account - no G+ option yet) in order to use this function. You can select maps by country; the larger and more populous the area, the denser the map data.

  

The full map for the United States is a whopping 4.7GB, but it's split up by state, with California and Texas coming in at just under 500MB. Connecticut (176MB) takes more data than Wyoming (164MB), because tens of thousands of square miles of mountains and grassland aren't all that dense from a road map perspective. Select areas of Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Australia, and Oceania are also available, but if you'll pardon the pun, your mileage may vary.

  

Support for bookmarks and a search function are included, but somewhat basic, and performance in this early edition of the app seems notably slower than Google Maps on my G Pad 8.3.
Everything that Nokia has said thus far implies that the general Android release of HERE will be exclusive to Samsung hardware, at least initially, including features that tie into the Gear family of smartwatches. The app will be released on Samsung's Galaxy Apps store. When and if HERE becomes available on the Play Store, I expect it to be limited to Samsung phones and tablets (and probably the latter ones at that).