Product Reviews

CoPilot GPS navigation devices that work with Windows Mobile handhelds have been around for a while, but this is the first version that works with Nokia Series 60 smartphones. The CoPilot software is bundled with a Nokia N70 handset from T-Mobile.

The pack contains the phone, GPS receiver and a mount and car charger. There's no splitter to let you charge the phone and receiver at the same time though, which is a shame since the N70's battery life isn't great.

The phone comes pre-configured and automatically connects to the receiver by Bluetooth. It took just 25 seconds to get a GPS fix from cold and it was sensitive enough to get a signal indoors by a window.

The interface uses a combination of

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icons and drop-down menus, and while this usually works well, it can feel a bit clunky when you have to scroll through a menu just to go back to the previous screen. Finding your destination is easy - you can enter a postcode, the street and town name or just the name of a place, which is useful for navigating to small towns or villages where you don't know the name of any streets. Unfortunately, you can't just enter the name of a street and search through a list - the software forces you to enter the name of a town or city as well.

Route calculations, whether new or recalculated, are fast and it took just 20 seconds to plan a route from central London to Edinburgh. Once you're driving, you have a choice of 2D or 3D maps, as well as a Safety Mode - a visually simplified version of the interface that turns on automatically when you approach a turning. The navigation display is clear, but the Itinerary Mode, which lists your entire route, has hard-to-read text. T-Mobile's CoPilot bundle also includes free real-time traffic information and you only have to pay for the data you download.

Nokia N70 user guides, reviews, FAQs and downloads at Know Your Mobile