GPS on Nokia N86

wattywattwatt

Hi There,
Pardon my ignorance, I know this is probably a really stupid question!
My contract with t-mobile expires soon and I'm thinking of getting a Nokia N86 on Virgin (£25 a month, 500mins, unlimited texts and internet). I am interested to find out whether you need to be connected to the internet to use the GPS function or is this something that works on its own? I'm asking because I think it could be useful on holiday abroad but would hate to come home to a ginormous bill! Also does anyone have one of these phones, I've read the reviews and it seems pretty good but would rather hear how an 'ordinary person', ie not a techie feels about it.
Any comments gratefully received. Thanks.

redux

No, the GPS on its own is an independent function.

But if you use it in conjunction with some types of map software, then you need to be careful if you don't have an inclusive data bundle, like when roaming. With some, you'd have maps pre-stored on probably your memory card, but Google Maps for example is live.

Nokia/Ovi Maps, I believe maybe you can download maps in advance, but I haven't used it like that yet and I'd be reticent without a lot of practice here first. A friend asked me about these, and I don't think he's got round to it yet.

Jon_01

Nokia maps downloads all in one go, I did mine at home over wifi. But costs to use, I think you have something like 6 free trips with it.

Google maps is free to use, but downloads as you go, so cost on data usage.

TomTom, I told, won't work at all as it needs feature pack 1 to run and the N86 has feature pack 2.

PeteMc

Nokia Maps gives you a choice whether you wish to go online at start up. Just say no or turn off A (Assisted)-GPS in the menus.

You will need to have/install the free map of the country you are visiting otherwise you'll just see a red dot on a blank screen.