I love Google Maps, but its inability to work offline is troublesome when you pass through pockets of no cellular network. If you want to make a detour due to road conditions, you are stuck because Google Maps won’t work without the internet even if you have downloaded that region of the map locally.
When we lived in Europe, we could drive just 40 minutes and be in a different country, which was great, except that any use of cellular data to use Google Maps would incur heavy roaming charges.
That’s where Nokia’s HERE maps takes over. You can download maps for entire states (in the case of Europe, countries) while you are on wireless, thus saving the capped cellular data.
With HERE you can search and re-plan routes without the internet, just the way Tom Tom or the GPS system in your car function.
HERE is not offline only. It will show you live traffic updates or delays on the route using the cellular data. But unlike Google Maps it won’t be chomping your data, it will merely be sniffing it.
HERE has a lot of desired features that Google Maps doesn’t have. It shows your current speed and the maximum speed on the road. It will inform you if you are speeding and saves you from getting a ticket.
Download HERE maps from Google Play Store.