One of the worries when buying a smartphone today is if it has decent GPS. The Samsung Wave does have GPS, but I’m not too happy about the navigation app.

The South Korean manufacturer makes use of Route 66 maps, and these can be accessed by the icon “Navigation”.

When I first reviewed the Wave, I wrote that there is no free turn-by-turn navigation. I was then contacted by Samsung, who told me that I was wrong, and my unit didn’t have it probably as it was a marketing model.

So let’s trust Samsung, and suppose the Wave does have full turn-by-turn navigation, how does it behave then?

There is no digital compass, not a big problem, but there is A-GPS, which allows faster location fixes.

The truth is, that the hardware isn’t enough. The software and maps don’t load that fast, but that’s because my maps did not come offline-ready (loaded on the memory card), I need to be always online. For you, it should be different, so it is obvious that offline maps must always be faster.

There are several navegation packages, but of course, I didn’t get any. Depending on your region, you could get drive and walk, advanced guidance, traffic information, voices, road maps, 3D and discover, safety cameras, colour schemes, and weather. I have a feeling that not all of these are free.

The app doesn’t go completely fullscreen, but it can tilt for a lanscape experience, just like a GPS device.

I believe, at least according to my experience, that Samsung has lost to Nokia on this one. If you buy a new S60 v5 phone such as the N97, you’ll get excellent GPS navigation, for free. But there are other things where the Samsung Wave wins, and if the GPS isn’t so important for you, the S8500 is a keeper!