A few days ago for some strange reason I decided to download Nokias Here Maps for Android. I really had no expectations, just did it out of curiosity. But I have given it a try.
I need to start with some of the bad things about this software. Firstly, it suffers from a bit of an obscurity problem. I had heard of it, but had no idea that it was available on Android, or that it was free for everyone to get.
Also it has sort of a half finished feel to it regarding at least the Android port. It heats up the phone when used, indicating a bit of a battery drain, it has some bugs with updating the voice files, and it's a bit laggy. Since I own a phone that is firmly in the top 10% of Android phones, it shouldn't lag on this phone.
Having said all that. What I found was not really what I expected. I have used Garmins map/navigation software, and though the navigation beats Googles version, the rest of the software is lacking. This is not the case with Here Maps. The functionality and design on this thing is amasing. I has features that you can only dream of getting on Google Maps in a few years in Finland, like indoor mapping of shopping malls, with contact info to all the shops, up to date traffic and accident report and a much more relevant directory of services.
The navigation is much better that Google Navigation, with speed display, speed limits (although, like everyone else, not updated to winter limits), arrival time, and delay on current route visible at all time. The voice navigation is buggy, but usable.
It also features a really useful mode that I miss in many maps apps, where you can switch to a drive mode, identical to navigation, without setting a destination. Basically using your phone like you would use a standalone navigator, when you are not navigating.
It also allows you to download maps by country for offline use. This is quite a bit easier to use than the Google Maps area download, although it uses quite a bit of space.
In conclusion, this is a very promising app. For people outside of Googles core market, this is quite clearly superior in features and map info. The technical side needs a bit of work, but there are no showstopper bugs. I can readily recommend that you try this app out.
It's available for all major mobile platforms (and windows phone), and there is also a web version on here.com, even though it doesn't have many of the features of the mobile version.