Nokia is making its first foray into the crowded personal sat-nav market with its standalone 330 Auto Navigation portable GPS. A competitor to popular units from the likes of TomTom and Navman, the new 330 comes pre-loaded with Australia-wide maps and is equipped with enough entertainment features to keep most users happy.

Design
At first glance, the 330 appears just like any other navigation device. It's one of the slimmer units on the market at just 109 x 81 x 30mm and it weighs just 205g. This meant that it sat very comfortably in the hand but, disappointingly, the 330 doesn't push any boundaries in terms of design and is simply decked out in a dull black and grey finish. The front surface features a 320 x 240-pixel touch-sensitive screen measuring 3.5-inches that displays over 65K colours. Positioned to the left of this are several hard buttons for quick access to menus and the manual volume control.

Images look good on the vibrant display with the maps simple and the menu icons well spaced. The maps come in both 2D and 3D modes and, like many other units on the market, the 330 offers day and night views. The LCD screen also copes well with direct sunlight, with icons and road names that are very sharp and easy to read.

In the box you get Nokia's gooseneck mounting kit for attaching the 330 to your car's windscreen. The suction cap mount and flexible arm provide a secure grip with excellent manoeuverability, ideal when trying to get an optimal viewing angle. Nokia also provides a car charger and a USB data cable.

Features
Maps are stored on the supplied 512MB external memory card with 256MB of internal memory available for extra storage. Navigating duties are taken care of by the integrated SiRFStar III GPS receiver and ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 mapping software, complete with turn-by-turn instructions coming from the unit's internal loudspeaker.

The 330 also comes with over half a million points of interest (POI) pre-installed, with space available to store up to 200 additional address points. Instructions are given as either voice prompts or as on-screen directions, and there's a repeat function in case you miss the last instruction. Some of the newer models from competitors include text-to-speech functionality that can read out actual street names in real time instead of simply offering generic instructions such as "take the next left". Nokia's 330 lacks this feature and, worse still, there isn't even Bluetooth connectivity.

When not relegated to navigation duties, the 330 doubles as an entertainment unit thanks to the built-in music and video players. The multimedia features include support for MP3 music files, a JPEG and BMP photo viewer, and WMV, AVI, ASF, MPG video playback.

Performance
Nokia offer users several options for entering a destination, such as address and street numbers, post codes, map co-ordinates or the extensive POI list. Input is done via an on-screen keyboard-style pad and then there's an array of profiles to customise your route, such as shortest or fastest trips, or avoiding motorways and tolls. Users can also select whether they want a route calculated for pedestrians or for cars and trucks.

Once entered, the 330 takes some time to calculate the route with load times usually varying from 10 to 20 seconds. This is odd considering that the device is running a 400MHz Samsung processor and utilising the excellent SiRFStar III chipset. The slow route calculation speed becomes an issue when out on the road and you miss a turn, with recalculation of an alternative route taking too long.

Nokia needed to do something special with the 330 to make a significant impact in the portable GPS market and not simply rely on its name alone. Priced similarly to several better equipped rivals, the 330 Auto Navigation doesn't offer anything out of the ordinary but remains a competent device that will get you from A to B.