Review: ZorroGPS

ZorroGPS is a navigation application for touch screen Windows Mobile smartphones. It runs on a wide range of the latest devices and comes complete with the kinds of functions that would normally be expected only on a dedicated device.

The first thing that stands out about Zorro GPS is the price. In the field of navigation software for smartphones there is a big empty gap between the free solutions, such as Google Maps that are very limited in their turn-by-turn functionality, and the premium solutions that deliver an experience on a par with a dedicated device but that rarely cost less than £50 and more usually closer to £100.

Zorro GPS is a more budget-minded solution, priced in line with a basic piece of shareware software. But there are some innovations on pricing, too – you can purchase a single city for under a tenner. It’s perfect for tourists or taxi drivers.

Naturally the cheaper price is reflected elsewhere in the package. This software doesn’t come pre-installed on a memory card but is a web download (with free trial available). The install process is rather clumsy, requiring you to extract the compressed download files too your desktop then copy them all manually onto your phone or card and run the installer from there. It’s a long winded process – expect a good half hour or more – that fails to score a single point in terms of user friendliness.

A glance at the product’s website highlights an interesting selection of features. One is immediately intriguing: cartoon navigation. It brings to mind those Far Eastern navigation systems with fully animated streets that are more akin to video games than a serious driving aid. Sadly it’s not even close; in fact, it’s quite puzzling.

When you are driving down a straight road the view snaps to a static image of a straight, tree-lined street – it serves no practical purpose whatsoever, it’s quite silly and rather distracting.

There are some other decent features, but not always well implemented. Text-to-speech reads aloud street names, but only seemed to work on a few major roads. There’s also a potentially handy warning system, that alerts you as you drive to a wide range of upcoming hazards including speed cameras or road signs. For example, driving past a school prompted an alert to warn about it.

Unfortunately the voice prompt was cut off part way through the word ‘school’ and we could only see what it was when we glanced at the screen for a visual check. It rather defeats the object. On another occasion we encountered a warning about a slippery road, although we suspect that this was a mistranslated interpretation of the motorway slip road!

The school problem was one we encountered continuously. The voice prompts are loud and relatively clear, but are simply unable to handle multiple events in a short space of time. If a second event occurs before the first has been completed, the first will be just be cut off mid-sentence. Repeatedly, at roundabouts escpecially, this was a problem.

These are just a few of the issues we encontered in a product that seriously lacks polish. When we managed to get it working hassle free it was actually perfectly satisfactory. The interface was fairly intuitive, with plenty of options for plotting routes, including POIs, as well as the abiliity to record changes in road layout.

The map views were also fine and since the app is optimised for all screen resolutions (including WVGA) it was always clear and smooth. Yet constantly we encountered inconsistencies, such as our on screen distances being shown in yards, but the voice prompts measuring in metres.

Clearly a lot of thought has gone into Zorro GPS to make a feature rich package, and we’d love to see the pricing introduced on some of the more high-end rivals. Ultimately, though, you get what you pay for, and this budget software feels very budget indeed.

Price (as reviewed): £28
Web: www.zorrogps.com
Map coverage: UK & Ireland

Verdict: 4

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