Dial-Up Directions: A Good Find?

To get directions with VZ Navigator's GPS service, reach out and touch a satellite. (No Credit.)

RESEARCH QUESTION: Fancy navigation screens are showing up on all kinds of luxury dashboards. That's great for the Lexus class, but don't Taurus drivers need satellite-powered, turn-by-turn directions, too?

You can buy a handheld GPS, if you don't mind tending to yet another gadget. For the rest of us, the techno-wizards have crammed a Global Positioning System service into the cellphone. Sprint and Nextel already offer navigation programs. Now Verizon has launched GPS on its feature-packed V phone (the LG 9800). This slightly oversize bifold phone currently runs $199.99 with a two-year contract after a $50 rebate; the VZ Navigator subscription cost $9.99 a month or $2.99 a day. (VZ Navigator is also available on the Motorola V325 and RAZR phones.)

We wondered: Can this latest cellphone navigator guide us down the road without too much dangerous hands-on fumbling and without racking up ruinous fees?

METHODOLOGY: We tested the V on a recent trip to Georgia. Starting from a Krystal parking lot in Savannah, we entered an address on St. Simon's Island, about 80 miles away. We'd never been there before and had no other directions to rely on.

RESULTS: Entering info is easy on this phone, which opens lengthwise like a pamplet to reveal a proper -- if tiny -- keyboard and a 1 1/2 -inch screen. (There's another color screen and a number pad on the cover for standard cellphone use when it's closed.) The device calculated our current position and then, after a pause of about 20 seconds while it downloaded directions, instructed us to exit right on Bee Road.

Crucially, you don't need to hold or read the phone once you get on the road, making it good for solo drivers. The phone guides you with clear instructions spoken by a pleasant-enough female robot voice. It gives you a warning as a turn approaches ("Prepare to turn left in point four miles onto Victory Drive"), then nudges you again at the critical moment ("Turn right now onto Victory Drive"). It's like having an unflappable spouse with expert map-reading skills. (Soon someone will invent navigational software that really replicates marital driving conditions: "We're lost, aren't we?," the Hector Vector® robot voice will say. "For God's sake, why don't you just stop and ask somebody?")

All in all, the system was accurate and easy to use. It even bested us in getting out of Savannah, a city we know cold. We thought it was turned around until we were stunned to reach I-95 faster than our own route would have allowed.

The long run down the interstate was silent and turn-free, but the monitor tracked our progress on a simple graphic map. (You can opt for a more detailed and zoomable map, but you'll need free hands to call it up.) Boxes along the bottom show the miles and time to your destination. The screen is big enough to see, sunshine allowing, if you set it on the dash or center console. Be careful not to close it by accident, as we did, or you'll turn off the navigator. You can still use the speakerphone feature when it's open in map mode. (Another disadvantage on long trips: Having the phone open to the navigator is a big drain on the battery.)

After our exit, all turns onto the secondary roads were correct, even the tricky combination turns: "Keep left on Demere Road and prepare to turn left on Frederica Road." When we overshot a turn (deliberately, in pursuit of a Stuckey's), the navigator automatically recalculated our route. It only seemed truly flummoxed twice, once in a traffic circle (and who isn't baffled by those?) and once near our destination, where every other street was named Commons Drive or Commons Road, and they all crossed each other repeatedly. But by that time, a block from the endpoint, we felt it had done the job.

CONCLUSION: On top of the $9.99-a-month VZ Navigator subscription, each time you ask for directions, you pay to connect to the wireless database at a per-minute rate based on your calling plan (if you have unlimited minutes, for example, you wouldn't pay any extra). Fortunately, the device needs to connect only once, at the beginning of the drive (or more often if you throw in any unplanned detours, which is essentially asking it to start over). Checking the record later, we found that our hour-long trip required less than five minutes of airtime.

The V phone's navigation service performed as advertised, for less money than we expected and with more map accuracy than we needed. Until we can afford that Beemer with the dashboard monitor, this poor-man's navigator more than serves.

-- Steve Hendrix

For more information on the VZ Navigator: 800-811-7600,http://www.verizonwireless.com.