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The software interface is not quite like other sat-nav apps on the market. Part of the reason why it's so cheap is that the company is based in China, so has been able to take advantage of the lower cost of software developers in that country. The front end is functional, but the default golden buttons are rather garish, although you can change this to a more sober colour scheme.

You can easily live with the interface, as operation is intuitive and driven by sensible icon-based menus, which you page through to find the option you need. Searching for an address or Points of Interest destination operates via the same menu choice, although you have to specify which of the two databases you are searching. You can also search for a postcode within the city field. However, only the first half of the postcode and the initial number from the second half are supported. This just calls up a town, not a street, so you will still need to input this to set up a route.

The city database has a few holes, too. For example, we couldn't input the town 'Stokenchurch' as a destination, and since you need to do that first before entering the street address, this made route creation difficult. Instead, we had to start with the nearest large town (High Wycombe in this case), then enter the road name and pick our actual destination on the map - hardly ideal if you don't know the area.

We also found that, despite the inclusion of the latest NAVTEQ maps, we were still prompted to take roads that had been blocked off for many years. The petrol station list also included one that closed a couple of years ago.

The map screen itself is fairly clear, however. It's not as aesthetic as some, particularly Garmin's, but the routing is obvious. Your next turning is shown in the top left, with the speed limit in the top right (if you purchased this option). The current road is shown along the bottom, with the distance to destination just above on the right, and the time to destination on the left. This is most of what you need, and another icon on the bottom left gives direct access to points of interest in the vicinity.

The full-screen assistance graphics which pop up as you approach a junction look reassuringly like real roads, but not the ones you're actually travelling on. They also tend to obscure rather than elucidate the layout of complicated motorway junctions. So they're not as helpful as the lane assistance provided by the mainstream manufacturers. But on a small smartphone screen it is useful to have a very clear indication of the turnings you should be taking. You can turn this on all the time, just on motorways, or somewhere in between.

Generally, we found the information provided was sufficient to keep us on track whilst driving, so long as we applied a bit of common sense at complicated junctions. ZorroGPS can also navigate for pedestrians and cyclists, which are essential options for a phone-based sat-nav system.

Verdict

The price for ZorroGPS looks too good to be true, and the software does have one or two flaws. However, as a low-cost option for smartphone use, its value for money is undeniable. If ZorroGPS adds full postcode destination searches, plugs the holes in the city database, and maintains its pricing, we might be seeing the masked avenger putting up even more of a fight against the tyranny of the big-name players of personal sat-nav.

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