Yesterday HTC released a free GPS navigation program that’s available only on HTC branded Windows Phones. This was kind of surprising, but also a clear response to Nokia’s inclusion of their free GPS navigation program called Nokia Drive. Even though Nokia has been the talk of the town in terms of Windows Phones this year, HTC definitely wants to keep Nokia on their toes. This free GPS navigation program is the latest indication of that.

HTC Locations allows you to download map data for offline use from a large number of countries just like Nokia Drive does. The GPS navigation speaks to you with voice prompts that tell you where to go even if you don’t have an internet connection. The HTC Locations app does sometimes provide different directions, but one thing that it has over the Nokia Drive app is the lane-changing prompts that tell you which side of the road you should be on. HTC Locations also has a wider breadth of features that many will find useful, while Nokia Drive is very basic yet simple.

Check out the video below to see us take HTC Locations for a drive and compare it a bit with Nokia Drive.