So I finally got to test the latest MRA app as I've just been on a tour of Europe and in my humble opinion it's defintely a big step in the right direction, but also has a few quirks, although I don't agree with some reviews of it calling it useless etc. One of my friends who I was travelling with was also using it, albeit on an Android device and he seemed to struggle more with it, but that could have just been his phone as it's mid range at best and a few years old.
I had mine (iPhone 14 Pro Max) in a wireless charging QuadLock mount on the bars and ran it in tandem with the Zumo XT, more to compare the experience. I still think overall I prefer the Zumo, mainly due to how much brighter it is and less prone to accidental touches/rain/overheating. I had the MRA app running for a large chunk of the 2250 miles we covered and if it had been my only means of navigation I'd have been fine.
I quite like the screen layout, I found it easy to glance at and make sure I was staying on track, the auto skipping of waypoints worked just fine also, as did the speed camera alerts (in some countries).
My only "issues" were that due to the heat on several of the days, my iPhone screen got so hot it dimmed. It was still usable but a little frustrating, whereas my friends Android phone totally shut down. I also thought it was a little unintuitive that if you load up a route and you're already part way into it, despite having the "Calculate from current position" it always wants to route you to waypoint 1 and doesn't seem to have a "closest drop in point" like the Zumo has. I did figure out that before hitting start you can zoom right in and long press on the next nearest waypoint and it'll set that as the entry point. To me it wasn't as slick as it could have been, but it worked. There were also a few instances where it wanted me to do a u-turn, come back on myself and then u-turn again, despite there not being a waypoint nearby to logically make that seem like the reason. also it was local roads between 2 waypoints so it wasn't like there was a waypoint accidentally placed on the opposing carriageway etc. But it was quite obvious glancing at the map and I just ignored it and it sorted itself out. By contrast the same route on the Zumo (exported from MRA as a Route 1.1) didn't have that same quirk, although to be fair the Zumo did do some similar things that the MRA app did not.
Biggest "issue" I had with it was the battery consumption, I use Waze on my phone alot on the QuadLock when doing blood bike runs and I can be running it for 8 hours straight and my phone tends to stay at above 80% all day long, but with the MRA app running it was draining so fast I barely made it to the end of the ride. I noticed though if I put the phone in battery saver mode this removes the excessive drain. It's definitely the MRA app causing it but not sure what specifically is the cause, possibly it's using the full 120hz screen refresh which is obviously damped down in battery saver mode but I can't be sure.
I had mine (iPhone 14 Pro Max) in a wireless charging QuadLock mount on the bars and ran it in tandem with the Zumo XT, more to compare the experience. I still think overall I prefer the Zumo, mainly due to how much brighter it is and less prone to accidental touches/rain/overheating. I had the MRA app running for a large chunk of the 2250 miles we covered and if it had been my only means of navigation I'd have been fine.
I quite like the screen layout, I found it easy to glance at and make sure I was staying on track, the auto skipping of waypoints worked just fine also, as did the speed camera alerts (in some countries).
My only "issues" were that due to the heat on several of the days, my iPhone screen got so hot it dimmed. It was still usable but a little frustrating, whereas my friends Android phone totally shut down. I also thought it was a little unintuitive that if you load up a route and you're already part way into it, despite having the "Calculate from current position" it always wants to route you to waypoint 1 and doesn't seem to have a "closest drop in point" like the Zumo has. I did figure out that before hitting start you can zoom right in and long press on the next nearest waypoint and it'll set that as the entry point. To me it wasn't as slick as it could have been, but it worked. There were also a few instances where it wanted me to do a u-turn, come back on myself and then u-turn again, despite there not being a waypoint nearby to logically make that seem like the reason. also it was local roads between 2 waypoints so it wasn't like there was a waypoint accidentally placed on the opposing carriageway etc. But it was quite obvious glancing at the map and I just ignored it and it sorted itself out. By contrast the same route on the Zumo (exported from MRA as a Route 1.1) didn't have that same quirk, although to be fair the Zumo did do some similar things that the MRA app did not.
Biggest "issue" I had with it was the battery consumption, I use Waze on my phone alot on the QuadLock when doing blood bike runs and I can be running it for 8 hours straight and my phone tends to stay at above 80% all day long, but with the MRA app running it was draining so fast I barely made it to the end of the ride. I noticed though if I put the phone in battery saver mode this removes the excessive drain. It's definitely the MRA app causing it but not sure what specifically is the cause, possibly it's using the full 120hz screen refresh which is obviously damped down in battery saver mode but I can't be sure.
