MS Band will not give you directions. It will map your route and measure your heart rate and number of 'steps' you've taken during that route. It will also show your speed at various sections and color code them on the map. There is no monthly cost. There is no subscription.
It does many other things in addition to this, mainely connects to your emails and facebook and text messaging and shows you those on the watch. That comes in handy at some meetings where checking your cell phone might be inappropriate
It also has a starbucks card feature so you can just walk to the counter and scan the barcode directly from the watch
It has a UV sensor to tell you to put on sunscreen - that sounded like a cool feature but I have never really used it
If you do workouts it does connect to those couch to marathon (or something like that) guides and other workouts where you get coached at intervals
It buzzes you every mile if you set it to workout or bike or run mode
It has alarm feature, missed calls, weather forecast info
It has a cool sleep function where it measures your quality of sleep - I really like that