Rating:

At the time of this writing there are 8 other reviews here and I found them all helpful and accurate but I believe all have misstated one vital piece of information that is not made clear in the manual that comes with the unit:

–> *** the device actually does speak the street names ***

Rating:

The driving experience was surprisingly smooth. I liked that I was able to choose the voice – there are several different male and female voices to choose from as well as different accents (American, British, Irish, and others available with a download)! The voice would let me know that I needed to turn after a 1/4 mile more of driving, and then at just the right time it would remind me again to turn.

The on screen display offers so much information without being too obtrusive or distracting. During my drive, I noticed that it was keeping track of my speed compared to the speed limit, how many miles I’d driven, how many more to the destination, etc. It even shows your exact latitude and longitude and how many satellites the GPS is getting info from (I was between 5 and 6).

Just for kicks, I asked it for directions on my way to the grocery store and it got them right. Then I asked for directions to a craft shop that I’d been to recently that’s an hour away and it got those correct, too. What it did NOT get correct, however, was my home address. Our house was built nearly 4 years ago so not even all the online map sites know we exist yet so it wasn’t exactly a surprise but it would have been nice to not have to go by the intersection instead.

I like adding “Favorite” destinations to make map requests quicker. I can’t wait till I get it all filled up with destinations and setting all my preferences. This thing is going to be SO helpful!

Rating:

However, the TOMTOM website is not very intuitive and it was difficult to find the information I needed. My recommendation is to create an account FIRST, then once you find where to download the appropriate TOMTOM software, connect your GPS and LINK the GPS to your account to continue. Also, make sure you press the button on the lower right corner of the software before you disconnect the GPS so you don’t get an error message to your screen. I set this up on a MAC system; I suspect you will encounter a similar but harmless error with a Windows system.

This TOMTOM has many more features than I’m use to but has the same basic functionality as pretty much any other GPS. The difference is in where you find that information. The reason I have mixed feelings is because this TOMTOM is so different from the 11-month old Magellan GPS I have. Also, there are a few features that just annoy me. For instance, with my Magellan I can press one button to find the route in text format. With the TOMTOM you have to make three selections to see the same thing – press once on the street name, then press once on the details button, then press the “browse as text option,” and now you see the route in text format. Then when you want to get back to the map, you press done twice. To me this is very frustrating because when I’m navigating, I like to bounce back and forth between the map and the written route. However, I did not rate this GPS lower because of this since it’s only my personal preference.

From a feature and option perspective, this GPS has a lot to offer. There are many points of interests (POIs), although the POIs are set up much differently than on my Magellan. There are HELP instructions on what to do if your car breaks down and what the rules of the road are for different states. In addition to the these features, you can edit your own maps, you can zoom in on them, you find the gas stations with the cheapest fuel prices (providing you subscribe to the TOMTOM daily fuel price updates), etc., etc. The reason I rated this TOMTOM three stars is because it offers too many selections making the system more complex than necessary, the screen is not as crisp as other GPS’s I’ve seen, and some of the basic menu options are not as intuitive or as easy to get to as they are on the Magellan.

Update as of 12/05/09: I had my boyfriend try the GPS and he quickly became frustrated with the menu items and felt it was too complex. Although he was originally going to rate this TOMTOM 2 stars; he now agrees with my rating of 3 after he was shown some features. However, I had his 20-year old daughter try it and she loves the GPS and all the features it offers. For instance, she liked the ability to change the arrow into a car as you follow the GPS map and all the data that is displayed on the screen. She rates the GPS 4 stars only because the menus are sometimes a bit difficult to navigate. So it seems the younger generation might like this more than the older generation who usually don’t prefer all the bells and whistles.

Rating:

First of all, this device is on the inexpensive side (around $130.00) so it’s naturally going to lack some features in my dad’s Magellan that he paid closer to $400.00 for, but on the other hand enormous strides have been made in ease of use in the past two years. At least that’s the way it appears.

For my test purposes I activated both his Magellan and my TomTom and compared them side-by-side while he drove. The Magellan picked up a satellite signal immediately, while it took about one minute for the TomTom to pick up a signal. This was less of a problem than you would think as te device still gave directions from it’s previous map the last time it was turned on. In general, both devices gave identical directions, but my father’s device said the street name, while my device simply said “Turn right.” As twilight descended, both devices switched to night colors at exactly the same moment. The Magellan made a chime sound every time you took a turn. The TomTom did not. One thing I particularly liked is the more plain-English directions of the TomTom. For instance when the Magellan said turn left and then the street name, the TomTom said “At the end of the road, turn left.” Personally I found this a little easier to understand and make use of after dark.

My father’s GPS has a nasty green color scheme that I personally cannot stand, and it talks in a snobby sharp female voice that I find unnatural. My TomTom on the other hand has EIGHT color schemes and EIGHT voices to select from, all of them more soothing than the voice on his Magellan. I selected the U.S. coloring for daytime and Africa for nighttime, and absolutely love both (the daytime looks like a modern map you might by from Rand McNally and the nighttime looks like the computer read-out from Ghost in the Shell). The TomTom also seems slightly more 3D to me, but your preference may vary. The female Irish voice I selected is incredibly soothing and never grating. I look forward to downloading more voices to try out (celebs anyone?).

The directions of both of the GPSs are accurate as I mentioned, but the Magellan has some features the TomTom does not. The Magellan allows you to choose a route based on shortest time, or most use of freeways. The Magellan, on the other hand does not allow you to choose multiple routing options (other than alternate route) for your primary trip, but does allow you to set a time you would like to arrive at the destination (and if the device sees that you repeatedly say no to the option it helpfully offers to stop dispalying the message asking and make your default no). One feature that my father liked in the TomTom was the option to navigate to a new destination by way of a previous one (which he either can’t, or can’t figure out how to do on his GPS). On the other hand, he liked how his good old Magellan would say street and freeway names.

When it comes to selecting a point of interest the two devices may be about equal, but I prefer the TomTom. I had a terrible time trying to find a resteraunt in our area on the Magellan because unlike the TomTom, it didn’t suggest the correct city name for me when it mis-spelled it. It took about 5 or six steps to find a restaurant in the TomTom vs. 10 in the Magellan (in both I could not find it from close resteraunts and had to search by city). Also the Magellan listed GPS tables and other more technical information, but I saw no practical use for it. The TomTom had more features that actually seemed useful, such as changing the display of compass direction, safety features, horizontal or vertical display of information, ect. Of course if you can afford subscriptions to services such as traffic checking, ect. it can do even more, but most people will probably just use the out-of-box features.

All things considered, I would not have purchased the device my father did, but I find the TomTom well worth the money. While it doesn’t give names of streets and freeways in spoken direction, I find this made up for by a friendlier interface that makes the right assumptions and is easy on the eyes and ears. Some people will probably also appreciate how it has a dial you turn to make its suction cup release from a windshield (so you can transfer it from car to car). The deal-breaker for some will be the lack of speaking location names in my opinion. Otherwise it’s a stellar unit that is very well designed (it even has a cute little picture of you putting it away and an X over a picture of someone making off with the device like Santa Claus when you turn it off. I’m liking this device more all the time. Now to connect to the device website and download Dennis Hopper’s voice direction..

Rating:

It’s relatively inexpensive, comes pre-charged and is supremely easy to use, STRAIGHT OUT of the box, (which is impressive!): you just follow the simple on-screen instructions to set up the device for the first time, as well as to find local points of interest (restaurants, gas stations) or plug in directions of where you are going, and off you go! I particularly found it awesome that in the initial setup, you can choose not only the language, but also what language/voice to have it speak to you in: (I also believe you can download additional celebrity voices for a fee I think)…I set mine to the British woman, as I love British accents, and I find it hilarious & awesome: love it!!

My only and biggest complaint about this GPS device is that the spoken directions ONLY say things like ‘turn left in 700 feet’, ‘turn left’…and I would like it to tell me ‘turn left on main street’…while it speaks ‘turn left’ across the bottom of the screen is the street you are supposed to turn onto, but for the sake of safety in driving, I don’t think it’s smart to look away too much while driving, so I would MUCH prefer it would speak that out loud!

Other than my comment above, I absolutely love this GPS device! It is easy-to-use, easy to carry with (and not leave in the car), the satellite seems to work well everywhere I go (finding my location quickly): with full spoken aloud directions it would receive 5 stars, without it, only 4 stars, but I must say, I really love it!!