TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by TomTom
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TomTom GO 720 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: It does the job, but.
Summary: 4 Stars
Update 2010
Updated the OS and the maps a year ago.
- The estimates are now RIGHT ON. Consistently within 1-2 minutes.
- Better highway choices
- The OS is rock solid and except for the first day I have had ZERO problems with it. (Must have been user error.)
- It 'did' integrate very well with Google maps; plan a route and have it sync to the TomTom. That 'feature' no longer appears to work...
- The internal itinerary planner works very well so I don't miss the Google sync feature.
(FWIW, Google and TomTom use the same map database. TomTom now owns the company that compiles the map database.)
- Custom voices (the free ones) are great. My daughters enjoy the Cletus voice. The computer based voices are more useful but not as fun.
- Last update included lane advise and views. Very useful.
- Last year I used it Denmark. VERY COOL. No idea what the road signs said but still made a 3 hour drive with zero problems. COOL!
It does the job, but.
Pros
- Plays MP3s.
- The FM transmitter integrates with the MP3 player and audio directions very well.
- Has SD memory slot for MP3 and photos. I have not used it.
- Upgradable maps, for a price. I have not yet tried this feature.
- It has live traffic updates, for a price.
- Integrates with a bluetooth phone. I don't have one so I don't know if it works.
- Additional 'features' are available via their TomTom Home software, for a price.
- Their TomTom Home software is Mac OS X compatible.
- The Mapshare seems like a good addition. (Users upload errors and corrections.)
- Does it's job of real-time navigation. It's hard to get lost using this device. It's accuracy seems to be fairly good, within 50-100 feet. Which is all commercial GPS is really good for without using differential GPS or some other such third party system.
- It's real time route re-calculation seems to work fairly well.
- It's POI listing is a bit dated but useful as is.
Cons
- User interface is no better and no worse then any of the others. They all seem to be designed by the same company.
- Only plays MP3s, no AAC or Ogg Vis (or even WMA). The TT Home software for transferring MP3s is not intuitive or easy. I tried transferring MP3s by hand but for some reason that does not work. The resultant files are unplayable.
- The cross country route planner consistently makes BAD highway choices. Sometimes VERY BAD choices. Google Maps is actually better, MUCH BETTER. (I have not compared it to the other device.)
- It's estimates for cross country time of arrival are consistently long by a good 10-30%.
- Within 30 minutes of first using the TomTom Home software I toasted the device. Three hours later I some how restored it's functionality. It's been five weeks and TomTom has yet to respond to my request for help. Their web site support is one of the worst in the industry. (They did mark my request as solved without contacting me.)
- The TomTom Home doesn't come with a manual and I had to learn via trial and error. Unfortunately more error then I would have liked.
- The TomTom Home software is "suppose" to integrate with Google Maps. It doesn't. That would be a GREAT FEATURE and one reason why I purchased it.
- The online purchases are in Euro. Apparently TomTom is a european company.
Customer Review: The king of automotive GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I really love the 720. I have tried the Garmin Nuvi and just didn't like the software nearly as much as the TomTom. Entering addresses is really fast and you only see towns in the state you are looking in. This means no more having to scroll through 30 different Springfields to get to the one you are searching for. You can hide the keyboard to see a long list of close matches so instead of having to type out the full city or street name you can just hit the first few letters and then pick from a list.
Mapshare seems like it will be a huge advance in the world of automotive GPS devices. Is a street marked as open when it should be blocked? Just correct the error with a few quick taps on the screen and it's fixed. What's really the big advance though is the ability to share my corrections with all other TomTom owners. I connect the 720 to the TomTom HOME software and it downloads corrections that other users have submitted.
What you see on the screen can be fully customized so that if you want the status bar on the side then you can put it there or you can leave it on the bottom. You can also decide what information is shown in the status bar. You can show or hide the time of day, remaining time, remaining distance, current heading, and your current rate of speed. If you subtract items from the status bar the other items automatically get bigger to take up the remaining space. You can also select if you want to show the current street you are on and the name of the next street you will be turning on to.
Text to speech quality is very good and will say the directions so for example it might say "in 250 feet keep right, then take the exit right, 204B towards Westview." Or "in 200 meters, turn right South West Madison Avenue." You can choose from multiple voices although I think the Dave voice sounds the best of the bunch. If you don't want to hear the "keep to lane" instructions you can disable this feature although I personally like to have it on. You can also record your own spoken instructions so for example you could have your kid's voice tell you to turn left in 200 feet. I haven't tried this though.
The screen is very bright and easy to see even when I have my sunglasses on. The 720 can be set to automatically turn the brightness down as it gets dark thanks to a built in light sensor on the front of the unit.
The mount is pretty clever and super easy to use. Just push it up to the windshield and it sticks right on. The 720 then just slides right on and is held solidly in place. You can turn the 720 in any direction to get it exactly where it's easiest for you to see.
With all the great features of the 720, I think what will really set it apart even more from the other GPS units out there is the Mapshare feature. Being able to fix your own map and download updates automatically to keep the map up to date is one of those things that is so fantastically great that you wonder why on earth it took so long to make to a shipping product. Whether or not it can live up to the expectations remains to be seen. Even if you took Mapshare away it's still the best car GPS I've ever used. With it, there's just no contest.
My biggest complaint is that there's no case in the box. You need to buy one separately although I've been using the plastic holder it shipped in so far which is OK.
Customer Review: A "Class Act". That's all there is to it...TomTom GO 720 is a hit!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm no GPS expert, but I am an aerospace engineer and spent a lot of years in quality assurance, and I'd be proud to have this TomTom Go 720 as one of my products.
I looked for a long time for a unit with a certain feature-set including good sound quality, a good 3D display, fast position acquisition, multile waypoints, the ability to pre-plan a trip with an intinerary, and some extra features such as a variety of voices and icons to personalize it. And I defintely wanted something that looked as good in my Porsche 911 as in my Hummer. No toys! I wanted a primarily black body with a quality fit and finish, and I found all these in the TomTom Go 720.
Just a look at the packaging told me the unit would be nice. The quality of the box and packing was excellent, and I hadn't even gotten to the GPS yet.
Everything was in the box that I needed except for an iPod cable and a protective case which I bought separately from Amazon. The TomTom Home software was a little clunky, and took a long time to perform certain functions, but hey, it's not like I'm going to be using this every day, so I won't fault them for it. It works, and that's what counts.
Using it the first time was a little awkward, but that's mostly my fault because I never read directions. But I still had some concerns even after a bit of reading: Specifically, when I came to a stop at a light, the unit would "drift" well to the left of the roadway, although I wasn't moving. And while driving, it would sometimes display my car moving well off to the left of the road, as if in a field. Finally, I would sometimes notice that my route would move to a closely parallel road, such as a service road, and then the unit would tell me to turn to get back on the main road. Hey, I was already on that! All these seemed related, so I decided a telephone call was in order.
I also noted that after arriving at a destination, there seemed to be no way to cancel the route. The 720 always wanted me to go back to the original destination or start a new one. The only solution seemed to be turning it off.
I came home and called TomTom expecting a lengthy hold time, but got a great technician within minutes. After explaining the issues with drift, he diagnosed this as a software issue, helped me upload a newer version, and all trouble with stationary drift AND parallel routes went away.
He also told me to tap the screen until I saw a Clear Route icon which cancelled a trip and let the unit just idle along with me as I drove or until entering another destination. By "idle", I mean that it kept track of where I was at all times, but didn't give any directions.
I also chose a voice for my unit that was British, which I thought was a touch of class, but found that I needed a computer voice to announce roads by name, so I opted to go back to a US-accented computer voice. I really like the directions it gives which are timely, and with the road names, are so much more meaningful.
It's really a great unit, and I'm very happy with it. Wall Street Photo got it out to me right away, so hats off to them for a good price and quick response. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a mid-high end GPS that looks and works great in that nice car.
KLR
Alexandria, Virginia
Customer Review: Good Value for money, poor customer service, IQ routing and lane guidance work well
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased a new TomTom Go 720 ($179) yesterday after much deliberation. I was considering buying the Garmin 760 ($250) but decided to go with the TT 720 which seemed to be better value for money.
The TT 720 came loaded with App. version 8XX and map version 7XX (X being numbers I don't exactly remember). The device worked straight out of the box. I updated the device to the latest App version thorough TomTom home but the promo code for installing new maps did not work.
I called TomTom tech support this morning and was told I needed to fax or email proof of purchase and the promo code document. I called back after sending the required docs and a rep validated it and said that the required map was loaded to my TOMTOM home account. It turns out he had added the "USA & Canada maps" to my account not the "North_America_2GB" file which should have been added. It took another two phone calls and having to speak to the supervisor before figuring out why I was not able to update my device. I was asked to delete the existing maps file by accessing the device through my computer and then the latest map verison (815.2019) which is a 1550MB file was ready for downolad. 2Hrs later the file was downloaded and installed. I think having to speak to 4 reps and one supervisor to get my maps updated is pretty bad service. Please keep in mind that the wait time to reach them was about 20 mins on each occasion. While the supervisor and the first rep were sharp the rest were quite average. One of the reps claimed I had to delete stuff from the device to make room for the update, it turns out the maps take up almost all of the space on the HD and there is nothing much to delete except maybe 50MB of french and maybe spanish voice. On the whole pretty bad service!
With the latest App and Map combination the TT 720 now has IQ routing and lane guidance available. I think both these features are worth ensuring that you get to the latest revs as soon as possible. Without IQ routing the device provides non-optimal routes. For instance the optimal route from Houston to Austin is about 170 miles, but without IQ routing it came up with a 220 mile route and even after requesting alternate routes never found the optimal route. But, with IQ routing the first route selected was the optimal one (170 miles).
The features I like about the TT720 are:
- Very customizable interface
- IQ routing works well
- Lane guidance is very useful
- Interface is very intuitive
- The demo route feature is quite nice. Can be made run at 4.8X times. My wife really finds it helpful.
- The icon moves quite seamlessly on the map unlike the Garmin
- Does not keep screaming that it's recalculating the route if you miss a turn, which can get annoying after a while
Things I don't like;
2GB internal memory is too small
The POI database is not as good as Garmin
The customer service is very average
Does not come with a carrying case
Blutooth synch does not work well
Bottom line: At below $200 it is great value for money. IQ routing and lane guidance makes it comparable to the Garmin 760.
Customer Review: Great device but TERRIBLE customer service.
Summary: 4 Stars
I used this GPS when I moved to Miami for a few months, so it was a good test since i knew nothing about my way around the city.
Pros:
1. The dashboard is bright and easy to follow
2. I love the Point of Interest feature, I did not know where anything was in Miami and I was actually able to pull up a target or a mall closest to wherever I am, and it is precise.
3. The lane warning is decent, and it's important so you don't miss your turns.
4. The favorite feature is also very convenient.
5. Lastly the alternative route feature is very good. I've used it several times to avoid traffic and it went through for me.
Cons:
1. Dashboard - I don't like how I don't see the battery meter until I actually run out of battery, then it flashes. I looked to see if there is an option to keep it on display but could not find it.
2. The battery itself! There is no electric adapter (just a car charger) that comes with it. You have to plug it in your computer to charge it, while you update the GPS. Battery life for me is about 1.5 hrs of driving if I start fully charged.
3. This GPS WILL take you through the shortest distance if you chose that option. I've found myself several times, being taken around really odd places though. Once I tried to go to a major car dealer in Miami, and I ended up going through some areas where I don't think people pass through. I got to where I was going in a short time, but the whole time I was thinking where is this thing taking me? In short, I found out there was a better way of getting there without going through the inconvenient, "creepy route" with many turns.
It is still best to have a map in your car to correlate the route that the GPS gives you. Since this is only a machine please use common sense, and know where your North, East, South, West is :].
All in all, the TomTom 720 was able to do its job. This GPS did not get me lost, or taken me to a wrong destination. I don't think I would have gotten around Miami with ease without it. Definitely made my life easier as to giving me an idea where the supermarkets, malls, and gas stations are, even the closest library. :)
I have not used it for a road trip yet. I almost did once, and checked it against google maps and it was the same. Hope this review helped.
Update: 9/16/2010
Still moving around the country..have used it to Canada and GA and have had no problems with it, except while in Canada, one of the US border entry used to be a highway exit and that was not updated in TomTom..I'm editing to warn other buyers about TomTom customer service in general..the product is great..but updating it is a pain in the a**..you spend so much money, and you'll run into uploading problems...then it's a pain to call the customer service. You'll be on hold for more than 30min. and not very helpful at all, and they sound like you're stupid for calling them! I was sooo frustrated. I'd say go buy something else.